When i first had my system, my ph was about 7.8, i added lemon juice ( keeping natural) to bring it down, id take about 1/4 of a cup poor it in, wait a few hours and check the ph, i had to do this pretty much everyday for a about 2 months, and i would adjust it as i needed after that.
if your ph is around 7.5+ its gonna be hard for the plants to uptake much via the roots, even with supplemented nutrients
best ph i found was about 6.7 6.9 about as low as you wanna go, otherwise the fish will die.
if you dont want to use citric acids, you can use small amounts of HCL
When you first get a aquaponics system, its a bit of stuffing around, plants will die, but eventually it will become stable.
First 6 moths i used a seaweed extract to supplement nutrients, it does not harm the fish at all, another name for it i think is "kelp".
Adding worms I found to be extremely beneficial.
The plants fish and bacteria need the water to be aerated, i had a dual air pump. just small stones, it was enough for my small system.
But i now honestly say, i do nothing but leave it and everything works.
I once topped my system up with tap water... it was a bad idea, i should have left it in the sun for 48 hours but i ended up putting the hose in water drum, after i did that, ph shot up, plants were starting to yellow on the leaves about 24 hours later, took me a week or so to get the ph back down and be stable.
all i can say is don't get discouraged @ the start because to have a good working system it really takes about 12 months to get good growth without supplementation. ( this is good for people who don't move around much)
Last year i grew a heap of cucumbers in my system, and i have to say it was the best tasting cucumbers iv ever had in my life, the crunch was amazing and tasted so fresh.
