Cute and affordable…
They are cute those mini aquaponics systems. I am talking about the miniature systems of less than 100 Litres able to grow food directly in your kitchen. Unfortunately, they don’t work!
I know, they are affordable, and you may think it’s the perfect way to start aquaponics but it is not.
I often recommend to start small in order to minimize the investment in case you make a mistake but how small can you go? Definitively not under 100L.
The smaller the system is and the harder it is to manage
Yes, start small, you don’t want to build a 20 acre greenhouse aquaponics and find out that you made a beginner mistake in your calculations but please start with a minimum of 300L of water.
Here is the secret: “The smaller the system is and the harder it is to manage”. It is due to the balance of the ecosystem and the buffer effect of the large volumes. In a very small aquaponics system, the water parameters are changing too quickly. Simple actions become a nightmare. A temperature fluctuation in the room or fish overfeeding can very quickly kill your fish. Controlling the water parameter such as balancing the pH are very difficult. Here is a full article on pH control: https://aquaponicsrevolution.com/ph-control-in-aquaponics/
On top of this, the extra small systems are very often poorly designed and they don’t leave any chance for the fish to survive.
Don’t fall in this mini aquaponics trap or your aquaponics enthusiasm will die…
With Melbourne aquaponics and Aquaponics Revolution I took the decision to not offer those extra small aquaponics system. Sure they are selling well but they are harming the beginner aquaponics enthusiasts. I classify those object among the number of fast trend plastic object designed to sell but not to work.
In conclusion, If you bought one of those and killed the fish, please don’t feel guilty. Understand the problem doesn’t come from you. Those things are just not designed to work.
Please stay away from those small size aquaponics plastic items. If you are interested by aquaponics, get my free aquaponics training from the description of this video. It will allow you to build your own efficient system.
You will probably be interested to discover Jonathan’s six steps to build and manage an Aquaponics system. Click here to access for free! Thanks and good reading 🙂
