Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Regarding the nutrient deficiency in the pea plants, if you're still having trouble, I'm pretty sure it was/is iron. If you look at the lower leaves on the previous pictures they show where you sprayed the maxicrop - the residue appears to be only on the older leaves. Iron is not a mobile nutrient so unless you sprayed the newer leaves as well I wouldn't expect the plant to be able to shift it around much. If you go back to an even earlier pic it looks like the yellow leaves hadn't emerged when you sprayed and that would explain why there isn't a residue on them. It also looks like the dilution may not have been right - the areas where the spray landed appear sunken in later photos but check them yourself because I can't tell very well from the photo.

I'd remove the eggshell from the system for now. The pH needs to come down and it sounds like you have some carbonates in the system buffering the pH to 8.2 and you need to get that down a bit.

Hope this helps.

I think your right, had my water tested and it has 0 iron, will get the eggshells out. I have been spraying new leaves with maxicrop, mixing 1 tsp to 24 oz of water.

That sounds about right on the amount. If those were actually sunken areas where the iron stayed on the leaf then you might need to adjust or spray at a different time of day.

If you can find Fe-EDDHA (a type of chelated iron) you could add it to the system water periodically and wouldn't have to spray (this particular form stays available at your higher pH). Too much of this will turn the water red and make it tough to read tests but if you don't over apply it you should be fine. It can also be spray applied but doesn't really have any advantage over you Maxicrop plus Iron in this use.

ok, I dug out as much eggshell as I could, some of it I couldn't get, my ph jumped to 8.4, but I noticed fish feed hidden by algae around the top of the fish tank so I got all the extra out I could.

Check the bottom for excess feed as well.

Hopefully there wasn't much eggshell left or it may take quite awhile for your system pH to come down. I use a mesh bag for this sort of addition and place it under a grow bed faucet, that way it's easy to remove when the pH starts to get too high. Nylon paint strainer bags will work if you don't have anything already.

PH dropped from 8.4 to 8.0 this morning. but gh is up to 179 and kh is 143.2. I salted for ich at 3 ppt so I'm guessing that's why my GH is rising.

That makes sense Chris. Your KH will come down over time but isn't as critical in AP unless you are running a Dual Loop system - which is basically just having the fish side be an aquaculture setup.

first small harvest of spinach and lettuce, from seed to salad in 23 days.

Looking good! It's amazing how good the first salad tastes, isn't it?

yep!

I have lost 3 hybrid bream, one at a time. They seem real skinny and internal bleeding, no flashing going on. Anyone know what's going on?

finally got my greenhouse wired and 1 light so far.

help! what's going on with these leaves? I can't diagnose it.

First one looks like phosphorous deficiency to me (though I'm more than happy to be corrected by someone with more experience!). Second one looks like you have something eating it; look under the leaves for little caterpillars or frass. Third one... maybe potassium?

Is your pH still high? You could be having deficiencies due to your system being fairly young, or it could be pH lockout. Either way, spraying the foliage with something like dilute seaweed fertiliser (pick one without nitrogen) should help.

I'm using maxicrop plus iron (seaweed extract)