New system started from a newbe

[Gabriele Barocci]

Hello guys,

first off all i don't have any practical experience in Aquaponics:

Before starting testing the water i run the system for tree days.

No fish in the tank (18G)

day 1 after the test i added some liquid ammonia 

day 2 after the test i added "Cycle" to start the cycle (added for three days)

what do you think?

thanks fo your help

Gabriele

[Gabriele Barocci]

day 39

nothing new happened

Ammonia 0.25

nitrite overscale

nitrate 5ppm

the Ph is 8, to high for the plants, can i try to drop it at 6,5 or 7?

at least in this way it will be good for the plants!

by the way the zucchini are doing good with the seaweed, the others i planted 20 days ago(salads,basil and parsley) are not growing not dying.

thanks for your help

Gabriele

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Gabe, your ammonia never seems to get down to zero? 

8 is a good pH for cycling, not so much for plants though, though I suspect that they're stunting out may not be totally due to just the pH.

Try foliar feeding with at least some system water, it might not do a damn thing but wouldn't hurt. You probably could probably stand for something with a bit more 'oomf', like worm-tea foliar...Is there any yellowing between the veins on the leaves, or any type of yellowing, or are they just at a 'stand still'?

[Gabriele Barocci]

yes Vlad there is yellowing , do they need iron?

what i need to do?

thanks

[Gabriele Barocci]

update day 40:

never ending cycle

the ammonia still  doesn't go to zero

the nitrite are still over scale

nitrate doesn't go up

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Are the newer leaves yellow between the veins, but the veins still green (iron)? Or, is it just general yellowness (nitrogen)?
I'm guessing because of your pH it's iron?

Have your uni-seals come in? What's it been, like 11-12 days with everything just stuck? It's your call Gabe...I'd probably just dose ammonia again, out of boredom (couldn't hurt) until the uni-seals get put to some use...

Maybe someone else has some ideas?

Gabriele Barocci said:

yes Vlad there is yellowing , do they need iron?

what i need to do?

thanks

[Gabriele Barocci]

yesterday i gpt rid off all the "non growing plants", now i have only zucchini (the have very long roots)

today the nitrate are at 10ppm!

the brown is the seaweed

thanks

gab

[Gabriele Barocci]

update day 43 ,nitrates 10ppm

ammonia 0 circa

nitrites over scale

Vlad, i posted some pictures, the leaves look green, but the veins are yellow.

thanks for your help

Gab

[Vlad Jovanovic]

That's fine Gabe (green leaves, yellow veins), when it's the other way around its a problem...

Wow, your ammonia finally came down. Great. 

How is building the bio-filter coming along?

[Gabriele Barocci]

day 46

 still ammonia at 0(circa, with borwn water the yellow 

still nitrite at "over"

still nitrates at 10

Vlad yesterday i installed the bio filter, is a small Ebb and Flow or contant flow( if the bell siphon doesn't work)

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Hi Gabe. Cool. How small? Nothing wrong with constant flood 

[Gabriele Barocci]

Vlad

i put in it almost 7,5 liters of hydroton....

i think is going to be a costant flood.....

in the next days , i'm going to add other 2 growbeds (DWC) so i will have almost 16sqft (4X4) and use bulbs at 400w(now is dimmed at 200W)

at this time the system will be

bigger FT>biofilter>sump>DWC>FT 

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Out of curiosity...how deep are your DWC's ?