After the weekend, we found that there is still no more growth in our system. The pH of the water is about 8 from day to day, which we believed to be ideal to accommodate the fish as well as the plants. It is possible though that the high pH is causing an iron deficiency in the water and therefore inhibiting growth. We added a small amount of pH down, but only a little so that we did not shock and kill the fish. (Joe Steinmacher)
The attempt to transplant the two felled radish plants into a Rockwool slug has, for all practical purposes, failed. The transplant attempt may have damaged the root and, regardless, the roots will not grow through the Rockwool. We suspect that in order to be effective, the seed must be placed in the Rockwool soon after germination. We took a few minutes to purge the trickle hose to try to get some of the waste out of the hose and into the grow bed. One of the downsides of having the water pumped up about fifteen inches is that the fish waste settles out and collects in the hose.
We have noticed over time that we lose close to three gallons of water a week…all due to evaporation. This doesn’t hurt the fish, but, two weeks without topping off the water level would effectively drain the fish tank. Adding straight faucet water to the aquarium doesn’t seem to have much, if any stress-effect on the fish. We do try to keep the water temperature around 70 degrees Fahrenheit when we add water to the system.