Aquaponics - Water Quality and Characteristics
by John Yazo
Water quality and characteristics is very important with aquaponic gardening. Be careful not to use a chlorinated tap water in your fish tank, chlorine will kill the bacteria that is an essential part of the system. To remove chlorine from tap water, you can either use a de-chlorination filter, or top off your tanks on a frequent basis with only a very small amounts of water,keeping it less than 5% of the water volume, or by de-gassing the water in a separate tank before using it in your fish tank. Chlorine will "off-gas",the chlorine leaving the water as a gas, on its own within a couple days, or an even quicker method would be by aeration of the chlorinated water. Chloramine, also harmful to bacteria nitrification and the fish if present, and needs be filtered out of the water. If you are on a municipal water supply, contact them to find out if there is chloramine in your tap water.
Bacteria is the driving force of an aquaponic system, and without process of bacteria nitrification converting the ammonia to nitrates, the fish would quickly die from ammonia toxicity and the plants would starve due to lack of nutrition. Nitrosomonas bacteria is what converts the poisonous ammonia into nitrites and nitrospira bacteria convert the nitrites into nitrates. This process where the bacteria are naturally established is called "cycling", this will takes about a month. Once becoming established, bacteria will colonize on all of the surfaces of the system that stay in contact with the fish water.
The bacteria in an aquaponic system will get better over time, along with becoming more stable and effective. It will take about a month before becoming established in the system, and after about 6 months it will outperform any other hydroponic system, or traditional method of organic gardening in a soil. Be sure to treat the bacteria in your system with care, and never let the growing bed dry out. Other things that should never be done with the bacteria are, exposing the bacteria to freezing temperatures extended periods of time, and never allow the bacteria to come into contact with chlorine or chloramine.
Aquaponics, as with any method of gardening, water quality is a crucial issue, and with the right combination of nutrients to water you are off to a great start. Whether gardening in an organic soil environment or aquaponic garden, water is needed and it needs to be of good quality. If your water source is hard, or contaminated with sodium, sulfide, or any number of heavy metals, your first step may be treating, or filtering before using. Success will come easier with a good quality water supply.
Testing is the only way you will truly know what you have,clear water is not necessarily good water. The best way to find out the quality is by obtaining a water analysis through a lab. Another thing that you need to know and keep in mind is that the quality can change at any time, and just because you had it tested and the water source was good doesn't mean that the quality will stay that way through the entire season or year, continual testing is also important. Seasonal changes occur naturally in lakes, ponds and reservoirs naturally that change the water quality.
Self testing the water you use on a regular basis is something that you should seriously consider when aquaponic gardening. It doesn't take much for water characteristics to change and harm the environment needed to be successful. There are testers and test kits that can be purchased from the beginner level to the master gardening level, an are highly recommended.
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