aquaponic organic

I have nearly 23 years invested in growing organic fruit and vegetables, and gardening has always been a passion of mine. I grew the most delicious tomatoes using a hydroponics technique, but found it to be expensive and time-consuming. I knew that there had to be a better way, but I didn't think that it would be easier to get better results. This is what aquaponics offers, the ability to build a self-sustaining organic garden that requires very little maintenance after the initial break-in period.

With my hydroponics garden, it was expensive to initially setup, primarily because I had to invest in sprayers - since it is all about growing crops without soil. Each month, I had the additional expense of having to buy a nutrient soup that would be delivered to the crops using the sprayers.

One of the best ways to build an inexpensive aquaponics system is to build it using recycled materials. You can use metal barrels and old bathtubs as fish holding tanks, but if you do, just be sure to use a liner using food grade plastics. By using food grade plastics, you won't have any leakage of the plastic into the water if it gets warm.

The way that aquaponics is self-sustaining is because the fish solid waste and ammonia by-products are used as food for the plants being grown, and because the crops keep the water clean by absorbing the nutrients from the broken down waste. The plants and fish both provide the solution to the major problem of growing either one by itself.

Aquaponics is All About Balance

All you have to do is balance the bacteria in the water, the amount and number of aquaponics fish in the holding tank, and the type of size of the fruit and vegetables you are growing. If the aquaponics system gets out of balance, the fish will not provide enough food for the plants and the plants will not keep the water clean enough for the fish.

Having enough healthy bacteria in the system is the difference between having a successful harvest and not having one. Without enough healthy bacteria, the ammonia and waste will not be broken down into a useful form for the plants to use, and conversely, the ammonia and waste that is not decomposed by the bacteria will build up to toxic levels that will harm the fish.

It is not difficult or complex to establish and maintain this balance within your aquaponics system, but it does take about 3-4 weeks of careful maintenance and monitoring to establish the natural equilibrium that will cause the system to sustain itself after that point.

Aquaponics Simplified

Aquaponics is a closed system, so the water has to be circulated either by mechanical means, or by using gravity. This will move the fish waste to the grow beds where it will feed the plants, and will move the cleaned water back to the fish.

To prepare a fish holding tank, you have to build up the healthy bacteria in the water before adding the fish, or they will suffer and the system will most likely fail. This is called cycling the water, and is basically adding small amounts of fish feed to the water to encourage this bacterial growth.

Once the fish are put in the holding tanks, they produce waste materials that are broken down by the bacteria into nitrates that are absorbed by the plants. The nitrate and ammonia levels should be monitored for the first few months, that way you can make adjustments to bring your system into balance quickly.

The plant grow beds are added to the system after the fish are, and after the types of crops have been decided. It is important to choose the right plants for the fish you have, and to make sure that you have the right quantity of vegetation to support the fish. You can set up your system to automatically drain from the plant grow beds back into the fish holding tank using gravity, which will keep the fish healthy and happy.