How an Aquaculture System Works With Hydroponics To Create An Aquaponics Garden

How an Aquaculture System Works With Hydroponics To Create An Aquaponics Garden
By Paul Luciw

Aquaponics combines hydroponics and aquaculture to grow healthy organic vegetables and fish. The hydroponics component is where the plants and vegetables are grown and the aquaculture component is where the fish are reared. Both of these systems provide a major benefit for the other as they work simbiotically with each other creating a closed system to grow food. Because of this once an aquaponics system is fully functional, very little maintenance is required to grow food and rear the fish.

The aquaculture component usually consists of a tank filled with water were the fish are keep. Over a period of time the fish create waste. This waste plus any remaining fish food accumulates. This accumulation becomes toxic for the fish and has to be remove.

In an aquaponics system this water is feed to the grow beds in the hydroponics garden. This water contains ammonia. In a typical aquaculture system before the water reaches the grow media in the grow beds, it goes through a biofilter. In the biofilter the ammonia is converted to nitrites and then into nitrates by special bacteria. The water is then sent to the plants in the grow beds. The plants use the nitrates in the water as food and effectively filter the water of any toxins which may be harmful to the fish. The filtered water is sent back to the fish tank for the fish to use.

The harmful left over fish food is removed by a filter. This filter can be placed between the fish grow beds and system pump. The system pump has to be set up to remove the toxic water from the fish tanks on a regular basis and fill the same tanks with the cleansed water from the hydroponics garden.

Constructing a fully functional aquaponics garden can be done with simple components. Understanding the relationship between the hydroponics garden and the aquaculture component will help you in the construction of your aquaponics garden. There are many useful resources on the internet to help you with the construction process. Some will require some sort of payment for their information. However paying for this resource often means the information provided will be more specialized and detailed. The money you spend may be worth it in the long run.

Best Regards

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