Some pointers

[Kobus Jooste]

I'd like to throw some ideas out and get feedback.  Contrary to what some may think of the title, I do not consider this group an elite club of rocket scientists, but a group of experienced aquaponic practitioners that think beyond testing pH or ideal water temperatures.  What I would really like to achieve in the group is to colate a lot of good ideas and concepts that has been floating out in the discussions.  At over a 1000 members, discussions are getting repeated and the discussion board is being swamped with repeat editions.  I would like this group to become the one stop shop of the knowledge gained in the forum, colated in concise summaries rather than tons of conversation strings.

 

Here are some thoughts of what I thought we could start amassing here:

1.  Ideal growing conditions for a wide array of plants.  I want to work towards a "whole basket" approach in aquaponics and part of that is gaining an understanding of what has been done and under which conditions.  I'd like to collect realistic production cycles, yields and planting density data on a wide range of species - both plants and fish.

 

2.  System chemistry snippets.  There is a large amount of good advice out there in terms of chemical use for pH balancing, bug busting and identifying and treating nutrient imbalances.

 

3. Experience gained in different conditions.  Many people have been operating raft, media bed or hybrid units for some time, and will start gaining some feel for what works and what does not.  It could be crop type, ideal pH, media etc.

 

4. Experience gained in poorly publicised species.  Do you keep a rarely farmed species in your system?  Why did you select this species and what are the conditions you created to get the results needed for it.

 

5.  Designing and constructing.  What materials do you use, which ones do you avoid and why?  Do you go for side drain, overflow or bottom drain? Pump in the sump or in the tank?  After some trial and error, everyone has gained some understanding of what worked for them and what did not. 

 

6. Component evaluations.  There are a lot of specialist groups running detailed discussions around stuff ranging from solar deep cycle batteries to remote monitoring systems.  Obviously, if you are part of such a group you like the idea of the equipment, but in terms of system importance, how do you rate the addition?  What can you do without and what is simply a MUST for any system that you are involved with?