aquaponic organic

Aquaponics is the combination of raising fish and vegetation together, using the fish composted manure as nutrients for your plants.

In this article, we will be discussing the Sizing stage of building an aquaponics system. Now that you know that you have decided to build your aquaponic system answer this question: How Big of a Aquaponic System will you build? Again the answer is a resounding "It depends"! I know I do not like that answer either. However, I have been researching this for a while. There are formulas like:

In an aquarium-based system, a good rule of thumb is to stock the tank at 1" (of fish length) per gallon of water.

In larger systems with proper filtration, commercial growers usually stock the tank to a maximum of 1/2 lb of fish/gallon of water.

But how much fish poop (sorry manure) will be produced so how much "manure" will I have in my tank? I need to know how much produce I can grow efficiently with the amount of fish I grow.

The scientists at the University of the Virgin Islands have determined that for each 60-100 grams of fish food added per day, you can support 1 sq. meter of plants in raft aquaponics. (ref. http://localphilosophy.com/articles/aquaponics.html.

What does that mean though? So once again, I am going to site a reference that I have found that is about the size that I want to build. Portable Farms Aquaponics systems has been in business since 2008. I was unable to contact them directly, but I will continue to do so, as well as contacting other done for you systems. I will forward those contacts to you when you request it if that is the route that you would like to travel for your system.

Here is the information of food production, and how large it can be:

If you have the space for a Portable Farms™ Aquaponics Systems (even a parking lot or side yard) you can have a Portable Farms™ Aquaponics System installed by our company in a few days. A 600 square foot Portable Farms™ Aquaponics System can grow in excess of 3,600 plants and 1,400 pounds of fish per year. This size farm can give you a year round supply of food 8 people for a year.

You can scale up, or you can scale down, but the main thing is to follow your plan once the testing period is over.

Your next step is to find a local or internet supplier, join a forum for Aquaponics), I recommend: Aquaponics HQ. The farmers in this forum are very knowledgeable and helpful. They are a great resource for information, as well as building a community of people who are making a difference in our food supply!

Next, we will be talking about building your Aquaponic system. That my friend is the next article for you! Join us for this next article.