Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello everyone,

I am new to aquaponics and am LOVING it!! I am a little nerdy and wanted to start my own system, but do it more as an experiment. I have a small system that is almost ready and am going to be setting it up with an arduino to monitor hopefully all sorts of data.

My question is:

Are there charts, tables, or data that anyone could list here with all the nerdy information about aquaponics? Things like all the recommended parts per million for ammonia, ammonium, nitrates, nitrites, bacteria cultures, ph and anything else with numbers and chemicals?

I want to try and collect as much data as possible so that I can then find ways to monitor it and then control it using automation. Who knows maybe one day I can set it up on a much larger system and be able to control it from work or even while I'm on vacation!

Thanks so much for all of your information. I think it would be awesome to have all this in one thread!

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Have a look at threads showing photos of folk testing their water..
You will often see the cards showing colours and concentrations..
You know that Ammonia and Nitrites need to be very low, Ph about right? ??, and NITRATES not too high.
I suspect that actual electronic measurement, will be the real problem... along with dissolved oxygen..
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I havent seen these types of charts aquaponics but they exist for hydroponics.

Hi,

I'm too new to aquaponics to comment on the chemical requirements, however I have gathered this information and checking accuracy and compiling it. I will make it available in due course, free of course. If you have come across any particular sources please feel free to share.

As for automation, the technology is available and the precedure is rather simple even if you decide to program and build your own control systems. Depending on your size and precision you require you can look in the pilot scale control systems. For really small you can use laboratory control systems with labView maybe.

If you decide you want to do nutrients, you may find with some things the results won't be quite as simple as looking at hydroponic nutrient solutions. Some of the nutrients can be bound with other compounds and may not show up on testing (chelated iron for example). You may still be able to correlate the information - I'm not sure. One thing you can definitely get from the hydro information is an idea of the relative nutrient needs of different crops.