In the previous post on water chemistry for aquaponic beginners, I tried to post the bare details of the nitrogen cycle, and why we end up with ammonia, nitrite and nitrate after feeding our fish.  There is obviously much to expand on, but then it would not have helped being in “basic and useful info” then would it.  I could bore people with valence electrons and how interesting hydrogen and oxygen really is but who cares.  Truth is I figured most people want the bare basics of why they are…

In this blog I will try to tie together many of the thoughts that have been flying around on my blogs and discussions that followed.  I will start by revisiting some important issues that influence my thoughts around aquaponic design, followed by the presentation of arguments in favour of experimenting with component ratios.  There has been much talk around these matters.  My frustrated thought at one point was something down the line of “I understand that there is a need to have some basic…

AP system, how do I build thee, let me count the ways…………………I have been tangled up in ratios and scaling for the last couple of days.  Visualizing a cubic foot is just not possible for a decimal person.  It is also not the way in which my head worked when I started designing.  I am a scientist, thus was naturally drawn to the publications around the UVI and Alberta Raft aquaponic systems.  Not because I thought that they were better, but because they supplied data.  Real sink your teeth into…

I’m not a marketer, but have been told that I am a very good writer.  Somehow my ability to string sentences together cannot override my desire, re-enforced by years of scientific training, to provide an accurate statement when asked a question.  That, apparently, is not good for marketing.  As a student I once attended a business plan writing workshop where the section on marketing was headed up by an enthusiastic woman telling us how we create hype around a brand and make people want it.…

Well, trying to sneak back in here after a self imposed sabbatical and just quietly seeing what is going on has been nullified by a front page welcome.  So there, now what?  Well, perhaps I can throw the thoughts that have been floating in my head at all 800 puzzled people waiting for the man from an unknown town in the only place in the Southern Hemisphere where it is NOT raining to say something riveting. 

Well there is not much fun stuff over here right now.  Sorry.  After…