to be effective at nutrient removal, aquaponics systems should be sized correctly to balance nutrientproduction from fish culture and nutrient uptake by plants. We describe a method where the plantcomponent was isolated from the fish rearing operation so that nutrient removal could be evaluatedindependently. Two crops, lettuce (Latuca sativa) and nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus), were evaluated.Nasturtium had higher removal rates and removed both total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) and nitrate result-ing in 80% DIN removal while lettuce removed only 48%. Lettuce removed only TAN and was ineffectiveat nitrate removal. Older plants were more effective at DIN removal while younger plants were moreeffective at PO4removal. When normalized for biomass, younger plants had much higher removal rates.These results demonstrated that both crop and cropping method have considerable impacts on nutrientremoval. This method will allow operators to adjust their system quickly and easily to meet remediationgoals.