Aquaponics is a symbiotic, integrated farming system that involves raising fish in tanks and using their nutrient rich water to grow fruit, vegetables and other plants. Once it is set up and cycled (creating sufficient amount of bacteria to produce enough nitrates for the plants and keep ammonia levels down for the fish), a small or home based system should only take a few minutes a day to care for the fish. If the fish are happy, the plants will require little to no care; and if your system is properly set up, the plants will take care of cleaning the water, so you won't spend your time cleaning the fish tank.
Aquaponics is one of the best and easiest ways to produce fresh, natural and healthy fruit and vegetables for the whole family without the pesticides of mass production, the high prices of store bought organics or the chemicals and non-renewable minerals required to feed a purely hydroponic system. You can choose to raise the fish as a hobby or harvest them for food, either way you are getting two direct benefits: fish and produce. Additional advantages include pride and self-confidence that comes from building something on your own and an opportunity to involve the whole family in a productive healthy activity.
How do Aquaponics Work?
A basic system is composed of: a fish tank, a unit to remove solids, a hydroponics subsystem to grow the plants and a sump to receive the water once it has gone through the system. From there the water is pumped bank into the fish tank and the cycle begins all over again. A bio-filter mechanism is necessary to convert ammonia to nitrates, most systems do not require a separate filter because they are the filter (ammonia attracts airborne nitrosomonas bacteria that convert it to nitrites, the nitrites then require some media or filtration system, depending on your system, to flow through where the nitrite to nitrate converting bacteria can grow and do their job).
Your main task will be to keep the fish environment healthy with proper PH balance, light, and temperature. On a home system this should only require a few minutes so of your time every day to check conditions, makes whatever adjustments might be necessary and feed the fish.
Space: How Much Space is Required for an Aquaponics System?
One of the great things about aquaponics is that it is a scalable system. A home-based system can be almost any size: a small indoor fish tank/aquarium set up to feed a few plants, a corner of the yard, the whole yard. You can build a decorative aquarium style system in your house; you can use your garage. You can also decide to go big for your extended family, or even bigger for commercial purposes. You can make your decision based on the outcome you desire such as production volume or space availability. You can decide to grow it incrementally: start small until you get the hang of it and then grow it to any size. Really it is all up to you.
If you only have room for a small footprint but you need more volume you can build a vertical system. Vertical columns above the fish tank house the plants. A vertical unit that
0 comments:
Post a Comment