The Complete, yet concise, Story of Aquaponics

Aquaponics vs. Hydroponics?

Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil, using mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent. Terrestrial plants (a plant that grows on or in or from land) may be grown with only their roots exposed to the mineral solution, or the roots may be supported by an inert medium, such as perlite or gravel.

Aquaponics vs. Aquaculture?

Aquaculture is the breeding and harvesting of plants and animals in water. It can take place in natural water bodies such as ponds, lakes, marshland or brackish water and the ocean. It can also be conducted in man-made tanks, commonly found in fish hatcheries.

Aquaponics is essentially the combination of Hydroponics and Aquaculture. Both Hydroponics and Aquaculture have some down sides:

1. Hydroponics requires expensive nutrients to feed the plants and also requires periodic flushing of the systems which can lead to waste disposal issues.
2. Re-circulating Aquaculture needs to have excess nutrients removed from the system. Normally this means that a percentage of the water is removed, generally on a daily basis. This nutrient-rich water then needs to be disposed and replaced with clean, fresh water.

While re-circulating Hydroponics and Aquaculture are both very efficient methods of producing fish and vegetables, when we look at combining the two, these negative aspects are turned into positives.

The positive aspects of both Hydroponics and Aquaculture are retained and the negative aspects no longer exist. Also, Aquaponics can be as simple or as complex as one would like to make it! The following presentation fully depicts the various aspects of Aquaponics and responds to potentially all of the questions one may have.

Why Waterfarmers Aquaponics?

• Experience Waterfarmers Aquaponics has placed over 250,000 sq. ft. of successful Aquaponics in 15 grow centres in various parts of the world.
  (For a complete list with explanations please see www.waterfarmers.ca)

• Advanced Technology (Works much better than existing aquaponics.)

• Outstanding Training

• Leadership

• Enclosed Facilities

• WaterFarmers lighting vs. greenhouse natural light

• Pest & Disease Management

• Quarantine and an enclosed facility

• Volume Consumption / person / year and ROI

Even though many issues are easily solved with hydroponics,
unfortunately, hydroponics has problems of its own.

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 mixture needs to be carefully monitored, along with pH, using expensive meters. In aquaponics you carefully monitor your system during the first month, but once your system is established you only need to check pH and ammonia levels weekly or if your plants or fish seem stressed.

Water in hydroponic systems needs to be discharged periodically, as the salts and chemicals build up in the water which becomes toxic to the plants. This is both inconvenient and problematic as the disposal location of this waste water needs to be carefully considered. In aquaponics you NEVER replace your water; you 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.

The problems with Recirculating Aquaculture.

The tank water becomes polluted with fish effluent which gives off high concentrations of ammonia. Water has to be discharged at a rate of 10-20% of the total volume in the tank daily. This uses a tremendous amount of water. Again, in an aquaponics system you never need to discharge your water.

This discharged water from aquaculture is often pumped into open streams where it pollutes and destroys waterways.

Because of this unhealthy environment fish are prone to disease and are often treated with medicines, including antibiotics. Fish disease is rare in an aquaponics system.

Now, what about AQUAPONICS?

Waist-high aquaponics gardening eliminates weeds, back strain and small animal access to your garden.

Reuse resources currently considered 'waste'. In aquaponics there is no more toxic run-off from either hydroponics or aquaculture.

Aquaponics uses only 1/10th of the water of soil-based gardening, and even less water than hydroponics or recirculating aquaculture.

Watering is integral to an aquaponics system. You can't under-water or over-water.

Fertilizing is also integral to an aquaponics system. You can't over-fertilize or under-fertilize.

Gardening chores are cut down dramatically or eliminated. The aquaponics grower is able to focus on the enjoyable tasks of feeding the fish and tending and harvesting the plants.

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 and the media in which they grow to clean and purify the water, after which it is returned to the fish tank. This water can be reused indefinitely and will only need to be replaced when it is lost through transpiration and evaporation. Two primary methods of aquaponics growing are most widely in use today.

The raft based aquaponics growing system uses a foam raft that is floating in a channel filled with fish effluent water that has been through filtration 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.

The second method is called media based aquaponics because plants are grown in inert planting media (gravel, expanded clay pellets, coir, etc.). The media provides both the biological (ammonia based waste) and mechanical (solid waste) filtration, so requires far less maintenance than raft-based systems. Large, fruiting plants are also grown much more successfully in media based systems than in rafts.

The third method is called hybrid aquaponics, which is a combination of the two. The media beds become the pre-filter for the solid waste before the water enters the raft systems.