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Building a Home Aquaponics System: The Basics

254 points| ohjeez | 8 years ago |thissmarthouse.net

74 comments

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[+] asciimo|8 years ago|reply
The author glosses over the true source of the magical, "free" fertilizer: "some fish food." You have to feed the fish. I have never seen an aquaponics zealot do the math on the cost per unit of fish food versus the cost per unit of fertilizer. Intuitively, complexity and costs could be reduced greatly by removing the fish component, i.e. hydroponics.
[+] nkingsy|8 years ago|reply
I raise channel catfish in my own home aquaponics system. If you don't plan on eating the fish or enjoying them as pets, it's not worth it at all.

Feed is indeed the big pain point. All good feeds have fish meal and GMO soybeans etc, and the only way to get a reasonable price point is by buying a 50lb bag from a farm supply store. With a 3 month shelf life, you need a lot of fish and a lot of time dedicated to feeding to not have spoilage.

Theoretically a true closed home system could be achieved by routing household urine to a green tank growing algae, solid waste and food waste to a black soldier fly larvae bin, and feeding the algae and larvae to the fish. The BSFL harvest themselves, and the green tank could be periodically pumped into the fish tank on a timer.

None of it would be terribly complicated to build into a new home, but there's no will to do so as most people would find it gross, preferring to eat artificially cheap fossil fuel fertilized products and have their waste magically disappear.

http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum is a tremendous resource.

[+] IdeaHamstir|8 years ago|reply
Azolla = free fish food. It obtains both nitrogen and carbon from the air and can double in mass every 2-3 days. Protein content is 17%. Needs only a few inches of water, sunlight and trace minerals.

I've done the math, and while Azolla can't provide 100% of fish nutrition, it can easily provide the majority of it. It can also provide human food and chickens love it. So do pretty much any domesticated animal: many papers have been written about studies on azolla raised hogs, ducks and cows.

[+] JeffreyKaine|8 years ago|reply
Agreed, this is why IMO it's much better to set up a tank with fish you can eat (Tilapia was mentioned in the article, but I've seen rainbow trout setups as well).

Makes paying for fish food a little better, because you get a delicious form of protein as well.

[+] edaemon|8 years ago|reply
I'm far from an expert but I've seen some interesting things where people replace the fish tank with worm bins and/or black soldier fly bins and they just use compostable material and kitchen scraps as the feed. The flies especially will eat pretty much anything but the worms are easier to keep alive. The plants are fed hydroponically by pumping water through the feed bins, so it soaks up the nutrients in the compost. It's an interesting concept.
[+] dundercoder|8 years ago|reply
I haven’t done the math but I have read that growing duckweed to feed tilapia is a very economical alternative to commercial fish food.
[+] spiraldancing|8 years ago|reply
I ran a small home/experimental aquaponics system for over a year, fed the fish, primarily, free worms out of my vermicomposters.
[+] adrianmonk|8 years ago|reply
Sounds like it's free for him because he was going to keep fish anyway. The fish aren't a means to an end in his case; instead, the vegetables are a bonus.
[+] johncogg|8 years ago|reply
As the author, yes I didn't really discuss that. But on the other hand, I would argue I wasn't trying to gloss over it either!

In my case, I took my fish tank which previously existed and turned it into something more -- at the same time, I also dramatically reduced my upkeep time because of the lack of water changes.

[+] ryanmarsh|8 years ago|reply
I too would like to know the cost per calorie.
[+] disordinary|8 years ago|reply
Except fertilisers are bad for the environment, especially Nitrogen which is mined.

I have a friend who is building a commercial aquaponic setup and he claims that not only is it better for the environment but it is price competitive now and will be cheaper than hydroponics as the prices of fertilizer keep increasing.

[+] mulmen|8 years ago|reply
Is it possible to feed the fish using waste from the plants?
[+] mistermann|8 years ago|reply
> One very cool answer is aquaponics. Aquaponics is a plant growing technique similar to hydroponics, which is basically growing plants in a medium other than dirt with water. The cool thing is this: Where a Hydroponics system requires you to add nutrients to the water to feed your plants (basically fertilizer), an aquaponics system uses all the nitrates produced by your fish as natural fertilizer! What a perfect solution for my laziness – I can stop doing water changes and let plants do the work for me, all the while saving (a bit) of water and always having home-grown produce on hand!

I'm no expert beyond some YouTube research, but apparently plain old hydroponics is way cheaper/simpler/more productive than aquaponics, if the fertilizer aspect doesn't turn you off.

Hydroponics vs Aquaponics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0fsehjZfzc&

Good educational video on aquaponics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg2MfC-Oi18

Here is a very nice aquaponics system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpGwK81tOIs

[+] ryanmarsh|8 years ago|reply
With aquaponics you do have to “change the water” with aquaponics. From what I’ve read you can’t take the “hot” untreated waste water and feed it directly to plants. There’s a step in between involving another tank.
[+] horsecaptin|8 years ago|reply
One of the great upsides to Aquaponics is enforced trust.

Since fish are very sensitive to water conditions, you can bet that there will be nothing added to the system that will kill the fish. If it is safe for fish, then it is safe for humans.

This can't be said about Hydroponics or Soil farming. But with Aquaponics, the farmer is forced to play nice.

[+] jlengrand|8 years ago|reply
I have tried aquaponics pretty hard about two years ago. I found the idea super interesting ( and still do).

After a while my plants started decaying over time. Getting black spots, very white. Started having holes in them, ...

After further reading, I learnt that plants need more than just nitrates. They also need manganese, calcium ... A whole bunch of elements you can't get in a closed system (nor in the fish food directly).

I went back to growing outside.

I would definitely recommend aquaponics, but for people that can setup their system outdoors where rain water will bring all those needed additional elements.

[+] dingleberry|8 years ago|reply
rain water is somehow pure and should contain no mineral elements
[+] jameskegel|8 years ago|reply
New farmers tend to disregard the often lengthy process of establishing a well bred fauna of biological filtration similar to a freshwater fish tank. It helps to reduce rot in the roots and nutrient concentration and uptake issues. Similar lessons can be learned in the field of Tilapia farming as a means of a stage of the water treatment system.
[+] nomadiccoder|8 years ago|reply
Interesting, In my experience of trying to start a home aquaponics startup (and quickly failing) I found that it is very difficult for this to be small scale, i.e., places like growing power, green and gills, farmed here, which have a comercial aspect are more successful. And 2 it is not cost effective at all. While I loved watching the fish, the difficulty with the plants, lights, nutrients, and automation system was a nightmare that was barely rewarding in terms of produce quantity.
[+] michaelmior|8 years ago|reply
If you're interested in this, you might want to check out AutoMicroFarm[0]

[0] https://automicrofarm.com/

[+] ph0rque|8 years ago|reply
Thanks for the shout-out! I had to put the business on pause this year while dealing with family issues. I plan to get back to it in 2018, however.

Edit: Just saw you asking how things have went on Medium. I'll write a blog post / email update about the past year (2017) soon!

[+] ansible|8 years ago|reply
I've read about various aquaponics systems in the past.

My main concern would be regarding pathogenic bacteria from the fish getting into the growing plants. Some plants won't have an issue like that, but I was under the impression that other plants like lettuce don't do a good job of filtering microorganisms out of their water supply.

This is related to those news reports about contaminated water and lettuce crops from the past decade.

[+] antoniuschan99|8 years ago|reply
If anyone is interested in tracking the climate of their farms on their smartphone I'm producing a Temperature and Humidity Sensor & App with Alerts. Some of our customers are Aquaponics Farms and we're working on a Waterproof Temperature Probe that you will be able to place in the water.

Here's more info:

http://www.kokonaut.com http://www.instagram.com/kokonautweathersensors

If you do decide to buy, you can use promo code EARLYADOPTER10 for $10 off

[+] iLemming|8 years ago|reply
Anyone who wants to grow anything in a tank should read this incredible book: "Ecology of the planted aquarium" by Diana Walstad. If you don't know what aquascaping is about, try googling "Takashi Amano" and just browse through the pictures you find. I'd guarantee you would dream about creating something like that. And that hobby truly is fascinating. However it's for brave tinkerers and tenacious explorers.
[+] homulilly|8 years ago|reply
I've been wanting to do something like this for awhile since I already keep fish (as pets) and grow hydroponics separately. Unfortunately living in an apartment there's only so much space and I can't do things like run pipes under the floor.