Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

as the title says i keep having issues with cucumbers I have planted a few and they all dont seem to do very good or just die. The history of them is they are started indoors under led purple lights and grow great then i remove all of the soil from them and put them in the GB but they just dont grow as much as i would have figured. The nitrites and everything is really low/none its a fairly new system with about 15 small gold fish and a few brim (not sure how to spell that) that i got from my lake ill post pics if it would help. Am i doing something wrong with going from soil to gravel?

How big do you let them get before you move them? If they've got their roots well established in the soil you could be damaging them when you take the soil off, or it could just be that in a newish system they're missing something they need. Have you got any pictures?

here is some pics of my setup, any advise on my setup would be great to. Im just doing the best i can with my knowledge of AP

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing

Going from soil to a aquaponics/hydroponics setup is very stressful for a plant. How did you do the transfer? Also, what temps is the plant subjected to inside vs outside as that can have a big effect as well. Since your system is new, it would be very tough to grow cucumbers as there most likely would not be enough nutrients available. Can you provide your water chemistry? (pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrates, etc.).

You are better off starting with leafy greens/herbs until the system is a bit more mature and then go for the fruiting plants like cukes, tomatoes etc.

tomatoes seem to be doing fine but the cucumbers just dont do that well, so they need alot of nutrients eh? Im going to go get some talipia this weekend and mabye a catfish or 2, where does everybody get there food and what do you feed your fish?such as talipia.

Ben, One thing is to buy good quality fish food. If it's light weight and light in color it basically could be the fish version of rice crispys... Cheap and no nutritional value. So Amazon has a few listings under Aquaponic Fish food which will give you reviews to peruse over. I made that mistake and it was frustrating so good for you for realizing this early in the game.

I've had issues as well. I think mine are related to cold water for my trout. Some beds to better with Cucumbers than others, much like in a dirt garden. Also I have expanded clay media on top, gravel lower down because it is gentler on the seedlings. I start a lot of seeds to make certain I'll get plenty of transplants to survive. I hope that helps

I plan on doing talipia and catfish right now my water temp seems to be about 68 everyone I check it's a fairly new system with not alot of fish so I'm guessing it's just not enough nutrients as of yet, what brand fish food does everybody use? I just got a 10 lb bag off of amazon from aquaponics source. Also I seem to have cloudy water my gravel had a good bit of dirt in it and my swirl filter seems to be getting some of it but I washed the gravel as best I could before I put it in but not good enough what's the best way to clear it all out?

Are you sure it's cloudy due to the dirt in the grow beds? That can also be caused by bacteria bloom - you might want to check your ammonia/nitrite levels...

I checked about 2 weeks ago and all of those where at 0 I thought the wife did it wrong so she did the fish tank and those levels are sky high...I'll have to do a water change to the fish tank. Anyway that's my guess it that it's dirt in the system so what can I do to improve the clarity? And best way to remove all of the dirt?

Time is your friend - depending on your filters and the grow beds it should settle out somewhere in the system. I would need more info about your system to give you specifics...

I have a 4x8 gb 12 inch deep filled with gravel water is pumped from my fish tank that is 250 gallon in between as a T off of the supply line to the gb is a 55 gallon drum acting as a swirl filter. The supply lines for all parts of my system are 1.5 inch vinyl tubing and the drain lines are 2 inch pvc with no sumps or anything like that. It takes 10 min to do a full cycle in my gb 3 or so min to drain and 7 to fill. My pump is 1000 gph if you need anything else let me know.

Also as a question, how many Mozambique Tilapia should i get with my 250 gallon tank? im guessin they are fingerlings im going on sunday to get some hopefully that will fix my cucumber issues aswell

I wouldn't go over 25 fish - the rule of thumb is 1 pound of grown out fish per 8-10 gals of water. That should provide you plenty of nutrients and I would recommend another 4x8 grow bed since one isn't enough for that many fish but you will need a sump tank to avoid too large of a drop in water level in the FT.

Ok the wife would kill me if a built another GB so how many fish would be a good amount that would be safe with my setup? 20 ? and what would be the max how many fish? would it be better to have just 1 catfish(im guessing channel cat) or 2 or none?