WHAT IS AQUAPONICS?

Are you wondering “what is aquaponics?” The most simple definition is that it is the marriage of aquaculture (raising fish) and hydroponics (the soil-less growing of plants) that grows fish and plants together in one integrated system. The fish waste provides an organic food source for the growing plants and the plants provide a natural filter for the water the fish live in. The third participants are the microbes (nitrifying bacteria) and composting red worms that thrive in the growing media. They do the job of converting the ammonia from the fish waste first into nitrites, then into nitrates and the solids into vermicompost that that are food for the plants.

In combining both systems aquaponics capitalizes on the benefits and eliminates the drawbacks of each.

The problems with traditional soil-based gardening

• The weeds
• The amount of water required
• The soil-borne insects
• The heavy digging, the bending, the back strain
• The the bunnies, the raccoons, and other 4-legged pests
• Knowledge required to know when to water, when and how to fertilize, and what is the composition of the soil

Farming Will Be Revolutionised By This Innovation!

A shining model of exceptional self-sufficiency, survival and ecological action is the Urban Homestead.–Backyard Liberty (Easy and cheap DIY Aquaponic system to grow your organic and living food bank) Video Below

How aquaponics changes the game

• Waist-high aquaponics gardening eliminates weeds, back strain and small animal access to your garden.
• Reuse resources currently considered “waste”. In aquaponics there is no more toxic run-off from either hydroponics or aquaculture.
• Aquaponics uses only 1/10th of the water of soil-based gardening, and even less water than hydroponics or recirculating aquaculture.
• Watering is integral to an aquaponics system. You can’t under-water or over-water.
• Fertilizing is also integral to an aquaponics system. You can’t over-fertilize or under-fertilize.
• Gardening chores are cut down dramatically or eliminated. The aquaponics grower is able to focus on the enjoyable tasks of feeding the fish and tending and harvesting the plants.

Instead of using dirt or toxic chemical solutions to grow plants, aquaponics uses highly nutritious fish effluent that contains all the required nutrients for optimum plant growth. Instead of discharging water, aquaponics uses the plants and the media in which they grow to clean and purify the water, after which it is returned to the fish tank. This water can be reused indefinitely and will only need to be replaced when it is lost through transpiration and evaporation. Two primary methods of aquaponics growing are most widely in use today.

• The raft based aquaponics growing system uses a foam raft that is floating in a channel filled with fish effluent water that has been through filtration to remove solid wastes. Plants are placed in holes in the raft and the roots dangle freely in the water. This method is most appropriate for growing salad greens and other fast growing, relatively low-nutrient plants.
• The second method is called media based aquaponics because plants are grown in inert planting media (gravel, expanded clay pellets, coir, etc.).  The media provides both the biological (ammonia based waste) and mechanical (solid waste) filtration, so requires far less maintenance than raft-based systems.  L
  arge, fruiting plants are also grown much more successfully in media based systems than in rafts.
• The third method is called hybrid aquaponics, which is a combination of the two.  The media beds become the pre-filter for the solid waste before the water enters the raft systems.  This hybrid system style is the focus of The Aquaponic Source’s AquaBundance systems because it provides planting flexibility, high productivity and low maintenance.

The Lost Ways…a true story about our grandparents days!

Turn Back the Clock 150 Years:  The Lost Ways is an amazing program created to find out how our grand parents has survived in their crisis and they make us to learn the little secrets that helped them to survive in spite of almost everyone else dying. Now this is your chance to be part of saving our ancestors’ lost ways. Just I hope that there are more people like you and me who deeply believe that the best way to survive the next major crisis to look back at how people did things 150 years ago…..Watch this wonderful video

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Source: YouTube