Aquaponics 'Claimed' Disadvantages

Claimed Disadvantages:
by Matthew McCarthy
credit to :sites.google.com/site/aquapanaponics/4-project-updates/advantagesanddisadvantagesofaquaponics

• Can be expensive to setup as the system requires pumps, tubing, and tanks/beds. This is certainly true though it doesn't necessarily need to be. A small backyard system purchased complete from an aquaponics retailer can cost over $2,000 installed and the larger backyard systems capable of feeding a family between $5,000 and $10,000. Though if you are willing to devote some (or a lot) of your own time and energy then I think similar systems could be built for 25-50% of these costs (this is my guestimate). Grow beds and fish tanks can often be obtained for free (in western countries) and gravel obtained from the local river, though components such as pumps and backup power supplies will still need to be purchased. 

• You need a green house to really have a good aquaponics system. I guess this depends on what type of climate you live in. A green house can be advantageous to provide heat in cold winters, protect the system from heavy rains and keep out pests. This is also true for soil based gardening.

• Setup requires technical knowledge of aquaponics systems and hence is possible to make mistakes. True - there are stories around of people who loose fish and give up on their aquaponics system early on and there is some knowledge required to establish the necessary bacteria within the system. In a lot of cases these failures are because systems have fish stocking rates that are to high. We have yet to stock our system with fish so I can not provide a lot of information from our personal experiences though the initial establishing of bacteria (known as cycling the system) was very simple and took a lot less time then the average system cycling time.

• Water needs to be constantly monitored to make sure the water quality is OK for fish. This is certainly the case during the first couple of months. After the system has matured water testing is usually carried out only once a week unless there are problems. Seems very complicated for the amount of fish I will get. Yes keeping a healthy environment for the fish is where most of the complexity lies within the system. Water needs to be free of toxins (especially ammonia and nitrite) and also have enough oxygen for the fish you are keeping. This can involve adding extra aeration sources and making partial water changes to improve water quality. Stocking fish at a lower density will in most cases reduce the pressures on a system and make it more tolerant to changing conditions and less likely to suffer from the above problems - though this means you will have less fish to eat.

• Aquaponics requires electric energy input to maintain and recycle water within the system. In most cases you will need to provide electricity to run a water pump and possibly aeration pumps as well. We run our 80w water pump for 5 minutes every hour to flood and drain our three grow bed buckets. As we currently run the pump day and night this amounts to 2 hours of usage a day - so similar to having a light in your house (with an old style bulb) on for the same length of time. We plan to add another three grow beds to the system so this will increase our electricity usage further. At this stage we have not made any attempt to optimize the flood/drain cycle so there may be opportunities to reduce the number of times the system is flooded each hour or to not run the system at night with little impact to plant growth. 

• If one or more components fail this could lead to the loss of fish and or plants. In this regard you are dependent on using reliable technology (and back up systems) to ensure that your fish, which require oxygen in the water, remain alive an healthy. Your plants are likely to be unaffected in the short term, as the growing medium will likely retain more then enough moisture, though if the fish are not provided enough oxygen, they can suffer and die. This is the same situation for aquaculture systems.

• You can't grow root crops. You can grow pretty much anything in an aquaponics system from fruit trees to root crops, though depending on the type of growing medium potatoes and carrots may grow into some weird shapes. Most people focus on growing leafy vegetables.

• Ok so you don't have to add fertilizer or nutrients but you do have to provide fish food. Yes you do, the fish eat the food and their waste is used to produce nutrients for the plants. Of course you also have to feed fish in an aquaculture system and in an aquaculture system fish waste is not used in such a productive way. Fish are some of the best animals at converting food into body mass (different fish species vary) and so are an efficient way of producing meat and protein. Most people buy commercially available fish food for their fish although many people supplement this feed by growing worms, duckweed and other plants and animals.

Preventing an Aquaponic Problem From Happening

credit to AQUAPONIC GARDEN

http://www.aquaponicgardeningguide.com/prevent-an-aquaponic-disaster/

Prevent an Aquaponic Disaster

When someone new is getting into aquaponics, they need to take the time to carefully review and learn about aquaponic system maintenance. They need to learn about the most common issues that cause problems in aquaponic systems and it will help them to be more successful from the start.

One of the most disastrous aquaponic problems that can happen is when you use cold, chlorinated, un-adjusted pH water to top off and fill the system’s reservoir. Using this type of water will stress and kill everything from your fish and plants to even the healthy bacteria living in the system.

When you are “topping-off” the reservoir in the aquaponic system, you can get away with using less than 10% of this type of water. However, using too much will cause aquaponic problems in a very short time and you will need to start salvaging your system all over again.

Many times, people who are topping of their system using a water hose will forget that the water is on and flood their system. By setting a timer it will remind you to shut off the water to avoid this aquaponic problem.

The Options

Always evaluate the situation first.

Figure out what is wrong, ways to fix it and then pick the best option. Using chlorinated water essentially sanitizes your entire aquaponic system and will possibly eliminate all of the gathered plant nutrients.

When using cold, chlorinated, un-adjusted pH water for your system, the most likely state of each of the living elements in your system are as follows:

The Fish

Chlorine is not good for fish and the best case scenario is that they are just really stressed. The temperature level of their water most likely decreased considerably and the pH of the water is most likely changed.

While it is best to not utilize aquarium dechlorinators since they add sodium and other chemicals that can be hazardous to plants and cause aquaponic problems.

You should reduce the amount of chlorine in the system as quickly as possible to recover the fish’s slime coat that keeps them healthy, using a good aquarium water conditioner will do both of these things.

In extreme aquaponic problem cases, many of the fish may be very sickly, or floating in the water.

The Plants

Your plants also are stressed as a result of the temperature and pH changes, in addition to the chlorine that is presenting the water.

If your aquaponic problems are extremely bad then you might have to clean the system, which removes all of the beneficial nutrients from the system. It is strongly recommend that you add some Maxicrop into your system that will feed your plants while the aquaponic system comes back into balance.

If you catch the aquaponic problem before the water has made its way from the fish reservoir into the plants in the system, then quickly shut off the water pump. You will need to treat the fish tank water before you turn the water pump back on and by doing this it will help to minimize aquaponic problems caused to your plants and the bacteria in your system.

The Bacteria

Likely, the healthy bacteria in the aquaponics system have been destroyed and you will need to start all over again by re-cycling your system.

This is the hardest part since you most likely still have fish in your system and if they all didn’t die, you will need to cycle your system using the fish as your ammonia source.

Unless you have another fish tank or aquaponic system that you can transfer them to and do a fish-less cycling.

All will work out, however be sure to watch the ammonia and nitrite levels very carefully. If either starts reaching the high end of the color graph in the API test kit (4 ppm ammonia and 1 ppm nitrites).

After that be sure to do a 1/3 water change out of your system to dilute the levels back down to where your fish will be able to tolerate to avoid further aquaponic problems.

The Worms

You can assume that they have actually been eliminated by the chlorine and that you should add more worms to your grow beds once you have adjusted the water.

The bottom line is that one disruptive aquaponic problem can reset your system back to when you first started. You may lose a few fish, your plants could stress out and yellow for a few days or weeks, but you will certainly recuperate from the aquaponic problems.

Learn From Another’s Experiences…

The best way to prevent these aquaponic problems is to use a separate water tank to off-gas the chlorine, adjust the pH and water temperature before transferring the water into your aquaponic system.

By doing this additional step, you will save time and heartache from an aquaponic problems turning into a disaster then having to start all over again.

And just think, you will most likely never make these mistakes again or by reviewing this article, you will prevent this aquaponic problem from ever happening!