Aquaponics?

[Ben Belton]

A friend sent me THIS article. I thought it was fun and maybe loosely related to our hobby. So I'm passing it on.

[DelawareJim]

Aquaponics is huge in Australia where they raise Tilapia and yabbies.

Cheers.
Jim

[Ben Belton]

In their home aquariums?

[krisw]

I don't see any reason that you couldn't do it in your home aquarium with the right grow lights that you'd use for hygroponics normally. The thing that would worry me are any of the "not for human consumption" materials that could be present in our fish foods, substrates, additives, etc. It seems to me that any of those things would end up in the vegetables, particularly leafy greens. That said, however, if all of your inputs were organic, your vegetables should be too. The main downside I see for us aquatic plants folks is that is doesn't make a lot of sense to try this on a planted aquarium because we're already using up most of the nutrients in the water, having to add more. In a big cichlid tank though -- that could be cool!

[DelawareJim]

In their home aquariums?

LOL!

Down in Oz, they set up their systems on the patio, sometimes under a fibreglas roof to protect the plants. If I lived somewhere warmer, I'd have one out back. Actually, if I had a raised brick pond like Kris, I'd get a flood table at my local hydroponics store and give this a try.

Check out these installs.

http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/syste ... talls.html
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/syste ... talls.html
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/syste ... talls.html

And here is an interesting pdf on the basics.
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/Travi ... onics1.pdf

I think this is what they mean by locally grown.

Nothing like a home-made salad and pasta with fresh pesto, fish, and crayfish that was "locally" harvested 10 minutes ago only 20 feet from the kitchen door.

Cheers.
Jim

[jweis]

My Mom could do that in Arizona.