What are my peppers lacking?

[Basil1]

[attachment=0:2nlvwdkx]20130201_103615.jpg[/attachment:2nlvwdkx]
The eggplant seems to be in a happy place at the moment. I also noticed that I have a small aphid infestation. A few must have come in when I transferred one of the peppers from outside. Been mainly dealing with them by hand to keep the numbers low. Thinking maybe I can sneak a ladybug or two in and not get caught.

[rfeiller]

basil don't you have coral in St. Petersburg? Many years ago when i was a kid living in Sarasota it was everywhere, i would personally incorporate it into the growbed. actually i bought ground up corral when i originally had set up my system and put some in every container to get rid of my end rot problem in squash and tomatoes, it worked great.
since i have so many worm bins now the aggi lime works better.
the joy with lady bugs is they will migrate back to where they came from so if you release several hundred you may have a couple left around your plant.

[Basil1]

I can get ground coral no problem, my issue with that and the salts is too rapid of a water chemistry swing so I am cautious about too much at once. Since this is in the house, not sure releasing a couple hundred would be a great idea, but the animals would go nuts.

[rfeiller]

even for different treatments i would add as much as a cup of rock salt to 10gals water however i understand some softskinned aquatic animals can not tolerate high levels of sodium, that would have to be metered and you would have to research out the tolerable levels of sodium your eel can take.
also remember that an aquaponics system is not the equivalent of water changes to maintain the health of the animals.

Rich

[Basil1]

No worries there, been doing that part for quite a while so still doing water changes in conjunction with the AP. Not sure on exact amount that's ok for the eel or how much is necessary for the plants. Still trying to find info. Usually hit up my favorite fish forum for fish questions but they seem to have a dim view on the benefits of epsom salts, last guy who mentioned it got so ridiculed he quit I think, but never got a straight answer. They do have knowledgable people, but not all and a lot of restrictions on topics that are allowable.

[Basil1]

Seems they can take salt at a level of at least 1 teaspoon every 5 gallons or so. Guess that pinch I put in each container won't hurt, probably isn't helping the plants a lot though.

[rfeiller]

Basil1 back in the dark ages of the '60s when i had several shipments of wild south american tropical fish trans shipped through Miami to southern CA, if it hadn't been for epsom salts and copper sulphate i would have lost a lot of discus. i won't even participate in the new discus forums because of the tons of incorrect information put out by "done nothing" members that heard or read something somewhere. i along with a few others was breeding discus when "it wasn't possible".

[Basil1]

I know what you mean on the lack of knowledge. Discus are something I never had much luck with but then again I really don't care too much for the newer strains. I actually liked the wild colorations the best but I seem to be in a minority.

[rfeiller]

I had a wild caught true royal blue for over eight years. Although i developed some commercial strains of discus i always preferred the wild discus symphysodon aquifasciata or symphysodon discus heckel

[Basil1]

I think sometimes we go too far in making changes just for the sake of change, but that's just me. look at the popularity of all the hybrid cichlids.

Anyways, back to the subject at hand. Added some more epsom salts and will get out later today or tomorrow for some crushed coral. Was wondering about the calcium grit they have for birds as well. Will have to see if it has other additives.