Aquaponics Forum

The Aquaponic Gardening Community is a Ning site that was established in early February, 2010 by Sylvia Bernstein. She is assisted by an Advisory Group of 8 - 10 active members.

The vision for the site is to form a diverse community of aquaponic gardeners, both experienced and novice, that is small enough to foster intimate relationships, but large enough to offer robust discussion across a wide range of topics and aquaponic gardening styles. The Ning format was selected because it easily facilitates forum discussions and group formation by geographic location, fish type or other areas of interest. It also encourages photo and video sharing and tagging, and the announcement and coordiation of events.

The idea here is to take the notion of community between aquaponic gardeners to a whole new level of interaction and idea exchange. So much of what has been learned so far about aquaponics is due to the open discussions between the early pioneering gardeners growing with this amazing technique. There is so much still to learn in this incredible new way of gardening. Together we can change the world.

Direct Link: http://aquaponicscommunity.com/

Aquaponics DIY

If you love to garden and the idea of growing your own vegetables sounds appealing but you have limited space or no access to fertile soil then an aquaponics DIY garden may be what you are looking for.

Aquaponics systems can be as small as an aquarium purchased at a pet store or as large as a commercial system with several acres. The system concept is the same just on a much larger or smaller scale.

If you live in an apartment and have limited space the ideal solution would be an aquaponics kit which may be a turnkey solution, you will have to add the water, plants and fish. If you have a larger space to work with you will be able to design a larger system with room for expansion.

Either way you will be able to grow your own vegetables or herbs and they will be at your fingertips year round.

An aquaponics DIY system can be an enjoyable hobby that will provide you with fresh herbs or plants. However if space is not an issue you would be able to produce enough vegetables to feed an entire family year round.

The idea of growing your own vegetables may be appealing just from the money you would save yearly but there is another benefit you will be able to control the quality of the food you will be producing and due to the recent food contamination scares that is a very appealing thought.

It is important to be realistic about your aquaponics DIY system because you are not going to save hundreds of dollars per year from an aquarium size system, which would be considered more of a hobby than a vegetable producing empire. However if you are ambitious and have the resources not only would you be able to produce enough foodstuffs for your consumption but you would also be able to profit from selling the excess.

It would be wise to invest in a step by step guide to help you get your system off the ground but will also help avoid any pitfalls that you might not think of in advance.

Reference : http://www.articlesbase.com/gardening-articles/

Aquaponics Variety

Types of common fish and vegetables suitable for Aquaponics

Vegetables

Most of the common garden vegetables do well with aquaponics, except for a lot of the root vegetables like potatoes, onions, garlic, etc. Growing root crops with aquaponics is possible but they can be tricky in this kind of deep water raft system, perhaps media fill system could do it.

Common fruit bearing vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, squash, peppers, melons, strawberries and even corn if supported will grow beautifully. Leafy greens like lettuce, cabbage and herbs like basil grow amazingly well.

Common legumes like beans and peas also do quite well. Viney plants like pole beans and cucumbers are great because they can be rooted in the grow bed, and the rest of the plant can grow off in some direction and take advantage of space and light away from the grow bed.

Fish

Tilapia, a fresh water fish that is hardy and fast growing, is most commonly raised fish in aquaponics. Numerous other freshwater fish, such as crappie, bass, carp, brim, goldfish and koi are being raised in aquaponics. More intense commercial operators are experimenting and developing hybrid systems to raise trout, char and salmon, such systems are more complex and require higher levels of technologies and management for rearing environment control.

Here are a short list of suitable fish for Aquaponics:
Tilapia
Walleye
Yellow Perch
Lake Perch
Bluegill
Channel Catfish
Hybrid Striped Bass
Northern Crayfish
Largemouth Bass
Smallmouth Bass
All Carp
Goldfish
Sunfish
Bream
Crappie
Pacu
Koi

reference from: http://ezinearticles.com

Aquaponics Valentine

Happy Valentines Day

Here are 3 more Aquaponics reference links I would like to share.
Note: I will update the Reference page as soon as possible.

1. Hobby Aquaponics: Zero Effort Farming - Aquaponics
- http://www.squidoo.com/hobbyaquaponics

2. ATTRA - National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service
- http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/aquaponic.html

3. The Aquaponics Guidebook (an e-Book) at Blue Planet Green Living
- http://www.blueplanetgreenliving.com/2010/01/13/the-aquaponics-guidebook-an-e-book/

Have a nice day