Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Been playing with the idea of building my next system either semi or completely decoupled, does anyone have enough experience with such systems to tell if the ability or run two different pH ranges is worth the added complexity and loosing the ability to constantly remove excess nitrogen from the fish water?

Just realized I forgot to clarify what exactly a decoupled system is for those who are unfamiliar with the term, a decoupled system does not have a constant flow from the fish to the growbeds, rather they are separated. Fish waste is removed from the separator and fed to the digester which then feeds the grow beds and then returns to it's own separate sump. The advantage of course is that you can run separate pH for both the hydroponic component and aquaculture component, there is also a reduced chance of exposing fish to hydrogen sulfide as the solids are broken down in a separate loop. So long story short it is getting a little extra control at the cost of alot more complexity. Semi decoupled would simply be handling solids a separate component that was still connected at some point to the aquaculture loop, I was thinking of pumping out the solids separator to a separate sump/IAVS bed that overflowed back to the main system. The advantage of this would not be pH control but rather energy efficiency as the IAVS style bed would assist in breaking down the soilds using atmospheric oxygen rather then oxygen that I had to pump 4-6 foot down.

Been doing it for years check out my system last 20 or so pages

I've been doing it for ages with my larger system too. Only partially decoupled- I still have GBs in the main system, and just drain off water and some solids to a separate circulation system of WBs.