I’m working on creating a list of supplements and pesticides that can be used around and even in an aquaponics system without harm to the fish.
Please take careful note of the details of safe use of these products. Just because it is safe to use as directed does not mean it is safe to use willy-nilly and dump the hole bottle into the fish tank. Some of these products are meant to use to cycle up a system before any fish are added to it or for use during a fishless period of time to keep the bio-filter alive and the plants happy and not for use while there are living fish in the system.
Also, some products while generally safe if used as directed, can have a negative effect on the bio-filtration and therefore the rest of the system if used erroneously. For Example, The Bacillus Thuringiensis subspecies kurstaki products like DiPel Dust or Thuriside are not systemic. That means you have to put the product on the leaves and the caterpillars you are trying to combat need to eat some of it for it to work. These products will NOT work by pouring them into the system water or drenching the plant roots with them.
I have been testing out fish emulsion or fish protein fertilizer for use in fishless systems (or system components) that will later be re-connected with fish systems. I want to make sure my tower deliveries can be kept happy with something that won’t hurt my fish when I return the towers to my systems. It is not advisable to use fish emulsion or any other fertilizer with large amounts of nitrogen or phosphorus in a system with fish since you could overload the bio-filter, cause an ammonia/nitrite spike and kill your fish. Anything you use in a fishless component to be returned to a fish system should be low in materials that can hurt fish. Things like oils, soaps, and metals can be problematic for fish systems if they are allowed to build up so I am careful about these things.
[eshop_list_cat_tags type=”category_name” find=”Supplements” price=”yes” records=”30″ panels=”yes” form=”no”]
So moving on to the actual products. Please bear with me as I build this page and the product pages to follow.
| Maxicrop Liquid Seaweed | Algamin, Kelp meal | Espoma Gro-tone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| More Info or Buy | More Info or Buy | More Info or Buy | |
| Potassium Bicarbonate | Chelated Iron | Ammoium Chloride | Mosquito Dunks |
| More Info or Buy | More Info or Buy | More Info or Buy | More Info or Buy |
| DiPel Dust | |||
| More Info or Buy | |||
[…] Fish Safe Supplements and pesticides […]
Aleece,
What was your experience using the fish emulsion?
I started my Fall seeds earlier than my DWC troughs could be constructed by and I’m thinking about putting the seedlings in a fishless stream tray of fish-emulsion water.
Seeds sown August 22-25
Date of expected completion of DWC troughs: September 14-16.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Luis
whatever you use fish emulsion in, you need to make sure has enough bio-filtration to convert the emulsion to plant usable form. I’ve used GroTone in systems that later got fish with not injury to fish. GroTone is made from waste products of the catfish industry and has Fertilizer numbers of 2-2-2. It smells like mint and is quite thin so it won’t clog things.
What type of seedlings? You may find they are getting a bit big near the end if you don’t have rafts all ready to put them in right away by Sept 16. If you let seedlings grow in the seed trays too long and start touching eachother they can tend to get leggy and when you transplant them they will flop and leaves will stick to the raft and it may set them back a bit. I’ve done better when I only allow 3 weeks in the seed trays for lettuce. Some other types of seedlings may take a lot longer and others less but if the roots are growing out of the seed tray too much when you transplant they will experience more shock.
What fish emulsion would you use for say a micro worm culture the michael hellweg live fish food culture book mentions that if you use fish emulsion in there medium it greatly increases the lipid content what would be safe to use so that I can still feed them to my fish