Aquaponics - Integration of Hydroponics with …

1 800-346-9140. Aquaponics - Integration OF. Hydroponics with AQUACULTURE. Appropriate Technology TransferforRuralAreas HORTICULTURE SYSTEMS GUIDE. ATTRA is the national sustainable agriculture information center funded by the USDA's Rural Business -- Cooperative Service . Abstract: Aquaponics is a bio-integrated system that links recirculating aquaculture with hydroponic vegetable, flower, or herb production. Recent advances by researchers and growers alike have turned Aquaponics into a working model of sustainable food production. This publication provides an overview of Aquaponics with brief profiles of working units around the country. An extensive list of resources point the reader to print and web-based educational materials for further technical assistance. By Steve Diver, NCAT Agriculture Specialist February 2000.

2 Aquaponics , also known as the Integration of Hydroponics with aquaculture, is gaining increased attention as a bio-integrated food production system. Aquaponics helps production agriculture meet its goals of sustainability by following certain principles: The waste products of one system serve as food or fuel for a second biological system The Integration of fish and plants is a type of polyculture that increases diversity and thereby enhances system stability Biological water filtration removes nutrients from water before it leaves the system Sale of greenhouse products generates income which supports the local economy In Aquaponics , nutrient wastes from fish tanks are used to fertilize hydroponic production beds via Contents irrigation water. This is good for the fish because plant roots and associated rhizosphere bacteria The North Carolina State University System.

3 2 remove nutrients from the water. These nutrients The Speraneo generated from fish manure, algae, and The University of Virgin Islands decomposing fish feed are contaminants that The Freshwater Institute would otherwise build up to toxic levels in the fish The Cabbage Hill Farm System ..5 tanks, but instead serve as liquid fertilizer to The New Alchemy hydroponically grown plants. In turn, the Miscellaneous hydroponic beds function as a biofilter so the water Economic Considerations & Related ATTRA Pubs ..6 can then be recirculated back into the fish tanks. Suggested Reading ..6. The bacteria living in the gravel and in association with the plant roots play a critical role in nutrient Appendix ..12. cycling; without these microorganisms the whole system would stop functioning. Greenhouse IS A PROJECT OF THE N ATIONAL C ENTER FOR APPROPRIATE T ECHNOLOGY.

4 Growers are taking note of Aquaponics for several list and to the resource listings in the bibliography reasons: for more complete descriptions and technical details. Hydroponic growers view fish-manured irrigation water as a source of organic The North Carolina State University System fertilizer that enables plants to grow well. Fish farmers view Hydroponics as a In the 1980's Mark McMurtry (former graduate biofiltration method to facilitate intensive student) and Doug Sanders (professor) at North recirculating aquaculture. Carolina State University developed an aqua- Greenhouse growers view Aquaponics as a vegeculture system based on tilapia fish tanks way to introduce organic hydroponic produce sunken below the greenhouse floor. Effluent from into the market place, since the only fertility the fish tanks was trickle-irrigated onto sand- input is fish feed and all of the nutrients pass cultured hydroponic vegetable beds located at through a biological process.

5 Ground level. The nutrients in the irrigation water Food-producing greenhouses yielding two fed tomato and cucumber crops, and the plants products from one production unit are and sand beds served as a biofilter. After naturally appealing for niche marketing and draining from the beds, the water recirculated green labeling. back into the fish tanks. The only fertility input to In arid regions where water is scarce, the system was fish feed (32% protein). Aquaponics is an appropriate technology that Some findings and highlights of McMurtry's allows food production with re-used water research: Aquaponics is a working model of sustainable food production wherein plant and animal Benefits of integrating aquaculture and agriculture are integrated, and recycling of vegetable production are: nutrients and water filtration are linked.

6 1. conservation of water resources and plant In addition to commercial application, nutrients Aquaponics has become a popular training aid 2. intensive production of fish protein on integrated bio-systems with vocational 3. reduced operating costs relative to either agriculture programs and high school biology system in isolation classes. Water consumption in integrated systems The technology associated with Aquaponics is including tilapia production is less than 1% of complex. It requires the ability to simultaneously that required in pond culture to produce manage the production and marketing of two equivalent yields. different agricultural products. Until the 1980s, Such low-water-use symbiotic systems are most attempts at integrated Hydroponics and applicable to the needs of arid or semi-arid aquaculture had limited success.

7 However, regions where fish and fresh vegetables are in innovations in the 1980s and 90s have high demand. transformed this technology into a viable modern Organic vine-ripened, pesticide-free produce food production system. This publication will not and "fresh-daily" fish can bring premium attempt to summarize the production details prices, particularly during winter months in associated with Aquaponics , but rather it will urban areas. point to key innovators and published resources Biofilters (sand beds with vegetables) that are for further information. alternately flooded and drained with nutrient- laden fish tank water are called reciprocating Highlighted below are profiles of several biofilters. aquaponic greenhouses as models and examples Reciprocating biofilters provide advantages of of commercial systems.

8 Most of these operations uniform distribution of nutrient-laden water can provide technical assistance and/or offer within the filtration medium during the flood classes or opportunities to visit their greenhouses. cycle and improved aeration from atmosphere Please refer to articles in the Suggested Reading exchange with each dewatering which ATTRA // Aquaponics - Integration OF Hydroponics with AQUACULTURE Page 2. benefits both nitrifying bacteria and plant The Speraneo System roots. Dissolved and suspended organic materials Tom and Paula Speraneo owners of a small accumulate rapidly in aquaculture systems greenhouse operation near West Plains, Missouri and must be removed for efficient fish modified the North Carolina State method production. and raise tilapia in above-ground tanks inside a Previous integrated fish-vegetable systems solar greenhouse.

9 The effluent from the tanks is removed suspended solids from the water by used to fertigate gravel-cultured vegetables in sedimentation in clarifiers prior to plant raised benches. In addition, the Speraneos application. Removal of the solid wastes manipulated the watering cycle and use selected resulted in insufficient residual nutrients for tilapia hybrids adapted to cooler water good plant growth; acceptable fruit yields had temperatures. They also developed a unique previously only been achieved with blend of microbes which they sell as an substantial supplementation of plant inoculant to start new fish tanks. nutrients. Aquaeous nitrate concentrations in The Speraneos grow fresh basil, tomatoes, recirculating aquaculture can be adequately cucumbers, mixed salad greens, and an regulated when fish and vegetable production assortment of vegetable, herb, and ornamental are linked via reciprocating biofilters.

10 Bedding plants in their greenhouse. Tom Tomatoes may have also assimilated N in estimates they produce 45 to 70 pounds of organic amino acid forms. In 1950 Gosh and produce for every pound of tilapia. This is a Burris (Utilization of nitrogenous compounds by significant improvement over the North Carolina plants. Soil Science, 70: 187-203) found that system, which was getting a produce-to-fish ratio tomatoes utilize alanine, glutamic acid, of 2 to 1. Thus, the primary income in a Speraneo- histidine, and leucine as effectively as style aquaponic system comes from greenhouse inorganic N sources. produce. Fish are a secondary marketable Research to determine the optimum ratio of product. fish tank to biofilter volume ratio on fish growth rate and water quality found that In the early 1990's, Tom and Paula were raising stocking density of fish and plants can vary basil which they sold for $12 a pound to gourmet depending on desired goal.