Okei! I have had this grow running for around a month and a half now. Have a journal running on another forum, with more Aquaponics growers but I thought I would share it with you lot. For those of you who are not familiar with Aquaponics, think of it as regular hydroponics but instead of adding nuts you add fish / fishfood. No need to change water, just add water as it being either used by the plants or evaporated. The only side thing is that you have to compensate the PH, since hydro-cannabis runs in the 5.5-5.8 region and fish enjoy around 6.5-7.5, keeping a PH of 6.2 have showed great results! I was lowering the pH from 7.0, this took some time, since the fish react to drastic change of pH, so a .2 drop each day is advised. This way the plants are happy and the fish are happy. At this moment my pH is actually at 5.6, added some crushed eggshell to try boost the pH some. Raised to 5.8 in a day, but went back to 5.6 a day later. Will keep watch of the pH, if it stays at 5.6 I would not mind, since the fish seem quite happy, eating well etc. Running a Drip system to four 7 liter buckets with hydroton. Plan is to go all ScrOG style. Lights: 1 * ProGrow 400w LED 1 * 400 w HPS Strain: California Hash Plant Fish: 8 * Goldfish, where as four are Comets and two are Black Moor(they looked so hella cool!) 2 * Algea eaters (cant remember the name, small quick bastards) 2 * Algea eaters - Catfish (the bottomfeeders, suckers of glass) Res: 90liter PPM is sitting on 460, had some issues with PPM rising to 1200 for a while, had to change lots of water. Now it seems that the PPM is rising around 20-30 a day, maybe some of you here can give me a hint of why this is, or maybe it is completely normal. Oh well, I just let some pictures speak for the rest! Construction: http://imgur.com/a/daajX#0 The Clone Wars: http://imgur.com/a/bUrcz#0EnY478 - picked up some big Hash Plant clones from a friend GermiNation: http://imgur.com/a/n4cG2#0 - tested out different germination methods Over 9000!!: http://imgur.com/a/ko54s#0 - the plants did not enjoy the high PPM After the Shitstorm: http://imgur.com/a/pbMXp#0 - lower PPM = happy plants - also did some topping and fimmin on the big ones That was the start of the grow, and this is where I am at now: Some of the small Barcelona Bastards California Hash Plant x unknown-sativa-dominated that we had transplanted in the AP system was removed and "quarantined" on the balcony, they may have been sick and easy target for some bugs, also they were never going to get any light through the scrog canopy that have been steady building up. Found this little bugger on one of the Hash Plant leafs, underneath, but it tried to run away. It was between 2-3mm long, had wings and was squishy: http://imgur.com/a/Csf4C Have been looking at most of the leafs for eggs of sort without any "luck", so hopefully it is not a harmfull bug, but if anyone recognize it, please share! Narrowed the bugs down to Thrips, some nasty Thrips throwing a party in my grow Made a home made foilar spray containing: - Garlic - Chili - Lemon - Baking soda - Neem oil Tested it out on a couple of leafs, no bad signs the day after. Sprayed the whole canopy, both on top and under the leafs. Also got rid of the leafs with most infection. The bastards are still flying around in there but I have not seen any crawlers since spraying. Had some issues with algae in the drip tubes, clogged up the dripper. Made a two way function protective shield over the pots - keeping the light out, and hopefully keeping the flying bastards out as well. Don't need no more pesty eggs! New water test today, and the score is... Ammonia: 0.10< Nitrites: 0.01< Nitrates: 1< pH as stated up to 5.8 PPM 470 the poor light makes it seem more orange than it is: http://imgur.com/p1p2Edt On a downside, I am seeing some new tops having a bad time at the one in the left back corner, and some more rust buildup on the one in the right back corner, also some yellowing lower leafs on all of them. Dunno if the rust is a Mn issue or a after effect from the Thrips, but I am leaning more to the Mn deficiency since Thrips marks are more like silver veins oh top of the leafs. This stuff all came tumbling down at the right moment, flip time.. http://imgur.com/uLaI5qL http://imgur.com/HRte55o <div>The leafs that have severe "rust" damage, should I simply cut them off ? Could these leafs still be beneficial to the plant in their condition ? Would they simply get worse, as it kind of looks like ? Was thinking of making a mixture containing this, and also adding some boron. Maybe also adding some aloe and cocowater, what do you guys think ? http://www.dirtdoctor.com/Garrett-Juice-br_vq2210.htm </div> So here is where we're at, let me know what you guys think. http://imgur.com/a/cDw5N#0 Also, I am quite familiar with doubters of cannabis in aquaponic system, so I just gonna leave this here.. (from a friends AP setup) Keep in mind that this is one plant.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eV2JHO9ucqI End result: http://i.imgur.com/224t2vK.jpg
so basically the water from the fish tank has all the nutrients you need? Ive heard of this before im pretty sure. any pics of your grow?
That is correct, the bacteria, bioculture that is occurring in the grow media breaks down the waste to nutrients. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaponics All the imgur links are photos of the grow, u can't see them ?
lol i didnt click the links. gonna check them out now. was thinking of doing this but with a soil medium and not a hydro setup
I am not sure how it would work out in regular soil, should work, but then you will need to add a extra filtration for the water that runs back to your fish tank. This is the fine schedule for aquaponics: fish poop -> ammonia is turned in to nitrites in the grow media -> nitrites are then converted to nitrates that holds all the nutrients -> the original fish water that would previous be full of ammonia that would eventually kill your fish is cleaned by the culture so new ammonia (waste) can be added by the fish =)
This is Too cool not to sub i need to see this grow. Thats so cool how they work and one to feed each other i dig this
my friend once told me it was good for the plant to bury a fish head in the soil. the nutrients would feed it to the plant making the buds bigger. does it work? idk never grew before lol
Hell! If the Aztec people did it, then the Chinese 2000 years ago, why the hell have it not been more used ? It is nature put in to work, and in a natural and sustainable way. If you have enough of worm I think they would go through that fish head pretty darn quick, not so sure about the smell, this being a indoor grow and all
Led grow: [video=youtube;iocHhR5stmk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iocHhR5stmk&feature=c4-overview&list=UUxvXihaay3ZE_f5nA_vQC6w[/video] "for anybody that was wondering, I took the 3 nicest led plants and the 3 nicest hps plants. After 7 days drying there was 23.75 oz from the led's and 26.95 oz from the hps plants.Only a 3 oz difference,considering the led's are covering twice the area with only 400 more watts im pretty impressed with them."
Update time, ..sorry, no photos this time around. Lets take the bad first.. I have Fungus Gnats, first time any bugs / pest have crept into my grow. First I thought it was Thrips, but the flying bastards I see now, plus the small larvae I see on the growing medium it can't be anything else. Could be a combination, but I like to stay positive! Looks like grow shops in Barcelona took out vacation at the same darn time, running around like a mad man trying to get hold of Mosquito Dunks or bacillus thuringiensis israelensis type. I have heard that this is something that can be used with AP, as it will not damage the fish. Anybody know if garlic, chili cayenne pepper, neem extract will harm the fish ? Did a foliar spray with this and the plant did not seem to care, was thinking I could make a new batch, stop the waterflow and just spray a good portion of it right down in the medium, let it work for an hour and start the water again, any thought ? I read on a cannabis forum that Ca, Mn and also P deficiencies signs could very well just be the Gnat larvae, while they eat on the roots, they also feast in the nutrients that are in the medium. Pretty pointless adding stuff, and feed the gnats more. Flipped to 12/12 yesterday as well. As we need to move out of this apartment in around 48 days, it is going to be close. Temp and RH is fine when lights are off, but when they start the RH raises up to the high 60, even pushing 70+, I do have a portable aircon, turned it to dehumid, let see how it works out.
So I looked everywhere for Mosquito Dunks, with the type "bacillus thuringiensis israelensis", only thing to find in Spain seems to be this one: "bacillus thuringiensis var. Kurstaki" <- this is of course the main strain. Parent if you will of the israelensis. What I have been told in various grow shops that this only work on caterpillars, but it is supposed to kill larvae, so maybe I will give it a try. On the other hand, caterpillars and worms, pretty much the same thing, ye ? I also ordered some predator Hypoaspis miles, should be arriving in a week. 36€, not that bad. Anyone tested these before, how long can they live in the package ?
Yes! Love aquaponics, good stuff! Keep us updated please. I would love to have a small aquaponics mother grow.
Good to hear ak! Aquaponics is awesome, would love to have my own lab so I could test what kind of micro nuts that are available in the water, tho.
Update time, with fresh photos! The most of the plants are doing better. Starting to build a fine canopy! Only set back is that the one in the back left corner shows some deficiencies, most likely Boron, as this table seem to indicate: http://www.weedfarmer.com/cannabis/tables_guide.php Here you guys can take a look on what I'm talking about: http://imgur.com/a/Pe8LC#0 Is it possible that if a plant had a bad "child hood", it shows later in maturity ? I think this one was on the brink of death when I picked it up as a clone, but I nurtured it back to life. Seems like the one in the back right corner, the one with rust issues is starting to look better: http://imgur.com/Ar7FlRY pH: 5.9 Ammonia: too low to measure Nitrite: too low to measure Nitrate: too low to measure Temp is steady with around 24 degrees celcius at top pot size during "day time", and 23 at "night time". RH is around 60 during night and 50 during day. Not much of the flying bastard around, but I do see some new ones under the cover of the pots. Can't wait to get the predator mites and give the the feast of their life! I'm rounding this update up with a montage of the scrog! http://imgur.com/a/qLSSH#0
Added some better pictures of the Boron issues. This is two of the other plants that are not affected. The stem is almost all green: http://imgur.com/a/U3SZq#0 And this is the one that is. Keep in mind that even tho the stem looks thinner than the ones that are not affected, it's just thinner all the way. Like I was saying, it had a bad childhood. http://imgur.com/a/H5lVn#0 Also updated the close ups: http://imgur.com/a/Pe8LC#0
Long time since last update. Had some issues with a neighbor that was complaining about noise from the exhaust fans and a landlord not happy paying the electricity bills for our grow irat: We put the grow in stealth mode, the temp have risen to 26-27 celcius in the canopy but this is only for 5 more days. The water temp is also around 26-27, which I guess is not that good. Don't really matter at this moment, tho, because most of the fish have died because of the pH issues. Two comets are still barely swimming. Not eating, but the plants are loving it. 22 days into flower! Pictures of the flower scrog: http://imgur.com/a/MsHc1#0 Close-ups: http://imgur.com/a/8Mpe9#0 PPM is around 550 pH is crashing down to around 4.3 if we let it, but I try to bring it up from 5.8 to 6.5 every day. This is of course not good for the fish, but since it is only 20-25 days left of flower and the fish already are not eating, I am thinking more about the weed then the fish/system. The Hypoaspis mites are doing one heck of a job! The gnats are loosing this battle for sure! I think I may have gone a little over the top with the mites, tho. They are being flushed out in the system and there are hundreds in the water surface. If the fish would have eaten I am sure they would have loved it! http://imgur.com/a/Zyz92#0 http://youtu.be/Qp5cQ6jOMfs
Quick update on the grow! \nThe move to the new house was not without issues, but I think it went quite well, all consider. The power adapter for the HPS went AWOL during the move, still looking for it, in the meantime we've plugged in the O'trusty LED \nI was in a rush this morning, so the pics are with LED light on. Here some ultra violet pics! \nPurple HAZE! http://imgur.com/a/RTYIn#0 \nOverview: http://imgur.com/XnOL5iw
Update time! 43 days into flower, the end is near! The previous updates have been quite short so will take some time to add more details in this one. With all the rackus with the neighbor, cops, moving, cleaning old apartment etc, sadly to say the grow has been somewhat neglected. It is still running of course, but with a slight limp. The grow has had 3 different homes in the last three weeks, and that is of course far from optimal. As of right now we do not have any fish, these will be bought today tho. We have added some MaxiCrop Seaweed Extract, so there should at least be some nutrients in the water, and also the natural nitrates that comes from the seaweed ext. Since the fish are no more, the pH is not syncing. This is what I was expecting during the last wiggle-days of the fish. If anyone out there who have been running AP without adding something to stabilize the pH, please let me know. Because what I have been reading up on is that the ammonia - nitrates process, "nitrification", destroys alkalinity and produces acid which in turn lowers the pH. This is where the Calcium and Potassium Hydroxide comes in to play, they will raise the pH and also add calcium and potassium that usually are two of the 3 trace elements that lacks in AP, third being iron(could add chelated iron). After the seaweed extract and some RO water the pH crept up to 7.5. PPM around 550. http://imgur.com/v13ybRi It looks like there are some Potassium deficiency also, should be fixed with the hydroxide mix. Overview of the SCROG: https://imgur.com/a/KLhhk#0 Close-Up's! https://imgur.com/a/tk0jc#0 I took some pictures of the new garage as well. Will be setting up two or three rooms here, thinking of three because then we can have one mother / clone / seedling room, one flower and one nursery, any inputs ? https://imgur.com/a/QkM7K#0
Iiiish, have some spider mites crawling around. On the positive side of things, this grow have been a perfect stepping stone for me, experience and learning curve. Already made a mixture of garlic and chili that I have smeared on the underside of the leafs. Bumped the temperature down to 21-22 degrees celcius to halt the production of new mites. The harvest is only a week away, luckily.