Aquaponics

Fertiliser has been widely used for growing plants from farms to the backyard garden bed, however many negative environmental effects may be caused, such as pollution to the water, soil acidification etc. In recent years, a prevailing symbiotic system that integrates the aquaculture and hydroponics became a successful sustainable solution for scalable organic food production.

An aquaponics system grows fish and plants together by implementing a micro eco-system. The high level of ammonia in the fish tank water is unhealthy for the fishes, however this is a nutrition-rich resource for growing plants. The water is continuously recirculated between both systems, and is cleansed and fertilising the plants by passing the roots in the hydroponics system. The aquaponics system use 10% of the water required for soil-based gardening, and even less water for the aquaculture system because no discharge is required.

I find the aquaponics system is very interesting because this is a self-supporting system requires very little maintenance. According to many reports, plants grow faster than in a traditional garden and the running cost is neglect as a small water pump is the only energy consuming device in a well-designed system. The good scalability and low cost makes this not only a solution for developed country such as Australia, but can also be a safe food source in the less developed areas as both animal protein and vegetable can be harvested from the same setup.

https://www.theaquaponicsource.com/what-is-aquaponics/