View Single Post
  #6  
Old 03-08-2017, 12:50 PM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Lake Havasu AZ.
Posts: 1,855
Default

kr3t3n,
Yes, root contact time with the water doesn't do anything for the fish. The water delivery system doesn't affect the plants, however the size and type of bio filter will. That's why it's most common to use a drip system/flood and drain system with the plants in a grow beds because of the large bio filter space. Fish have been known to eat the plant roots. If your going to use aquaponics and grow in a water culture system, you'll want to make sure to use fish that won't eat the plants roots.

Plants can't absorb the nutrients until their broken down into the single raw chemical element. There are 13 necessary nutrients. The beneficial microbes (that includes all micro organisms both plant and animal) break down the fish waste/organic mater into the raw chemical elements the plants can then absorb. In aquaponics the grow beds/growing media act as a bio filter. providing the necessary surface area for the microbes to attach to so they can grow, breed and multiply. In aquaponics any surface area that comes in contact with the water is somewhere for the microbes to attach to.

In order to separate the water from the beneficial microbes in the water you would have to kill the beneficial microbes using a UV light before the water reached the plants. Doing so would defeat the purpose of aquaponics. Dead microbes cant break down organic mater into the raw chemical elements the plants can absorb. Without the living microbes the plants won't have any food. Even only killing some will reduce the amount of the nutrients the plants will be able to get.

The beneficial microbes will continue to grow, breed, and multiply as long as they have food, a place to do it, and the environmental conditions are correct. As for how many fish you'll need, that all depends on how many, and what type of plants your growing. There is a formula for figuring that out, as well fish to water ratios, but I don't know what it off the top of my head.
__________________
Website Owner
Home Hydroponic Systems

Last edited by GpsFrontier; 03-08-2017 at 01:03 PM.
Reply With Quote