Aquaponics The Bacteria

Intro

You can have an aquarium, and your fish will make waste.  You can have a hydroponics garden, and your plants will need food.   The thing that connects [fish waste] to [plant food] is the bacteria.  Things that kill bacteria will kill your aquaponics (AP) system because bacteria will not remove waste, waste will accumulate, fish will die.  Current agricultural systems NEED bacteria to operate...WITHOUT fish. 

Actually, fish harvesting is the "perk" of an AP system.  Im tired of people implying an endless supply of fish protein from AP systems.  It takes a YEAR to harvest a good-sized fish, so how long do you think an average annual fish harvest will last you?  Im guessing 2 months (tops) depending on family size.  This assumption is with shrink wrap, freezing, and forgoing a celebratory fish fry.  The REAL benefit is from the fish waste, which will power your garden.

                   [bacteria]                      [sun]
Fish waste >>>>>>>>plant food >>>>>>> YOUR  food

How do the Bacteria Make it Happen?
Answer:  You feed them the right food.  When ammonia is abundant, a strain that uses ammonia as food will proliferate.  Other strains will be crowded out and subside.  The first step is the conversion of ammonia from the fish into nitrates.  The reaction is catylized by two strains (nitrosomas and nitrobacter).  The nitrosomas net reaction is as follows:

[ammonia]       [oxygen]         [nitrite ion]      [proton (acid)]       
    NH3        +        O2        ?        NO?
2
        +        3H+        +        2e?

The next step is the conversion of nitrite to nitrate, the fish food, by bacterial strains known as nitrobacter.  The reaction is as as follows:

        [nitrite ion]         [water]             [nitrate ion (plant food)]          [proton (acid)]
             NO?
2
        + ?      H2O     ?                       NO?
3
                  +          2  H+             +        2e?

What do you notice?   If you said "every 1 nitrate produced ALSO produces 5 H+s"...you are  correct.  So what in the hell are H+s?  Why are they acids?  Well cover that in the next post.

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