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Aquaponics Guidebook: Interactive PDF Edition!
Aquaponics Guidebook: Interactive PDF Edition!
The
Aquaponics Guidebook
VOLUME 1
2nd EDITION
Dedication
Aquaponics Gallery
Introducing Aquaponics 1
Aquaponics Models 5
Nitrogen Cycle 6
A Basic Drip System 7
The Ebb & Flow System 8
The Hydroponic Raft System 9
The UVI System 10
Equipment / Media 11
Container Gallery 12 Personal Agribusiness 32
Pump 13 Plant Farming 33
DO = Aeration 14 Thinking Production 34
Heater 15 Planning, Education, Finance 35
Plumbing 16 Grow Sell Eat Local 36
Lights 17
Water, Testing for Quality 18 Scaling Up 37
Roots, Grow Media 19 Sheltering the System 38
Bacteria Rule 20 Outside the Box 39
Technology, Community 40
Growing Fish 21
An Affinity for Fish 22 Culturing the System 41
Choosing Tilapia 24
Other Species 25 Resources 45
Tilapia Wellness 26 Interactive, North America 46
Food, Growth 27 Interactive, Australia, Africa 47
Research Links 48
A Home-built System 28
Getting Started 29 The Last Page 49
System Start-up 30
System Balance 31 Picture Credits 50
Aquaponics Gallery
Click on images to visit websites.
Sustainable Design Group, Atlanta Nelson & Pade, Montello, WI Murray Hallam, Queensland, Australia
Introducing Aquaponics
The Aquaponics Guidebook
R
Contents
eplace an aquarium filter with a pot of gravel. Put a plant in the pot. Let it
drain back into the aquarium. That’s aquaponics, boiled down to its simplest
form.
Now, consider it on a bigger scale: An above-ground swimming pool with 3000
gallons of water. 4-foot wide grow bed trenches and lined with rubber, stretching
100 feet. Out of this system a staggering amount of vegetables and fish protein can
be produced, to be consumed, traded or sold. Inputs are fish food, electricity and a
modest amount of maintenance.
Or how about this: Water from a fish pond is pumped up hill and filtered down
through gravel grow beds. The clean water trickles back into the pond. Nothing is
wasted. The excess nutrients provide a valuable crop.
Aquaponics is simple and it works.
It’s also curious that it hasn’t caught on in a bigger way, for all the clear and imme-
diate benefits it provides.
• Greens such as basil and lettuce will grow from seedlings to harvest in
about 6 weeks. In a southern, 6 month growing season, that’s about 4 easy
harvests. Basil wholesales for about $10 per pound.
•
If you add a greenhouse or other indoor growing environment with
supplemental grow lights, you can grow year-round.
1
A Basic Drip System
The Aquaponics Guidebook
Each component of an aquaponic system can be grouped as a:
• Medium Water, Gravel (for plants & bacteria) You could add Heat and Light as
ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS and
• Organism People, Plants, Fish, Bacteria Electricity as POWER SOURCE.
ORGANISM
Bacteria
NUTRIENT
Fish Food
CONTAINER
Grow tray
MEDIUM
Gravel
PUMP
CONNECTOR
Valve & Bulkhead
MEDIUM
Water
NUTRIENT
Air
7
Pump The Aquaponics Guidebook
The Heart of Your System
Contents
Aquaponics relies on a pump. If the pump fails, the fish could die quickly, so plan
to have a battery-powered backup aerator at all times (shown on page 14). The
aerator will help to oxidize the ammonia until the power returns. The need for
this increases as your system grows.
You need to move a certain amount of water through your tank each hour.
Pumps are measured according to their GPH (Gallons per Hour) or GPM (Gallons
per Minute). The pressure they produce at certain height above the pump is the
“head”. The higher the water is pumped, the lower the pressure. Head pressure is A submersible pump sits on the
measured in PSI (Pounds per Square Inch). bottom of your tank. The screen
prevents small fish from getting
Pump types include submersible, (at the bottom of the tank), or in-line which stuck to the inlet and dying.
sits outside the tank, the water line coming in and going out.
12’
8’
TOTAL HEAD
7’
6’
5’
1’
Actual Size
O ne hundred years ago, growing food was part of our culture. Now you can
help bring it back with an aquaponics system. The fish of choice is tilapia.
There is both art and science to raising fish. The art is in the intuitive nurtur-
ing that we know as gardeners, pet owners and parents. There is a lot of creative
freedom in putting your system together and making it fit your space, conducting
experiments out of curiosity. The fish are beautiful to watch. Seeing plants grow
so quickly is encouraging. Hearing the splash of flowing water is relaxing. This is
technology that feels right, a model of an ecosystem.
The science is in observing, measuring and controlling the many variables that keep
your system in balance. The good news is that in starting small, the critical numbers
are fewer and easier to manage. Once you have the feel and experience of a working
system, scaling up becomes more feasible.
Before long your system will be in balance and thriving. Young fish need several
feedings per day, so you many need an automated fish feeder.
As the fish grow, you will want to divide the fish tank or add extra tanks for differ-
ent sized fish to separate the larger ones, giving the smaller stock a chance to grow.
Your fish will start to grow quickly and you’ll be planning what to do with them
and looking ahead to starting a new batch, learning to stagger their production.
Your success will give you confidence.
After you grow succesfully with aquaponics, you may feel like an expert, but it’s
22
System Balance
The Aquaponics Guidebook
Understanding Key Ratios Helps You to Troubleshoot
Contents
BALANCE
A Balanced System
Here you have many fish producing a good amount of
ammonia. The biomedia in filter and grow bed is adequate to
convert it to nitrates. There are enough plants to absorb all
the nitrates. Water returns clean to the fish tank.
Enough biomedia
Enough fish
Enough plants
LESS MEDIA /
Not Enough Biomedia / Grow Media MANY FISH
Here is the same amount of fish with a small amount of
biomedia to convert ammonia to nitrates. The water is
mostly unfiltered, so too much ammonia returns to the tank.
FEW PLANTS /
MANY FISH
Not Enough Plants
The same amount of fish with adequte biomedia but too few
plants to take up the nitrates. Too much nitrate returns to the
fish tank. Not dangerous but unhealthy.
Solution: Add more plants to soak up the extra nitrates. Too few plants
Per volume of fish...
Too much nitrate returns
to fish
FEW FISH /
MANY PLANTS
Not Enough Fish or Too Much Water
A small amount of fish, or too much water, with enough
biomedia and enough plants. There is not enough ammonia
being produced for the plants to grow well.
Solution: Add more fish or grow fewer plants. Not enough ammonia
to nourish plants
31
Thinking Production
Your Produce Has a Dollar Value The Aquaponics Guidebook
What if you could make steady income with aquaponics and even finance your
equipment? Contents
In the spreadsheet below you can see that a 10’ x 10’ basil bed has the potential
to generate up to $1500 per month, at $10 per pound and ideal growing
conditions.
Pro Forma Basil Revenue
Of course if everyone is growing basil the price starts to drop and you have to
find another crop, which is simple agricultural economics. Hobby gardeners
tend to forget this because we are conditioned to think of a single five-month
growing period, a harvest in September, with dozens of tomatoes and squash
eaten, given away or left to rot. With aquaponics you gain so much efficiency Local Harvest Network
over traditional gardening that someone with even a modest amount of growing
space can become a reliable supplier to wholesalers, restaurants, groceries and
co-ops. There may also be emerging crop markets for (legal) medicinal herbs for
Asian communities and other groups. There are likely other valuable markets
remaining to be discovered or even created. Who will get there first and cash in?
How to Do It
You don’t need an MBA to become an aquaponics business person. Just find
out who wants what, how much they want and what they are willing to pay.
You can do it like a CSA (Consumer Supported Agriculture), recruiting families
to subscribe. Or you can talk to owners of high-end restaurants and restaurant
chains, grocery stores and wholesale distributors. Make some calls, promote
yourself. Being the first one in is very important.
USDA Organic 1
The Word on Organic
Contents
Floating Gardens
Crop Diversification
Nelson & Pade
Vancouver Island U
Growing Power
Flying Fish
Freshwater Institute
Acuaponia
Auburn ALEARN
Friendly Aquaponics
42
Research Links
The Aquaponics Guidebook
Contents
USDA Defines Sustainable Agriculture
Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education
Alternative Farming Systems Information Center
Cooperative State Research, Education & Extension Service
Western Sustainable Agriculture
Sustainable Urban Gardens
Denver Urban Gardens
Milwaukee Urban Gardens
Philadelphia Urban Gardens
Urban Habitat Chicago
Urban Gardens Los Angeles
Seattle Tilth
Atlanta’s Farmer D
Just Food in New York City
Urban Gardens DC
Growing Edge Magazine
Farmer John’s CSA, Angelic Organics
Urban Garden Magazine
44