What is Aquaponics? – Video

What is aquaponics?

Aquaponics is an energy efficient and cost effective way to grow your own plants, flowers or vegetables by using a closed loop, no soil system where plants and fish benefit each other.  This video does one of the best jobs explaining how aquaponics can be used and scaled to produce vegetables and animal protein in a sustainable way.  –Credit To Nat Geo for the Great video

Aquaponics uses both fish and plants in a symbiotic relationship by maximizing usage of waste products.  Here are the 4 basic steps that make an aqauponics system function.

1. The fish eat and they excrete their waste into the water.
2. This dirty water is pumped to the plants where beneficial bacteria converts the waste into plant food.  This happens due to a natural process where bacteria convert the ammonia from the fish waste into usable nitrates.
3. The plants feed on these nitrates and this keeps the water clean.
4. The clean water is then returned to the tank and the cycle begins again.

The system is closed and water is only lost due to evapotation and plant uptake.
There is no soil, no synthetic fertilizers or chemicals in play at all in the aquaponics system.  The fertilizer and nutrients that the plants need are coming directly from the fish. Aquaponics uses 90% less water than traditional farming and produces more food per square foot than any other gardening system on earth. 

Are you interested in building your own system?  You can build a 55 Gallon Aquaponics System like the picture below in about one day.  I have the instructions and all the parts and pieces sourced here.