Aquaponics system designer
Plan a complete aquaponics system: fish stocking, tank location, grow area, multiple bed types in one loop, with thermal and chemistry checks across the whole design.
Environment
Fish
No fish picked yet.
Bed sections
Real systems often have more than one bed type sharing the loop. Add each section separately. For media beds, see the grow-bed media reference for what to fill them with.
No beds defined. Add at least one.
Plants
No crops picked yet. Add at least one bed first if you haven't.
Analysis
What this is
A planning tool that ties together every choice in an aquaponics system: which fish, where the tank sits, where the grow beds sit, what kinds of beds, and which plants in which beds. The math behind it is the same UVI ratios and the same nitrogen-balance check the fish-plant-ratio calc uses; the difference is this tool understands real systems are not single-bed-type.
Fish tank location matters
A tank buried below ground line is insulated by 1.5 metres of earth that holds 10-15°C year-round. The same fish species needs a heater in zone 5 but not in a buried tank. A tank in an unheated greenhouse hits 35°C on a sunny July day and 0°C overnight in January. These are different systems even with the same fish.
The designer asks where your tank lives and adjusts the temperature compatibility check accordingly. Tropical fish in an underground tank is a hard no without heating; tropical fish in a heated indoor basement is fine.
Grow area can differ from tank
Common real configurations: tank in heated basement, grow beds upstairs in a sunroom. Tank in pond outside, raft floats on the pond surface. Tank in greenhouse, grow beds in the same greenhouse. The designer treats these as separate locations because they affect different things , tank location drives water temperature, grow area drives plant seasonality.
Multiple bed types in one loop
A typical backyard system has a media bed for the heavy feeders, a raft for the leafy crops, maybe a vertical tower for herbs or strawberries. They share one fish tank and one sump. The designer takes a list of bed sections (each with type and area) and checks that each plant in your roster is assigned to a compatible bed.
Chemistry, the honest version
Aquaponics doesn't use hydroponic nutrients. Fish food provides nitrogen and most micronutrients. Bacterial colonies in the grow beds (especially media-style) convert ammonia to nitrate. Plants take up nitrate and return cleaner water.
What aquaponics does run short on: potassium, calcium, and iron. Fish feed is mostly N-protein and doesn't supply enough K or Ca for fruiting crops, and Fe gets locked out at the alkaline pH most systems settle at. The designer surfaces these expected shortfalls per roster and points to fish-safe supplements (potassium hydroxide, calcium hydroxide, chelated iron , not the salt-heavy products hydroponic growers use).
No EC targets. No mixing recipes. This isn't hydroponics.