1st Aquaponic test run

RaptoR Ok, so this diary will be a test run. I have just finished building my aquaponic system. I have ordered a bunch of seeds from MSNL and I'm still waiting on them. My system is cycling for the first time and I will do a test run with these random seeds. One parent I know is Jack Herer. The other other has a good mother, not sure which genes, and the last is a test to see what the west coast of Africa holds. I will use this grow to test tun my system, and following, when my seeds arrive some better genes. Edit : I have finalised the dual root zone area and decided not to waste space and will try a dutch pot setup on the side. In the morning I will line my pots with burlap and add the soil layer. Should be ready to transplant into the box tomorrow. The top clearance is bugging me, hopefully some HST, topping and scrogging will help keep it low 8/8/18: So i mixed the soil yesterday and made my dual root zone layer. Then transplanted the Jack and into the box. Jack seems to have had a hard time opening up. Her first leaves are brown and curled. Under the light for some photo therapy! Rest of the plants seem to be doing ok.

RaptoR So jacks standing upright. Had a very slow development from germination. Leaves show signs of burn. Think its got to do with the rockwool cubes. Maybe they ph too low and I need to flush them first next time. Jacks first leaves also struggled at the beginning of the week, but after going into the box and getting some intense photo therapy, she's recovering well. Fist leaves are a bit mis shapen but recovery will be swift once the roots grow a bit. I have transplanted the cubes into a soil mix of peat, worm tea concentrate vermiculite, kelp concentrate vermiculite, then a little bit of dolomitic lime, bone meal, organic Fertilizer, super sulphate, perlite, coco coir and some pine fines. Hopefully this will be a sufficient dry zone. Once the roots reach the wet zone I predict growth will explode. I have also built and installed the screen. I will add more photos later, need to fix my memory card first.. 18-8 Ok so I fixed my memory card and took some pics under sunlight today. The jack looks a lot like she'll survive , but might grow a bit bushy. She keeps putting out new growth on the top.I have noticed the sativa strecth from her first to second leaves, compared to the other two that was planted at the same time, jack is lagging behind. I can't get over how much it looks like a small seedling ballerina dancer!

RaptoR This week has shown some great improvements to Jack. It is looking rather odd but itll pull through im sure. I will be away from home for a few weeks and decided to install some wick systems in the pots to keep the dry zone moist while I am away. I am after all aiming for a automated system that requires as little as possible imput and still have a successful yield. My system is almost completely cycled and the nitrites and nitrates started showing up strong.I added some egg shells as well to bring the PH up to hasten the cycling process. Removed them today and PH is up to 7.2.once the plants start tapping into the nitrogen they will release nitric acid and the PH will naturally come down. If not, i will bring it down myself.I stopped adding ammonia when the nitrites started showing, nitrates are climbing daily and I can see the effect of the nitrogen feed on the plants and roots. Especially the couple of Dutch pots I have set up. the photo of the roots is of a seedling planted straight to a Dutch pot a few days after the jack and the results are. amazing. Almost 4cm of root growth in 3 days. I am estimating another week until the roots reach the wet zone which I then suspect vegetation growth will explode.

RaptoR So this is the first week away from the grow. Everything is getting along really nicely. Wet wick system seems to be working well in keeping the soil zone moist. All the plants showed a boom in growth in the last 8 days. My wife did a water test and the nitrites are completely gone...cycling complete!! I´m not home to add fish...but will just keep adding Ammonium Sulphate for time being until I get home so the plants dont starve. I need to get fish in there , asap , to take care of and feed the plants. The fish will be fed by a automatic fish feeder. The feeder then only needs to get filled up once in a week or two. This means that I can go to work , be away from the grow for a month , and the system will look after itself. I have added a photo of each one of the original seedlings planted aswel for comparison . The Jack is finally showing some good improvements and a lot of new growth.

RaptoR Mmmmm...not sure what to say... Seems like everything is still coming on nicely.They are all still alive which is a good sign... Some good growth from all the plants over the last week.Especially the ones thats not planted in the Dual root Zone. Its very hard for me to update the diary accurately from work in regards to pH , TDS , height , temps etc. My missus does help me out in taking some NO2/NO3 readings and taking some pics , but with a 1 month old baby girl at home she doesnt always have the energy nor time to help. I have added a pic taken on 2nd September , and another from more or less the same angle on 5th September. Growth is clearly visible. At this stage I am not asking her to add anything to the soil and all that gets added at this stage is a teaspoon of ammonium sulphate to the tank every 5 days or so to keep the Nitrogen levels up to feed the bacteria and plants. Looks like there is some deficiencies due to this , or its maybe just the photos taken , not too sure at this stage as I cant really look at them from close up... They just need to survive the next 2 weeks then Ill be home and give them some nutrient supplements in the soil layer. So my wife just sent me some pics. There is definitely something wrong with the Jack. It looks like a nitrogen deficiency but im not sure. Might be that the roots have not yet fully tapped into the wet zone. Asked her to use some nitrogen rich water from the tank and wet the pot ...have to see if it will help.

RaptoR Damn.... Uhm the Jack is dying...💀 Nitrogen deficiency.... I think I have transplanted it way too early and the roots never tapped into the Nitrogen rich water. Its very clear as I look at one of the other ones that I transplanted from dutch pot to DRZ with good roots at transplantation at a later stage. It can be seen in the back of one of my pics. I am a bit hesitant to ask my wife to swap out the healthy DP plants for the DRZ plants cause its quite a delicate procedure as not to damage the roots. I am going back home soon and will put the healthy DP plants in the DRZ pots , and vica versa. Hopefully this will resuscitate the Jack. If not I think it will probably be the end of the diary for Jack. Dunno if I should end the complete Diary or not. Really want to keep it running to document the progress of the system further on.Will I be allowed to do that? Dunno , what do you guys think?

RaptoR Got back from work. Jack still looked sad and unfortunately I didnt get pics of it. Added some pics of the other plants thats showing good growth. I did not transplant the jack, but I did swop it to the other grow bed. One growbed has a problem with the auto siphon so the plants spend more time without water than the other bed. I stopped by the hydro shop and got som GHE nutrients so I kept the jack in the DRZ pot to administer some nutrients. Had my anniversary and then came down with the flu and the ICU on the jack had to wait a bit. Hence this weeks update being a bit late. I also topped the 5 good growing plants, but did have a few beers beforehand and ended up fimming one...

RaptoR So after some treatment with the GHE trio, the 3 that was lagging behind is doing better. Seems the DRZ is doing as planned for nutrient supplements. Only downside is the DRZ can only take about 75 ml per feeding otherwise the chems might leak into the water and mess with the system. I have also managed to get around to getting some fish in the tank. Had to do a complete water change out, ammonia levels was way too high from all the ammonium sulphate I've added over the weekend. Now my PH is up to 7.1 but the system should come down by itself. The fish is still small and the ammonia they produce is little. Plants will suffer a bit until the fish grow bigger. 4 koi, 4 comets and 6 shibunkins should be sufficient for now. Note for next grow : bigger pots, less plants, supplement from the start.

RaptoR So after about 2 weeks of GHE treatment, the Jack is back on track. During this week I topped the jack and the last of the othet plants, and also did some LST on the Jack and the other Luanda Sativa Ive got growing. Both of them loved the GHE nutes and both show lovely growth on the root systems. I have also transplanted 3 of the plants outside and now there is only 5 that the fish have to feed. Less plants equals more nitrogen. All of the plants started off really slow but i think that's due to the new system and the long cycling time.

RaptoR So the fimming didnt work well on Jack. Mustve missed it and decided to do another topping on it to see if itll split better. Adjusted the training wires daily and it's forming nicely. Getting some really odd shaped leaves from the new growth but i guess its due to the fimming stress.same rounded leaves as in the beginning of the grow. Ive also cut down on the nutrient supplement feed and only give 50ml every second day or so to help with the stressing and the topping. The other plants ive got growing are doing really well and they all split very well on the topping. All the fish are still alive an the pH levels are coming down slowly. Dont really want to add anything to help with the pH now as everything is still alive and id like to keep it that way!! I have also added a extra light, nothing spectacular , only a 50 watt LED soft spot light that I plan on using as a vegetation light in future. Plan on splitting the box and making a veg box for a good mother plant or two.... Growth is slow but getting there, if compared to other grows thats 10 weeks into veg... Guess its down to too many plants, small fish and some early mistakes on the transplants... Also me being away and not being able to help much when im at work....

RaptoR So this was my last week tending the plant.I am back at work now and the whole system will run by itself again. will get the missus to go down twice a week to make sure all the fish are still living and the plants are all ok. Meanwhile I still continued to do the daily training on Jack , keeping it down and its really starting to bush up nicely now. The second place where I topped Jack seems to be helping. It looks like the branches is splitting nicely now...or so I hope. I also did n little bit of defoliation on the bottom , not much , just n trim of the little undercarriage.

RaptoR So this was my first week away from the grow this trip...Happy days...All the fish are still alive and all the plants are healthy. I did ask my missus to to take some photos , but between the baby and work she barely has time for my follies. I did attach 2 photos she sent me and I did ask her to take some more of the Jack which I will upload as soon as I get them. I dont water the plants anymore , only once a week when she checks up on the fish do the plants get a little bit of a GHE treat. They seem to get along fine with only the fishy water. I have ordered a CO2 controller and regulator yesterday and will be installing it when I get home end of November , just in time for the flip. Its been a long ass grow and I cant wait to see the end...Next grow will be better...definitely!

RaptoR MMM , dunno what to say..... Plants are all growing steadily , fish are all still alive. They started filling up the screen nicely and flip time is soon. These plants havent been sexed yet , so will ask my wife to flip them in a weeks time , then by the time I get home I should be able to see which are females. They are surviving solely on the aquaponic aspect at this moment with no water given to the Dry Root Zone.

RaptoR Soooo , all the fish are still alive , and the plants are thriving . Cant really talk about nutrients , they grow only with the aquaponics now and no additional feeding. Im a bit concerned with the head height Ive got left after the last 3 weeks of growth since ive been gone , and asked a friend to flip them to flowering. Flipped them on the 10th Nov. Ill be home in 2 weeks and by then they should be showing sex already and I can pluck the males and train some onto the screen. I will also start to give them flowering nutes then. Really hope the Jack dont turn out male...that would suck.... , Hopefully the stretch wont be a problem , im really concerned about the height. Need to work on the box design to get the beds lower...or just a completely seperate flowering room.

RaptoR Little bit late on the update. Been hectic at work. Plants have started to stretch and I am still to identify their sex. Had my wife mix some GHE flowering mix , but without the FloraGro due the fact that the fishes are supplying nutes aswel. I am a bit concerned with the stretch and the head height , but nothing I can do about that from over here. Next grow I will have to look at earlier flowering time , lower screen and maybe even SOG grow technique. Pics were taken on 16th November.

RaptoR Second week of flowering and plants are stretching still. Still only feeding occasionally with GHE Bloom and Micro. I have asked the missus to see if she can Identify the sex yet , but dont think she knows exactly what to look for. I am returning home in a few days and will then then do defoliation and give them some TLC. Lets hope Jack turns out to be a female....

RaptoR So this was the first week that ive been back at my grow. Good news ..shes a girl!!she is still very young and bud sites started to show. The plant that growed next to her was a male and got plucked. The male was supporting her and after taking him out she was left unsupported and hanging. While she is so young I took the chance to weave her onto the screen better. Dunno if its too late for training but she looks like shes recovering ok.I am hoping the long ass flowering time of jack will help with the training recovery.Sure hope i didnt mess that up. I also did some serious defoliation and cleared her under carrige out. Feeding daily 50ml of flowering nutes.Also did some HST by accident on one of the branches...hope she gets through it.

RaptoR The girls are coming on nicely.. Still only feeding them ghe floramicro and bloom. Jacks recovering nicely from the accidental HST. The last week has shown quite a few bud sites pop up due to the screen training. I know jack herer has a very long flowering time, but its strange if I compare to the plants growing next to jack. They are blooming. I added i pics for reference. Good news is that my MSNL beanz finally came...after 6 months of waiting. Next grow, fine tuned paramaters , trusted genetics, should be a blast!! One of my Koi has gone nutters though...constantly doing barrel rolls all over the tank. Something to do with its balance. Been like this for weeks, so itll survive..my very own top gun!!

RaptoR Jacks coming on nicely looks like the screen training and HST will pay off. I partitioned my grow box and have a seperate veg room, i still need to fix good ventilation into it, so my flowering box is getting hotter. Humidity also goin up. Added a internal vent fan which helps a little. Also spent some time to make my fish happier. Better lighting and some shelter.

RaptoR Still stretching a bit but under control. Some crazy lst to grow a sativa in such a small space. She is starting to put out trichomes and looks like a few decent colas will come of at harvest. Very slow flowering compared to the other I have growing next to it. Also starting to give off a nice scent. Still giving daily flowering nutes. Humidity and temps are also down after adding the extra fan and sealing the veg box properly.

RaptoR So this is the first week away from the girls again. They are doing their own thing and colas looks like they are fattening nicely. Still getting fed with flowering nutes , but not daily . With me being away , the wife at work and the baby at home the poor girls are being left behind . All the fish are also still alive and gaining size which is good , bigger size , more nutes. Little Top Gun Maverick is still hanging in there as well , he is truly a little fighter! Rest of the fish also seem happy...if fish can actually be happy... Apologies for the bad quality photos . I did not marry the best photographer... :)

RaptoR Jack is still coming on slowly. Looks like the few colas I have are fattening up , but very slow and I dont expect a massive yield. As long as I get a harvest at all I would see it as a win. Definitely wont be growing a Sativa in the box in future , just dont have the space for it. I also need to work out a automation system to feed nutrients into the soil layer daily without seeping into the fishtank. When im gone they dont get fed too much nutes by hand and survive mostly on the aquaponic aspect. Had massive runaway fires near my home and had a power outages , but the plants and fish seemed to have survived the ordeal. Hope the lack of water , air and light didnt stress the girls out to much. Will update with better fotos when I get back hom in 2 weeks time.

RaptoR Getting there slowly. Buds are still forming up , and i´m not too happy with the size , but with the LED´s im using I didnt expect it to be a major yield. I did order new lights and will be installing them by next week. Im sure the COBs will help out in the last few weeks of flowering. We live , we learn. All the fish are still alive and Maverick is still hanging in there.

RaptoR Missed on updating the last week. Been hectic since I got back. The plants are still alive and one is almost ready for harvest. Makes me more positive about the potential outcome of the jack. The jack still has a way to go. Need to get more light in there. And figure out better feeding automation for blooming. Stalks arr weak and buds are stretching. Makes them droop. Gona work on a second support system. Excuse the bad lights on the fotos.

RaptoR Ok, so this week was a bit of a fuckup. I managed to get time to harvest the two other plants, and then added and moved lights, now jacks got some decent lighting for the last stretch. I started adding FLORA ripen and it seems to have given the jack some nute burns on the tips. The pistols keep shooting out, but the stalks dont thicken so the buds are all hanging. Sprung some string to help support the developing buds. Hope the extra light and support helps. I also pulled my fish tank, only to realise its got a massive crack on the basr. Moved my fish over to a temp plastic container and drained the tank..... With the fish in a smaller containet, and only one plant sucking nutes, the ppms for fish water is up to 100. One fish commited suicide. Jumped out of the container in the middle of the night. Looking forward to seeing what improvements the extra lights would do.

RaptoR So this Jack doesnt seem to want to finish up. I can see some new foxtails growing and it seems the new lights are helping. I am away from the grow again for few weeks , hopefully when I get back I can harvest her. Apologies for the bad photo quality. The pics dont really do the grow justice. It all just looks like a mess in there , but there is some method in that madness!! The fish are still living in the plastic container , and they will have to stay there for a few weeks till I can get my tank fixed. Due to the smaller container they are living in , I have to fill up with water every 2 weeks. Using tap water , it caused the pH to climb a bit.

RaptoR Been a while since I got time to update. This is a backlog update, a week late. This Jack still has a few more weeks before I can take her down. Still showing new pistol and growth . I Dont have any good pics to update. Only Pics I got from the missus a while ago. Im am a bit concerned with the long flowering time of this girl. Seems like she is also lacking something by the looks of the curly leaves. Not too sure what.. The other girl I harvested a few weeks back looked really good with potency on par , which gives me hope that I can still get a successful yield. I added one pic of the plant I harvested for reference. Note to self.... Dont grow Sativas in this grow setup......