Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Me using the wrong word, molecule instead of atom. The oxidization of ammonia to nitrite is a way providing energy to bacteria in you could say their process of feeding ie fixing carbon into a useful form.
It does make you think a bit about the requirement for the carbon source in GBH (the new acronym for grow bed media).

I am not going to go any further or scotty will just get picky again.

lol Sleepe I guess we are all a bit on out toes when it comes to scotty and accurate information.. but in a way I actually will allow scotty to have has way just to keep ppl in check before they mislead others.

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I'd like to hear more about the chemistry of having the Anoxic or anaerobic portions provide the carbon for balancing the pH. I understand how our normal nitrification lowers pH (and at my location that is generally a good thing because of my hard well water I have no problem providing plenty of carbonate.)

But I would like to understand the chemistry a bit more. I'm fairly good at catching on to the chemistry and biology and re-explaining in Lay terms but I am trying to improve my actual understanding of the chemistry.


As to why wouldn't one simply use ONLY the most effective growing method???
Well that is tricky since the most effective growing method for one crop might not be the best method for another crop. ALSO, the mot effective growing method in one situation might have some Major drawbacks in another situation. For instance, in a high latitude Greenhouse where square footage in the climate controlled space is at a major premium, raft bed aquaponics doesn't allow for very efficient use of available light in that square footage so vertical growing becomes more appropriate. However, in an outdoor non climate controlled low latitude location that has extreme swings of temperature between day/night, those vertical growing methods that are more appropriate to the high latitude greenhouse may be very problematic for temperatures if used to extensively.

Or if some one is growing bananas and papaya extensively, DWC or bato buckets might not be appropriate. Even through it may be possible to grow such plants in rafts or DWC, is trying to support such top heavy crops in rafts really the best use of resources? And some people will insist that aeroponics beats all other forms of hydroponics but it also requires that you keep the water distrobution from clogging which can become labor intensive. So far I personally have yet to see a "non super high tech" set up actually preform very well without extensive daily maintenance.

So the absolute BEST method is going to depend not only on the crop to be grown but also on the climate/environment it will be used in AND the people running it as well as the type of system and possibly the additional filtration it is connected to.

In my low latitude (sub tropical but not tropical) environment with normally good sun but outdoors with minimal protection I have been experimenting with several varieties of growing methods.
I have media beds (siphon flood and drain, timed flood and drain, and constant flow/constant flood)
I have raft beds with air stones under them
I have tested some rafts with no air stones
I have Zipgrow vertical towers
I have pond plants with no supplemental aeration after the airlift feeding the bed
I also have random plants just chucked in odd places to see what happens.
I have done some minimal NFT
And even a sort of wicking beds as well.

I have definitely found that certain methods seem to work well for some plants but not others. One must keep in mind that in some cases it is a matter of "this method works for x plant during one season but not for another season" or in other cases a particular growing method is used because of it's benefits for continual harvest verses all at once harvest. I like towers and media beds for continual harvest plants while I will use rafts when ever I can for the all at once harvest plants provided those plants grow well in the raft environment.
Lettuce is a good choice for all at once whole plant harvests from rafts and seems to do fairly well year round in rafts for me.
I think Celery and Fennel are other good ones for all at once harvests that might be appropriate for rafts but I'm still working on figuring out the best planting/spacing for them since towers and gravel work so well for them too.
Root crops are generally best for gravel type media though somethings like chives, radish and turnips could be grown in rafts well enough.

TCLYnx it was hard to find because i lost my simplified version, but i keep looking for it but in the mean time visit this link and read from page 14. heck if u can understand the it i suggest u read it all. please comment your findings.

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/availa ... ricted/(09)Lit_Rev_3.pdf

Link didn't work.

serious... darn I'll try again to get it back

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ok second search hit on the page is the pdf doc.

http://www.google.tt/search?ei=RUIBU9Oc ... .pdf&btnG=

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That threw up some weird results.

u didn't see anything to do with denitrification...?

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I found this also.. but I'm still looking for the link I knew..

http://books.google.tt/books?id=c9zGBKu ... IQ6AEwATgU

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to tell you the truth I went through that page and it actually confirms everything I was sayin before... a combination of denitrification and nitrification is needed to help balance off pH and seeing that we are incorporating the fish waste as the primary carbon source the overall mass of the waste will decrease over time as the nitrates are bubbled off as nitrogen. science is wonderful.

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Perhaps this will help https://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Flooded_soils

Sleepe that was wondering it contains all and every relavant information I needed to share here... so after reading that what's your belief on the topic so far..?

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I like having topics where we can discuss different things.

umm I agree.... if not on this thread I believe a new one should be started for open discussion. title the incorporation of anaerobic zones in aquaponics.

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