We can see obviously that our earth where we live has been damaged. Many scientists and also business people propose certain kinds of actions which are supposed to save the world’s life such as minimizing the usage of fuel and petroleum, reducing the usage of electricity, planting one million trees, etc. But those acts might not be enough considering that the damage that humans have made is too severe.

The aquaculture and hydroponics scientists have found a new method which can be applied to overcome this global damage. Their new method is aquaponics, it is a type of farming method that combines water recirculation and aquaculture with hydroponic plant production (also known as growing plants without soil).

You can grow the fish and plants by placing the fish in a large water tank. You then drain the water from the tank into a gravel bed. Positive bacteria would break down the ammonia waste of the fish to produce nitrogen, which helps the growth of the plants. Then, the filtered water travels to the growing bed and later returned to the fish tank.

Some advantages that this farming method has, is that it does not require the use of soil. So you will benefit from this farming method even on your non-productive land. Besides that, you do not need to worry about weeds growing on your land, or the need of spreading manure for fertilization.

This farming method only requires that you to shed the traditional farming tools when you decide to switch from traditional farming methods to aquaponics. That means you can save money because you no longer need the traditional tools.

After we talk about the benefits of growing in aquaponics for the farming method side, we can see further advantages for saving the world’s inhabitants, including: Using the water efficiently to grow two crops, which are fish and plants. There is no environmental impact, no nutrient rich waste water discharge, the fish food itself is used to grow the fish and plants. The two crops which come from one input.

In doing this method, we can neither use the pesticides nor the herbicides, since it would affect the fish and the plants cannot be treated by any harmful residues as well. Because of the advantages and the characteristics of the system that we mentioned above, we can infer that from the simple action of growing in an aquaponic system we would have a huge advantage and would more easily save the world’s population.

Joseph Lee is an expert in aquaponics and loves to write about world changing technologies in gardening and agriculture. He plays a role in the worldwide aquaponics community as an author.

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Backyard Aquaponics isn’t a new concept. Though many people are not familiar with aquaponics, it has been in use for centuries.

The Aztecs are believed to have grown crops on elevated beds in shallow lakes. They would then dredge the surrounding canals and use the collected natural bio-waste to irrigate their crops.

South China and Thailand were also thought to have experimented with aquaponics by raising fish in their rice paddies hundreds of years ago.

Herein lies the secret of aquaponics, the natural creation of biological waste from fish and their environment being used to fertilize plants.

This method is 100% organic and contributes to healthier and more robust plants and creating harvests of ten times that of a normal soil garden.

Why Backyard Aquaponics Works.

By adapting the same principles used by the Aztecs so long ago to our own backyard gardens, we can share in the abundant 100% organic harvests produced by aquaponic gardens.

We do have to make some minor modifications to our normal soil backyard garden to implement aquaponics.

First we remove soil from the equation (and along with the soil, the many soil borne pests thus eliminating toxic pesticides).

Then we implement a simple hydroponic system whereby we create elevated beds or tables just like the Aztecs did, to contain our garden. The plants are grown in a medium that is common to hydroponics but different than soil as this medium contains zero nutrients on it’s own.

Now, by introducing fish to our setup we create a symbiotic relationship between the plants we grow and the fish we raise producing a nearly self sustaining environment.

Basically, what we do is this:

Use a tank or small man-made pond to contain the fish.

Use the water from the fish tank to irrigate the plant tables periodically.

The plants filter out and use the nutrients in the water that are produced by the fish and their aquatic environment.

The water now cleansed of the bio-waste nutrients (which, while good for the plants, in high doses are harmful to the fish) is returned to the fish tank.

That’s It.

Now we have a simple cyclical organic system which is used to efficiently grow plants, fruits, and vegetables, producing 10x the normal soil garden harvest, in our very own backyard aquaponics garden.

And…much more

There simply isn’t room in this article to list all of the healthy, cost-saving, and eco-friendly advantages of using aquaponics.

You can read more about aquaponics and how you can start building your own backyard aquaponics garden today -> DIY Aquaponics

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As you probably already discovered, having your own garden and growing crops can be quite an intensive activity. It requires a lot of work, time and resources. The resources mainly being fertile land. If you had a vegetable garden for a longer period, you will know that nutrients in the soil will become depleted and you will have to fertilize it accordingly. There are organic ways to do this but often artificial fertilizers are being used. Also this fertilizing takes it’s time and money. It is because of these drawbacks that make many people decide to discontinue their efforts in growing their own organic food.

However, there is a simple manner of growing these organic crops right in your home, garage or backyard. You will have full control of everything with little effort. What I’m talking about is gardening following the aquaponics system. This farming doesn’t just result in high quality organic vegetables but also leaves you with fish. In case you don’t want to eat your fish, you could use Koi or any other fish to decorate your surroundings. Examples of fish suitable for consumption are trout, bass and catfish.

Always be sure you are allowed to breed or have specific species of fish at your home. Your local government will be able to inform you about any prohibited activities when it comes to fish. Certain species of exotic fish might be not allowed to be kept at your home. The reason behind this is that they can form a serious danger to endemic species when they are released in the wild. Good examples of what might happen to the local environment are the introduction of Silver Carp and the Northern Snakehead to bodies of water in certain states in America.

The aquaponics system works as follows. Fish live in a separate tank or pond and their waste acts as nutrients for your crops. What the system does, is deliver this water to your crops so they can benefit from it. The water basically is undergoing a continuous cycle and as long as you take care of your fish, your vegetables will flourish. Taking care of the fish is not much of an intensive assignment as they only require food, sufficient oxygen and good pH value of the water they live in. Because the plants extract the nutrients, the water is kept clean for the fish to live in.

You don’t need to do any fertilizing or maintaining an aquaponics system. As long as the fish are happy, you’ll have excellent crops. You can grow practically any plants using this system except for plants that actually need soil to develop their crops like potatoes, carrots and onions. If you do have these kinds of plants anyway, you can use water from the aquaponics system to irrigate them.

Aquaponic farming is a fantastic way to grow your crops and be left with vegetables and fish. Even if it was just for a hobby, aquaponic farming is a fun and great activity to involve your children with. It will teach them key aspects of the natural environment surrounding them as well as responsibility. They will understand how this cycle works and what makes it tick. Next to that, they will have to monitor the vegetables, take care of the fish and occasionally check if the system is still working to satisfaction.

Because the aquaponics system doesn’t involve lots of hard work and time, it’s also very much suited as a hobby for grown ups. Even seniors will enjoy aquaponic farming as a hobby as it doesn’t include back breaking work and doesn’t take up all of your time.

The aquaponics system is an enjoyable, rewarding and healthy activity at the same time for people of all ages and backgrounds. Get yourself informed and start building today!

D. Baste

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An aquaponics system does not require a prominent sum of money which essentially means that you have got next to nothing to lose. What you will need is a couple of containers for the fish and the vegetables, an oxygenizer for the fish tank and another small number of materials to carry out the construction of the system, all moderately inexpensive. As well as that the time required for maintenance is quite low and won’t have an impact on your daily activities. There is only need to feed the fish, put the seeds and then wait for them to develop and harvest your crops.

Having an aquaponic farm and involving your children is a great way to teach them responsibility. They would need to feed the fish each and every day and ensure that the air pump is working perfectly which allows the fish to get plenty of oxygen. Also, they must have to observe the state of the vegetables and the moment they become yellowish they need to announce you about this stage in development. These are not self explanatory tasks, but are going to give them a sense of responsibility and will know that someone relies on them. Also, they might be able to witness how fish and plants develop during their lifetime, which will increase their knowledge regarding the vegetal and animal world.

Vegetables are essential for a good nutrition and healthy diet, however you may not always get hold of fresh, organic vegetables at your local grocery store. With an aquaponic garden at your home you will have fish and vegetables for your family without having to depend on the stores.

It’s possible to plant almost all species of vegetables, which means that regardless of what vegetables you’d like for dinner, you are able to harvest them right from your aquaponic garden, without any fuss. Best of all is that they are completely natural, organic crops which is going to taste better and be far less expensive in comparison to crops from the market.

With your aquaponics system in place, you will no longer have to pay lots of money to prepare your meal based on organic ingredients. You will have them available at any given time.

This novel form of farming is downright easy to put in practice, highly straightforward and profitable. There are very few things you will require in order to install it, things which are also reasonable priced, so you are deprived of spending a fortune on high priced equipment. Additionally to that, it is also an easy task to mount and start the aquaponic farm. You will need only few minutes to understand the principles and another few to put them in practice. Within just days you will have set up your aquaponics system and start growing your fish. Their role will be producing the bio-nutrients for the plants. Once there are enough nutrients in the water, you will be able to propagate the seeds and then wait for them to grow. In the meanwhile you will have to take good care of the fish, so that they continue to produce nutrients for the plants. The good part of this is that you will not have to clean the water for the fish yourself, as this is what the plants will do in this cycle we just realized.

D. Baste

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Aquaponic farming can offer you great satisfactions: tasty and cheap vegetables and legumes as well as healthy fish during all year round. However, in order to obtain the best results you will first need to have some basic information about what aquaponics means and how can you make the most of it.

Aquaponics is a new type of farming which relays on the symbiosis between the plants and the fish. This means that the fish provides the plants the necessary food while the plants, by feeding on the fish’s excrements clean their water, thus making their environment a “comfortable” home. Because the fish are highly sensitive on chemicals, but also because they provide the plants with all the nutrients they need, there will be no need for you to use any pesticides or fertilizers to make your plants grow bigger and stronger, thus obtaining fresh, healthy and organic veggies without too much struggle.

As you can see the fish you put inside the tank play a great role in the success of your aquaponic farming. This is why, you will need to take good care of them and at the same time pay attention to that type of fish you choose. While basically all types of fish are suitable for the aquaponic system, there are states in which different species of fish are not allowed to be grown inside the house. Thus, before populating your tank with fish make sure that you are allowed to grow that type of fish in your home.

The species of fish which are recommended for the aquaponic system are Smallmouth Bass, Crappie, Chinese Catfish, Tilapia, Koi, Largemouth and Bluegill. However this list is not an exhaustive one and according to the area and state in which you live you can always try with some different types of fish. As well as you take good care of them and your fish are happy, there are great chances that your aquaponic farm will give great results in no less than a year!

Aquaponics can spare you of your daily trips to the market and offer you tasty, healthy vegetables for your entire family. But for this you need to take great care of the fish, which will basically make your plants grow healthy and beautiful