Your aquaponic water does need to be free of chlorine and chloramines, as these are toxic to both fish and plants. If your local municipalities use only chlorine than you can aerate the water heavily (24-48 hours) which will off-gas the chlorine; If they use chloramines in the filtration process, then aeration will not work, […]

A properly designed and maintained aquaponic system should not produce any foul smells.  When growing fish, you can expect a slight odor, but it should not be offensive.  If you have an effective fish waste solids management system (meaning an adequate bacteria population and/or mechanical solids filtration) you should not expect your system to be […]

There are fish species that can tolerate low temperatures, Koi can manage to overwinter in below freezing temperatures outside.  Tout and Salmon are other species that prefer colder temperatures.  Most other fish species will not survive outside through a freeze, so be sure to check the temperature range of the fish you intend to grow.

Both […]

Yes! Because fish are cold blooded animals their waste does not, and cannot, contain either of these pathogens. In fact, there was a recent study done by the College of Tropical Agriculture in Hawaii titled “A Preliminary Study of Microbial Water Quality Related to Food Safety in Recirculating Aquaponic Fish and […]

While they are both soilless growing techniques, aquaponics differs from hydroponics in many significant ways. The biggest difference; in aquaponics, the fish provide the nutrients for the plants, where in hydroponics, the plants grow from synthetic nutrients added to the water.  Click here to read our blog post about “12 Ways […]

Absolutely.

In fact, it doesn’t work unless it is organic.  The entire system is connected, so trying to fix an issue for one part of your aquaponics system will affect the whole thing.  Adding chemicals, antibiotics, or other artificial additives to your aquaponic fish tank would eventually end up harming your plants. If you use pesticides […]