I’m starting an Aquaponics garden.  Many people have never heard of this concept here in America, but it is slowly getting a foot hold as a new way to garden.  Disney uses it now, and a small urban farm called GrowingPower is also using it as it is very organic and is almost a cheaper way to have a hydroponics garden that produces more than just vegetation for food.

So what is Aquaponics?

The idea isn’t new, it is said that its roots go way back to many different ancient cultures.  Like all things, ideas get lost over time and then reinvented later.  With aquaponics we use two other types of farming methods.  It is a combination of Aquaculture and Hydroponics.  Aquaculture is fish and aquatic cultivation and harvesting.  We used to have the Corbin Fish Farm just outside of Augusta.  They raised catfish for consumers and I’d think local restaurants to use.  Some aquaculturist raise koi for small landscape ponds, or bait fish.  Missouri raises a lot of trout to keep their tourism market running. Everytime I’ve been around some of their state parks you see hundreds of people fishing.  Problem with aquaculture is you get a large amount of built up ammonia from the fish waste.  Lots of times this is dumped back into rivers, adding more pollution in large amounts.

Hydroponics takes gardening out of the soil and allows you to garden most anywhere.  In hydroponics you build a system which uses water infused with fertilizers to feed plants.  A real simple set up which I intend to try is to use a 18 gallon rubbermaid bucket filled with water and some water based fertilizer.  Then you cut holes in the lid and set small pots of plants down.  As the plants grow, their roots reach down to the water.  Problems with hydorponics is it can be expensive.  The cost is mostly in buying fertilizer, but you also have a waste going on with the water.  It is just sitting waiting on the plants.

Aquaponics is a combination of the two.

How does it work?

You basically have a water tank that is also raising fish.  As the fish eat, they produce ammonia through their waste.  This ammonia attracts bacteria which eats the ammonia and turns it into Nitrites, which is devoured by another bacteria and turned into Nitrates which is absorbed by the plants.  Instead of having a filter in a fish tank, you pump this rich plant food up into grow beds, which acts like a super food for your plants.  The plants filter the water and send it back to the water tank.

The systems can use your house hold fish aquarium or you can custom build your own unit.  I’ll even help you design and build one.

My system is almost complete.  It is up and running, just in need of fish.  I can hold about 30 fish in mine, which for starters is just goldfish.  You can get these at local walmarts and stuff for around $0.30 each, so 2-3 per dollar.  Eventually as I get experience my system will raise both Crappie and Talipia.

Here are a few video’s of others aquaponic systems.


Josh

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