Aquaponic Water Temp, Some Lettuce and Making A Profit

Water temperature makes a difference in all aquaculture systems, and as this short video from Murray Hallam in Australia shows---it can make a difference to your lettuce and therefore your profit. I really like Murray's videos--they are straight to the point and make a lot of sense. I enjoyed this one because he's admitting a mistake. In this video, he share's moving toward deep water raft systems, and away from his long skinny pipes, as a way to better control water temperature for a lettuce crop. He also stresses the importance of rotating your seedlings and harvesting on a specific schedule.

Farmers...take a peek and let me know what you think. You might also want to remember to not just check the temperature in your fish tank... If you've got lettuce--check it at the end of the system too--see if there's a difference!




source http://www.aquaculturehub.org/profiles/blogs/aquaponic-water-temp-some-lettuce-and-making-a-profit

Add a Fish Tank to your Hydroponics System

The combination of hydroponics and aquaculture (the farming of fish) is known as aquaponics.

Plants and fish live together in ecosystems and have done so since time began. The plants provide food for the fish as well as filter the water, while the fish provide food for the plants.

In fact, the Aztec farmers as well as Chinese and Thai farmers, used fish in their gardens. In modern society, some commercial hydroponics growers actually use aquaponics to grow their crops.

The Aqua Vita farms in Sherrill, for example, use aquaponics to grow basil, salad greens, and lettuce commercially. They have a huge fish tank from which the water is filtered to remove solids, after which is moved to a reservoir on which plants float.

The plants filter the water, using all of the nutrients that are contained within it. The water, which has been cleaned, is then passed back to the fish tank.

I have been thinking of using this sort of system in an indoor hydroponics setup. It would be really cool to have a fish tank, on top of which a small crop of lettuce is growing. It would also be mega cool if there wasn’t the need to clean the fish tank any longer since the plants were doing such a good job of it.

It remains to be trialled and tested.

Build A Fully Organic Hydroponics System

Hydroponics can be a great way to grow plants, but it can have its disadvantages. Maintaining consistent nutrient levels in the water can be a bit difficult for the average gardener. And for the organic gardener, supplying organic nutrients that are truly organic, just makes it that much more difficult. Aquaponics is a way to build a hydroponics system that is fully organic, and where the system takes care of nutrient levels itself.

Aquaponics is a blend of hydroponics and aquaculture. It just happens that the fish wastes created in aquaculture systems are full of organic plant nutrients. One of the big problems created by aquaculture is to somehow dispose of this nutrient rich fish water that eventually becomes toxic to the fish. One day someone go the brilliant idea to run it through an hydroponics system to let the plants utilize and filter these materials out of the water.

This creates a biological cycle between plants, fish and bacteria that clean up the fish wastes and convert them into plant nutrients. With this kind of system, you don't have to constantly monitor nutrient levels or flush the system to remove excess chemicals.

The plant roots filtering abilities eliminates any need for a mechanical filter for the fish, and the need to add fertilizer for the plants.

With aquaponics, the same water can be used over and over again, because the plants are that good at filtering the water. Because of this, aquaponics uses only about 2% of the water used in soil farming.

In a mature system, you typically don't have the swings in nutrient levels that you do with hydroponics. With aquaponics, if your plants are showing long term signs of lacking nutrients, that can often be solved by adding more fish. If nutrient levels are having a tendency to run too high, you can either harvest more fish, or add another grow bed and more plants to the system. This system is truly organic and it is shown in the quality of the food produced.

With aquaponics, you have the ability to produce better quality plants with less work, plus you produce fish too, all with the same resources. Farm raised fish are increasing in demand, especially domestic produced fish that are known to be from a clean source. There are many opportunities for fish including food, breeding fish for aquariums, other aquaponics growers and for stocking ponds.

If you are interesting in building a hydroponics system, or already have one, try adding a fish tank to it. You will likely see better quality plants and vegetables, and eliminate the hassles of adding fertilizer and constantly monitoring the chemical levels. Plus you will be able to produce clean, fresh, organically grown fish.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5906353

Hydroponics Grow Box

Growing with hydroponics is easier than growing in the field.

If you have decided grow your own plants, then you have a decision to make right now. Do you want to grow your plants indoors with hydroponics, or do you want to grow your plants outdoors in nature. There are many advantages and disadvantages to growing outdoors versus indoors with hydroponics. This article will discuss the differences between growing indoors with hydroponics and growing outdoors with soil, and the many advantages of growing indoors with hydroponics versus growing with soil.

Let's begin by talking about gardening outdoors. Gardening outdoors has a lot to the advantages and disadvantages versus growing indoors with hydroponics. First we'll talk about some of the advantages of growing outdoors. That's the sun. This sun is the most powerful light bulb you will ever find. The amount of lumens of the sun puts out is not matched by any light bulb that man can manufacture. Meaning that plants grown in nature with direct sunlight will be able to grow like monsters. The sun doesn't cost you anything. Light bulbs can get a little pricey versus this sun which is in a huge source of free energy, if you own a good piece of land that is.

When you grow in nature you have to deal with bringing water to your plants. You'll have to build an irrigation system of some sort to make sure that fresh water is getting to your garden. Whether you bring that water in from a river with a pump and generator, or manually water your garden every couple days this will take some work setting up. Also when growing outdoors you never know who might come across your garden and trespass. Often animals will eat up your fresh fruits and vegetables that you have spent so much time growing. Not to mention the outdoor pests that will attack your outdoor garden and cripple your crops.

However you can consider growing indoors with hydroponics using a grow box. If you do grow indoors with hydroponics I would highly recommend purchasing a prebuilt hydroponics grow box to grow your indoor garden all year long with ease. A hydroponics grow box is a machine that is constructed specifically for the purpose of growing plants hydroponically indoors with no mess and not a hike away. A grow boxes will often contain a light, a hydroponics, system of some type, and timers, as well as the nutrients and everything you need to grow a plants in a self contained grow cabinet. The grow boxes are shipped assembled and ready to use when you get them so no problems setting them up like the outdoor garden which takes a lot of time to prepare, working in the hot sun. All you have to do is simply move the grow box into a room and you're ready to grow after you plug it in.

With a hydroponics grow box you have complete control over your grow. You are not relying on nature or the sun's seasons, so you can set your timers for maximum growth and forget it. You have complete control over when the plant gets water using the water pumps. You have more control over your hydroponics grow when you know that you won't have rodents, and other types of intruders. So growing indoors becomes more convenient, safer, and a lot cleaner than growing outdoors in soil. When you consider that the yield you get indoors is every bit as big as the yield you can get outdoors it's a no-brainer. Growing indoors with hydroponics is the way to go...

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3117458