Aquaponics

[JohnGalway 1,043]

Anyone every try this aquaponics craic?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaponics

 

It's a subject I seem to be stumbling over every now and then. Feed the fish, pump their water through a bed growing veg/whatever which cleans and reoxygenates the water, return water to fish. Both the fish and food crop grow.

 

Now I have to admit I'm not overly enthusiastic about eating food grown with fish waste, I think that's from remembering the smell of the goldfish tank I used to have many years ago

 

I'm also not much of a fish eater, but is there a market for other types of fish, say for pets or pond fillers

 

Food for thought maybe.

[patterdalejoel 669]

yes. i tried it on a small scale with goldfish, a storage tub and a cat litter tray filled with pearlite. i planned to grow peppers in this, which i started to, but i put some salad seeds in which grew and died, and the resulting dead sprouts decomposed, and filtered back through the water into the fish and killed them all. i used a small aquarium pump as the pump, with clear pipe as the pipe. was very interesting i thought, but to do be done on a serious worthwhile scale, it did smell a bit as well, the electricity cost would be an issue, and not one i think would be overcome with the resulting product. good luck.

[Millet 4,497]

I suppose it could work to the advantage of the pond..as the fish produce amonia which is turned into nitrite which can feed plant's..nitrite in high level's is dangerous to fish so slowly running the pond water through bed's of growing plant's/vegetables would filter the pond and feed the plant's in one go..the only problem i would see in such a set up would be controling the flow of water..so all the thing's growing do not end up over watered which can cause root rot..

[paulus 26]

I suppose it could work to the advantage of the pond..as the fish produce amonia which is turned into nitrite which can feed plant's..nitrite in high level's is dangerous to fish so slowly running the pond water through bed's of growing plant's/vegetables would filter the pond and feed the plant's in one go..the only problem i would see in such a set up would be controling the flow of water..so all the thing's growing do not end up over watered which can cause root rot..

filter it through water cress and reeds, they use to filter piss and waste water using this method on the old sewage works

[Millet 4,497]

Paulus..some of the chemical site's i have worked on over the year's have big reed bed's around them to act as natural filter's for any accidental run of from the land.

[paulus 26]

when i was young there was a sewage works over the back from where i lived the filtration beds were known as the grass plotts, it was my favourite place for flying my spar at moorhen also i made a good bit of pocket money from the ducks that were on there 1000`s of them, sadly its an industrial estate now as they use sand filters

[craigyboy 1,274]

ive had a dabble in the past mate,it produced some top quality plants not for eating tho

[reddawn 2,173]

ive had a dabble in the past mate,it produced some top quality plants not for eating tho

 

[mart 131]

i´m hooked, got a small set up right now with a few koi-fish.

gonna step it up a notch next spring in my greenhouse with trouts.

just read sylvia bernsteins book, aquaponic gardening, very good book that seems to hold most of the answers.

 

and about the fish waste, all agriculture is fueled by someones feces

[JohnGalway 1,043]

Problem with me producing certain types of plants is I'd get caught

 

I was more wondering is it possible to make a few bob from, as well as being interesting to do... (as in I've enough interesting non paying shite to be doing already )

[mushroom 12,399]

I got nothing extra to shout about from it when growing the speacial stuff still tasted ok though personally you cannae beat Hydro-NFT or just old fashioned soil with drip feeder

[Ideation 8,216]

Yep, tried it, it was fun, but not that convineant, but the plants went well