What is Aquaponics
Think of aquaponics as the new way our food will be grown But we are not just doing aquaponics as done now in the 21 st century we aiming to jump ahead to the 22nd century way of doing farming.
Read on
The Agriculture Industry is a new million-plus industry and now just only starting to see it in that way, soon many individuals will be rushing to it because it is the gold mine of farming.
So what is Aquaponics
Aquaponics is putting fish to work. It just so happens that the work those fish do (eating and producing waste), is the perfect fertilizer for growing plants. And fish can grow a lot of plants when they get to work!
One of the coolest things about Aquaponics is that it mimics a natural ecosystem. Aquaponics represents the relationship between water, aquatic life, bacteria, nutrient dynamics, and plants that grow together in waterways all over the world.
Taking cues from nature, aquaponics harnesses the power of bio-integrating these individual components: Exchanging the waste by-product from the fish as a food for the bacteria, to be converted into a perfect fertilizer for the plants, to return the water in a clean and safe form to the fish.
Just like mother nature does in every aquatic ecosystem.
Aquaponics relies on natural biological processes and is rewarded through better growth, so less maintenance and lower disease rates over time.
YOU CAN'T BEAT MOTHER NATURE, so you might as well Join forces with her and gain her wisdom.
Traditional Hydroponics
Hydroponics Solves Many Soil Based Issues, However, It Also Offers Its Own Problems
Traditional hydroponic systems rely on the careful application of expensive, man-made nutrients made from mixing together a concoction of chemicals, salts, and trace elements. In aquaponics, you merely feed your fish inexpensive fish feed, food scraps, and food you grow yourself.
The strength of this hydroponic mixture needs to be carefully monitored, along with pH and total dissolved solids (TDS).
In aquaponics we just carefully monitor our own system during the first month, but once our system is established we only need to check pH and ammonia levels weekly or if our plants or fish seem to be stressed.
Water in hydroponic systems needs to be discharged periodically, as the salts and chemicals build up in the water, becoming toxic to the plants. This is both inconvenient and problematic as the disposal location of this wastewater needs to be carefully considered.
In aquaponics, we do not need to replace our water; we only top it off as it evaporates.
Hydroponic systems are prone to a disease called “Pythium” or root rot.
This disease is virtually non-existent in aquaponics.
Recirculating Aquaculture (Fish Farms)
Most mainland fisheries are Recirculating Aquaculture Systems, or RAS, which tries to filter and re-use fish tank/pond water. While RAS does attempt to address water conservation, it also brings its own issues.
The tank water becomes polluted with fish effluent, giving off high concentrations of ammonia. Water has to be discharged at a rate of 10-20% of the total volume in a tank/pond daily.
This uses a tremendous amount of water. Again, in an aquaponics system, we never need to discharge our water. This water from RSA (fish farms) is often pumped into open streams or back into the lakes where it pollutes and destroys waterways.
Because of this unhealthy environment fish are prone to disease and are often treated with medicines, including antibiotics.
Any fish disease is rare in an aquaponics system.
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Aquaponics
Aquaponics
Aquaponics uses the best of all the growing techniques, utilizing the waste of one element to benefit another mimicking a natural ecosystem. It’s a game-changer
Waist-high aquaponic gardening eliminates weeds, back strain, and small animal access to your garden.
Aquaponics relies on the recycling of nutrient-rich water continuously. In aquaponics, there is no toxic run-off from either hydroponics or aquaculture.
Aquaponics uses 1/10th of the water of soil-based gardening and even less water than hydroponics or recirculating aquaculture.
No harmful petrochemicals, pesticides, or herbicides can be used. It’s a natural ecosystem.
Gardening chores are cut down dramatically or eliminated. The aquaponics grower farmer is able to focus on the enjoyable tasks of feeding the fish and tending to and harvesting the plants.
And the best part – You get to harvest both plants and fish from our system.
Instead of using dirt or toxic chemical solutions to grow plants, aquaponics uses highly nutritious fish effluent that contains all the required nutrients for optimum plant growth.
Instead of discharging water, aquaponics uses the plants, naturally occurring bacteria, and the media in which they grow to clean and purify the water, after which it is returned to the fish. This water can be reused indefinitely and will only need to be topped off when it is lost through transpiration from the plants and evaporation.
There are a few primary methods of aquaponic growing widely in use today:
Deepwater Culture (DWC) or raft-based growing uses a foam raft that is floating in a channel filled with fish effluent water that has been filtered to remove solid wastes.
Plants are placed in holes in the raft and the roots dangle freely in the water. This method is most appropriate for growing salad greens and other fast-growing, relatively low-nutrient plants. It is also most commonly used in larger commercial-scale systems.
Media-based Aquaponics Media growing involves growing plants in inert planting media such as expanded clay pellets or shale. The media provides both biological filtration (conversion of ammonia to nitrates) and mechanical filtration (removal of solid wastes) in the same system. Media-based systems are great for us to allow us to scale our systems so you can grow a wide variety of crops. In particular, large fruiting plants do really well in addition to leafy greens, herbs, and other varieties.
Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) NFT systems work by flowing nutrient-rich water through a narrow trough, such as a PVC pipe. Plants are placed in holes drilled in this pipe, and the roots dangle freely in this stream of water. This method of growing works very well for plants that need little support, such as strawberries and other herbs. NFT is also a great way to utilize unused space because it can be hung from ceilings above other growing areas.
Vertical Aquaponics One of the greatest aspects of aquaponics is its ability to grow an incredible amount of food in a very small area. No method does this better than vertical aquaponics. Plants are stacked on top of each other in tower systems such as the Aqua Vertica. Water flows in through the top of the tower and flows through a wicking material that the plant's roots absorb water and nutrients from.
The water then falls into a trough or directly into the fish tank via a filter. This form of agriculture makes the most of each square foot of space and works very well with leafy greens, strawberries, and other crops that do not require support to grow.
So HOW Are We Going To Change To Be a farm of the Future
Let us start at the beginning, the build of the farm, we will use where ever possible social sustainable products, as many of them that are natural and as much as possible on little as possible needs on any imports. The greenhouse is going to be based on a tropical model with Geothermal cooling chimneys to excrete the hot stale air in the top of the roof.
As for the needs on the farm for things like the tanks, we buy local products, when it comes to such things as keeping the greenhouse cool in the hot weather we will use Geothermal Cooling more than Just one type to help us have the optimum temp for the max yield of crops and white shading on the top of the greenhouse, with Agrivoltaic Solar Systems which is going to be our cheap power source, to run the pumps, needed for air to plants and fish.
Fish need to be fed, with Nutrients. So we will grow our own organic food for them alongside the plants, to raise healthy stock and fish of large size growing quickly to saleable scale for the market.
Now consider this scenario: in an Aquaponic System, of 60-gallon tank with 7.5 sq ft of growing space. In that space, you can grow 6 – 7 indeterminate tomato plants and about 10 tilapia. The only inputs to the system are ~15 watts of power for the pump (let’s say that is equivalent to hydroponics), water to top off the tank (less than in hydroponics because you never discharge and replace the nutrient solution), and fish food.
Tilapia grow from fingerling stage to plate-sized (1.5 lbs) within a year. Tilapia convert feed to body weight at an efficient 1.2 – 1.5 lb of fillets for every 1 lb of feed. This means that you will need (10 * 1.5 * 1.5) = 22.5 lbs of fish feed per year to raise your 10 tilapia. Fish feed costs about $1/lb depending on feed quality, shipping costs, bulk pricing, etc.
The food we will have that contains the Right Nutrients for the fish, will not cost so much for us, to run our farm in regards to the fish food much more cheaply than most current aquaponics farms.
The Plants to gain the most need more than just Nutrients, or air, water, they need also to be Pollinated but some means this is where Thysanoptera ( INSECTS ) join our Aquaponics Farm.
We aim to use the A's in farming - Aeroponics, - Agriculture, - Aquaculture, - Aquaponics.
If you wish to learn more Why not invest with us or why not become a partner and work with us, or maybe in the future take a tour & lunch around our farm you may even take a course on Aquaponics run by us to set up your own farm IN THE FUTURE.
It does not have to mean a farm our size but you can start small in your own back yard or home.