Aquaponics

[jennyjj01]

Hi all,
I just stumbled into a video sales pitch for an Aquaponics system. I won't advertise it here, but it was an American called Cobb if you want to search for it.

Anyhow, it made me curious about the concept, which seems to be all about maintaining a symbiotic relationship between a tank of fish and some greens.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaponics

It hasn't had many comments here for a long time.

Do any of us have useful experience of it, or strong opinions? I'm inclined to think it has a couple of disadvantages that make it not for me..... I don't eat much fish and it looks to need too much energy and nutrient input... and attention. On the flipside, it seems to offer high yield.

[jansman]

I not only catch fish, but back in the day I kept them ,in aquarium. They took some looking out for,and in particular needed reliable electricity to keep the aeration pumps going.
Also,are you happy if farming fish,to knock them on the heads and gut them? That’s not meant to be a rude question,but an honest one.

[GillyBee]

There is the high tech system but variants on this theme have been around for thousands of years.
One classic system involved draining the pond, (harvesting or moving all fish to a fresh pond) and growing a crop in the remaining fertile silt. Then swapping back later. The crop benefits from the rich silt and the pondlife eats the crop waste in the new pond & is then eaten by the fish.
Home tropical or goldfish set ups need to have 2% of the water changed every week. This contains plant nutrient and can be used as fertiliser.
And that is before you look at using blanket weed, seaweed or any other plant/algal growth from your friendly pond/lake/sea.

[jennyjj01]

I not only catch fish, but back in the day I kept them ,in aquarium. They took some looking out for,and in particular needed reliable electricity to keep the aeration pumps going.
Also,are you happy if farming fish,to knock them on the heads and gut them? That’s not meant to be a rude question,but an honest one.

Thanks Jansman, you know me too well !

Caring consistently for critters would be likely to end badly. It would need me to break the habits of a lifetime.
Could i kill and gut my fishes? I'll go with a reluctant and squeamish yes, though I've never killed my food yet. I wouldn't yet even know what sort of fish to keep, let alone how to farm them. Trout get a mention. I could eat trout
For now, I think I need to gather some knowledge on the topic. But it's going to have to be just theory for the foreseeable future. I will be tinkering with simpler cousin, hydroponics.

[GillyBee]

I kept tropical fish for a good few years - they take quite a bit of care and knowledgeable attention to thrive. I never really progressed past the "easy" ones.
Tried a bit of Kratky hydroponics last year. Worked well for windowsill tomatoes. Did not work at all for strawberries or courgettes. Better than soil for basil and is now the go-to method for that.
Combining the 2 sounds like I would need much better skills at both before even thinking about it.