What is aquaponics wikipedia

Along with water runoff, erosion, wind and other soil depleting events, soil loses fertility with each crop. To grow plants in soil, it is necessary to reapply compost or some other fertilizer each growing season. Fertilizers with only N — P — K Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium , means that the plants grown will absorb these nutrients, but could be depleted of other micro-nutrients such as calcium, boron, copper, iron, zinc, and many others.

Managing weeds, pests, insects and diseases takes a significant amount of the gardener or farmers time.

Weeds crowd plants, taking water and nutrients, not to mention all the time wasted killing or pulling them out. Pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals can also kill precious soil microbes and can be dangerous to bees, butterflies, birds, other animals, and humans. In large scale industrial farming, agrochemicals fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides along with Genetically Modified Organisms GMOs are of concern when choosing vegetables, fruits, and herbs.

Organically grown crops do not allow GMOs but do have a wide variety of products used for pesticides. Soil can be very difficult to water correctly.

Overwatering can result in flooding, evaporation, runoff, soil compaction, prevent air to get to the roots and kill plants with saturation.

Alternatively, too little water, hot dry climates, drought and water shortages can wreak havoc on plant growth and can easily result in plant death as well. Gardening can be an enjoyable past-time but also demands a certain amount of digging, bending, and physical labor While gardens can be located in your backyard.

Industrial farms are often thousands of miles from where their food is consumed. This requires extensive transportation, refrigeration, and packaging to get the food from farm to table. Traditional hydroponic systems rely on the careful application of expensive, man-made nutrients made from mixing together a concoction of chemicals, salts and trace elements.

In aquaponics, you merely feed your fish inexpensive fish feed, food scraps, and food you grow yourself. The strength of this hydroponic mixture needs to be carefully monitored, along with pH and total dissolved solids TDS. In aquaponics you carefully monitor your system during the first month, but once your system is established you only need to check pH and ammonia levels weekly or if your plants or fish seem stressed.

Water in hydroponic systems needs to be discharged periodically, as the salts and chemicals build up in the water, becoming toxic to the plants. In aquaponics, you do not need to replace your water; you only top it off as it evaporates. This disease is virtually non-existent in aquaponics. The tank water becomes polluted with fish effluent, giving off high concentrations of ammonia. This uses a tremendous amount of water. Again, in an aquaponics system, you never need to discharge your water This water is often pumped into open streams where it pollutes and destroys waterways.

Because of this unhealthy environment fish are prone to disease and are often treated with medicines, including antibiotics. Fish disease is rare in an aquaponics system. Aquaponics Aquaponics uses the best of all the growing techniques, utilizing the waste of one element to benefit another mimicking a natural ecosystem. Waist-high aquaponic gardening eliminates weeds, back strain, and small animal access to your garden.

Aquaponics relies on the recycling of nutrient-rich water continuously. In aquaponics, there is no toxic run-off from either hydroponics or aquaculture. No harmful petrochemicals, pesticides or herbicides can be used. Gardening chores are cut down dramatically or eliminated. Digital methods to measure temperatre, pH, dissolved oxygen, and possibly other parameters should be investigated as a way to gather information for system optimization, indications of system problems, and eventually labor savings.

A pH of around 6. If pH gets too low, it could be a sign that parts of the gravel bed have developed anaerobic bacteria, which produce acids. If this happens, remove any plants with very large root systems, as these create pockets where air cannot get to. If the pH is too high, it is generally a sign that the plant biofilters are not keeping up with the fish's production of ammonia. Plant more plants. Aquaponic systems require an air pump underwater.

Having the flow from the gravel beds falling from a height and splashing into the fish tank will help oxygenate it too. It is very important to keep the aerator pump running at all times. If the oxygen supply to the fish is cut off for just 45 minutes, you will have dead fish. For this reason, it is wise to have a backup air pump that will kick in if your pump fails. There can never be too much oxygen in the water; excess oxygen will bubble to the surface and escape.

A lot of aquaponic systems require calcium, potassium and iron to be added about every two weeks. If you have a wormery and add a little of the worm-compost to the water flowing into the gravel beds, this should provide these missing nutrients. Aquaponics is still in its infancy and is developing every year. More research needs to be done into polycultured systems that can grow more than one type of fish. Different fish require different water temperatures and pH, so some species are incompatible.

However, tilapia and prawns - which are both delicious - have been farmed together in fish farms [1]. Another avenue of research would be to use lights or herbs to attract insects to the tank where the fish can eat them; another step towards making a more diverse, more closed-loop system.

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