Algae: what kind you have and how to fix it
Identification guide for common aquarium algae with actual causes and real fixes, not product recommendations.
Calculators and guides for keeping freshwater tanks, growing food hydroponically, running aquaponics, and sizing off-grid solar for any of it. Built by someone who keeps fish and runs an aquaponics setup, not a content farm.
Recent articles
All articles →Aquaponics for beginners: picking your first system
Media beds, NFT, deep water culture, hybrid. Which one to build first depends on what you want to grow and how much space you have.
Aquaponics water chemistry: balancing pH for fish and plants
Fish want pH 7-8. Plants want pH 5.5-6.5. The system settles at whatever compromise the biology lands on. How to manage the drift.
Battery types for off-grid: lead-acid, AGM, and lithium compared
Cost per cycle, depth of discharge, lifespan, cold performance, and when each chemistry makes sense for a growing system.
Best crops for hydroponic beginners
Ranked by forgiveness, not by what's possible. Lettuce first, tomatoes last, and the reasons for the order.
Building a media-bed aquaponics system: parts list and plumbing
Practical build guide with pipe sizes, pump flow rates, bell siphon vs timed flood, and the mistakes that flood your garage.
Tools
All tools →Tank volume
Rectangular, bowfront, cylindrical, hex, and custom shapes. Reports gallons (US and imperial) and liters.
Fish stocking calculator
Bioload, schooling minimums, and weekly water change estimates. Replacement for the ancient AqAdvisor.
Water change
How much water to swap to bring nitrate, TDS, or any dilutable parameter down to a target value.
Heater wattage
How many watts of heating you need. Quick rule-of-thumb mode or physics-based detailed mode for non-standard tanks and unusual rooms.
Topics
Aquariums
Freshwater fishkeeping, planted tanks, and the gear that keeps them alive.
Explore aquariums →Hydroponics
Soilless growing for food crops. EC, nutrients, lighting, the works.
Explore hydroponics →Aquaponics
Where fish feed plants and plants clean water. The whole reason this site exists.
Explore aquaponics →Solar
Off-grid power sizing for pumps, lights, heaters, and the rest of a homestead setup.
Explore solar →