Adding Fish At System Startup
We start all our systems with fish in them. There are “experts” who recommend “fishless cycling”. However, we have never bothered to, simply because starting up with fish works so well [Read more…]
Measuring Iron In Your Live Aquaponic System Water
Measuring Iron In Your Live Aquaponic System Water
There’s a lot of nonsense in the aquaponics forums and among the “experts” about how it’s neccesary to measure iron with this test kit or that; and then to “keep it within certain limits” [Read more…]
Source Water For Your Aquaponics: Ag Water and Well Water
Source Water For Your Aquaponics: Ag Water and Well Water
Agricultural Water
Ag water can be ditch water out of a ditch, or water out of a pipe that has come from some sort of an open water distribution system without treatment of any kind. It’s PROBABLY okay to use [Read more…]
Source Water For Your Aquaponics: City Water
Source Water For Your Aquaponics: City Water
Chlorinated Water
Chlorinated city water is potable water by definition. It is relatively expensive, but you can safely use it for washing babies and drinking. Even filling up a big commercial aquaponics system [Read more…]
How to combine Permaculture with Aquaponics
How to combine Permaculture with Aquaponics
If you install a tank downhill from your sump tanks and plumb it to the overflows from the different sump tanks, it will catch the overflow of system nutrient water that comes from those tanks [Read more…]
What We Add To Our Systems
What We Add To Our Systems
These systems are incredibly stable and dynamic; stable means they are rock-solid, and dynamic means they adjust to changes easily and (usually) with minimum damage. This doesn’t mean [Read more…]
How Nutrient And Ammonia Levels Interact
How Nutrient And Ammonia Levels Interact
Even though they never vary more than a few parts per million, we still test measurable nutrient levels in our systems. At least once a month! The people who taught us [Read more…]
Organic Aquaponic System Water Chemistry
Organic Aquaponic System Water Chemistry
1. Measurement Methods
We measure our water for: dissolved oxygen, measured with a digital DO meter that costs about $350 and is really accurate; nutrients (ammonia, nitrites/nitrates) measured with [Read more…]
Measuring pH In Your Live Aquaponic System Water
Measuring pH In Your Live Aquaponic System Water
We have started systems with water having a pH as high as 8.3 with no seeming ill effects, so don’t worry if your source water has [Read more…]
Why We Don’t Build The Troughs Off The Ground
Why We Don’t Build The Troughs Off The Ground
This is why we don’t build the troughs “up off the ground to avoid bending over when working”. [Read more…]
Why You Don’t Need A Biofilter
Why You Don’t Need A Biofilter:
There’s a lot of nonsense about needing “filters and biofilters” in your aquaponics system coming from people who simply don’t understand how and why these systems work. [Read more…]
Water Pumps And Flow Rate In The Vegetable Troughs
Water Pumps And Flow Rate In The Vegetable Troughs
The Aquatic Eco Systems/Pentair Aquatics catalog gives a great example of a “cheap” $259 water pump that only uses $813 more of electricity per year than the “expensive” $479 pump. So, be on the lookout [Read more…]
Aeration Requirements In The Fish Tank And Troughs
Aeration Requirements In The Fish Tank And Troughs
If you don’t feel like reading this whole post, and just “want the facts”, here they are: If the water exiting your fish tank has a DO of 5 or above, you’re good. If the water exiting your troughs has a DO of 4 or above,
[Read more…]
High Density Systems
High Density Systems
This is a looong post; we couldn’t figure out any sensible way to divide it into separate posts. It covers High Density aquaponics systems, which are systems that are designed to raise a maximum amount of fish. [Read more…]