Hydroponic Propogator setup

[foxfish]

That is a great little experiment, I have never found a high limit using an artificial light source, I keep numerous outdoor emersed set ups during the warmer months. I keep them in partial shade but in full evening sun.
I think it would of been great if you could of filled and drained the tank to a higher level so the plants became totally emersed for say 5 mins every eliminated hour.
I have no idea if that would work but I think it might.

 

[zozo]

Why is the waterlevel so high? That gives you a lot of little stagnant puddles for algae to grow and accumulate. Lower the water to a deeper level, so that it gets no light. The pebbles will soak water up and stay moist, that's all a plant needs, it doesn't need to be a constant over the top soaking wett puddle.

At least that's what it looks like in the last picture.. Looking like the drain is situated to high..

Have a look at the bell syphon 🙂 it actualy is quite simple to diy.. Its a cuntinious cycle of flood and drain automated by force of nature. In this type of system aquatic algae doesn't get much of a chance to grow.


Personaly i would drain it, mechanicaly remove the algae infested top layer.. Clean it or replace it and rethinck and rebuild the system to keep the water level lower in the substrate.

Tho in the transparent container bellow is the algae breeding box.. Tape it off to get it dark in there.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Looks like i have some green slime algae / cyanobacteria

Looking at the colour ("grass green") I think it is probably a green algae, rather than a cyanobacteria (BGA), which would have some darker colours.

Lower the water to a deeper level, so that it gets no light. The pebbles will soak water up and stay moist, that's all a plant needs, it doesn't need to be a constant over the top soaking wett puddle.

That would be my suggestion as well.

cheers Darrel

 

[Oldguy]

green slime algae / cyanobacteria,

Looks more like green slime than bga, but difficult to tell from photo. H2O2 is effective as a topical application, child's/artists paint brush. I use 6% it works better. As you know you can buy it from a chemists. If you think that you need lots or stronger, then eBay 1 litre bottle at 11% is a good buy. (need a license for 12% and above or have a friend who is a ladies hairdresser). Topical application should have little effect on other reagents in your setup. Professional growers use algae-sides, typically copper based. As stated above a low water level would help and as @zozo said black out everything that does not have plants growing in it.

 

[Barbara Turner]

Looking at the colour ("grass green") I think it is probably a green algae, rather than a cyanobacteria (BGA), which would have some darker colours.

Only reason I didn't think it wasn't hair algae was it was forming bubbles and floating on the surface (abit like this stock image (but obviously not as bad)

H2O2 is effective as a topical application, child's/artists paint brush. I use 6% it works better.

I found a small bottle of h202 in the first aid kit (3%) so added 15ml along with 15ml of excel carbon (glut). To make sure it was going to kill it, I put all the worst affected balls in a glass with a mixture water, macro EI solution, along with a few drops of glut and H202 these were placed under the floodlight. By this afternoon all the algae/ cynobacteria has turned a nice white dead colour.

The propogator is also looking almost completely free.

I'll do another water change tomorrrow and possibly only dose H202 and macro solution.

Have a look at the bell syphon 🙂 it actualy is quite simple to diy.

The setup I copied is so much simpiler.

The aquarium pump goes to a bulkhead fitting in the centre with the inlet as close to the bottom as possible.
The water level is then set by a second pipe, I made mine from a short section of 1" pvc waste pipe, (i put a mesh flower pot arround it so you don't loose half your clay balls down the hole.

When the pump is running it quickly fills the propogator till it reaches the overflow pipe. (this height controls the height of the water level)

As soon as you turn off the pump gravity takes over and the water quickly flows back down the pipe and through the pump emptying the propogator.

Personaly i would drain it, mechanicaly remove the algae infested top layer.. Clean it or replace it and rethinck and rebuild the system to keep the water level lower in the substrate.

I'm not impressed with the clay balls, If i can get hold of some small plant pots I'll get rid of all the clay balls and put the plants in small pots either filled up with smashed up clay balls or tropica aquarium soil.

 

[zozo]

I'm not impressed with the clay balls, I

It indeed isn't a good aqauponic media for propagation, it's from the hydroculure era used on mature well developed large plants. And hydroculture is a entire different concept compaired to aquaponic.. And for propagation you ca best use a more light weight media, much easier for the small fragile plant roots to penetrate deeper into the media.

But anyway if you use inert media you need a complete fert sulution than if you don't want to make a mess with perlite or cocofiber you can use rockwool starter plugs and transpanting cubes and stick this into the main media such as the clay balls. Makes it easier for an initial start for the plant and its easier for you to handle..
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grodan-Rockwool-Plant-Plugs-50-Pack/dp/B0030KJUQC

You also could choose Agra wool or Mapito flakes as main media also very lights weight.. Plants grow faster and stronger on light weight media, it takes much less energy for them to grow their roots deeper. And this is what it plant initialy needs first, strong roots before it starts to grow and mature leafs and stems.

This you can monitor with for example the transplant cubes.. If you put a small plant in it, you wont see much happening in growth the first 2 weeks maybe.. But when you take out the cube and look at the bottom tha you notice little fat white roots sticking out while the plant itself above ground didn't do much at all, yet. Beeing able to monitor and check this, yoou knoow you are on the right track or if not investigate why the plant doesn't want to root. If you need to wait on dying foliage as reference you actualy are to late, dying foilage can mean root rot instead of growth.