Aquaponics
1/18/2021
Hello everyone!
To start off, I'm extremely sorry that I haven't been posting more frequently. I've been trying to experiment with schedules for enough time for school and posting this blog. I find bliss writing these blogs and I love doing what I do.
The whole goal of this blog is to teach you and me about plants, understanding them, learning about them. So this isn't just about plants alone, but including things that can surround it. So it isn't just about Plant Growth and Development as it covers a very small portion of everything. But it is more Plant Science and Discovery. But I digress...
*Context
I am more or less inexperienced with taking care of plants and learning about them. So last year, when I had a lot of free time on my hand in the summer, I grew pepper, chili, and tomato plants. Firstly, for food (It was very tasty), and to learn about them. What makes them... well... them! Overall, the last growing season was good, and I took notes on their structure, their fruits, leaves, etc. But that's for another post that I'll soon make.
But if you don't know, if something works well, I try finding different ways to make it more efficient or make a process function better. So after a day of digging into different plant cultivation methods, I wanted to look for something that worked well, and increased growth rate, or made enabled me to grow more plants at a single time. First, I found something called Hydroponics. I genuinely thought I wrote a blog post about this, but apparently, I haven't! I'm going to make a completely separate blog post about this because it is extremely interesting.
But broken down, instead of having soil as the media (Where the plant grows), it uses moving nutrient water. Unlike traditional planting methods, you can have rows of plants with grow lights, stacked on top of each other, to have efficient use of space!
So being curious, I started looking towards Hydroponics if it could be feasible. but as I did, I found something extremely promising and honestly, quite exquisite.
Aquaponics, the symbiosis of fish and plants.
The word aquaponics is derived from aquaculture, the cultivation of fish, and hydroponics, which you already know of. You must be thinking, "How do fish and plants have a symbiotic relationship with one another?" Before writing this, I thought the exact same question. At first, I thought it was straight-up magic. But as I delved more into it, everything started to make more sense. Symbiotic relationships aren't just the merging of two organisms, it can also be organisms living alongside each other.
For example, honeybirds in Africa and the people living there. The people call out to the honeybirds to help them locate honey. The bird calls out to the location of the hive, and the people help extract the honey. They eat some of the honey, and the rest they give to the bird.
How does Aquaponics work?
(Slightly Simplified)
The fish produce waste through their gills, or through feces. The waste is rich in ammonia, and too much can kill the fish.
2. The Pump
The pump pumps water full of ammonia into the pipe upwards.
3. Pump into the grow bed
The water goes into the grow bed to then go to the plants. But plants can't directly take ammonia, it has to be turned into something that is plant available. So 2 types of microbes help to reach that goal
Media:
There is actually a special type of soil called media, it's these small clay balls that allow the microbes below to form their home and allow this process to occur.
4. Nitrosomonas
Nitrosomonas takes ammonia and then produce nitrite, which plants can't take, and kills fish. So there's one more stage that it has to go through
5. Nitrobacter
Nitrobacter takes the nitrite and then turns it into the plant available nitrate, which is fertilizer! The nitrate is still poisonous to fish, so you need to use a ratio for fish to plants. But if you do it correctly, the plants will take up all of the nitrate and the end product is clean, filtered water!
6. Drain
If the water is high enough, the drain will pull water out. There are many types of drains and I believe this one is pretty good.
7. Pump into the tank
And finally, the clean water pumps into the fish tank, and then, the fishes are happy! : D
This took me quite a lot of time to do, so if you can, leave a comment below on any questions, links about aquaponics, or what you want me to do next. And if you find this interesting, share it with other people with the website, astrogardener.com
Also, I got a lot of this information from an amazing aquaponics farmer's YouTube channel called: Rob Bob's Aquaponics & Backyard Farm If you're interested in aquaponics or want to make your own aquaponic farm, go on over to his channel!
But anways, that's all I have for today. Be safe and have a great day/evening!
🌳
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