Aquaponics

Hi guys this post is a personal favorite because i am a big fan of fish keeping, I've had fish in my house as long as i can remember, hence the reason why this is a personal favorite. The idea behind aquaponics is simple, if you think about what makes some of the best compost the natural world has to offer, its poo... animal waste has been know to be one of the best foods for plants since the dawn of time, a cow lays one in the middle of a field somewhere and the grass thinks it Christmas time. Well the concept is the same with fish waste only now its dissolved in water, perfect, exactly what the plant needs, food and water all rolled into nutrient rich soup called fish water. So the idea behind aquaponics is to continually feed your plants with this nutrient rich water by having it constantly flow of over your plants roots, so you don't plant the plants in soil where they would normally get their nutrients because the nutrients in soil runs out, you now plant them in some sort of medium, some people use ceramic balls some use silica like the stuff you use in pool filters some even use small stones like the ones you use in the bottom of your fish tank, they all seem to work fine. I suppose it's down to what your going to grow and personal preference really, just so long as the water can flow freely over the roots of your plants and back into the tank or pond you keep your fish in. You feed your fish, they make waste, your plants get fed and in an ideal setup the water never gets dirty to a point where the fish will become sick or uncomfortable because the plants will use the waste as fast as the fish can produce it. The only cost to the owner of an aquaponics setup is running the pump to move the water over the plants, which can be done with solar panels and batteries if you really want to, and obviously the daily feeding of the fish. If you have the space for a decent size aquaponics setup you could potentially feed yourself fish and veggies till your hearts content or should i say till your stomachs  content. oh and for interest sakes a lot of the guys doing this are using a fish called talapia they are edible like all fresh water fish and they taste great, I've tried it and it kinda tastes like hake, plus you can pick them up as juveniles for around R2 to R5 each then you add them to your aquaponics setup and grow them till they are braai size, nothing like a good fish braai with a good home made and home grown salad, all for the price of fish food.

heres a little test for you to do get yourself a gold fish or if you already have a tank great, now get yourself 2 pot plants. The average is that you should change one third of the tanks water once a week for a healthy fish tank, this also depends on how much live stock you have but a third once a week should do it. Take the water that you remove from the tank and use it for your potplant, only water one with the fish water and the other with normal tap water and see the magic that is fish poo.

if you have a aquaponics system setup please post your pics and links and if you do the pot plant test post your pics thanks

here are some links to check out wikipedia.Aquaponics, backyardaquaponics