a humble start...

Soon after being introduced to AQUAPONICS! I began to scheme...it was less than an hour after I was introduced to the concept that I began to develop my first aquaponics "system".

I had this goldfish bowl sitting around idle...with some ramshorn snails and freshwater aquatic moss. It was not doing a whole lot for me, the snails or the moss...



The snails were producing prodigious amounts of poop- eating algae and the odd bits of food I threw in for them. I decided these snails and their poo would provide the engine of fertility for my first aquaponics system.



I happened to have a Philodendron as a houseplant and it was gimping along...neglected as much as the snails and moss. I repotted the Philodendron in some aquarium gravel contained within a hydroponics growing pot.

No, I didn't happen to have a hydroponics growing pot lying about...but I live in Seattle...there seems to be a hydroponics growing store on every street corner...indoor "gardeners" abound...though I doubt their intended crop is snails and philodendron...

A quick bus ride to the 'ponics shop and I had the material I needed for my first aquaponics set-up.

The idea is that the snails will continue to poop and pollute the water and the philodendron will send its roots into the water and feed and grow from the nutrient soup in the goldfish bowl below...cleansing the water in the process.

WHAT IS AQUAPONICS???

Background info:

Fish excrete waste that is rich in nitrogen through their poop, their urine and through their gills. This waste is toxic to the fish even in low concentrations. Plants thrive on nitrogen and nitrogen is a primary nutrient that fuels plant growth.

Here's the scoop:

In an aquaponics system, a tank of fish is plumbed to a growing system of plants in a recirculating system where the water goes from the fish to the roots of the plants and pumped back again in a continuous cycle.

In the process, the plants suck up the toxic nitrogen waste from the fish tank water and grow exuberantly. The water is then cleansed and purified and provides ideal water quality for the fish.

In an aquaponics system, two complimentary "crops" are produced for the same amount of effort- fish and veggies.

Aquaponics mimics a simplified symbiotic feedback loop found within most ponds, lakes and rivers where fish and plants coexist.

Aquaponics is the essence of a balanced aquatic ecology.

In the beginning...

A friend of mine asked me "HEY, HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF AQUAPONICS???"

I thought to myself...

"aqua...ponics?"

After being involved in the aquarium hobby since I was six and working professionally in the aquaculture field my entire career...I had heard of everything "aqua" except...

Aquaponics!

"Aquaponics" sounded weird enough to pique my eccentric sense of curiosity.

I googled it and discovered enough about aquaponics to realize...

it would soon be an obsession of mine.