It seems as if the world is really doing its best to self-destruct these days, helped on in leaps and bounds by us clever monkeys.  While trouble brews all over, I am going through my normal morning routine in the greenhouses, hatching plan F (or is it G by now?) to get some community systems off the ground here in my part of the world.  If ever there was a time for things looking bleak though, it is now. The world economy dictates the amount of foreign aid that 1^st world…

I will try to get some more detailed thoughts into my line of discussion around driving forces for aquaponic production.  I’m not sure if this was EXACTLY the section that I was asked to expand, but if it is, I hope this helps.

By now many people know that I think the world has gone mad and that in some way, I blame the marketing crowd for that.  Humanity has ended up on a treadmill of 24 hour production and income generation, but for all the wrong reasons.  When my parents…

For the photo competition, we were asked to select up to five different pictures from members that we believed represents the future of aquaponics.  This got my head going, and I eventually selected some pictures that represented the following trends:

• Small home aquarium units
• DIY home systems
• Home-based or smaller scale commercial systems
• A vertical system
• A hybrid design unit (not my own …

I have not read the basic aquaponic guidelines that I collected during my first research efforts in 2008 for some time, but I do recall the list of water sources ideal for AP systems as ranking rain water rather low.  When you have options, it could therefore be avoided, but when your options gets eroded, well then you have to give it a bash and see what happens.  We are still in the grip of a severe drought, with all indications that if it does not rain significantly soon, our dams will be…

In previous blogs, posts and discussions, I have often stated that I am a fan of mimicking nature, and of attempting to recreate the aquatic ecosystems I study in my AP set-ups.  I do not think that my thought patterns are likely to go mainstream any time soon, but I am happy to share my experiences with people on this forum.

First up, I want to put my views into context.  As an ecologist with a keen interest in aquaculture, as well as a fish keeper for the last 25 odd years,…

For the last couple of contributions, especially around commercial aquaponics and the formation of aquaponic associations / professional bodies, I suddenly found myself a little bit on the antagonistic side of the debate.  Now even though I may have never been the world’s greatest optimist (a pessimist is right most of the time, and is pleasantly surprised at being wrong, after all), I think there is much more to my train of thought than…

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…