aquaponic organic

Aquaponics is a simple answer to the age-old problem of growing a clean and sustainable source of food. Since conventional aquaculture is impractical except for large-scale commercial farmers, the average person is unable to produce their own fresh fish. And very few people have a large enough backyard to grow much of a vegetable garden either.

Aquaponics has actually been around for many years and has been actively practiced in Asia where doing more with less space is something of art form. This extremely efficient farming method began to catch on in the United States less than ten years ago, but has exploded in popularity because of the simplicity and versatility of the system.

A lack of usable area prevents most of us from attempting to produce their own organic food. Aquaponics removes these barriers because this type of system doesn't require much room to get started and setup a system. So what is aquaponics, anyhow?

Aquaponics is, simply put, a combination of fish farming (aquaculture) and hydroponics (farming with a water-based medium). Aquaponics synthesizes the best things from both methods. This equates to the most advantages for the aquaponics farmer. The following is a brief description of how an aquaponics system works.

A basic system contains fish tanks and growing beds. Freshwater fish such as tilapia are placed in the tank. The water in the tank is oxygenated with a basic circulation system so the fish will reproduce and thrive.

The fish are normally fed with fish food pellets or some type of natural fish food. The fish consume the food and produce a waste stream. The waste stream from the fish mixes in with the water. Solids and unused fish food collect in the fish holding tank.

Part of the water contained in the fish holding tank is used to flood the growing beds. The growing beds will contain your fruits and vegetables. The nutrients contained in the water are used by the plants as their own food source. The plants extract the nutrients and filter the water pumped from the fish holding tank.

After the water from the fish holding tanks is filtered through the growing beds, it is returned to the fish holding tank. The fish live in a clean healthy water supply and the cycle is repeated again and again. Your plants will grow like gangbusters in the nutrient rich water in the aquaponics system.

Aquaponics systems can be expanded by adding larger grow beds and increasing the capacity of the fish holding tanks. These systems are simple enough to build at home and will produce abundant organic fruits and vegetables with a bonus harvest of fresh fish.