aquaponic organic

When you first start learning about home aquaponics systems you may come across some terminology that you don't quite understand. Although aquaponics is very simple (even for a beginner) you should have a basic understanding of these processes.

The most critical process in a home aquaponics system is the ammonia cycle. The ammonia cycle is what turns the fish excrement into the nutrients that your plants crave. You see, ammonia occurs naturally in fish excrement. In your tank there are nitrifying bacteria that convert the ammonia first into nitrites and than into nitrates. The nitrates are what you're plants use for food.

Aside from temperature Dissolved Oxygen (DO) levels in your aquarium are extremely important to your fishes health. There are several ways you can increase the amount of dissolved oxygen in your tank. The most common is to add a bubbler. You've probably seen these before. It's just a small air pump that pumps air through a small porous stone. Some of the bubbles in the water will be dissolved and you've just increased the dissolved oxygen level!

Nitrites and Nitrates - While very similar one is lethal and the other essential. Nitrites are harmful to fish while nitrates are essential to the growth of your plants. You should always aim to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels in your system below 5ppm.

Won't that mean I'm not producing anything?

Absolutely not! The ammonia cycle is constantly converting ammonia to nitrites and than to nitrates. If you've got a high ammonia count or nitrite count than something is wrong with the cycle and you need to check it out.

The last thing you're going to have to do is ensure that your home aquaponics system has balanced nutrients. Provided you do the few minutes of maintenance every day than these will take care of themeselves.

pH Level - Probably the best indicator of health of your system. Everything that happens in your system will have an effect on pH so if you notice it going out of the 6.0 - 8.0 range you know that somethings up.

In an aquaponics system the pH is something that is quite tricky to balance. You see, plants want a lower pH level while you're fish want a higher pH level. Many people (including me) settle for a neutral pH of ~7.0 to run the system at.

Although all of this technical jargon may seem very complicated it's really not. For the most part, your system will just run itself. If something goes out of whack it's usually just a matter of doing a water change and it will correct itself again.

Hopefully you know a little bit more about home aquaponics systems. I encourage you to start your own. I started mine awhile ago and am so glad that I did!