Aquaponics System: The Fascinating New Way of Growing Food with Fish

One person’s trash is another’s treasure. The waste of one group of sheds becomes a source of nourishment for another just like in organic farming. It’s an on-going lovely circle. The same concept works in aquaponics system or fish farming. Aquaponics is a process of cultivating crops and fish together in a controlled growing environment. The fish breeds in tanks while the plants are grown hydroponically i.e. without soil. The word aquaponics is a mix of ‘aquaculture’ and ‘hydroponics’ as it shares qualities of both the system. Aquaponics systems have three different yet important components viz. Fish, Microbes and Plants. Microbes do most of the important work in the nutrient process cycle. Like Hydroponics, aquaponics eliminates the use of water, but you can either use growing medium such as lava rock, clay pebbles or gravel. If not, your plants can simply grow in the nutrient enrich water from the fish tanks. Aquaponics system is the future of agriculture and many developing countries have seen an increase numbers of home gardens and commercial farms. How does the aquaponics system work? Let’s find it out.

The Aquaponics Cycle:

Fish give off waste and ammonia, which are harmful for the fish and also decrease the water quality, but what is harmful for fish is nutritious for plants. Plants love nothing more than to suck all fish waste. In fish farming, water from the fish tank is provided to a plant bed where billions of natural microorganisms break down the ammonia first into Nitrite and then to Nitrate. Nitrate and other elements are later absorbed by the plants to help in the growth and, serve clean water. Solid, unwanted waste is filtered out of the water either through grow beds or mechanical process. Clean water later returned to the fish tank, which increases the quality of water and provide oxygenated water that fish needs. It’s a sustainable and natural process that produces high quality food with no use of chemicals.
If you’re a hydroponic grower then you might have much equipment needed to get started. As standard hydroponic tools and equipments is suitable for fish farming applications. Pumps, trays, reservoir, air-stones, media, tubing, ventilation and pH monitoring are all important components of indoor aquaponic system. The use of components depends on the type of plants you want to grow. For instance, plants like peppers, tomatoes and corn would grow well in ebb and flow design whereas salad, green leafy vegetables prefer a constant flow or DWC design.
Aquaponic gardening requires fish foods and few inputs with less maintenance involved. Plus, no water change, ever! Fish are balancing addition to garden and help you grow fresh organic foodstuffs with great rewards with little effort. Fish farming, not only grows vigorously and quickly, but it has other different benefits as well.

Here are few of the positive aspects of using aquaponics system.

More organic plants- In fish farming, the plants are placed close together above the water; hence it fits more plants in the same space available. The plants roots are always immersed in nutrient rich water and hence eliminate the risk of over-crowding.

No weeding and no soil pests- The aquaponics removes the need of annoying weeding, which creates trouble for your plants to grow. No more need of pesticides and hence no more soil pests and your plants grow free of toxic chemicals.

Less usage of water- The system uses 2% of the total water as compared to normal gardening. This is because, the water is re-circulated constantly and you don’t lose soil absorption. The plants roots are flooded in a nutrient solution and you don’t have to worry about watering. Imagine this could save half of your money and water.

Sources of Income- When you try fish farming, you have more plants and you know what to do with it. Aquaponics system produces both fish and plants and you have multiple sources of income.
Plants grow faster- In aquaponics, plants grow much faster than other growing system. For instance, lettuce takes 60+ days to ripe and mature whereas in this system, it takes only 29 days.

Perfect for a busy life- This system requires only few minutes of maintenance to make things work properly. It’s a perfect solution for patios, hard areas, roof gardens, even poor soil. They need suitable light and good power supply, and you can start off with fish farming almost anywhere.

Hydroponic Tips and Tricks for Beginners

Hydroponic gardening is nothing but growing plants without the use of soil. It is an efficient way of providing food and water to plants. Soil’s function is to supply the nutrients to plants and support plants’ roots. A plant uses food and water which are present in soil. In hydroponic gardening, the plant is provided with a complete nutrient solution and a growing medium to support the plants roots. This helps plants for the easier access to the water and food. If you’re starting a hydroponic garden for the first time, the plenty of resources and information is available online. Good way to start a hydroponic gardening is to follow factors that are useful while gardening. Some of them are mentioned below:

Grow: You can grow vegetables, flowers and medicinal plants hydroponically. Some of them are tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, medicinal plants and orchids. You can start a garden from ordering seeds online or simply purchase it from garden centres.

System or method: There are majorly six different types of hydroponics system which you can use for your garden namely Ebb and Flow, Drip, Deep Water Culture, Aeroponic, N.F.T and Wick System. You can pick any of the system, lighting and growing medium that suit your plants, your garden size and your budget.

Garden area: You need to decide whether you need a small or a large hydroponic garden. Air circulation and capacity to control the humidity and temperature in the room depends on your grow area. Your garden also requires clean water and safer electrical supplies. A steady supply of water with perfect ph level is very essential. For indoor gardening, you require electrical power supply to run water pumps, grow system and fans.

Accessories: According to the complexity and size of the hydroponic garden, you require various accessories such as light timers, fans, water pumps and meters that helps in measuring temperature and humidity levels.  You can take assistance from other hydroponic gardeners for selecting different garden needs.

Lighting system: If you are planning to start an indoor garden, light is the main essential component. Understand your grow room and select a perfect lighting for your garden. You can choose high-intensity grow lights that can provide sun like lighting to your indoor garden.

Nutrients: In hydroponic gardening, you don’t use soil to grow plants. Hence, you must provide complete balance nutrition to the plants. Plants need majorly six types of micro-nutrients namely Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, sulphur and magnesium. Some of the micro-nutrients a plant requires are little traces of vitamins, iron, boron, zinc, manganese, copper and cobalt. Choose a perfect nutrient solution for your plants that supply good amount of macro and micro nutrients.

Growing medium: Hydroponic means gardening without soil and hence you must replace soil with a perfect growing medium. These growing medium will supply nutrients to the plants. There are huge varieties of growing medium you can use namely Coconut coir, Organic soil, Mats, Compressed bricks and rock wool. 

How To Grow Nutritious Mushrooms Hydroponically

Mushrooms are highly healthy and unique fungi that can be grown all around the world in moist, warm and protected place. Unlike other green plants, they grow in dark, hence plant grow lights are not required if appropriate warmth, nutritional and moisture needs are met. Mushrooms live in indoor setting, especially in a hydroponic garden which is both humid and perfectly protected. If mushrooms are grown hydroponically, they are grown as fungi. Hydroponic mushroom has a unique appearance and finer quality. Here are few useful tips on how you can grow mushrooms in your own cheap hydroponic garden.

Types of mushrooms:

There are huge varieties of mushrooms that you can grow in hydroponic gardens such as shitake, dark brown mushrooms, nameko or butterscotch with a bright orange crown, oyster with almost frilly cap, also suitable are maitake, enokitake, lion’s mane, button mushrooms- an usual mushroom available in most kitchens in the world.

How to grow?

There are two ways of growing hydroponic mushrooms one is pre-populated cake and the other inhabits a growing medium with spores, later is more difficult. The easy way of growing hydroponic mushrooms, buy a growing kit. The grow kit is the best method for growing mushrooms and quiet appropriate for your cheap hydroponic gardens. The grow kit has a small block filled with growing materials and mushrooms spores. You need to soak the block with cold water for a few hours and put them in a dark place with temperature extending to 75ºF. If you already have a hydroponic garden with suitable controlled environment, it’s an easy for you to start over with growing hydroponic mushrooms. Growing hydroponic mushrooms requires a dark room and cold water with a proper mix of hydroponic nutrients. Hydroponic nutrients will add more taste and nourishment to your mushrooms. Hydroponic eliminates the soil usage and hence soil testing is not required. unlike other traditional growing method.

After your first harvest, you can keep the sawdust block to rest for a week and then recycle it for growing another set of mushroom growing cycle. But, with a new cycle the number and size of the mushrooms may reduce as the quantity of hydroponic nutrients lessen on same growing medium for several mushroom planting phases. When the sawdust is completely used, you can add up to your garden compost heap.

If you wish to grow mushrooms hydroponically but without a kit then start with planting mycelium, unless it’s strong and big enough to hold a mushroom growing cycle. You can use a fresh mushroom from a local culture seed bank. Now place the fresh mushroom, on a dish and let mycelium to grow out. After few weeks, you can see a formation of clean grain like millet, rye or wheat. And after four weeks, mushrooms will start growing on the grain. You can also use grain seeds to yield more grain. Make sure that you perform this action in a cleaner environment to avoid contamination of molds and harmful bacteria. For using this method of growing hydroponic mushrooms, it is advisable to clean the filter, growing medium and grow room carefully.

Uses:


Mushrooms are used for many purposes apart from eating and selling in the market. Some mushrooms are also known for its medicinal purposes and are dried and minced to make medicines and are even harvested and sent to health food companies. There are numerous uses for less than modest hydroponic mushrooms.