A Beginner's Guide to Aquaponics

There are many different ways to grow food in your garden. One of the most sustainable, productive and efficient ways to feed your household from your garden is to set up an aquaponics system.

What is Aquaponics?

Aquaponics is a system for growing food that combines traditional fish-keeping (aquaculture) with the practice of growing food in water (hydroponics). In an aquaponics system, nutrient rich, excrement laden water from a fish holding tank or tanks is fed into a hydroponic system and used to grow plants.
A well designed aquaponics system can minimise the use of polluting energy sources, water and land and can create a system run on renewables which is far more sustainable than many other forms of food production.

Types of Aquaponic System
There are various different types of aquaponic system suitable for home growers. These include:

• Media Bed - Constant Flow, or Ebb and Flow:

The most simple form of aquaponics involves the use of beds filled with a growing medium. The best media for these beds and the depth required for optimal plant growth are hotly debated and will depend on your requirements, location and the other elements of your system. Some systems keep beds constantly flooded, while others flood and then drain again in a cyclical way.

• Nutrient Film Technique:

With this technique, crops are grown in lightweight drain piping/ guttering through which a thin trickle of water from aquaculture tanks runs. This form of aquaponics is only suitable for a certain range of delicate, leafy plants as other plants will be too heavy or have root systems that become too strong and invasive. For growing salads, however, this can be a truly efficient and sustainable solution.

• Deep Water Culture:

Plants in these systems float on top of the water on rafts, with their roots dangling into it. This system has the benefit that, due to the tanks or channels beneath the plants, more water is held within the system. This means that the nutrient solution will be more stable and the whole system will require less monitoring than systems where far less water is used in the loop.

• Wicking Beds:

The final growing method used within aquaponics systems is the wicking bed. Wicking beds are traditional raised beds filled with dirt that sit on top of a reservoir of water – this reservoir of water can be part of an aquaponic system. This type of bed can allow other vegetables to be grown as part of an aquaponics setup that could not be grown in other media or using the other methods above, such as root crops.

Choosing Fish for an Aquaponic System

Tilapia are the best choice for warmer climates while trout are usually regarded as the best choice for those living in cooler temperate zones. However, there are a number of other fish species and other aquatic creatures that could be considered.

There is a lot more to learn about aquaponics, but the above should inspire you to discover more and to consider this versatile and sustainable growing system for your garden.