
Building a Home Aquaponics System: The Basics - ohjeez
https://www.thissmarthouse.net/building-a-stylish-home-aquaponics-system/
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asciimo
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.

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nkingsy
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](http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum)
is a tremendous resource.

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mistermann
Do you have an opinion on the "healthiness" of a pure hydroponic system?

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nkingsy
Healthfulness of foods by comparative farming practices is not something I
have been able to find any solid information about. Hopefully our taste buds
know what's good for us when they're not confused by sugar and fat.

Life - Dan Barber said on "Chef's Table" that he felt his produce tasted
better and better as he put more life into the soil. The hydro growing medium
is relatively sanitized.

Freshness/Ripeness - We had an organic CSA farm box last summer, and in head
to head comparisons, the stuff we grew at home (both soil and aqua) tasted way
better. I think this is because we picked it when it was ripe and ate it
immediately.

I do have some worries about using plastics. unless you are doing a large-
scale operation with concrete and / or glass, hydro and aqua both involve
water making a lot of contact with plastics. I have to assume that food grade
plastics are safe, but no one really knows for sure.

My gut feeling is that as long as you're meeting all the needs of the plant,
freshness/ripeness matters more than the presence of other life in the growing
medium.

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mistermann
> 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&](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0fsehjZfzc&)

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

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

~~~
ryanmarsh
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.

~~~
dundercoder
You typically have a high surface area medium (pea gravel) in the sump or in
another tank that provides a bacteria filter for the waste breakdown.

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horsecaptin
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.

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jlengrand
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
rain water is somehow pure and should contain no mineral elements

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jameskegel
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.

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nomadiccoder
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.

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michaelmior
If you're interested in this, you might want to check out AutoMicroFarm[0]

[0] [https://automicrofarm.com/](https://automicrofarm.com/)

~~~
ph0rque
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!

~~~
michaelmior
Awesome! I'm not in a living situation which would allow me to have an
AutoMicroFarm set up, but I've been following the project for a few years and
really interested to see how things are going.

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ansible
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.

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King-Aaron
I used to run home aquaponics for several years, and it was a very healthy
environment for the fish and the plants. If anyones interested, here's a short
clip of my Perch from a few years ago:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ojePlSxkjs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ojePlSxkjs)

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antoniuschan99
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.kokonaut.com)
[http://www.instagram.com/kokonautweathersensors](http://www.instagram.com/kokonautweathersensors)

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

~~~
nomadiccoder
used these in the past with arduino [https://www.amazon.com/Gikfun-
DS18B20-Temperature-Waterproof...](https://www.amazon.com/Gikfun-
DS18B20-Temperature-Waterproof-
EK1083x3/dp/B00Q9YBIJI?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-
ffab-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00Q9YBIJI)

~~~
antoniuschan99
How would you rate it? I have one of these as well and am planning on using
it.

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iLemming
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.

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johncogg
For those who are interested, here is more content for the series, including
how the grow beds and swirl filter are built:

[https://www.thissmarthouse.net/building-a-stylish-home-
aquap...](https://www.thissmarthouse.net/building-a-stylish-home-aquaponics-
system-the-grow-beds/)

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homulilly
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.

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peterwwillis
Fun use of a bell siphon: Pythagoras' Cup.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISfIT3B4y6E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISfIT3B4y6E)

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agumonkey
Interesting synergy

