Aquaponic Widow; 1st grow

Hello Everyone, I welcome you to my Aquaponic White Widow Scrog.

Please write in my diary if you keep your content within the realms of constructive criticism and relevant, in-pursuit-of-knowledge questions.

Enjoy!

This grow is my first. I have been researching and using this wonderful herb for 14 years, so I am both experienced and newb at the same time. Heh c'est la vie! Mais...

Je vous présente:

Renée, is my big girl, she is growing the best as you will continue to see.



This is Nancy, she is a tightwad, she is keeping all her leaves close to her stem. Any one have any ideas as to why? More pictures below.

Aquaponic as in you grow them in fish-shit water? I just started an aquarium, and was thinking about using fish water in one of my bubble buckets to see how things worked out!

So, as the title says; this is my set-up. I went with aquaponics for a couple of reasons. I understand there are some negatives such as deficiencies, but I will work on that. I like the idea of permaculture, and entwined parts becoming a cycling power source and environment for each other. Plus I am dirt worshipping, tree-hugging hippie as it has been said. Anyways, I am getting off track here.

So, I started with a black plastic foot locker I have had since '02. I bought a Marina 100 air pump which is good to 15 gallons. The footlocker says it hold 23,5 gallons and I am not filling it completely up, so the air pump is sufficient. I have air split between an air stone and the water pump.

The water pump:

I made a couple of really bad mistakes when I started this. First, I was an idiot and did not seal up some holes in the front of the footlocker and when I dumped in my water... yeaaaahhh....

The second thing is that I should have started the nitrogen cycle earlier and without fish. I got water from my local fish store to help give me a head start but I didn't get my Master Test Kit...WARNING: If you do Aquaponics make sure to get a Master Test Kit as the first thing you buy or when you buy your tank.

Third, I learned the importance of water heaters for the fishes... YAY!!!!

I have lost 6 rummy nosed Tetras and 11 guppies! And, why did I go with those fish instead of feeder goldfish? Disease, feeders are in and out of stores so fast it is hard to tell if they are diseased without isolating them in a quarantine tank but that tank has to be cycled to so ... grr.. anyways, I also am looking at this as a hobby and a learning experience. This is my small, fun-scale operation.

Good news is that I still have 3 really hardy Guppies, my Ammonia has finally dropped to less than 0,25 , pH is still working back to 7, nitrIte is ~1,5 and nitrAte is close to 10ppm.

Renée and Nancy are in a seed tray with coconut fibre mat and coir medium. I also have some Wheatgrass, broccoli sprouts and radish sprouts in there as well. The Ladies are in the corners which I have cut in some extras holes so that the roots can drop directly into the water should they choose to grow in said fashion. The other plants are in there to help more with the filtering of the water, aerate the coir medium, and compost material.

I have the seed tray sitting about 5mm/~2" above the water. This height changes depending on the water level.

My lights.... uh... I have plenty of CFLs, my problem is that I keep getting bothered by the socket layout. So... No pictures. I am using 6X100w equiv. Daylight CFLS, 1 65w equiv. daylight, and 2x65w/300w equiv. Softwhites.

I am using a closet and a smaller closet "box". The "box" is 70,5mm x 45,5mm x 40mm. (HxWxD) The closet is 1,8m x 1,4m x 63mm.

Metasynth said:

Aquaponic as in you grow them in fish-shit water? I just started an aquarium, and was thinking about using fish water in one of my bubble buckets to see how things worked out!

Click to expand...

Not in them directly, but I do want to try out an DWC eventually. My set-up now will be DWC should the roots drop from the tray down into the tank, which is what I am really hoping for.

Yeah, I intend to just take 4 gallons during my water changes(I have a 36 gallon fish tank), and put that 4 gallons into a 5 gallon bucket, and just drop a plant in with hydroton...Then keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best!

You would have to do that every time you did your weekly water changes. But that might actually be a really good idea, because you could use seaweed fert during flower and not have to worry about your tank being green/back.

Yeah, I'm not sure how it's going to work out, I just started my nitrogen cycle a couple days ago. I haven't even bothered to use my master test kit, but I will probably start taking readings today.

I am not taking any chances with my next set-up. I am having some one at my next location start the cycle three months before I arrive!

Are you doing a fish-less cycle or with fish? Do you have aquatic plants in your tank? They have really helped in my tank at least they have helped buffer my screw-ups.

So, I posted a question over in the Plant Problem thread because my seedlings were (still are) looking a little sickly. It was brought up that there might be a nute burn so I was asked for my ppm. I have only been concerned with the levels for my fish tank cycling so I gave those numbers. These numbers were unfortunately inadequate for said question. So I decided to do a little research into how to measure my nutrient levels in an aquaponic set-up. I came across this:

a meter that is used to for testing the nutrient levels in Hydroponics won't give you a meaningful number for aquaponics. See the TDS or EC or other meters for Hydroponics actually read the conductivity of the water which is mostly related to salt content in the water. This is because most of the hydroponic nutrients are mineral salts and therefor can be roughly estimated by the use of a conductivity meter (of course the meter can't really tell you which nutrient is at which level and since they will get out of balance over time, that is why hydroponic nutrient needs to be dumped and replaced regularly.)
Anyway, about the only use I've found for my bluelab truncheon left over from my hydroponic days is to very roughly (and probably a bit inaccurately) estimate the salt levels in my system if I think I need to salt for fish health.

So, since aquaponics is not using mineral salts to provide the nutrients to the plants, do not try to use a ppm meter and hydroponic guidelines about nutrient strength to figure anything out about aquaponic nutrient levels, it will be meaningless (would be sort of like measuring the salt levels in a cake to figure out if you have enough sugar in the recipe.)
The more appropriate way to measure nutrients in the Aquaponic system would be the Nitrate test or if you want to get really into testing you could pick up tests for phosphorus and potassium as well as others but I wouldn't know what levels you need to aim for nor how to adjust them. Generally, if you have a measurable amount of Nitrate, you probably have enough nutrients though adding some maxicrop can help with potassium and trace elements occasionally and some people find they need to add iron too.

Click to expand...

http://aquaponicscommunity.com/forum/topics/ppm-or-testing-nutrient-levels?page=1&commentId=4778851%3AComment%3A31724&x=1

Keep in mind that not all the nutrients present in an Aquaponics System will be measured by an EC meter.

Click to expand...

http://www.aquaponics.net.au/aqua1/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=50&layout=blog&Itemid=58

Just thought those of you interested in this should know. Now the question is this; Should I get one of these meters?

I am thinking I am going to use straight pure water with the seedlings till they get bigger. I am noticing some spotting on the Ladies and it looks like some deficiencies. I just had to do a big change to save the tank so maybe with the water change I dropped some critical levels of minerals. I fed the fish just a little to tie them over. I don't want them to eat the plants in the tank. Tomorrow if the nitrogen levels are looking better I will reward them with some bloodworms.

Perhaps it would be good to include some pictures of me testing for the Journal...

So, I completely forgot to take pictures of my new fish I received today and I forgot to take pictures of my test process. I did have a guest photographer who was greatious enough to take a few for me.

Can any one help with my spotting on the leaves? I am going with the deficiency of some sort.

Ugh, I am having some problems with the Widows. Kinda stressed out right now. I will write more later and get the pictures uploaded.

Today starts Flowering Day 1.

It I have decided to just throw up some pictures. Not a lot of people seem interested in this journal so I am not going to spend much more time on it. I will start up another thread somewhere with all the tidbits I have learned. My plants are doing really well and I am 3 weeks into Flower, these pictures are from this past weekend.

Id say P and Fe on the deficiencies

please continue to post your findings. very interested in your grow and great job so far. +respect.

Likewise. Any new pics appreciated

still dabbling in AP? it's 10 months too late, but i was going to ask you if you could check the roots. my guess is that some of the roots were mucked up in organic matter. you'd be surprised how many suspended solids there are in a fish tank water. filtration, even manually through a sieve, might have helped.