Aquaponics - let the fish be your nutrient!

Sorry to hear about the neighbor, I actually had to just tear down house recently... not fun. Sweet that you have the larger house coming up! Always exciting in general, but more space for the "kids" is ALWAYS fantastic.

I am not sure about the water but I would try to get as much as you can manage, I don't know how the swing in concentration/bennies/nutes... will do to the fish. The plants just get to eat a little easier, but I dono if thats great for 12/12 :/ but I don't have any experience seeing what happens to fish.

keep us posted on what you find out, and good luck!

Long time since last update. Had some issues with a neighbor that was complaining about noise from the exhaust fans and a landlord not happy paying the electricity bills for our grow irat:




We put the grow in stealth mode, the temp have risen to 26-27 celcius in the canopy but this is only for 5 more days.
The water temp is also around 26-27, which I guess is not that good. Don't really matter at this moment, tho, because most of the fish have died because of the pH issues. Two comets are still barely swimming. Not eating, but the plants are loving it.

22 days into flower!
Pictures of the flower scrog:
http://imgur.com/a/MsHc1#0

Close-ups:
http://imgur.com/a/8Mpe9#0



PPM is around 550
pH is crashing down to around 4.3 if we let it, but I try to bring it up from 5.8 to 6.5 every day. This is of course not good for the fish, but since it is only 20-25 days left of flower and the fish already are not eating, I am thinking more about the weed then the fish/system.




The Hypoaspis mites are doing one heck of a job!
The gnats are loosing this battle for sure!
I think I may have gone a little over the top with the mites, tho. They are being flushed out in the system and there are hundreds in the water surface. If the fish would have eaten I am sure they would have loved it!

http://imgur.com/a/Zyz92#0

If you look closely in this vid you will see the larvae swimming around:
[video=youtube_share;Qp5cQ6jOMfs]http://youtu.be/Qp5cQ6jOMfs[/video]

Yo peoples good shit man I love what your doing, I to grow aquaponicly and have been for about a solid year now and was starting to think I was the only one. your ladies look great, this past harvest was the best Id had yet it took me a couple of grows but I think Im getting the hang of it.. keep it up man the more aquaponics out there the better in my opinion...

That is pretty awesome. I love to experiment with my plants. I might try this some time. Have you looked into what kind of fish have the best shit? lol also, giving them the best food might help? I give mine blood worms, though they are only supplying aquatic plants with nutes.

Also, are you adding nutes? sorry i didnt read the whole thread lol 9 pages.

GILBERT GOMEZ said:

Yo peoples good shit man I love what your doing, I to grow aquaponicly and have been for about a solid year now and was starting to think I was the only one. your ladies look great, this past harvest was the best Id had yet it took me a couple of grows but I think Im getting the hang of it.. keep it up man the more aquaponics out there the better in my opinion...

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Great to hear good feedback, would love to see your aquaweed! =)

nicktater said:

Also, are you adding nutes? sorry i didnt read the whole thread lol 9 pages.

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The fish kept dying because of the ridiculous low pH, have 2 comets and one algae sucker left, the plant are not showing any signs of nute deficiencies, tho.
9 pages is nothing, dude!

Quick update on the grow!


The move to the new house was not without issues, but I think it went quite well, all consider.
The power adapter for the HPS went AWOL during the move, still looking for it, in the meantime we've plugged in the O'trusty LED


I was in a rush this morning, so the pics are with LED light on.
Here some ultra violet pics!


Purple HAZE!
http://imgur.com/a/RTYIn#0


Overview:
http://imgur.com/XnOL5iw

@ peoples aquaponics is awesome the growth can be amazing. As with your issues of deficiency and what not remember this "what goes in must come out" This is one of those things that will seem like common sense after you read it. Your fish needs certain minerals to live, calcium to build bones, iron for blood, and etc. But not everything is absorbed 100% as it passes through the fishes body. If you feed a fish a dark leafy green high in iron the fish will use a large portion of it in it functions but a fraction of it will be excreted .. as that excreted amount runs through a bioreactor like a sandy shore or water moving against rocks its broken down by bacteria efficiently to waste again and again and again until it can be picked up by the plants.. there are way more than two types of bacteria in aquaponics systems over 5000 which all aid in the breakdown process. If you feed high iron foods to fish the poop will be high in iron and that poop will be digested and re-digested again and again until bacteria and algae chelate the iron so it can be picked up by plants. The same is true with calcium, P, and K except they are not available in high enough quantities in fish feed. Because of this one of the additions I made to my aquaponics systems is the introduction of predatory fish. Fish accumulate large quantities of minerals as well and can be released after digestion completing the chain through predation. Predatory fish poop like largemouth bass is different than regular fish poop like tilapia and it will balance out the system. Feeding a good quality rounded feed to your fish and introducing predatory fish can prevent these deficiencies by offering a higher micronutrient solution via poop to the bacteria engines that will feed the plant roots. Cycle time and the size of your bio engine will also determine how much and quickly poop will be broken down and rebuilt into plant food. While it will provide N right away it will need more time to cycle the other nutrients up to a year to a 1 1/2 years. As plants drink up the water and you replace it with lower ec water the salinity will drop but the amount of plants and amount of fish must be in balance to hold optimal growth rates. So systems filled with bud will continue to raise nutrient levels in the water until death after full harvest. So draining water from the system and refilling, decreasing food intake, or immediate plant replacement must occur directly after harvest.

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Ckma said:

@ peoples aquaponics is awesome the growth can be amazing. As with your issues of deficiency and what not remember this "what goes in must come out" This is one of those things that will seem like common sense after you read it. Your fish needs certain minerals to live, calcium to build bones, iron for blood, and etc.......

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Thank you for the insight, I have actually been thinking about that.
Plant eaters vs meat eaters = different type of poop <- this seem to me like a no-brainer, just the technicality and numbers behind it I do not yet fully understand.

I have obtained calcium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide for pH stabilizers. I read that if you have to much calcium you will lock out potassium, and the other way around.

I still have a long journey with my AP, to reach a respected experience level, so all wisdom is gladly accepted!

peoples said:

Thank you for the insight, I have actually been thinking about that.
Plant eaters vs meat eaters = different type of poop <- this seem to me like a no-brainer, just the technicality and numbers behind it I do not yet fully understand.

I have obtained calcium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide for pH stabilizers. I read that if you have to much calcium you will lock out potassium, and the other way around.

I still have a long journey with my AP, to reach a respected experience level, so all wisdom is gladly accepted!

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sure ! just ask if you have issues ... as for the potassium lock out .. its different in predatory systems for example if you like the bottom of your tanks with limestone the high N poop will breakdown releasing N as Ca is pulled from the limestone binding together to form Ca(NO3)2 which reacts with phosphoric acid h3PO4 which can be found in excess in predatory fish poop but not so much in plant eating fish this will form CaHPO[SUB]4[/SUB] + 2 NH[SUB]4[/SUB]NO[SUB]3[/SUB] + 3(NH[SUB]4[/SUB])[SUB]2[/SUB]HPO[SUB]4 [/SUB]which will combine with high potassium content chemicals to form a full NPK fertilizer where its one molecule that wont cause lock out... so the answer is higher NPK poop = non lock out higher NPK fertilizers and using mag to buffer ph

so just round out the poop and create the right environment and let nature do the rest add iron when needed

Ckma said:

sure ! just ask if you have issues ... as for the potassium lock out .. its different in predatory systems for example if you like the bottom of your tanks with limestone the high N poop will breakdown releasing N as Ca is pulled from the limestone binding together to form Ca(NO3)2 which reacts with phosphoric acid h3PO4 which can be found in excess in predatory fish poop but not so much in plant eating fish this will form CaHPO[SUB]4[/SUB] + 2 NH[SUB]4[/SUB]NO[SUB]3[/SUB] + 3(NH[SUB]4[/SUB])[SUB]2[/SUB]HPO[SUB]4 [/SUB]which will combine with high potassium content chemicals to form a full NPK fertilizer where its one molecule that wont cause lock out... so the answer is higher NPK poop = non lock out higher NPK fertilizers and using mag to buffer ph

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Sounds brilliant!

Tilapia is kind of a hybrid, so if I were to feed tilapia with live feed, this will work ?

peoples said:

Sounds brilliant!

Tilapia is kind of a hybrid, so if I were to feed tilapia with live feed, this will work ?

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yes they will eat algae and regular pellet food too so when you need low P and K you can feed high amount pellet food or algae and low amount of live feed etc and in flower you can feed mostly live feed like worms and other stuff and almost 0 pellet feed because live feed will carry everything you need

Update time!
43 days into flower, the end is near!


The previous updates have been quite short so will take some time to add more details in this one.




With all the rackus with the neighbor, cops, moving, cleaning old apartment etc, sadly to say the grow has been somewhat neglected.
It is still running of course, but with a slight limp.
The grow has had 3 different homes in the last three weeks, and that is of course far from optimal.


As of right now we do not have any fish, these will be bought today tho.


We have added some MaxiCrop Seaweed Extract, so there should at least be some nutrients in the water, and also the natural nitrates that comes from the seaweed ext.


Since the fish are no more, the pH is not syncing. This is what I was expecting during the last wiggle-days of the fish.
If anyone out there who have been running AP without adding something to stabilize the pH, please let me know. Because what I have been reading up on is that the ammonia - nitrates process, "nitrification", destroys alkalinity and produces acid which in turn lowers the pH.


This is where the Calcium and Potassium Hydroxide comes in to play, they will raise the pH and also add calcium and potassium that usually are two of the 3 trace elements that lacks in AP, third being iron(could add chelated iron).

After the seaweed extract and some RO water the pH crept up to 7.5.
PPM around 550.

http://imgur.com/v13ybRi


It looks like there are some Potassium deficiency also, should be fixed with the hydroxide mix.

Overview of the SCROG:
https://imgur.com/a/KLhhk#0


Close-Up's!
https://imgur.com/a/tk0jc#0


I took some pictures of the new garage as well.
Will be setting up two or three rooms here,
thinking of three because then we can have one mother / clone / seedling room, one flower and one nursery, any inputs ?
https://imgur.com/a/QkM7K#0

start out the live feed 1 month before you flower tho to make sure you build up the cycle enough before you flower

Iiiish, have some spider mites crawling around.
On the positive side of things, this grow have been a perfect stepping stone for me, experience and learning curve.

Already made a mixture of garlic and chili that I have smeared on the underside of the leafs.
Bumped the temperature down to 21-22 degrees celcius to halt the production of new mites.

The harvest is only a week away, luckily.

I would suggest using calcium carbonate and potassium carbonate to bring up ph. Any extra carbonate will settle out to the bottom and will be taken up when ph starts to drop again

I think it is more a personal preference; carbonate will as you say sink to the bottom, and kick in again. But if you want to have a closer link with the pH, and not wait for it to drop to a certain level, or not raise it so much, hydroxide is the way to go.

Yeah the carbonate won't lower at all. The calcium carbonate is the only one considered organic from my understanding, at least in the US organic rules.

Was just thinking it'd buffer and keep from the
quick swings you're seeing that ids killing fish.

These photos was taken one week ago, just before we harvested and started the drying:
https://imgur.com/a/popb9#0

Been having some minor issues with drying.
There is alot of humidity in Barcelona, and trying to fight this with a aircon running on dehymid is taking the temperature down to prox 15 degrees (50 F). Is there any issues other that the longer drying time when operating with these low temps ?