My nitrite and nitrate levels on one side of my system are completely off the chart. I have never seen colors like this.
The readings that I am getting are for the beds on the right side, and you can see from this photo that the plants on the left side are doing much better. I planted things ant the same time. My current theory is that the pH on the right side is too high and it is locking out the nutrients that are building up. I am working on getting the pH down by adding lemon juice and by adding water. I tested my well water and it is about 6.0.
This is the growth on the left side of my system where my tilapia are. The pH is too high here also, but not by as much. I have been working on bringing the pH level down and am noticing that the leaves are beginning to darken slowly. This is because if the pH is not in the correct range, the plants cannot absorb the nutrients, like iron.
4 Comments:
Yikes! That's awfully high. I didn't find that lemon juice or vinegar did much good for me while my system was cycling. If you put in enough to make a serious change, it's too drastic and can hurt everything. May I suggest you just do a 1/3 water change? If your well water is 6.0 it should balance things nicely, and you'll still have plenty of nitrates in there to keep your plants fed.
I wish I could give you some great advise, like Monday, but all I can say is those veggies look mighty good to me - Especially compared to what I have going in my GH. Fortunately, I'm able to grow some decent lettuce and spinach, outside in the ground - Otherwise, my wife would fire me! ;)
Update: The reason why my chemicals got out of whack is that I dosed the system with ammonia to get the cycle charged. I stopped feeding the fish and waited for 2 days. Everything came back to normal.
Ah! Yes, while it's cycling things can get pretty bumpy. Particularly if you artificially force a cycle that way. I spent a lot of time in my first, small, test system trying to stabilize the numbers while they bounced around. And, of course, I over-corrected every time. That's why I suggested the water change. I'd hate for you to make the mistakes I made.
But if it was just a cycle spike made a bit drastic by the dose of ammonia, I won't panic for you. I'm so glad everything is okay again!
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