Saturday, May 25, 2013

Aquaponics Start-Up Guide And Tips

By Alexandra Smith


Aquaponics may be something that most people have not heard of yet. But once a person gets to know the meaning of Aquaponics, they will be able to know that Aquaponics is simply the process of cultivating plants and fishes and providing them with an environment wherein they will benefit from each other. Hydroponics and Aquaculture are concepts that Aquaponics has adapted. Aquaculture is the process of cultivating underwater plants and animals while Hydroponics is the process of growing plants using s different medium other than soil.

Aquaponics offers a lot of benefits and advantages to the people utilizing this method of cultivating plants and fishes. One of the benefit that one can enjoy in using the Aquaponics is the ability to conserve water in the process of growing fishes. This is because utilizing the Aquaponics system of growing up the fishes, unlike when growing up a fish in a normal fish tank, does not require you to change water frequently since water is cleaned and recycled by the plants and with the help of a water filtering system included in the Aquaponics system. Aside from that, it also provides and opportunity to make use of the fish wastes as natural fertilizers. This gives you the assurance that the plants that you are growing is free from harmful chemicals.

Starting up your own Aquaponics system involves preparing these materials:

fish tank or aquarium that can hold the fishes

Waterproof container

grow beds needed for growing the plants

water filter

pump

Steps:

1. First thing to do is to prepare the materials needed to put up your Aquaponics system.

2. Prepare the fish tank or aquarium and fill it with water. You can leave the water on the fish tank for a couple of weeks allowing it to mature and ready for the fishes.

3. Prepare your grow beds to be placed near the fish tank. It can be placed above or at the side of the fish tank, whatever you prefer. Another good thing in making use of the Aquaponics system is that you can have as many grow beds as you like but you just need to make sure that the water on the fish tank as well as the fish wastes are enough to sustain and supply them with water and fertilizers.

4. Next thing to do is to connect the pipes and filters to the fish tank and grow beds accordingly.

5. Placing the fishes on the aquarium or fish tank is the last step to do and your Aquaponics system is already set up.

Now after discussing the procedure, we also need to know the 3 significant factors that greatly affects the Aquaponics system. Here are those factors:

1. vegetation or plant is the first factor to consider in starting up an Aquaponics system since they are the ones responsible in providing oxygen to the water as well as cleaning the water from the fish wastes and other toxins that may be dangerous for the fishes. It is important to remember that plants and vegetation for he Aquaponics system should be balanced and proportional to the number of fishes that you are raising. Now to make sure that your plants and fishes is proportional and is properly-balanced, you should consider some factors including the amount of feeds you give to the fishes everyday, the amount of feeds not consumed by the fishes, weight, size and age of fishes, type of plant to be raised, and the number of fishes you are raising. Knowing this is essential to ensure that the plants will be able to get ample nutrients to grow healthy.

2. Fish-the fish produce the wastes that are utilized by the plants as fertilizer. It is vital to decide what species of fish you want to grow using the Aquaponics system, the number of fish you want to grow and the size of this fishes. You have to make sure that it is balanced with the plants that you are going to grow.

3. The third factor that affects the Aquaponics system is bacteria. Bacteria is responsible for breaking down ammonia into nitrates, which if not broken down will not be absorbed by the the plants and tendency is that it will just remain on the water. Ammonia, if not removed from the water, is a harmful substance that may hinder the growth of your fishes.

It is very clear that the most important thing to remember in starting your own Aquaponics system is the balance that it should have regarding its 3 major components. Making sure that there is balance will also give you assurance of the success of your Aquaponics system.




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