Thread: Guano
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Old 04-13-2010, 12:25 AM
Luches Luches is offline
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@Zenithandrising,

You can't use any Guano as it comes as sole nutrient for hydroponics for a number of reasons.

1. Seabird Guano has only about 20% water soluble nitrogen to 80% water insoluble nitrogen. Hence 80 % is unavailable and thus needs to be processed through what is commonly called "organic tea making". It's an aerobic fermentation process that allows (beneficial) bacteria to break the "water insoluble" nitrogen and other elements down biochemically, before they are processed for uptake by any plant as an "readily available nutrient".

2. The NPK ratio of either Bat or Seabird Guano differs widely, but it commonly is very low in Potassium, high in Nitrogen and too high in Phosphorus to match any adequate nutrient formula for Hydroponics. So called organic nutrients of the sort are often based on two main components: Guano and Seaweed extracts. Seaweed is very high in Potassium and low in Nitrogen and both ingredients complement each other quite well.

3. A standard hydroponical setup, as a "simple bubbler" is in fact unsuited for the use of any organic nutrients that are based on mostly organic matter (solid or liquid). As this type uses no or only little media, in which bacterial activity is supposed to- but actually cannot take place properly. A setup that uses lots of media, as in a ebb and flow system, or even better: a system that is based on actual aquaponic principles, is the way to go here. There will be need of continuous aerobic bacterial activity in a decent amount of media to break the organic components further down. The way they'll be continuously available for plants. A separate gravel bed that gets flushed periodically with a big amount of water, like seen frequently in recent aquaponic systems, would be my first choice here.

4. Even kinda balanced Guano and Seaweed based, and pre-fermented organic nutrients are far from being fool proof and rather difficult to dose in concentration. This "discipline" needs a very different skill set than common hydroponics and a proper learning curve based on trial and error.


PS: Fish waste and fish waste (in more colloquial language also known as fish poop) and the other as in fish EMULSION are two distinctly different things. With fish emulsion, fish are cooked and pressed to extract their oils, while other solid by-products are further boiled down to eventually create the so called emulsion. Fish emulsions that are based on FISH are commonly used in soil fertilization only, - while the actual poop is the "fertilizer type" used in aquaponics.

Last edited by Luches; 04-13-2010 at 12:44 AM.
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