I'm not sure if this is in the correct place or not. I think it qualifies as me wanting to know how.

My question really pertains to the coupling of intensive recirculating aquaculture and aquaponics. A fish culturist by trade, I have taken an interest in aquaponics recently.

One of the books I refer to commonly in my RAS designs, Recirculating Aquaculture, has a section on aquaponics. I am aware of fish and plant ratios, but I suspect the "rule of thumb" can be broken for ratios is adequate filtration, such as microscreen drum filters (or maybe even ozonation), are used.

The following quote from the book refers to UVI research on finding the appropriate ratios.

"When the rearing tank was stocked with tilapia at commercial densities (107 fish/m3), the daily feed ration to the system was so high that nutrients rapidly accumulated to levels that exceeded the recommended upper limits for hydroponic nutrient solutions (2,000 mg/L TDS)."

OK, so what happens when nutrient solutions exceed recommended levels? Has anyone on this forum had first-hand experience with intensive rearing densities and aquaponics that don't follow recommended ratios?

Again, I have to emphasize that I suspect traditional ratios can be ignored if adequate filtration is provided. Modern microscreen filters have the capability of filtering down to 40µ and have the full capability of resolving TDS issues, but, particles smaller than 40µ and dissolved nitrogen still persist.

UVI wasn't using any advanced filtration at the time of this particular research project, so their findings really only pertain specifically to their system's capabilities.

Thoughts?