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  1. #1
    Members aquaarche's Avatar
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    Help!!!! Water Temperatures

    Hi guys,

    anyone a Univ Virgin Islands that may be posting please give some advice.

    This is the third summer here (Feb-May) this is known as the hot/dry season. every year at this time I see drastic reduction in plant growth. I have been able to keep a record of water temperatures. Most of the year the water is between 76-80 degrees but over the last month the temperatures have reached 84 on the average dipping only to 80 at night. with such high water temps the plants are not growing.

    It didn't matter whether I had a gravel be or float trough the water temp raises during this time of year. I have shaded the troughs, the fish tank and the filters. even if everything were painted white we would still have the high temperatures of the water because the air temperatures at night don't go below 80.

    All my chemistry are fine pH 6.8-7.0, Ammonia 0.25, Nitrite 0.1 and Nitrate 5.0. the only difference is the water temp

    Any suggestions, thoughts or ideas?

  2. #2
    Moderator urbanfarmer's Avatar
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    Re: Help!!!! Water Temperatures

    I still have not thoroughly researched the water temperature issue. What plants are you growing? How many gallons/liters is your system??

  3. #3
    Members aquaarche's Avatar
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    Re: Help!!!! Water Temperatures

    I have around 120 gallons maximum in my little experimental system.

    I have two have barrel float troughs I am growing Green Leaf Lettuce, Tomatoes, and Sweet Basil with 40 gallons of water in each side.

    my 45 gallon fish tank has 40 pieces of Tilapia, they are growing

    plus a small float tank above the flood tanks that holds around 15 gallons.

    I do believe that it is my DO. My problem is I can not find a meter here in the Philippines. It would be great if someone could send me one but no one I know of knows what it is.

  4. #4
    Moderator badflash's Avatar
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    Re: Help!!!! Water Temperatures

    Those temps are pefect for tilapia.

    If you can cascade the return water above the surface to create bubbles, it should help. Otherwise, add a small air pump and stone.
    The best fertilizer is the farmer's shadow

  5. #5
    Members aquaarche's Avatar
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    Re: Help!!!! Water Temperatures

    I have an air pump in the fish tank. and another one for the float troughs. Each half barrel trough is not quite 4 feet long.

    But this increase in Aeration has done little. I need to find a DO meter.

  6. #6
    Moderator urbanfarmer's Avatar
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    Re: Help!!!! Water Temperatures

    Your water temperatures don't seem to be the result of your decreased plant growth. Can you try to describe in more detail what is happening to your plants?

  7. #7
    Moderator urbanfarmer's Avatar
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    Re: Help!!!! Water Temperatures

    Actually, if possible, can you take some pictures of your setup and post them on here? I'm 100% positive we can help you out, but we need more information.

  8. #8
    Members aquaarche's Avatar
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    Re: Help!!!! Water Temperatures

    If you go to this link you can see all the pictures I have of our system.

    http://chette.tripod.com/id40.html

    That is the only place I have pictures loaded too. I have no photo album even on that site because once the pictures go into the album they become the property of the web site companies. Even if you remove them they have copies to which they can use for any purpose they want even sales. It is that way with blogs, pictures, e-mags et al... beware of putting anything you don't want to keep for your own profit or patents. they can make a claim against you. I have already ran into it and lost the rights to my own article because I posted it on a blog site and they got the rights. When it came time to publish my work I was not allowed because the web site claimed they had the rights to it though I was the one who wrote it.

    since then no social websites or anything for me no twitter, no face book, plasco(SP?), any of them. that one page on lycos is all I have and I watch what I post and publish there closely.

  9. #9
    Moderator urbanfarmer's Avatar
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    Re: Help!!!! Water Temperatures

    Okay great, thanks for that!

    Can you describe exactly what you believe the water temperature is causing you problems with? Do the plants die or do new transplants just not grow? If they die, how do they die? Please describe color, scorching, chlorisis, what parts die first, which plants die first, or any other observations.

    I genuinely don't believe that the slight temperature change you have described kills the plants (at least not directly). As you have noticed a seasonal occurrence, my mind jumps to pests, disease, or sun intensity. However, without more information I can't say any more.

  10. #10
    Members aquaarche's Avatar
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    Re: Help!!!! Water Temperatures

    for the first two weeks after I created the float troughs the newly transplanted basil, celery, lettuce and Tomatoes grew and grew. after a two weeks I harvest out the lettuce and transplanted new lettuce and Basil. At first everything seems fine then I noticed the leaves browning and withering as if exposed to too much heat like a burning. after that started everything stopped growing. the new lettuce seemed to burn and the basil started burning too. The plants in the flood tank trough did not die as those in the float troughs they just merely slowed growth to the point they are three weeks old and still look like sprouts including the basil. The only thing doing ok is the Tomatoes but even there growth has slowed down dramatically. during that time the chemistry has been normal as reported above with an occasional pH lowering which I used high pH water to buffer it to 6.8-7.0.

    The leaves die first. the stems stay normal and healthy looking. there is no pests present. color seems ok red lettuce was red Green lettuce green, tomatoes have green leaves with those on the lower outer branches seen to be burned (scorched). They also have only produced a few flowers there should be more. Sun intensity has changed slightly the whole unit is getting far more sunlight since February.

    There is also a brown stringy type algae growing in all three of the float troughs. It is a not in the fish tank or the flood tank it self.

    I am glad to have this problem now in the smaller system. We are planning to build a larger system that is exposed to sunlight pretty much most of the year. So far I am willing to shade if necessary. temperatures year round are 80-100 in direct sunlight and little less in the shade. During the rest of the year there are cooler nights

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