Ph level vs Nitate intake by plants

Vonapster

Does the PH level in your system govern how much and how fast the nitrates are absorbed by the plants?
Can the type of plants also have an effect on nitrates absorbing rate?

Mr Damage

No, in the pH range that any aquaponic system would be operating in, ie: 6.0 - 8.5, the Nitrate uptake will not be affected.

Yes, the type of plants in a system definitely affect the rate at which nitrates are absorbed out of the system.

Vonapster

Thanks once again Mr Damage

Mr Damage

No worries!

If you're trying to reduce Nitrates, plant lots of fast growing leafy greens, ie: Bok-choy, Oakleaf lettuce etc.

If that's not your issue, ie: if you have Nitrates but the plants that are looking a bit pale, I'd suggest it's a deficiency of another nutrient. Potassium and Calcium are the most common, also Iron in new systems that have a pH above 8.0

Vonapster

Yes I've got excessive nitrates so yesterday I got more baby cos lettuces. Will monitor during the next week or so with water tests daily to see any reduction of nitrates.

Can I also reduce the amount and frequency of food I'm giving to my fish to control nitrates?

Also are you able to give me some advice on how to introduce those nutrients into the system?
I.E - Names of some products you would recommend, where to purchase them and how much to introduce into the system.

At present I have 3 baby chilli plants, Basil, parsley and coriander seedlings, one strawberry plant, 4 Cos lettuces, 6 baby cos lettuces and 3 bunches of spring onions.

Ammonia is 0.25 ppm
Nitrites are 0.5 ppm and
Nitrates are 40 to 80 ppm. Tested yesterday.

Below is a picture of my media bed area

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AquaTurtle

nice tank! where'd you get it?

Vonapster

I got it from this place on the south western coast of Australia....... :thumbright:

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Kiara98

Awesome looking little system.

Wouldn't worry too much about nitrates. They aren't as bad as nitrites which can actually kill your fish.

Can let you know how to reduce nitrites if you need. Let us know.

-K98

dstjohn99

Very nice little system. I would like to get a tank like that in the US for building starter systems for people. I'll have to look around and see what I can find.

Mr Damage

Kiara98 wrote:

Can let you know how to reduce nitrites if you need.

Do you have another way other than partial water changes or the bacteria colony doing it?

Vonapster

I do have both bacteria colonies established but I'm not sure the amount or size of the two colonies in the system

I think I may have to back off amount of feedto my fish plus increase time between feeding, maybe two to three days, so the bacterias can have more time to convert and grow....would that be a sound practice?

If you conduct a salt treatment for a nitrite spike, how long do wait until you need to do a partial water change or do you just leave the salt cycle through the system?

Considering I have nitrates present I think I have a nutrient deficiency with my plants. I'm using Perth scheme water coz I don't have access to bore or rain water so my water is at 8.2 PH
I suspect the deficiency is Iron...would that be a fair assumption?

danny

With your Ammonia and Nitrites at 0.5 and 0.25 you don't need to worry about letting your bacteria grow; you're fully cycled, you just need more pants to take up the Nitrates. Like Damage says leafy ones. Feed less if the nitrate build up is a worry.

I think if you salt to 3ppt most plants are fine except strawberry, and I imagine you'd test for Nitrite and decrease salt with water changes once you're satisfied that the bacteria has caught up, could take a week or less in warm weather.

People here talk about Iron Chelate, but I don't know the names of products, I'm sure the ones available down there in Aus are mentioned in a few threads.

Always make sure tap water is de-gassed to get rid of chlorine before putting it in the system.

Vonapster

Thanks Danny for your input

dstjohn99

To protect fish from nitrites (1.0ppm or less) salt at 1ppt is sufficient as effective chloride to nitrite ratio is 10:1 according to most reputable sources. Here are some links to relevant articles and studies.

http://agrilife.org/fisheries/files/2013/09/SRAC-Publication-No.-0462-%E2%80%93-Nitrite-in-Fish-Ponds.pdf

http://www.aces.edu/dept/fisheries/aquaculture/documents/BrownBlood.pdf

http://vri.cz/docs/vetmed/50-11-461.pdf

http://neospark.com/images/aquanitriteproblem.pdf

Yavimaya

danny wrote:

With your Ammonia and Nitrites at 0.5 and 0.25 you don't need to worry about letting your bacteria grow; you're fully cycled, you just need more pants to take up the Nitrates. Like Damage says leafy ones. Feed less if the nitrate build up is a worry.

I think if you salt to 3ppt most plants are fine except strawberry, and I imagine you'd test for Nitrite and decrease salt with water changes once you're satisfied that the bacteria has caught up, could take a week or less in warm weather.

People here talk about Iron Chelate, but I don't know the names of products, I'm sure the ones available down there in Aus are mentioned in a few threads.

Always make sure tap water is de-gassed to get rid of chlorine before putting it in the system.

hi guy.

no he isnt fully cycled, fully cycled is the point where the bacteria can keep up with the current feed rate with no lag as such.
most people consider it to simply be when ammonia and nitrites are at 0.0ppm, which is a good indicator.... but if you up the feed rate, then you suddenly arent fully cycled again until the bacteria grow to cope with the new feed rate.

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