Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

How does one know if the balance of fish to plants is good or when it could be better? My plants are growing and, according to my little test strips, everything in the system is decently balanced. I think my plants could be growing more lush but am not sure. I don't want to feed too much or I'll get an ammonia spike. But wouldn't one want to have as much fish waste in the water as the plants will safely take? How does one know when that balance has been hit other than observing for many successive plantings?

In a similar post, several responders asked for photos. How do I, myself, judge the proper balance?

Thanks.

Rand

We always want pictures, no matter what the question is.

The short answer is that you have the system optimally balanced when you are feeding as much as you can without losing water quality.

I have determined my system limits over the course of its first 6 months, tweaking and tuning along the way. To work actively to find my limits, I increased feed levels a little every few days and watched water quality. When water quality started to drop, I backed off on the food a bit to regain water quality. Then after a bit, I'd see if the bacteria had caught up by increasing feed a bit. Eventually I found an equilibrium on feed level, but then decided if I could turn over the water faster, I could increase the feed level. Bigger pump, bigger autosiphons, new plumbing...and then slowly raise feed levels.

Same methodology to find the right control for pH.

At this point, I know my system can handle 50g of feed a day, and needs 2-3 teaspoons of potassium bicarb to hold the pH at 7.0. I test about weekly unless something looks funny. Of course, once I get my hands on some oyster shell, I'll be tinkering with control of the pH.

It never ends.

You are a savvy little tinkerstress Miss Janet

:curtsy:

look on the internets for the maxium growth rate of each plant type.
if you plants have reached it and your fish as well your in range.
for example my tomatoes are doing better then 12mm vertical growth per day even while fruiting heavily.

oooo...another data point for you is see if the amount of food that you can put in is about 2% of the body weight of your fish. (Actually, depending on the size of the fish, the optimal feed rate may be anywhere from 20% to 1%. Little'uns get the higher rate.) If you can actually put that much food in, then you are at maximum growth rate for the fish.