Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

hey MF, as long as the gravel don't get disrespected

MF... if you need any references to the history of hydroponics...

Let me know....have an original (1st Edition) copy of J. Sholto Douglas's "Hydroponics - The Bengal System"....

Not only details his work, but has an extensive "potted" history and bibliography of hydroponic developments and the pioneers in the field.

Hi Rupert,

Great little book that. I had occasion to dig my copy out recently.

Gary

Its good to have historyonics to fall back on.
Most ppls view is if I didn't do it, it must be faulty.
Forgetting that ppl have done lots of things before!

Mike,
Are you going to mention the idea of an "open" system in your definition, or are you going to concentrate on the "closed loop" system, which is what most AP's use.
The city of Columbia MO, in cooperation with the MO Dept. of Conservation, has been operating a bio filter bed to assist in sewage treatment and waste water disposal. While the system is not a true AP application it does use many of the principals of AP grow beds to do final purification of the waste water before it is returned to the ecosystem. (Possibly this was the info the "funky" wiki definition was refering to when it said it could be used for sewage treatment.)

Joel,
Didn't mean to step on your toes, or those of any one else operating any businesses related to AP. The only ones I wanted to recommend for sanctioning are those that blatantly promote thier products and services with out concern of providing information back to the user which might not assist them in correcting problems or establishing a system. Joel, you have been acting highly ethically, the problem are those folks who post information solely for the purpose of selling a product or service. Thank you for taking the time to assist others without any concern of financial gains!
Kevin

No worries Kevin.. This has always been the basis for what I'm doing, dissemination of information. My commercial interests allow me to spend more time and money in creating more useful tools, and encourage people further in aquaponics... Financial gain is not, and will never be my main aim. I learnt about AP because of people like the Speraneos and the members of their group who all gave information and time freely to help others, my aim is to expand on that while retaining similar ethics..

I'll get onto my service provider tomorrow and see if we can't sort out the issues that arose last time I tried to start a wiki. There will be no commercial content allowed in the wiki at all, except a link on the main page back to my main site.

i think thats fair as you are the one paying for it

ROz...I would be very intereseted in that Hydroponics manual! Is it transferable in electronic format?

Kevin, The idea of wastewater treatment via plant uptake is a "Permaculture" concept that has some influence on modern AP. The New Alchemy Institute formed its research based on the (then) emerging concept of permaculture , and I believe Permaculture techniques such as that in Colombia, MO are worth mentioning on the Permaculture wiki... and on the AP wiki. I need a reliable source to link to AP and I would also like to verify timelines and when ideas started forking from permaculture to AP. I can tell you that the first known article published on the idea of using fish to fertilize vegetables in a closed loop system was in 1974, one year after the idea of "permaculture was published!!!

Here's an early article my dad found Mike from 1975, don't know if you've seen it before..

http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/vie ... aquaponics

MF, "Bengal System" book is about 150 pages... and I would presume (even though out of print) still copyrighted.

Have PM'd you with alternative solution

Joel, that article is golden. In my search for the modern origins of AP, I am constantly led back to a period between 1971 and 1975. Fred Houston sounds familiar but his name isn't coming up. I suspect that there were many renaissance thinkers at this particular time period and homespun AP systems. In fact the more I delve into this the more I am finding that this idea is not owned or pioneered by one! There were many variations.

That article is a keeper! Seriously, I'd duplicate it and keep it safe.

ROz - I'll contact them for a copy. looks very interesting.

Groovy fish dome, looks like the windows were taken from a groovy party van:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Green-Ho ... hpool.aspx