SnailPowered's Aquaponic Adventures

They look hungry. See about giving them more nitrogen, maybe?

The nitrogen is in the water, I'm getting about 20ppm for the system. That has seen other plants thrive. Although I don't know how to find out without digging down to the roots I'm guessing that it is probably root rot. The water is has a lot of movement and aeration so that should help guard against root rot I guess. The more I have read into the symptoms I really think that not having the water flowing constantly with the lights one initially is what allowed it to bloom so much. The water is oxygen rich but I doubt there is much movement of air through the substrate without the water going. With the water doing its flood and drain the substrate has air flowing through it constantly. Adding a fertilizer with beneficial bacteria seems to be the only other guard against root rot bacteria I can find.

I decided to change out the sphagnum moss because it hasn't been done and it should help bring the PH down a bit. I also cleaned out the bell siphon and it was really nasty. It definitely wasn't flooding and draining the way it is supposed to so that could have been part of the problem. There was a healthy amount of roots from the last plant growing in the sphagnum moss which I thought was kind of funny. I will let you guys know if anything changes noticeably. The plants don't appear to be improving but if they are getting worse it is very, very slow. The biggest concern is that I don't see any new growth coming in. The last plants that were transplanted into the aquaponics went from a pot in my backyard I had thrown seeds in to see if they would grow and they once they got into the aquaponics they burst with life.

Nice save!

bf80255 said:

Nice save!

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Thanks! I'm really hoping that all six pull out of it. I went ahead and added another half teaspoon to each sphagnum moss tonight. I could dump all 4 oz. of the Superthrive directly into the tank and it would be the recommended dosage, so I don't think I can add too much. It has fertilizer numbers of 0.5-0-0 so it certainly won't nute burn the roots. I am contemplating adding some Fox Farm Big Bloom 6-4-4 occasionally the same way. I think I may go ahead with that plan since this is working out well so far.

Here are some pictures of the plants 24 hours-ish later. The Blueberry is looking better with less curl to its leaves so that make me happy. The Durban Poison is looking pretty good considering the rough start to life it has had so far, which is really exciting to me because I have never tried DP.

Sugar Plum

Green Crack


Durban Poison


Purple Mayhem


El Fuego


Blueberry

The plants in the aquaponics are looking a bit better but still showing the signs of the root problems. In the meantime I decided to play with my USB "microscope" that was like $35 on Amazon and take some pictures of the dried Silver AK. I have really enjoyed smoking this, it is a bit heavier body high than I would prefer but I find it helps me focus and feel more alert.

Beastly lathe in your avatar pic. You run one of those at work, or?

ttystikk said:

Beastly lathe in your avatar pic. You run one of those at work, or?

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I call that "The Queen" it's my favorite lathe in the school shop. It's one of two Monarch lathes, that is the shorter one. it was last rebuilt in 1959 when my dad was 2 months old and it still holds .001" accuracy without a problem. The only drawback is that they didn't mount a DRO on it.

I'm trying to get a Smithy Granite for my home. The machine maintenance tech for my school compared it to a Bridgeport for milling capacity, thats plenty for my home projects.

Here is the full image of the lathe and one of my projects from school. They're essentially very small jack stands.

This is the milling vise that I'm working on right now. It will be hardened and surface ground after I complete the machining work.

I decided to get a rough estimate on the weight of my last harvest. I got 75 grams on hand, and that is after smoking roughly 7, giving 7 to my in-laws for helping me trim and watching my dogs and then probably another half oz. went into butter for edibles. So all in all I think I got about 3.5 ounces from the Silver AK plant which is a bit heavier than I was actually expecting.

Everything is going well now minus the Sugar Plum and Green Crack. I'm almost positive that the Sugar Plum is dead, there's a faint hope that the Green Crack I still alive, but it's slim. Other than that the Durban Poison and three indicas are growing well, soaking up tons of light and growing leaves like hedge bushes. I will post some pictures tomorrow now that my internet is back up.

Sorry for not posting pics as promised. My pregnant wife woke me up at 6am to take her to the hospital and got there to find out she has a kidney infection. She is fine, it was caught early enough to not cause any major problems but it definitely made for an exciting day. I think I will have time tomorrow, I took pictures but I'm too tired to wait for them to upload right now.

SnailPowered said:

Sorry for not posting pics as promised. My pregnant wife woke me up at 6am to take her to the hospital and got there to find out she has a kidney infection. She is fine, it was caught early enough to not cause any major problems but it definitely made for an exciting day. I think I will have time tomorrow, I took pictures but I'm too tired to wait for them to upload right now.

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Yikes! Uh, get some sleep, bro. We'll be here.