There are 17 essential plant nutrients, but Wikipedia lists some incorrect essential plant nutrients. Albeit, they are plant nutrients, but they are NOT essential to the vast majority of plants in general.
Also, the document I just linked all of you is missing Nickel (everything else is correct), which is the 17th essential plant nutrient that modern science has recently added and agreed to.
Do you have any recommendations of how to add some of those nutrients to the system?
There are lots of ways. Some easy examples are putting things like a simple eggshell or oyster shell for calcium, banana peels for potassium, etc. Tap water/well water often has a lot of minerals in it already. Compost or worm casting tea can work quite well too. We have a member on here that has a hybrid system with the worm poop built into his aquaponics!
Originally Posted by Bioritize
What about natural vitamin supplements like Body Balance, it claims to have tons of trace minerals and nutrients.
It depends what form it's already in. If you read me the ingredients from the label I can give it a shot. That's not the most cost effective way to do it though. Water soluble fertilizers are much cheaper.
Here is the stuff, it is in liquid form. I have been taking this stuff for a few years now and I really notice a difference in my overall health. I wondered if I could add this to my tank? It is mostly sea vegetables and aloe. How would I test the PH of this solution, it is very dark.
I plan to add worms into the grow beds once my beds age a bit.
Here is the stuff, it is in liquid form. I have been taking this stuff for a few years now and I really notice a difference in my overall health. I wondered if I could add this to my tank? It is mostly sea vegetables and aloe. How would I test the PH of this solution, it is very dark.
I plan to add worms into the grow beds once my beds age a bit.
No wonder. That stuff has all kinds of bad stuff in it including toxins and radioactive chemicals. California company? Explains a lot. You have to be high to come up with this concept... Anyway, the nutrients were added to the mix in organic substances. Chances are at least half that stuff should be available and if not it will become available eventually to the plants. But Jesus... some of the things in it are radioactive, inorganic toxins, and even organic toxins (like one prevents protein uptake in mammals). What the hell is that stuff??? You don't have to be a chemist to know DON'T DRINK LEAD, ARSENIC, CADMIUM, OR COBALT. Cyanidin is a cyanide compound... I mean I could go on and on, and maybe some stuff genuinely could be good in small enough quantities WHO KNOWS, but I doubt it...
So as not to freak you out completely, understand we drink these substances on a daily basis. Our bodies can remove it from our system at certain concentrations, and in fact it does. The average human being's urine contains arsenic for example. I'd bet you can't find ONE person who doesn't regularly excrete this at low concentrations. Tap and bottle water has these things (except RO in theory). Anyway, don't freak out, but I sure hope you didn't waste much money my friend!
The pH of the water will still show up in a small pH test tube. Once it gets in the small tube it won't be nearly as dark. If it's really really dark you can always try to settle out some of the stuff making it dark. Maybe let it sit a while or refrigerate it. I had some very dark water in a small aquarium and the pH tests showed up fine.
i wouldn't worry about adding "essential nutrients" unless your plants are showing a specific deficency (i think that's something else i agree on with uf! hehehe)
make sure you provide a quality fish food for your fish and you should be ok, and be able to target specific "problems" in your system when you have them
It's hard to say from what little info they have on their website about the product. If it's truly rock, that normally takes a long time in nature to break down. To make it plant available, it often requires the presence of elements that would likely kill your fish and plants. I'm not saying some of the stuff might not become available and quickly, but some of it definitely shouldn't if it's rock. Also, we don't know what else is in there (it mentions 56 unknown elements).
Personally, I wouldn't use it. We need to know what's in it before we throw it into our little ecosystem.
Originally Posted by keith_r
i wouldn't worry about adding "essential nutrients" unless your plants are showing a specific deficency (i think that's something else i agree on with uf! hehehe)
make sure you provide a quality fish food for your fish and you should be ok, and be able to target specific "problems" in your system when you have them