Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Channel's on the left are ap.
jim.

Pity you hadn't planted the same plants in the same positions in each channel..... would have made for a quick easy comparison....

What's your take on the AP supplied plants compared to normal hydro....?

Just shifted a couple of hydro plants to make a comparison.all plants are grown from seed and planted at the same time.you be the judge.
Fron left to right ap tomato ap capsicum hydro capicum hydro tomato
next row ap cucumber ap kayle hydro cucumber hydro kayle .
jim.

From that - hydro would appear the winner - though it has been said that the real benefits some once the system is a bit more mature than your Jim. Will be interesting to see what a similar comparison exercise reveals in another 6 months time, if you persist.

How many fish do you currently have and what are the nitrate levels at present. Interestingly a lot of people who have tried NFT and/or DWC in AP from this board have been less successful using this method than they have using a media (like gravel). On the other hand some have done fantasticly (like F&F for instance).

Very interesting. Am interested in your own views Jim.

Hi VB nitrate is virtualy zero and have 50 silvers and 4 refin the eel escaped and died ph is around 6 and ec is.4 the hydro ph is 6 and ec is3
some plants do better in hydro like tom's but i will keep a good check on it and see what happens.
jim.

That's interesting.... I was going to ask what your respective pH numbers were......

Might have thought that tomatoes and such might prefer hydro because pH is traditionally around 6.0-6.5.... and heavy feeders/fruiters get the best micro-nutrient takeup around those pH figures....

But with the AP pH being around the same that's really interesting.... as VB says it'll be interesting to compare growth at a later stage of the respective plants maturities.... see if AP or hydro provides better nutrient uptake in different growth stages.

Nice experiment and controlled parameters Jim... thanks for that....

PS... are the flow rates about equal??.... and have you provided any supplementary air to either????

ap flow rates are far greater than hydro and air pump in fish tanks only
jim.

Actually mean once the system is more mature - future crops.

so just to clarify, the EC in AP is 0.4 and 3.0 in hydro?

Yes Steve ap has been that way for some time. I always keep hydro around 3.0 to 3.5.
Jim.

i wonder what the EC of the AP would be with say 40ppm NO3.

i'll bring a sample of my water up to F&F's next time and he can measure it for me.

Its probably just the lack of nutes in the AP.

I bet ya if ya ran the hydro at 0.3EC they'd straggle too

Thanx for the side by side, you'll have to do more of them!

Yeah do that please Steve, I'd like to see the results.... tend to suspect you may be right.....

Jim are you running a filter/bio-filter prior to the AP channels??

Only from the return from the end grow bed.
jim

Hi Steve when you look at the plants visualy there is not much difference
jim

Hi Steve when i first set up i had very high nitrates 50 plus and the ec was 3.plus it had me a bit conserned at the time thats when the redies started to kark it .
jim.