How I Got Started With Aquaponics

I stumbled across aquaponics back in 2006 while doing a research paper on how our tap water get’s treated to make it safe for public use. It was Murray Hallam’s practical aquaponics youtube video that captivated my imagination and  inspired me to get involved in this revolutionary way of gardening.  Aquaponics is simply the process of combining aqua culture (fish farming) with hydroponics(growing plants in a nutrient rich solution without soil).  When these two systems are combined a naturally occuring eco system is created where the chemicals from an hydroponics system is replaced by the fish waste to fertilize the plants.



Interestingly, I would find out later as I gained more knowledge about aquaponics that the filtration process used has some similarities to the way water companies  use skimming, naturally occurring nitrifying bacteria and sand as part of their filtration process.   The final part of the process used by water companies has proven to be harmful to aquaponics systems, which is the addition of disinfectants.  Disinfectants such as chlorine and ammonia effectively kill the good bacteria in our aquaponics systems.  This can cause the ammonia in our systems to spike which is harmful to the fish especially if the PH is on the high side. The chlorine and ammonia combination called chloramine is bad for the nitrifying bacteria in that it kills them off. When this happens the plants suffer because the nitrites in the system are not being converted to nitrates. Chloramine unless  broken apart to be individually chlorine and ammonia, stays in the system much longer than just chlorine. Chlorine by itself dissipates overnight if left out in the open. In my next post I will share my practical experience and approach to resolving the issue with using tap water in the aquaponics system and combating chlorine or chloramine.