It's Really That Easy?

Well, it is and it is not. Obviously, if you try something you have never done, you will have a little trouble, but not something to die for. Of course, death is a little involved if you are not careful with your fish, but if you can follow simple instructions and take the time to get the basics, everyone will be alright.

I mean, aquaponics is simply a little ecosystem contained in your backyard. If you understand what is involved, then it will be like having a garden. There’s a little of work involved, but with practice, everything gets easier.

When I started this aquaponic thing, I really was not very scared… after all, I found out about this with an aquaponic system that consisted in a plastic bucket and a couple of PVC tubes, so, how hard could it be?

A few weeks later I had my first aquaponic system with some fish, a couple of plants and clean water. Of course I had to do my homework, but it took only a couple of hours reading material. My tomatoes were not exactly a charm… I had hydroponic tomatoes that did much better, even when I was a newbie. So, why so much buzz about aquaponics? The thing is that maybe you can be a little disappointed with your first results, but that is to be expected. Aquaponics takes a little time to get everything going.

Don get me wrong, I love aquaponics. I think is the best thing I have learned since I discovered reading. I’m not trying to scare you; I just want to motivate you to get things right from the beginning.

If you are considering aquaponics as your new hobby, great news: there is a lot more information available now than when I started, several years ago. Buying a ready to go system can make things a little easier, but I have always been a DIY kind of guy. Besides, making your own system can teach you much more about aquaponics in a couple of weeks than several months of investigation.

You have to consider that many studies are considered gospel, even if they only apply on a certain region and time of year. I’m not saying that studies are wrong, it’s just that there are unique circumstances in your aquaponic installation that can make that study completely irrelevant, at least for you.

Anyway, if you want to do aquaponics, go ahead. Start as soon as possible. Take a couple of hour to read how to do it and then get busy. Having fish is much more fun than plants and, eventually, you can get tasty meat with almost no fat and a los of other cool properties.

By the way, everything will be as natural as you can get for a fair price; and, you will learn a lot of things. Aquaponics is not as easy as hydroponics, but it isn’t that hard. Besides, if you are still reading this, it means that you have what it gets, at least to get started.

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How Much Is Too Much?

Since fish can take a while to grow into an edible size, one question that people keep asking is “how much fish can I have in a single tank?” Well, this can be a tricky question and it depends on your acuaponic system.

Too many fish can lead to a lot of trouble if your are not careful

The first thing is stress. Having a lot of fish crowded in a single tank can be stressful for them and that can affect their growth and their health. This can cause your fish to stay small, even if they are well fed. This is a survival technique in a lot of species that compete for space.

As always, the biological filter (or any other filtering system you use) will have a lot more work to clean the additional ammonia generated by your fish and the pump will need to move more fluid than before. Did I already mention feces? The bottom of your tank will have to be cleaned more often, in case you don’t have a “pre-filter” to get rid of the sludge.

Even if everything you have in place is enough to handle all your fish and solids, there is the possibility of a pump or power failure, which can lead to a massive death. And getting rid of many death fish is not exactly fun.

With proper care, you can have a lot of fish in a single tank

So… with all this problems, why will somebody have more than a few fish? In aquaponics (well, is more an aquaculture thing), more is better. Having more fish in the same space can lead to a higher yield in fish and vegetables, since the fertilizer will be more than enough to grow more plants.

Also, having more fish crowded in a single tank disrupts reproductive behavior, which can be really troublesome with some species. Dealing with a horny fish roughing up everybody else is not easy, and having a lot of younglings competing for food can make things more complicated.

About the stress, well, living in the wild is a very stressful thing, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that.

Well then, how much is too much? I will have 1 fish in every 3 gallons of water. That gives them space to be a little comfortable and will give you several fish per season. This is not a recommendation; is an option. You can always scale your filter up to deal with the additional ammonia and the aquaponic system to handle more plants.

As always, testing is a must. If you are a newbie, start with a few fish and let it grow slowly. After all, you are dealing with living creatures and, even if they don’t kick and scream, they are alive and feel pain. Don’t be so mean.

Of course, this is for home acuaponic systems. Commercial installations may need the additional fish to make some profit, so is a different point of view.

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DIY Aquaponics

The first time I heard about aquaponics, I really got excited. As an already competent hydroponics fan and fisherman, aquaponics seemed like the logical next step for me. It was a little scary though; plants do not complain a lot and we are used to cutting them, but fish... well watching a fish die is not exactly fun. Anyway, I started reading and getting acquainted with the technique. Since then, I have made a lot of experiments, good and bad, and learned enough to rear not only fish, but also a lot of other water creatures.

Aquaponics is the marriage between hydroponics and aquaculture, where one system complements the other (just like marriage! If you got a good one of course...). In a very simple way, fish create waste that can kill them, so, in aquaculture, a filtration system is needed to prevent this. However, the fish waste, once processed by the filter, is composed of nitrates that start to build up in the fish water. Eventually, this water needs to be diluted or replaced so the fish are not affected. Hydroponics, on the other hand, is based on fertilized water to feed the plants. I think you see the big picture. Fish produce fertilized water, which is fed to the plants that return clean water to the fish environment. Its almost like a little ecosystem that sustains itself and needs no intervention from us. Pretty cool, isn't it? If you do things right, the only input to the system will be the fish food, and, depending on what fish you have, maybe not even this.

Aquaponics has been used to produce fish and vegetables for a while now, although it still is way below hydroponics and aquaculture, in terms of metric tons of produce. Well, that is to be expected; specially if the commercial producers have to change all their infrastructure to adapt to the new ways. Anyway, for us DIY guys, having a small system in our house is not that hard, providing that we do our homework on the different subjects we have to dominate to make it right.

Building an aquaponics system in our house requires a little work from our part, specially if you don't have too much spare space, something really scarce in urban houses. Anyway, with a little imagination, you can do great things, even if you are a newbie.

So, since a lot of my friends kept asking the same things and I am a little lazy to reply every mail with the same answer, this blog should help us both. If you are thinking about having an aquaponics little system, I have good news: it's easier than you might think. You just need to know the basics and take the time for everything to settle in. There are a lot of ready to use systems out there, but most of them require certain space and light. Besides, they are more expensive than DIY solutions you can make yourself and aquaponics is not exactly rocket science.

So, welcome to my aquaponics blog and I will start with some posts about aquaponics, what you need to know and what I been up to the last couple of years.

Best regards

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