Aquaponics

Aquaponics is an integrated system to grow fish and plants for consumption. Aquaponics works with the aid of the good bacteria in your ponds, which converts the ammonia and waste produced by the fish into nitrite and then into nitrate, which plants use as a main growing nutrient. This nutrient rich water is pumped to a grow bed for the plants, which then filter and clean the water for the fish.

If you're wanting to grow fish you can eat, Silver Perch are a fresh water fish that are ideal for aquaponics as they can handle a wide range of weather conditions, although in the cooler weather their growth can be slow. Rainbow Trout and Barramundi are both a faster growing fish, but both are seasonal. Trout need the cooler weather and Barramundi the warmer weather.

If there is one thing I can suggest to anyone starting up with Aquaponics, it would be don't name the fish. I've had people walk out of the shop looking through the bag at their newly bought Silver Perch 'Fred' and they are so excited. They can't wait to show 'Fred' off. 'Fred', he is going to do his part in society and feed his people in say eighteen months. Eighteen months later, you won't be able to do it. 'Fred' is a part of the family and as the Little's say, 'We don't eat family.' There's nothing saying you have to have fish that you can eat in your system, you can just have decorative fish, such as Goldfish and Koi, which are going to get the job done just as well.

Aquaponics requires a lot less work than your average gardening and is water efficient. The fact that the water circulates through the plants which purify it for the pond means the only reason you'll need to top it up will be because of evaporation. It reduces the menace of weeds and any soil-based pests you may encounter in soil gardening. The most common media used with aquaponics is expanded clay. These light weight clay pebbles are perfect as they retain moisture and provide proper drainage for the roots, as well as providing the plant root systems with aeration as the pebbles are porous. If you have quite a large system and are concerned about the cost of filling the entire bed, you can substitute some of the clay with cheaper options, such as cracked pea-gravel, spongelite or zeolite, which have their own advantages.

When adding plants to your system, you want to remove any excess soil from the roots to avoid any fertilizers within the soil from contaminating your system. You can plant almost anything in the aquaponics system, the easiest being herbs and leafy greens, such as kale, lettuce or silver beet. There will be a number of factors involved in what will grow best in your system depending on where you're located, how much sun it gets and the amount of nutrients produced by the fish.

There are numerous ways to set up Aquaponics in your yard, the most common being a continuous flow. The constant flow set up is the simplest version of aquaponics, all that is really needed is a pump to push water to the grow bed and it will gravity feed back into the pond providing the plants and fish with that needed oxygen.

Aquaponics can be a simple and exciting project to undertake. If you're keen to get started, don't forget we at The Pond Shop are here to help. We have a couple of working aquaponics set-ups in our showroom to get you inspired. Come along to our store and speak with our friendly staff at 39 Farrall Road Midvale, where we can advise you on how to begin.