What is Aquaponics?
Aquaponics is the production of vegetables and fish which live in a symbiotic relationship. The simplest explanation I can give is that the fish provide the fertilizer for the plants to grow, and the plants, beneficial bacteria and composting worms clean the water for the fish.
Can I do Aquaponics?
Yes, Aquaponics can basically take care of itself once it's cycled and matured. It is a slef claning, self regulating system with minimal maintenance needed. Just feed the fish, top up the water once in a while and pick your produce.
Is it natural/organic or synthentic/chemical?
Aquaponics is all about natural, organic processes. What you're doing is nurturning a biological cycle. It's the same kind of thing that occurs is streams and waterways, or in a fish tank at home. Using chemicals of any form tend to upset this balance, so it's not a good idea to stray from natures path.
Does Aquaponics use much water?
Amazingly, Aquaponics is a water miser. Any water that is not used by the plants returns to the tank containing the fish. It acutally uses about 90% less water than a conventional dirt garden where the water can run off or seep down past the root zone. The plants are never stressd by to little water or to much water, so they grow up to 50% faster then dirt garden plants.
Is Aquaponics something new?
It's a technique that's centuries old, the chinese used Koi Carp in their rice patties. These fish kept bugs in check, and provided fertilizer for the plants. However it's been lost to western culture for quite some time and has only really started to catch on in the past few years. Modern science has a firm grip on the biological processes involved, and we design our systems with these facts in mind.
What is Aquaponics exactly
It's basically a combination of Hydroponics and Aquaculture
Hydroponics:
Hydroponics systems rely on the application of man-made nutriens for plant growth. Water in the Hydroponics systems needs to be changed often as salts and chemicals build up over time an become toxic to the plants and fish.
Aquaculture:
Aquaculture systems focus on the maximizing the growth of fish in a tank or pond. Fish are stocked heavily and this means that the water becomes polluted with fish effluent which gives off high concentrations of ammonia. 10% - 20% of the water must be dumped daily to keep ammonia in check or you have to have an extremely large water filter system to filter out the fish waste.
Aquaponics:
Aquaponics combines the best parts of both systems and in doing so cancels out the negative aspects of each other. Instead of adding harmefull man-made chemicals to grow plants. Aquaponics uses edible or non-edible fish effluent that contains all the required nutrients for optimum plant growth. Instead of dumping the water, Aquaponincs uses the plants, media and beneficial bacteria and composting worms in the closed system to clean and purify the water, and the water is then returned to the fish tanks ready for the next cycle.
What do I do to get started?
Read through our website, search the web for different types of systems, check out Youtube. the number one website for information, users systems and technical info is Backyardaquaponics.com/forum/. Ask questions, set up an appointment for one of my tours, or set up a personal one on one site survey at your place to see just how an aquaponics system can benifet your familys health.
BE WARY OF SITES THAT PROMISE "TO GOOD TO BE TRUE" RESULTS FROM AQUAPONICS
Aquaponics is a balancing act between the number of fish and grow bed area. To many fish and not enough grow bed and the whole system suffers from poor growth and fish deaths. Do your research and you will find that a lot of systems on the market that promise 80lbs of fish from a small 2 bed system will result in a very bad experience in Aquaponics.