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.
Articles
Guides, explainers, and troubleshooting for keeping freshwater tanks and growing plants in water.
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.
Choosing a heater: wattage, placement, and when two are better than one
How to size a heater for your tank, where to put it, and why splitting the wattage across two heaters is safer than using one.
CO2 injection for planted tanks: what it costs, what it does, and when to skip it
Pressurized vs DIY, diffuser options, the pH swing issue, and a realistic look at which plants need CO2 and which grow fine without it.
How to cycle a fish tank
Fishless cycling from start to finish. What ammonia levels to target, how long each phase takes, and how to know when the tank is ready for fish.
Understanding EC and PPM in hydroponics
EC measures conductivity. PPM is a derived number with three different conversion factors, which is why your meter and your nutrient bottle might show different scales.
Fish for aquaponics: tilapia vs everything else
Why tilapia dominates aquaponics, what the alternatives actually are, and the honest downsides of each species for a home system.
Getting started with hydroponics: which system to build first
Kratky, DWC, drip, and NFT compared for cost, complexity, and crop range. What to build if you've never grown without soil.
The Kratky method: grow lettuce with zero electricity
The simplest hydroponic method. A jar, nutrient solution, and a seedling. No pump, no timer, no power. What it can and can't grow.
LED grow lights: what the specs mean and how much light your plants need
PAR, PPFD, DLI decoded. How to measure light at canopy level, which crops need how much, and how to size a light without overspending.
Medication dosing for common fish diseases
Ich, fin rot, columnaris, velvet, and internal parasites. How to identify each one, how to dose for your actual tank volume, and what not to mix.
The nitrogen cycle explained
Ammonia turns into nitrite turns into nitrate. Here's what's actually happening in your filter and why it matters.
Sizing an inverter: pure sine vs modified sine and why it matters for pumps
Pump inrush current, the modified-sine humming problem, and how to read inverter specs without buying twice the capacity you need.
How much solar does an aquaponics or hydroponics system need?
Walk through a real load calculation: pump wattage, air pump, grow lights if indoor, heater if cold climate. Then size the solar array to match.
Stocking ideas by tank size
Concrete fish rosters for 40L, 75L, 120L, 200L, and 400L tanks. Each roster links to the stocking calculator pre-loaded and ready to adjust.
Understanding nutrient solutions: N-P-K, micronutrients, and why your lettuce turned yellow
What's in a hydroponic nutrient solution, what N-P-K ratios mean at each growth stage, and how to read deficiency symptoms.
VPD for indoor growers: the humidity metric that matters more than RH
What vapor pressure deficit is, why it predicts plant stress better than relative humidity alone, and how to keep it in the right range.
Water chemistry for fishkeepers: pH, GH, KH, and what they mean
What pH, GH, and KH measure, how they interact, when to adjust them, and when to leave your tap water alone.
What to grow in an aquaponics system (and what won't work)
Realistic crop list by system maturity. Leafy greens in the first 3 months, fruiting crops after 6 months, and what never works.