Plants dying

[Pierpont Scott]

I've has my flood and drain system for some time now but all of a sudden all my plants are dying. The tomatoes produced for one round but now 2 of the 4 plants have died and the other 2 are producing very small tomatoes. When ever I try to transplant seedlings into the system the leaves turn whitish and eventually die. 

 

Some one told me it might be a bacteria problem and mentioned that it might be my gravel medium, but I didn't understand when that would have all of a sudden happened. Should I convert to a perlite bed? My fish seem happy but the plants are just not doing well. Any advice would be appreciated.

[Rob Torcellini]

First I would check the water chemistry.  What's the pH?

[TCLynx]

Tell us about what the tests say and about the conditions there and what might have suddenly changed.

 

pH

Ammonnia

Nitrite

Nitrate

 

Temperature

Weather

 

One thing that sometimes suddenly happens with a system after it has been up and running for a while is the pH can suddenly crash down if all the buffer gets used up and then the ammonia can rise and the plants can start to suffer though the fish can suffer too if things get too bad.

 

What is your media and why do you think it is at fault if the plants were doing well in the beginning?

 

If your pH is high you might be having issues with iron deficiency.

 

Can you tell us more about your system or post some pictures?