Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

"The grower has very little (no) control over the nutrient content of the solution, apart from a very limited control over pH. In aquaponics"

Wrong

" The only study with one of these crops was by Vergote & Vermeulen (2012), who demonstrated that fruiting vegetables (such as tomatoes) require larger quantities of nutrients than an aquaponic system was capable of supplying."

Wrong


" Improved aeration of the nutrient solution might enhance the organic breakdown by means of bacteria? However, as the majority of the fruit vegetables are grown in solid media and irrigated via drippers, then the ability not to clog the drippers would be an essential pre-requisite."

Why so many guesses here?

"Clearly, if, as appears likely, the yield from the horticultural component of aquaponics is no better (and probably) lower than from conventional hydroponics"

This is not true at all! If Dr Lennards research trial for the Tasman herb company proved anything it's that Aquaponics is...at minimum... As good as hydroponic growth. I think If they would have done single crops side by side and altered the effluent for optimization of that specific crop the results would have been even more in favor of Aquaponics.

"Towards a hybrid system
There is little doubt that high quality fruit vegetables are not very easy to produce using aquaponic systems."

Wrong


My take on this is that it is no more than a hydroponic advocate saying it can't be done with Aquaponics.

While I gaze out into my properly designed ap greenhouse and see tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, eggplant, watermelon, capsicum, and several other varieties thriving.

Seems to be a very confusing equation to many Rupert

Or someone pitching for funding to do more extensive "side by side" trials...

Something Nichols and Lennard having been wanting to do for some time...

Wonder how many people failed to see that the NZ paper was coauthored... "Nichols & Lennard"...

And that Nichols & Lennard.. along with Savikov.. were all at the Protected cropping conference....

I would be quite interested in seeing a media bed comparison for the tomatoes. Given their massive nitrogen load, there is the potential to increase fish densities over leafy veg. Also the inclusion of worms etc in the media to further unlock nutrient for the plants.

I think that as that article suggests, there is very little science in AP and until it has had a chance to mature to the point HP has, there is little benefit of toing and froing between the two. I think that AP can be made to be profitable, but like any new industry there are going to be advances made in our understanding. I dont think it can compete with HP yet, purely from a veg quality point. Given HP can tailor the nutrient requirements to that plants needs far easier and far more repeatably.

Sorry Rsevs.. but that's just the point... aquaponics is just aquaculture.. and hydroponics...

Treated that way... designed and utilised as such... it is entirely possible to "tailor the nutrient requirements"..

That's the point... and that's exxactly the point that Ryan is making as well...

The problem is.. we keep clinging to the idea that aquaponics is.. something different... and a "closed loop"...

Well in a "commercial" sense... it's fine in a backyard sense...

So commercially it wont be a closed loop?

If you dont run it as a closed loop then fine, but if we can just dump HP nuts into AP to set the chemical balances we want, why dont we do it at home too?

It's not necessary to utilise "hydro nutes"... And we could do it at home..

I used to.. to varying degrees...in my "mega system".. although that wasn't a "single loop" though either...

But there's no real need.. or point... for most people

A closed loop works just fine.. and easily.. at home...

Commercially.. to drive consistent optimal production... is a different story...

Same with straight hydro... you can do it simply and easy at home.. but commercially.. it's all about control.. and consistency... the bottom line depends on it..

I am trying to properly understand what you are saying Rup, so you would have two loops? One for fish and one for veg? Just keep recycling the water through the veg till its clean enough for the fish?

Three loops (minimum)... fish... plants.. waste processing...

Well that is where the 'confusion' comes from.

To you high and mighty commercial gurus having multiple circuits might not be foreign, but to everyone else it is. (Tounge in cheek and no offence intended ) That is more like running a hydroponics system with some aquaculture thrown in to most of us.

That's what commercial has to be... on scale anyway..

Personally I think even a hobby farm would benefit from the same basic approach... as Ryan is proving...

(no offence Ryan... )

Would it still be a recirculating system though? Or more a way of extracting more worth from the food for an aquaculture setup?

Yep utilise the wastes from the aquaculture... and do the same with the wastes from the hydroponic plant production....

The UES system in Cobbity is doing just that...

And the UVI system removed wastes.. mineralised.. and added supplements which were then returned for the plant growth...

There's really nothing new about it... although I not sure if UVI processed the plant wastes....

Savikov does it as well... but again I'm not sure about the plant wastes..