Beneficial bacteria

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klaasy1

Active Member
Ok, so I'm a nub and I'm wanting to set up a DWC system. I am watching videos and reading everything I can about water, distilled water, reverse osmosis, ph, beneficial bacteria, lava rocks... wait... this is starting to sound exactly like my 2000+ gallon koi pond! I have 4 50 gallon barrels filled with lava rock plumbed to the pond. It took well over a year to get the beneficial bacterial cycle going, but now my pond is crystal clear and has been for a few yrs now. Now I'm thinking of the plants I have on the ledges of the pond. (not cannabis) sitting in like 2" of constantly circulating water, growing fantastically... roots everywhere... wait... this sounds like DWC! So, instead of all the nutes, ph tests, water changes etc., why not just plumb the dwc system into the pond system? Sounds reasonable to me, my pond is wanting more plants to remove the nitrates caused by the fish, and my plants want the nitrates to grow! Sounds like a win win situation to me, or is my blonde really really showing?

View attachment 2083208

I now see (duh) this method is used... aquaponics... who'd a thunk... I suppose there are a million forum posts out there for me to put on my never-ending list of stuff to read. I suppose I could just ask what anybody right here right now thinks?
 

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Bigz2277

Bigz2277

Well-Known Member
klaasy1 said:
Ok, so I'm a nub and I'm wanting to set up a DWC system. I am watching videos and reading everything I can about water, distilled water, reverse osmosis, ph, beneficial bacteria, lava rocks... wait... this is starting to sound exactly like my 2000+ gallon koi pond! I have 4 50 gallon barrels filled with lava rock plumbed to the pond. It took well over a year to get the beneficial bacterial cycle going, but now my pond is crystal clear and has been for a few yrs now. Now I'm thinking of the plants I have on the ledges of the pond. (not cannabis) sitting in like 2" of constantly circulating water, growing fantastically... roots everywhere... wait... this sounds like DWC! So, instead of all the nutes, ph tests, water changes etc., why not just plumb the dwc system into the pond system? Sounds reasonable to me, my pond is wanting more plants to remove the nitrates caused by the fish, and my plants want the nitrates to grow! Sounds like a win win situation to me, or is my blonde really really showing?

View attachment 2083208

I now see (duh) this method is used... aquaponics... who'd a thunk... I suppose there are a million forum posts out there for me to put on my never-ending list of stuff to read. I suppose I could just ask what anybody right here right now thinks?
Click to expand...
see, there was another guy that stated something about this... No where near the level of detail you described it in, I can see how this would work. My question is, is there certain types of fish that = bad?
 
K

klaasy1

Active Member
The only thing I know is that my koi pond is overcrowded which seems to me to be a goldmine of natural ferts :)
 
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dmbdutch

Member
I've looked into aquaponics a bit and from what I can tell it's simple in theory but time consuming in practice. It also seems like something could go quite wrong growing cannabis aquaponically. Because the fish only produce nitrates, which cannabis only uses during it's vegetative stage, you need to somehow get potassium and phosphorus to the plants' root system without getting it to the fish. I saw a youtube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3gQ_OXREo8&feature=player_embedded) in which the grower injected small amounts of a moderate P and K solution directly to the roots with 1/4" hose, I guess the plants sucked it up before it could flow through the system back to the fishies.

If you plumbed in enough plastic between the DWC container and the pond you probably wouldn't have any problem with P & K getting into the pond, but I think your nitrate levels have to be closer to 600ppm, and the aquaponic setups I've seen online have downright mucky looking water.....cuz it's full of fish poop. As far as your pond having a lower TDS than your tap water I'd assume it's the life (fish, beneficial bacteria filters, plants etc) chowing down on all the Ca and Mg in the tap water.
 
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