Anyone into aquaponics?

[Lethe]

Just wondering if anyone has experimented with aquaponics? I'm really excited about it, and about to try my hand at it. If you've never heard of aquaponics, it's basically a sustainable, organic, and non-polluting way to grow plants and fish at the same time. It's the combination of hydroponic vegetable growing and fish farming.

Basically, fish produce nitrogenous waste which is converted to a usable plant food by bacteria in the tank. Then the nitrogen-rich water is circulated to the plants for food. The plants remove the nitrogen from the water, and the clean water is then circulated back to the fish. Thus the cycle goes. And if you grow a plant like duckweed, herbivorous fish can eat it, basically creating a closed loop more or less. Minimal to zero pollution, minimal waste of resources, completely sustainable and organic.

I was thinking of starting a small system with tilapia, duckweed, and some greens for myself. The duckweed is for the Tilapia to eat. I would love to get my hands on some australian Jade Perch though, which supposedly has more omega 3's than salmon does. I hear the omega6-3 ratio of tilapia is extremely high.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaponics

[WolverineDG]

1. Hmmm, sounds interesting

something to consider for next year. I'm getting my yard ready for a couple of square foot plats right now. :)

dg

[Callalily]

2. If you do decide to

venture into this project, please keep up posted. I'd be very interested as to the execution as well as results.