Aquaponics Digest - Fri 01/07/00

Message 1: Re: ppm for P,K,Ca,Mg in effluent
 from Adriana Gutierrez & Dennis LaGatta 

Message 2: Re: ppm for P,K,Ca,Mg in effluent
 from Adriana Gutierrez & Dennis LaGatta 

Message 3: Re: ppm for P,K,Ca,Mg in effluent
 from Bertmcl

Message 4: H2O Nutrient / Compost
 from Bill 

Message 5: RE: New varieties for Y2K
 from "William Brown" 

Message 6: Archive editing, etc.
 from S & S Aqua Farm 

Message 7: Nutrient additions, was Re: H2O Nutrient / Compost
 from S & S Aqua Farm 

Message 8: Re: H2O Nutrient / Compost
 from "Barry Thomas" 

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| Message 1 |
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Subject: Re: ppm for P,K,Ca,Mg in effluent
From:Adriana Gutierrez & Dennis LaGatta 
Date:Fri, 07 Jan 2000 03:21:41 -0500

Kevin,
I think that Jim Rakocy has published that data.If he doesn't respond
on-line youmight e-mail him directly.
Adriana

> I wonder if anyone has a breakdown on the fish effluent. Is the water
> mostly nitrate now or is there any significant level of phosphorous,
> potassium, calcium or magnesium.

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Subject: Re: ppm for P,K,Ca,Mg in effluent
From:Adriana Gutierrez & Dennis LaGatta 
Date:Fri, 07 Jan 2000 03:21:52 -0500

Kevin,
I think that Jim Rakocy has published that data.If he doesn't respond
on-line you might e-mail him directly.
Adriana

> I wonder if anyone has a breakdown on the fish effluent. Is the water
> mostly nitrate now or is there any significant level of phosphorous,
> potassium, calcium or magnesium.

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Subject: Re: ppm for P,K,Ca,Mg in effluent
From:Bertmcl
Date:Fri, 7 Jan 2000 13:44:32 EST

Andreia

Are you using the S&S system and what size is your GH?

Thanks

Bert

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Subject: H2O Nutrient / Compost
From:Bill 
Date:7 Jan 00 11:11:40 PST

>Subject: Fw: Calicum
From:"Sulfercreek" 

>Now we have two copies of your post to add to the archivePaula
S&S Aqua Farm, 8386 County Road 8820, West Plains, MO 65775
417-256-5124
Web pagehttp://www.townsqr.com/snsaqua/

*eGroups has a feature allowing editting of archives, even a
feature allowing someone with an Off Topic item the abilitgy
to send it but avoid any archive, by placing X-No Archive-Yes
in the first line of the body, (which wouln't help here,'natch.)

------------------------------------------------------------
>Subject: Re: System Thoughts, Bacteria?
From:Bagelhole1
>The more plants, the more bacteria

*Come again?Initially?Or eventually?Root surface area?
I don't catch this point.

>You are suggesting that I don't do the interval thing, but just =

let the pump keep pumping and keep the roots wet/immersed?
It seems like too much, but it's a thought.

*Then why not just add a few intervals?A GRADUAL change?

>In a message dated 1/5/00 8:08:06 PM,
barrythomas@crosswinds.net writes:
<<> or addsomething to the water.

*Use a soil test kit.
You mix soil with water and test the water, anyway...

BTW:Hay, is 3% N, once available.
How many pounds was the 8" bail you added.

Miracle Grow MAY be sprayed on the tomato / etc leaves.
I recall Barry said Adriana said
50-50 Miracle Grow/Epsom Salts was a hydroponics mix.
(Thanks, both!)

MOST fish will adapt to brackish water, slowly.
So SOME of this in the water (TEST IT BEFORE AND AFTER)
will be OK.Or do both. Record details in yr lab book.

What's your DO? (Well, tell me the water temp, then
estimate from the chart, using [for you] sea level.)

>Yes. Some nutrient contentBear in mind also that bacteria
are important in hydro and crucial in aquaponics.
---------------------
>Aloha Nui Loa,
Kevin

*I like the idea of finding out the nutrient / Ca levels!
---------------------
I have been aquiring compost info links from a group
if anyone wants them.The compost/nutrient cycle
is proving complicated and interesting.

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Subject: RE: New varieties for Y2K
From:"William Brown" 
Date:Fri, 7 Jan 2000 10:15:45 -1000

Green Ice from Burpee is still my main crop for green lettuce.Handles the
sub-tropical heat well, can get up to a pound in weight, great color, flavor
and smell.To make your lettuce crisper try adding a little more nitrogen.
Never had much luck with Simpson or it's siblings.Easy to bolt and to
light a green for my tastes. Green Vision and Two Star from Johnny's did
well in my trials, especially in the winter season last year.Loma, a
summer crisp is the most regular producer for me year round especially in
the short winter days, I replace half my Green Ice with Loma.Last year I
had trouble with powdery mildew on the Loma, but for some reason this year
hasn't been a problem.We sell the Loma for salad mixes because it handles
well.Personally I don't like the smell, the flavor isn't as sweet as Green
Ice and the texture is tougher and less crisp.Did you get your new
Johnny's Seeds Catalog?Great section on salad mix stuff showing the
different leaves and colors.Maybe we can get them to expand the section
with other leaf crops we use.

Haven't got all the catalogs yet but will order Fire Mountain and Mascara
from Territorial this week.Both interesting red oak leafs with 32 and 48
days to maturity respectively.Seem to be similar to Dano (formerly Cerize)
in color and texture.

William Brown mahiwai@cmpmail.com

-----Original Message-----
From: aquaponics
[mailto:aquaponics]On Behalf Of Adriana Gutierrez &
Dennis LaGatta
Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2000 2:47 AM
To: aquaponics@townsqr.com
Subject: New varieties for Y2K

Is anybody adding any new varieties this year?

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Subject: Archive editing, etc.
From:S & S Aqua Farm 
Date:Fri, 07 Jan 2000 18:11:12 -0600

At 11:11 AM 01/07/2000 PST, Bill wrote:

>>Now we have two copies of your post to add to the archivePaula
>S&S Aqua Farm, 8386 County Road 8820, West Plains, MO 65775
>417-256-5124
>Web pagehttp://www.townsqr.com/snsaqua/
>
>*eGroups has a feature allowing editting of archives, even a
>feature allowing someone with an Off Topic item the abilitgy
>to send it but avoid any archive, by placing X-No Archive-Yes
>in the first line of the body, (which wouln't help here,'natch.)

Thanks, Bill, but I will also have that ability on Jim's site once we're
fully set up.I wonder how many people actually take advantage of that
eGroups feature?

BTW - you might consider sending separate messages for the many subjects to
which you reply.It will certainly make things easier to thread later.

Paula
S&S Aqua Farm, http://www.townsqr.com/snsaqua/

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| Message 7 |
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Subject: Nutrient additions, was Re: H2O Nutrient / Compost
From:S & S Aqua Farm 
Date:Fri, 07 Jan 2000 18:19:16 -0600

At 11:11 AM 01/07/2000 PST, Bill wrote:

>>In a message dated 1/5/00 8:08:06 PM,
>barrythomas@crosswinds.net writes:
><<> or addsomething to the water.
>
>Miracle Grow MAY be sprayed on the tomato / etc leaves.
>I recall Barry said Adriana said
>50-50 Miracle Grow/Epsom Salts was a hydroponics mix.
>(Thanks, both!)
>
>MOST fish will adapt to brackish water, slowly.
>So SOME of this in the water (TEST IT BEFORE AND AFTER)
>will be OK.Or do both. Record details in yr lab book.

I'd be very reluctant to suggest Miracle Grow as a standard addition to
aquaponics water.I really don't think in most systems you could confine it
to the leaves anyway.

As far as it being what Adriana said, she's ALSO said several times that her
system is hydroponics only -- no fish involved as yet -- so what works for
her system is not necessarily okay for systems containing fish.Just a
caution I thought I'd insert before everyone goes out and stocks up.

The original system being discussed, if I remember right, was Tom O's
plastic bottle system; and he was not adding any feed to the system, just
letting some hay decompose, right? Seems like it would be best to start to
feed the fish and let the system work, rather than add all types of
amendments without the base nutrients being replenished on a regular basis.

Paula
S&S Aqua Farm, http://www.townsqr.com/snsaqua/

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| Message 8 |
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Subject: Re: H2O Nutrient / Compost
From:"Barry Thomas" 
Date:Sat, 8 Jan 2000 00:30:49 -0000

Bill,


> *Then why not just add a few intervals?A GRADUAL change?

I did waver for a while and think this might be safest but on reflection
there seems little point. Running the pump continuously poses no threat
to the fish (that I can see) and the plants will either recover or they
won't. Assuming that nutrient levels are increased as well and they
don't recover, they may just be too far gone anyway. Or something about
the GH environment (light, temp avg and range, air quality etc) doesn't
agree with them. Or the stacks (insufficient media, fish water not
moving between bottles in a way which gives a good film over all the
media, too much light on the roots). Or DO levels are too low - the
water must either be carrying enough when it enters the stacks or (pref)
there must be enough aiflow through the media to supply the film with
O2. Or the flow rate into the stacks (and so through the films) may be
wrong - if the rate is too high, I believe the plants may have trouble
grabbing nutrients and the bacteria may have trouble clinging on to
anything at all. But if the stacks are to benefit the fish then just
running a minimal dribble is of little use, especially as more fish are
added and dependency on the plants increases. Perhaps someone on the
list running an NFT system with media could suggest a starting point?

So, if the system can't for some reason handle the pump running
continuously it must be changed so that it can (or some other way found
to increase biofilter throughput) or the maximum number of fish that can
be sustained will remain severely limited.

Anyway, as I said, changing a couple of the stacks over to hydro would
help remove a lot of these unknowns reasonably quickly - quite possibly
before the rest expire altogether.

> How many pounds was the 8" bail you added.

Suggest that this is evicted. Algae growing in the water will at least
capture some energy and most of the nutrients they take up will be
released again conveniently as it will die once trapped in the biofilter
(carried there by new, improved pump throughput) without light.

> Miracle Grow MAY be sprayed on the tomato / etc leaves.
> I recall Barry said Adriana said
> 50-50 Miracle Grow/Epsom Salts was a hydroponics mix.
> (Thanks, both!)

I forwarded Adriana's post which was forwarding a post from - I
believe - Joel, because you asked about using it for hydro. I recall
that I said to use commercial hydroponic nutrient. Nothing against MG
but buying the proper stuff seems best to start with - one less thing to
worry about.

> MOST fish will adapt to brackish water, slowly.


I'm still not convinced that spraying salts around the interior of the
GH is a completely trouble-free plan. Do you mean an actual misting unit
or just spraying by hand occasionally?

> What's your DO? (Well, tell me the water temp, then
> estimate from the chart, using [for you] sea level.)

How does this work? DO is surely dependent on more than temps and
pressure?

Barry
barrythomas@btinternet.com

PS Yes. I'd like the compost links if you've time.