My own Indoor-Aquaponics-Farm #1 — What is Aquaponics

I usually only post about Cryptocurrencies, Crypto-News or my opinion on the current market. So despite me being an absolute Crypto-Fanatic, I study Agriculture & Biology, and I’m really into urban farming. In the following days I will try to attempt to build my own Indoor-Aquaponics-Farm and planing on doing a Post-Series from Start to Harvest.

What is Aquaponics?

Before I start explaining my plan in detail I will firstly tell you about the basics of Aquaponics:

An Aquaponics-System combines:

• a conventional Aquaculture

• Hydroponics

Aquaculture:

Aquaculture describes fish farming in tanks and in some rare cases ponds. Depending on the needs and climatic conditions, different species of fish, ranging from the common trout to the majestic sturgeon, are kept on site. Though, most systems focus on fast growing and less demanding edible fish and therefor mostly keep Tilapia (Tilapia mariae).

Hydroponics:

The second component of the Aquapnics-System is plant cultivation in an inorganic substrate, similar to Hydroponics, but without the pre-produced nutrient solution used in Hypdroponics-Systems. The crops usually grow in grow beds or containers that are filled with a substrate (expanded clay or gravel are the most common used substrates) and periodically flooded with nutrient-rich water from the fish tank.

Source

Simply put, water from the fish tank is pumped into a biofilter, which transforms the fish excretion into plant-available nutrients. Now the plant is able to absorb the nutrients and afterwards the purified water finally flows back into the fish tank.

Benefits of Aquaponics:

• No need for any kind of pesticides (no cheating possible, since the fish would die)

• Since it is an closed circuit there is also no need for fish-medication

• Mimics the natural symbiotic relationship between plants and fish

• No need for additional fertilizers

• 90% less water used than in traditional farming

• Can grow up to 6 times more compared to the same area traditional farming

• Even with grow lights Aquaponics needs less energy than conventional commercial farming

My Plan:

For my Indoor-Aquaponics-Farm I’m planing on using non edible fish. Since I live in the city in a small apartment with 2 flatmates I don’t have the space for a huge tank to keep edible fish. So basically my system doesn’t produce fish but hopefully delicious and healthy vegetables.

I will purchase an aquarium (looking for a cheap secondhand one at the moment). As my filter and pump I will use an aquarium external filter which will pump the water through the filter and up to the growing tray, standing on top of the aquarium. The growing tray will be a simple plastic shell and will give 12 lettuces there new home.

In terms of lighting i will use a professional LED growing light, the SANlight M30, which I am able to borrow from a friend of mine over the course of my test.

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This is basically my new project for the next couple of weeks!

Will be posting the next part of this series during/after I build the system!

Stay tuned!