# Aquaponics... Ever hear bout this?



## Disco94 (Feb 18, 2010)

While fulfilling an assignment I ran across this and thought of you hydro guys. Anybody ever heard of or do this?

 hxxp://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/garden/18aqua.html?ref=science


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## MindzEye (Feb 19, 2010)

Yes this is very well known, but the cost of fish food and other supplies plus the time needed to maintain it would be a lot... If it was that easy noone would use nutes...


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## PieRsquare (Feb 19, 2010)

True aquaponics requires no food for the fish or nutrients for the plants. It's a self contained, self sustaining system. It requires enough space to do it effectively. Plants and other marine life that can be used for the fish to eat, other marine life to support both cleansing of the water and water-bed, plants that help maintain the oxygen requirements of the fish and plants and the correct types and quantities of fish. It's a very complicated type of system. If you research it more, you'll find that it requires a lot of area as well. Everything in the system supports something else. Just like in real life if mankind stepped out of the picture. Setting one up requires a lot of learning first. Then a lot of money and time. If you go out and look at a pond in the middle of nowhere, you're looking at a natural aquaponic system. The ocean is also one. Then, when you add mankind, it gets screwed up.


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## MindzEye (Feb 19, 2010)

PieRsquare said:
			
		

> True aquaponics requires no food for the fish or nutrients for the plants. It's a self contained, self sustaining system. It requires enough space to do it effectively. Plants and other marine life that can be used for the fish to eat, other marine life to support both cleansing of the water and water-bed, plants that help maintain the oxygen requirements of the fish and plants and the correct types and quantities of fish. It's a very complicated type of system. If you research it more, you'll find that it requires a lot of area as well. Everything in the system supports something else. Just like in real life if mankind stepped out of the picture. Setting one up requires a lot of learning first. Then a lot of money and time. If you go out and look at a pond in the middle of nowhere, you're looking at a natural aquaponic system. The ocean is also one. Then, when you add mankind, it gets screwed up.



Ok then if they eat plants and other marine life what happens when they eat all the plants and marine life? Plus the marine life that they eat has to eat somthing also.. No matter what you have to have supplies for the system to work, unless your using somthing the size of a lake to hold the fish, plus PH and water quality supplies...

I dont live far from Disneyland and they have one of these setups there, they feed the fish food every day.


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## PieRsquare (Feb 20, 2010)

MindzEye said:
			
		

> Ok then if they eat plants and other marine life what happens when they eat all the plants and marine life? Plus the marine life that they eat has to eat somthing also.. No matter what you have to have supplies for the system to work, unless your using somthing the size of a lake to hold the fish, plus PH and water quality supplies...
> 
> I dont live far from Disneyland and they have one of these setups there, they feed the fish food every day.


I understand that you're talking about an example of aquaponics that produces accelerated fish and crops to market. In a "pure aquaponic system", the plants and marine life balance. The new plant life and rejuvenating marine life are self-sustaining. When discussing aquaponics, you have to realize that there are an infinite spectrum of aquaponic types. The original DWC practiced by the Aztecs was a very good example of aquaponics. No known records show any feeding done by them, yet they harvested both fish and enough crops to supply entire cities. Their systems were ponds ranging from a few acres to massive ones that encompassed hundreds and even thousands of acres. If a high turn-around in fish and crop production is desired, then an aquaponic system can be "force-fed" to accelerate the process. This would negate most of the cost savings of pure aquaponics. The money saved in fertilizer would be offset by the costs of fish food. In some of the most advanced aquaponic farms, duckweed and fly larva are being used as fish food. Both of these types of fish food can be produced in massive quantities in little space. A perfect example of this is shown at the Jacksonville Zoo in Florida. They don't use the fly larva, but are using huge amounts of duckweed to feed the fish stocks that in turn feed their larger marine life such as alligators, crocodiles and otters. In doing so, they are practicing one of the forms of aquaponics. So, in short, you're not correct when you say that an aquaponic system has to be supplied with food from an outside source. Any aquaponic system that is large enough to support both fish and plant production can be set up to be self-sustaining. You can do this with one as small as a greenhouse operation. All it takes is money, time and real knowledge of the subject. Within a few years of operation, the initial setup costs can be recouped. So, your comment: "No matter what you have to have supplies for the system to work, unless your using somthing the size of a lake to hold the fish, plus PH and water quality supplies..." is incorrect. If properly setup, after the initial fish and plants are supplied, nothing else is required. I don't know if the Orlando Disney is where you are referring to or not, but if so, it's a poor example. Their setup is for display and entertainment and is not a "pure aquaponics" setup. Their hydroponic setup is 1950's technology, and is so out of date that it's laughable.


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## nouvellechef (Feb 20, 2010)

Way to intense for me. I opened the article, thought it was kinda kool. My dream is to have a private lake. There are a couple that I have seen locally, actually one for sale in WA for millions. Be so sweet.


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## MindzEye (Feb 20, 2010)

PieRsquare said:
			
		

> I understand that you're talking about an example of aquaponics that produces accelerated fish and crops to market. In a "pure aquaponic system", the plants and marine life balance. The new plant life and rejuvenating marine life are self-sustaining. When discussing aquaponics, you have to realize that there are an infinite spectrum of aquaponic types. The original DWC practiced by the Aztecs was a very good example of aquaponics. No known records show any feeding done by them, yet they harvested both fish and enough crops to supply entire cities. Their systems were ponds ranging from a few acres to massive ones that encompassed hundreds and even thousands of acres. If a high turn-around in fish and crop production is desired, then an aquaponic system can be "force-fed" to accelerate the process. This would negate most of the cost savings of pure aquaponics. The money saved in fertilizer would be offset by the costs of fish food. In some of the most advanced aquaponic farms, duckweed and fly larva are being used as fish food. Both of these types of fish food can be produced in massive quantities in little space. A perfect example of this is shown at the Jacksonville Zoo in Florida. They don't use the fly larva, but are using huge amounts of duckweed to feed the fish stocks that in turn feed their larger marine life such as alligators, crocodiles and otters. In doing so, they are practicing one of the forms of aquaponics. So, in short, you're not correct when you say that an aquaponic system has to be supplied with food from an outside source. Any aquaponic system that is large enough to support both fish and plant production can be set up to be self-sustaining. You can do this with one as small as a greenhouse operation. All it takes is money, time and real knowledge of the subject. Within a few years of operation, the initial setup costs can be recouped. So, your comment: "No matter what you have to have supplies for the system to work, unless your using somthing the size of a lake to hold the fish, plus PH and water quality supplies..." is incorrect. If properly setup, after the initial fish and plants are supplied, nothing else is required. I don't know if the Orlando Disney is where you are referring to or not, but if so, it's a poor example. Their setup is for display and entertainment and is not a "pure aquaponics" setup. Their hydroponic setup is 1950's technology, and is so out of date that it's laughable.




No not Orlando this is West Coast homie lol.....  I understand what your saying also.. The point I was driving is your not going to be able to substain a full blown ecosystem in a 50 gallon drum... Your going to need a large pond or a small lake in order to pull off the full ecosystem... 

If this was a feasible option evryone would do it and the nutrient companies would go under, in fact you would probably need a full time biologist working on the system and making sure everything stays in balance..


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## PieRsquare (Feb 20, 2010)

MindzEye said:
			
		

> No not Orlando this is West Coast homie lol..... I understand what your saying also.. The point I was driving is your not going to be able to substain a full blown ecosystem in a 50 gallon drum... Your going to need a large pond or a small lake in order to pull off the full ecosystem...
> 
> If this was a feasible option evryone would do it and the nutrient companies would go under, in fact you would probably need a full time biologist working on the system and making sure everything stays in balance..


What a laugh! I didn't even look to see where you were. Orlando would be a hell of a drive. Yeah, true aquaponics isn't for just anyone. The type in a greenhouse would be pretty easy if you just fed the fish. Other than it being "organic", I don't see why anyone would bother. It's too easy to do without all that hassle. I'm not an organic person. I use the GH nutes and love them. I do love to eat fish though...


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## MindzEye (Feb 20, 2010)

Fish is good for you!! I just had some fish tacos last night! Im not a fan of organics either, IMO its a headache in a hydro system.. Usually all organic means is its higher priced and doesnt work as well as the man made stuff.. LOL


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## Gone2pot! (Feb 20, 2010)

YouTube has a couple pieces on small DIY aquaponics setups. I do have a well fed pond on my property. I hadn't considered using it for aquoponics. Hmmmm...


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## PieRsquare (Feb 20, 2010)

MindzEye said:
			
		

> Fish is good for you!! I just had some fish tacos last night! Im not a fan of organics either, IMO its a headache in a hydro system.. Usually all organic means is its higher priced and doesnt work as well as the man made stuff.. LOL


 
I found a very well written page in Wiki about fertilizers. It provides some very interesting information about both organic and inorganic nutes.

Just add http:// to the front of this URL:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertilizer


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## PieRsquare (Feb 20, 2010)

Gone2pot! said:
			
		

> YouTube has a couple pieces on small DIY aquaponics setups. I do have a well fed pond on my property. I hadn't considered using it for aquaponics. Hmmmm...


If you're interested in using your pond for DWC as the Aztecs did, first take a sample of your pond water and have it analyzed. You'll find out what it's lacking in nutrients and then you can calculate how to amend it's plants and marine life to provide those nutrients. Then all you'll need is to build the rafts and populate them with plants. I wish I had a pond to do that with! Having a large spray-head in the center of the pond would be an absolute for providing oxygen to the water. Without it, the oxygen content of the water wouldn't be high enough to provide that which is necessary to large scale plant production. The Aztecs used slaves to fan the water surface, but still couldn't match what one spray-head can do today.


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