Reddit reviews Maxicrop Liquid Seaweed (Kelp Extract, 32 Oz

I have some recent experience with a micro aquaponics setup. I was asked to discuss aquaponics at a community preparedness fair about 5 months ago, and I wanted to be able to show off a small-scale system to give people a visual explanation of aquaponics.

I used a 5-gallon water bottle, like you might find in the water cooler at your office. I cut the top of the bottle off and turned it into a growing tray for my clay media. The bottom of the bottle became the fish tank. Here's an image from the blueprints I handed out. The system was great to show off aquaponics, but I didn't love it afterwards.

So here's what I learned:

• The old maxim used in aquaponics that says "The more water in your system, the more stable it will be" is absolutely correct. My system had so little water in it that there was no buffer, and the whole system could be thrown out of balance very quickly. My total system size was about 3.5 gallons.
  
• I had 2 koi-style goldfish in my micro system, and that was too much. Those guys get big quickly.
  
• It took so long to get the nitrogen cycle right that I killed a lot of plants at first. I was growing herbs like basil, lemon balm, mint and ornamental peppers. I managed to kill all of of them within 2 weeks because there just wasn't enough food for the plants in that little system. I could have gotten around this if I'd run the system for a few weeks with some liquid fertilizer (like Maxicrop/SeaSol) however it turns water black very quickly and I needed the system to show off at the fair, so I skipped that. But my advice is to run it with a few drops of that without fish for a week before adding any plants. You might need to cycle out a portion of that water before adding fish, too.
  
• I was clearly growing too many plants, but once again that was for show at the fair. The plants were definitely nutrient-starved for a long time.
  
• I would say "test your water" to get the nitrogen balance right, but it is so volatile with that small amount of water that it didn't help me at all.
  
• The fish did great, despite all the trouble I had with the plants. I decommissioned the system 2 weeks ago and moved the fish to a proper fish tank. There was a period there where my pH levels got out of whack and I had to replace water in the system for fear of hurting the fish, but I probably could have left them in somewhat dirty water and they would have done fine. I'm like you, though - I wanted the fish to be happy and healthy.
  
• I found that the traditional 15 minutes-per-hour flood/drain system was way too much water for my plants and grow media combination. 15 minutes per every 2 hours probably worked better for me.
  
  What I would do differently if I did it again:
  
  
• Stick to 1 goldfish or betta instead of 2.
  
• Use smaller grow media. I used hydroton/expanded clay pebbles, but that was very big given how small the growing tray was. In a system as small as the one you describe, I'd probably stick to plain old fish tank rocks. The plant roots would be able to penetrate that just fine and it would look better in an ornamental system.
  
• Like you, I'd look for a plant that did better with shallow roots. I think most herbs would work OK, but I would need to find something better than what I used (which was all for looks). I don't think an inch of growing media will work for any plant - try at least 3.
  
• As mentioned before, I would run the system with a few drops of liquid fertilizer for a few days to establish the bacteria better before adding plants, and then run it for a few weeks before adding fish.
  
• I would consider buying a system rather than building one. I can suggest a few places that do it better than I could, and when costs were all considered at the end of my project their systems would last longer and be prettier than anything I built myself.
  
  I think you should consider trying to make a system no smaller than 4 gallons, for a few reasons. First, balancing the system is near impossible with that little amount of water. Just the amount you lose to evaporation will throw the system out of balance. And Second, the fish needs a fair bit of water to swim. When you flood and drain the system, you're removing a fair percentage of water from the fish tank, and you can't risk your fish's life each time by removing so much of that water.
  
  Let me know if I can answer any other questions for you!
  

> was ignorant and unaware of how to remedy her issues. But now, I'm back with a vengeance.

theres no nutrients in that mix which is fine for the first 2 weeks. have you thought if you want to go bottle vs organic? you might want to add one or all of these later: kelp meal/, kelp extract(trace minerals), oyster shell (calcium/chitin/), neem meal(integrated pest managment and nitrogen, gypsum (sulfur), dr earths organic fertilizer..
PHEW that was a lot of links. If you had to pick two id go with dr earths fertilizer with the liquid kelp and some quality compost preferrably local but this is good in a pinch.

theres bottle organics with biobizz thats not too expensive. they have a starter pack for $25.

by the way if you are having issues with PH you may or may not want to add a teaspoon or two of dolomite lime. this brings PH up to 7.0 as it is alkaline. this is good for PEAT based mixes as peat is acidic at about 5.5-6.0.

Since we all love videos heres one thing to take a look at

if you want to go bottle fox farms trio is popular or you can use pure blend pro grow/ bloom.

Yea that's not advised. You are aiming for those numbers in your soil, if you don't know what your soil has then you can't really aim there, and there is a fair amount of chemistry and biology that goes on in managing nutrient depletion and replenishment in crop science.

Trust the pros at Fox Farms - Grow Big is an excellent general feed nutrient for a wide variety of plants, including hops. Also Maxicrop - Liquid Seaweed. You can probably find both of these, or something very similar, at your nearest hydro/specialty gardening store. I wouldn't use amazon unless you don't have one of those nearby. When you get them just follow their instructions on the bottle for a light feed, and I would feed every time or every other time you water. Which would come out to about once weekly, weakly :)

Also wanted to make sure you saw my edit above:

>Ed: for some reason they gave those nutes in the slide in weird order. Nutes are given in N-P-K, Nitrogen Phosphorous Potassium. So if they need 3% nitrogen, .5% phosphorous, and 2% potassium you are really looking for 3-.5-2. That might explain something as well, if you are using 3-2-.5 fertilizer, you are giving 4x as much phosphorous and 1/4 as much potassium as is recommended. Let me find a better article, those slides are not the greatest

I've been feeding at every watering (about once a week) Foliage-Pro diluted by half the recommended dosage, and Maxicrop Liquid Seaweed diluted by a quarter recommended dosage every other week since most of my succulents are young and I want to promote root growth and I was told kelp extract does exactly that. I'm still new to the gritty mix, so I'll adjust according to how the plants respond. I've bought a TDS tester to make sure I don't burn the plants by being too enthusiastic about the fertilzer.

This stuff?

I know there's a version with iron, but I haven't been able to find any.

Try Maxicrop. My plants love it, and the fish don't seem to mind.

https://www.amazon.com/Maxicrop-Liquid-Seaweed-Kelp-Extract/dp/B000COBUQC/