Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all,

I am new, and I have been having issues with some deficiencies(Mag, Cal, K) on my plants. I have been foliar feeding them what what looks to be right nute.

I need help with how to dose my nutrients and maybe a rough idea on how often I should dose them.

Currently I don't add anything to my system but phosphoric acid to control my ph and azomite rock every couple weeks to keep micro nuts up. I keep my ph around 6.3 ish because I read that was the best range for my system type.

I am now under the impression that I have too many phosphates because of the constantly ph downing my system to keep where it needs to be. The reason it keeps going up is because my bio filter isn't large enough to keep my system at 6.3. It now only moves about 2-3 pts a day.

I am switching to using HCI as my ph down, so I don't keep adding phosphates to my system.

I have digressed.

I have created the following foliar sprays. Please let me know if they are at the right dosages.
Mag Epsom salt - 1 Tablespoon to 1 Gallon of water.
Cal chloride - 4 Tsp to 1 Gallon ( Heard it was 4 Tablespoons to 1 Gallon )
Potassium chloride - 1 Tsp to 1 Gallon of water.

Not sure how much to use these, but I have used them a fair amount over the last couple weeks.

I heard that foliar feeding isn't the best way during the flowing period of cannabis plants, so I need to know how much of the following minerals to add to my system and generally how often. I need to know how much of each mineral listed below I should add to 1 gallon of water, so I can calculate how much to add for my 35 gallon tank.

Potassium Sulfate
Epsom salt
Calcium Hydroxide

Example: Potassium sulfate - 1 tsp per gallon x 35 Gallons - 35 tsp should be added to fish tank to bring potassium levels up to recommended levels on a bi-weekly basis.

I know that potassium, mag, calcium compete, so I want to add each to my system at the same time to maintain the balance. My ph needs to come down, so If I can change say calcium hydroxide to calcium xxx and it will ph down the system as well as boost calcium levels that would be appreciated.

Thanks for your help in advance

I get the feeling that you're thinking about this like it's a regular hydroponics setup - it's not. Let's backtrack a bit - How many fish do you have and how many and what size are the grow beds (also are they media beds, DWC and/or NFT?)?

And what feed are you using, how much are you feeding into the system..?