For those of us who are gardening with aquaponics, spring is an excellent time to look into some basic maintenance so we can prevent HUGE problems down the road while everything is blooming or in fruit.
If your water temperature has dropped down to, or below, freezing then the odds are pretty good that your bacterial colonies are gone. Sadly I am speaking from some painful learning experiences here. There are a couple of easy ways to assist in re-establishing those helpful, in fact essential, bacteria in your aquaponic garden. The simplest method would be to just let nature take it's course and they will develop on their own over time but this can be somewhat dangerous for your fish. A large enough colony of bacteria can take quite some time to develop and a reasonable school of fish may produce too much waste for it to handle, leading to water issues and unwanted stress on the fish. A different option, and the one I choose, is to add some form of bio-seeding product to your filtration media. I use a product called OneFix for this. You can get it on Amazon.com by following this link - OneFix Liquid Size: 32 oz
. The results have been quite consistent for me and I have lost very few fish since adding it to my aquaponic med kit.Spring is also a great time to wash out your grow beds before replanting for the new season. This could be considered an optional step in an amazingly well set up garden, but for the rest of us it's a good time to get out any 'extra' waste that's found it's way into the grow beds. Old roots, bits of food and even small pieces of solid fish waste can slowly form blockages that will deprive some plants of a steady supply of fresh nutrients as water is diverted. Many aquaponic gardeners skip this step for fear of harming those beneficial bacteria but with something such as OneFix that becomes less of a concern. Don't let all that wonderful waste go to waste though, collect it in a bucket with some water and save it as a booster shot for your soil gardens. Watch those plants grow!
One of my favorite things about aquaponic gardening would have to be just how easy it is to rearrange and transplant. Now would be a great time to pull up any plants that have wintered in the beds and quickly wash out their root systems. This will help to get rid of any dead roots or other debris that have built up over time and allows you the opportunity to relocate them to a better position for the new gardening year!
If you find a great deal of fish solids or leftover fish foods in your garden bed it may be time to take a look at what you feed your aquaponic fish. If you are growing fish for decorative purposes or for the dinner plate you still want to be sure that they are getting the healthiest food you can provide them with. As was pointed out to me by a good friend, "If you feed your fish a garbage food, that's what they feed your plants. Don't you eat those?" Good point. Once I started looking into a few different foods available for my fish, remember I raise goldfish and koi, I found a company called MicrobeLift. These guys have a whole host of helpful products including what I feel to be my best choice for a food safe fish feed. You can check them out on YouTube or just pick some up on Amazon.com by clicking here - Microbe-Lift Legacy Koi Goldfish Summer Staple Food: 10 oz
. My fish are more active at meal time for this than any other dry food I've offered them and I saw a rapid improvement in their overall color and health. As an added bonus I noticed that after I switched foods they consumed less and produced less solid waste, making it easier for a waste filter to catch it all!One final thing I feel every aquaponic gardener should do in the spring is a quick bit of pump maintenance. Since most of us have different pumps there is no point in going into any real detail but make sure that you clean out as much of it as you can so that it's ready to give you another year of steady performance.
May your fields be green and your crops be plentiful!
JT Bear
