aquaponic organic

Planning, sizing and building an aquaponics system. There are three distinct steps for creating your aquaponics system. 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 Planning stage of building an aquaponics system. There are many factors to consider as you start. How much time and money do you have to spend for the project, as well as how sure are you that this type of system is right for you? Do you have people to help you, or have you taken a course or even belong to an on-line forum where you can get the help you need as you grow your system. If you are unsure of your knowledge base and commitment level, Start small. You can always make it larger and make your mistakes while the system isn't as expensive to repair or replace. Then in the third installment of this series, we will be introducing you to the steps of building an aquaponics system.

I understand exactly where you are as you start your journey to a functional and profitable aquaponics system. I am starting right along with you. I have been planning this for quite some time, but most of my research had been for a lot larger scale system that included a pond that has the ability to restrict the flow of water coming out of the pond. Our original plan was along the lines of some of the ponds that we would use on some of the farms that I worked on. But the more research I do, the smaller systems are more automated as they come in balance.

There are many forums and products available to help you with understanding and building your aquaponics system. You need to discover for yourself how much time that you are willing to invest in the building, testing and then altering course a bit to learn and make your aquaponics system work efficiently. We will be building a small aquaponics system in our house to test out what we can grow year round, and increase our skills so that when we upsize our system, we will have a better understanding of all the environmental concerns since we live at 7,000 feet elevation in Colorado.

If you are experienced, you can size your system and be ready for as large of a tank and growing system that you want. But if you are a newbie, as I am in this arena, learning an all new vocabulary as well as new skills, planning is the first and most important step. Make sure that you ask lots of questions, and then test, test, test.

In conclusion, you will benefit from planning by saving time and money.

You gain new skills while you test with a smaller test system.

You then decide how to scale up your plans.

You build your Aquaponics System avoiding challenges that come with any new venture.