Algae For The Fish

One thing that every aquaculture or aquaponic guy can tell you is that algae will grow, no matter what you do. And this is to be expected; since the combination of fish waste and biological filtration gives you fertilized water, algae can bloom. Now, what if you use that algae to feed the fish? Wouldn’t that be cool? Well, it is. With the proper fish, you can have a complete sustainable aquaponic system.

This, however, is not exactly easy, at least not in the city. To grow enough algae, you will need more space, and space costs time and money. Of course it will depend on the amount of fish, but it is certainly possible if you use some tricks to help algae.

In this first image you can see that this half box is covered with algae. This kind of boxes (this one with milk cartons) can grow a good amount of algae, permit the flow of water and your fish have some places to hide.


In the detail below you can see the marks of the fish eating the algae. Of course, this will have to be a vegetarian fish like a carp of tilapia.


The problem with an aquaponic system is that you need a lot of algae to make fish grow (remember you needed space?). Feeding them commercial food will have them grow faster and bigger. Also, you have to consider that most of the fertilizer in the water will be used by your edible vegetables, so there will be not much left for algae.

However, if you apply your imagination, you can pull this out. As many other technique, aquaponics lets you bend the rules a bit to achieve different results. Testing is a crucial part of good aquaponics. Just make your homework; you don’t want to deal with dead fish.

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