Lettuce discuss Aquaponics

[acklac7]

I think you are missing the entire point of aquaponics. Lot of setups use duckweed to suck up additional nutrients in the water to slow down or stop the growth of algae and bacteria. . In turn the duckweed will assist in feeding the fish.

 

The entire idea is based on being balanced properly and naturally. instead of juggling chemical additives.

 

Ok but here's the deal with organic nutes, if you have the wrong concentrations they can often lead to bacteria/fungi, you get hit with fungi/bacteria just kiss your entire set-up goodbye...That crap is a nightmare to get rid of.

 

If you're running chemical nutes/aeroponic setup and you get the wrong concentrations you really just run the risk of your plants getting irritated, at that point all you often need to do is flush the mixture out and start with a fresh batch (of nutrients). Much easier, and much less risk.

 

 

Trust me i've been there, nothing worse then thriving lush plants for two weeks then all of the sudden they begin to die overnight due to a bacterial/fungi attack (which you can do almost nothing to stop) it's heartbreaking.

[acklac7]

And last but not least make sure your setup isn't going to kill you. I can't stress this enough. Water,Electricity and High-Itensity Discharge lighting can create a life-threatening situation in a heartbeat. Plan for the worse case scenario; don't run any wiring/components on the ground, make sure your lighting is hella-secured to the ceiling, and run digital ballasts for HID's.

 

Back in the day I had an old school 1000 Watt iron ballast go bad and short-circuit, turned into massive 120V Iron resistor (for those of you familiar with resistors they tend to generate alot of heat). Walked in and found the whole room cloudy with smoke, the ballast case was so hot it had melted the laminate flooring clear down to the stone tile beneath. Had it been sitting on carpet or wood I probably wouldn't be here right now...