Aquaponic Gardening

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My lettuce and tomatoes seemed to have stalled out, checked the ph. nitrates and so forth, every thing in normal range. I use a volcanic ash product, (Azomite) to add minerals to my olive grove, so I added about 1/2 cup of this to each grow bed about four weeks ago and can not believe the growth rate of the tomatoes and lettuce, also everything in the DWC is going crazy, the lettuce was 2 in. high and is now ready to harvest.

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I added some Azomite to my system once - figured it couldn't hurt  -  but not nearly as much as you did.  May give it another try sometime.  The idea that fish food contains everything plants need may not be quite right.  

My  system has 700 gal cap. I use the 200 mesh ground Azomite not the granulated, because the granulated has molasses added. PH usually stays in the low 7s or high 6s because my replacement (well)  water has a high ph. Also I would not add it very often. Azomite is added to several animal feeds.so it should not affect fish. My fish are doing fine.

PS I introduce at least 2 -3 liters of air to the fish tank as well as the DWC bed'

Azamite is not much different than maxicrop both are ment as a micronutrient booster. Azamite if i recall correctly is a mining byproduct which I have read a thread about a guy getting very high heavy metal readings in AP after using azamite. I have no idea if its true or not jsut what I'v heard and why i stay away from it. Mined products can also be inconsistent heres the mineral sheet for azamite it has a disclaimer at the top even. http://www.azomite.com/resources/coa.pdf 

AZOMITE® is a natural, mined product and we expect
some variations in the various elemental components

Not everything on that sheet is necessarily good either. It might be a good additive but it seems like an odd choice compared to other products on the market.

Two questions, one for Infinite Aquaponics - what are the results of your testing?

and one for Steve R. - what other products to add trace minerals do you recommend?

My current favorite is Key to Minerals which is a nice fish safe mix of micros. We also sell aquaponic elements to do that same purpose only a little easier to use but I use key to minerals in my cannabis systems. 

I have been doing this for nearly 3 years and currently have only added the normal does of iron and occasionally a little potassium to keep everything going. Still plant a few things in a terrestrial garden, and have been experimenting with biochar. While going thru YouTube and watching a Seminar, I think from Living Web Farms, or maybe another presentation, someone said that it could be added to a Aquaponic system with no issues. I bought a bag of biochar from Char-Grow and have introduced it to my potting mix for plant starts. May do it only as putting some in the potting soil at first, but am considering putting it directly into the media beds as a harbor for biological activity to hold the micronutrients. That is actually does in the soil. Better yet they say it has a half life of a 1000 years or so in the soil. Since I cannot hold on that long, someone will have to figure it out, but I am going to try it in the system in a small dose to see if it does what it does in the soil.

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