What is Aquaponics? How it Works & Why an Aquaponic Setup Can Fail

I have another exciting episode for you and we’re here in Hawaii, on Oahu actually, and today we have a special episode for you guys all about aquaponics man I’m excited for this episode actually to share with you guys. This place here is actually called Aquaponics Place. This is a store that specializes in aquaponics, all the different parts you’ll need for aquaponics, the plants, the fish, the different, you know, tubs, bins, totes. Everything you need to do an aquaponics system in your home so that you can start growing your own food today. You know, especially here in the islands it’s very important to, you know, have a backup plan in case the ship doesn’t come in. To be able to grow your own food and as much as I like growing food in the soil and dirt, you know, or the red dirt here, aquaponics systems are great because now instead of just having vegetables you can also grow your own fish. Whether you want to keep fish as pets or whether you want to have them as a food source they can grow a lot of fish and a lot of vegetables to eat, a very well balanced diet. So anyways, what we’re going to do today is we’re going to go into the aquaponics place and share with you guys exactly what aquaponics is if you don’t know about it and share with you some of the components of the system and share with you guys some of the fish that they offer here. Share with you guys some of the pre-made and pre-built systems you can actually buy and bring home, anywhere here on Oahu. So we’re here inside the aquaponics place and if you guys are an aquaponics geek, this is your hang out man. They got all these different valve things and siphon things and screens and they got all kinds of fittings and they got basically everything you need to do aquaponics at home. I mean even on the mainland, a store like this is just unheard of. I’ve never seen a store dedicated to aquaponics. I think there should be a store like this in every city across the nation so that people can actually start growing their own food and it makes it easy for people to get all the supplies and parts, fittings, all this stuff you know because normally you have to go around to five stores, maybe a plumbing store, a hardware store, a swimming pool store and a pond store to get all the different things to get a system together. I like that this is literally a one stop shop to get all your aquaponics needs met. And I’m glad they’re here on Oahu so that everybody on this island can be growing some food today. What we’re going to be doing next is actually share with you guys how the aquapoincs system works specifically, so that you’ll be able to know how it works, and then more importantly be able to set one up and grow food for you and your family. So now we’re going to share with you guys what an aquaponics system is and it’s pretty much right here as you guys can see we got a big tank on the bottom and this is simply a fish tank. It’s holding fish, there’s lots of fish growing in there. The tilapia that you can eat or just keep as pets and then what happens is the fish are living in the fish tank and they are getting fed with the fish food which is the only input in this system. The fish eat the fish food and then guess what, they create waste much like us right. The fish make the pee and poop and then that basically gets in the water and then what they do is they take the water and they pump it up into this top bed. They pump the water up and then the water filters through this rock here, the cinder, and it basically filters down and goes back in and comes back out and strains back into the tank there. You can see where it’s all spraying out. What the plants do is the plants actually filter the fish pee and poop and put it back into the water. So that’s the simplified version we’re going to talk about in a little while the more complex version and how this system and why this system really works. It’s actually a, there’s one big lynch pin that many people may not be aware about in an aquaponics system that we’ll cover in just a little bit. So next we’re going to show you guys some of the different edibles that you can grow in an aquaponics system to feed you and your family. Alright so in this system they got a couple cool things. First soybeans, yes you can grow soybeans in an aquaponics system. They got some little Kales right there in addition some mizuna, one of my favorite leafy greens, especially to grow in the winter time. Also the lettuces, of course the lettuces will do well in an aquaponics system but they can’t be in full sun. They like it a little bit shady. Let’s see here, in addition they got some of my favorite, this is the shiso or also known as perilla and this is a purple shiso. I grow this in my garden every year and evidently it will do well under an aquaponics, in the cinder right here, check it out, this basically acts like a bio filter here and this cinder actually unlike other metas that can be used for the aquaponics has a lot of surface area because they’re literally like little sponges. In addition it looks like they got a little tomato over there and a whole bunch of chives growing in this bed. So, this aqauponics system here they got a whole bunch of strawberries that are currently in the greenery or leafing stage. They’re seasonal so they’re not producing berries at this time. In addition they have a nice large egg plant that’s been there a while and also they’re growing lilikoi or passion fruits that’s growing out of the aquaponics system over and over and over and up the chain link fence. I think it will be great one day when they have all this lilikoi or passion fruit with hanging fruits to eat and also show the massiveness of the plant after it’s been growing a while in the aquaponics system. Other plants that can be grown in aquaponics are something like this, the basil, looks like it’s doing quite well. They also have some parsley here and besides the parsley they got the red Russian kale, one of my favorite, the kales right here. In addition they got the green malabar spinach. I like the purple Malabar spinach but they got the green Malabar spinach so it’s planted maybe about a month ago. It’s doing really excellent, this is definitely one of my picks for what I would grow in the aquaponics system because the Malabar spinach is what’s called a perennial, edible vegetable. You know some vegetables and some plants actually go through their life cycle like the lettuce or like the kales but with this guy, this will continue to grow and keep putting on food for you so you can eat day after day, year after year without having to continually replant like you do with the lettuce. Over next door here we got things like more basil, and look at this, this basil’s been growing here a while and this basil straight up has like woody stems on it. It’s quite old, doing quite well, although it looks like it does have some still (06:44?) on there that they may want to do something with but doing quite well and it’s nice and tall there. In addition they’ve got the Calo or the Taro here which is also grown in the aquaponics system in addition they got a few beets over there and some rosemary. I know one of my favorite things to grow in Hawaii for sure is this guy right here, this is the okra, look at those little babies man, fresh okra, fresh okra is absolutely delicious and I love eating them, especially when they’re young babies. So over to this bed a few more things they are growing, things like celery right here. Definitely looking really nice and vibrant here. Also they got this plant, look at this guy, this guy’s a nice woody stock, really thick, it’s going to seed and these seeds are actually high in Omega 3 fatty acids as are the leafy greens that you can eat. This is also the shiso or the perilla. This the green variety, definitely would encourage you guys to grow the shiso green and the purple as well as basil as like an herb bed but also don’t forget to grow your leafy greens. So here’s some collard greens here, I would probably choose the Georgia southern collards here in Hawaii if I was growing them and let’s see here, here’s a nice large parsley plant, looks super delicious, looks like it’s growing quite well. So you guys just saw some of the different leafy greens and edibles that you can grow in an aquaponics system and I always want to encourage you guys to try and grow different things and experiment because that’s what this is all about. See what you can get away with, of course some plants are going to do better than others and of course that depends on how big your system is, how well it’s draining or not draining which we’ll talk about in a little bit. Also how much sun you’re getting or how much sun you’re not getting. Very important factors are considered when selecting different vegetables and herbs to grow in your system. Now besides just the leafy greens and you guys know that I’m all about my leafy greens, my show is called growing your greens and I want to encourage you guys to eat two pounds of leafy greens a day. You know they are one of the healthiest foods on the planet. The most nutrition with the least amount of calories. As you guys know, standard American food, fast food, junk food, is very high in calories but low in nutrition the greens are very high in nutrition. Another thing that’s actually pretty good in nutrition for the calories specifically and for the protein are the fish here. So whether you want to grow your fish and eat them or you want to have them as pets, you can definitely do that in the aquaponics system. In just about 10 months, on average, and it depends on the size of your tank and how much you’re feeding them and what not. Your fish, the tilapia will grow into full size and you can catch them and eat them. I think they’re fun we’re going to go ahead and go fishing, see if we can catch a fish here. Think you got to be pretty quick to get one of these suckers. Not that quick. Alright, I’ll try number 2 let’s see if we can do it. I got a strategy this time. I’m going to corner them against the wall. Alright! Check it out, I caught a fish! But I’m going to be nice and let him go. I think if I had the aquaponics here. I would mostly grow the fish for my pets instead of eating them. I got enough greens to get enough protein a lot of other nutrients in my garden besides the fish personally. Alright, so now that you guys saw what you could potentially grow, the plants and the fish. We’re going to kind of dive more in and explain how exactly an aquaponics system works and the different methods of growing. We have two different kinds of set ups here. They have like, basically a system that has just like a flood and drain, kind of floods it and then it drains it maybe some of you have the system where they’re just constantly feeding it water and the system that you choose to have is going to have is going to be dependent on the plants you’re growing so for example some crops can be grown in a system where the roots are constantly in water such as the lettuce or such as water crest. Whereas most plants are not going to like that level of water and have the roots wet all the time. They need to get proper aeration. So there needs to be a flood and drain system where the roots aren’t constantly staying wet. So now we’re going to go ahead and show you guys both those different systems and how they do it here at the Aquaponics Place. So this is the first system that we’re going to show you guys and this is the easiest system to make. If you think of your bathtub, if you fill up your bathtub with water and it gets too high it has that overfill valve right so you can never overflow your bathtub and it won’t like leak on your bathroom floor. Well, this system, growing the lettuce in constant water works pretty much the same way. So what many systems use is they may use like some kind of raft system and they generally put this on like some kind of Styrofoam but they choose not to use the Styrofoam here because the Styrofoam beads will break off, get into the water and contaminate your system. So they actually have a nice piece of plastic here and let’s go ahead and lift this guy up. So what’s happening is water is getting pumped in over here on this side and if you look on the backside, I don’t know if you can see that there but there’s basically like that overfill drain on your bathtub that’s sucking the water in so water never overflows but always stay a constant height. The water is kind of being a little bit aerated due to the flow of the water in and out and you can see in these little net pockets they have here these little lettuces are growing these little root hairs out and in these net pods the plants are just set in the cinder and that’s actually just to hold the soil and also another reason that we’ll talk about in a little bit but these lettuces will grow really well like this and another thing that will grow well like this also is the water crest that likes to have it’s roots wet. So now we’re going to show you the 2nd kind of system they have here. This is a system that actually drains out the water and actually drains it fairly fast so that the roots are not staying wet because most plants do not like their roots wet. They will succumb to root rot, possibly other diseases if you that and that’s all made possible with this guy right here. It’s actually called a bell siphon and how this works is simple. So we’re going to go ahead and give you guys a close up to show you exactly how this works. Alright, so how this system works is we got a grow bed with all the little cinders in here and then they got this little, kind of mesh thing that does not allow the cinders to go in and they have their overflow tube, much like the other overflow tube in the lettuce bed. So when the water level that gets pumped into this bed gets high enough, which is almost there now, what’s going to happen is the water levels going up and if we look, pull these rocks back here, you can see the water level right here is getting higher and higher and higher and if we just let it get this high and go into the overflow tube which it’s almost going to reach in a minute, it’s always going to stay at that level. Now, this is what happens exactly in the lettuce bed, the water always stays at a certain level and it’s almost overflowing now. And it’s just about overflowing now so can check it out so you can see the water running over the top into the tube there which then returns the water to the fish tank down below and now you have the water always at this constant level. So what this guy does which is the bell siphon valve, it basically creates a vacuum or a suction to pull the water faster than it would just normally drain out. So, for example the water’s draining out here but it’s never going to go below this exact level that you’re seeing. Now this is the standard bell siphon that they offer here. Just looks like that it’s basically just some pvc with a cap on the top. They put some little holes on the bottom, you know, in a nice shape but actually they have a cool one which is for display purposes only which actually has a clear top on it. So I don’t know if you’ll be able to see this on the camera but what we’re going to do is we’re going to go ahead and put this guy over the drain tube and once again it has cut outs on the bottom. We’re going to put that over the top and I don’t know if you guys can look in there but what’s happening is this is creating a massive suction. Look at this water draining out very quickly right. This water’s draining out very quickly so now the roots are not sitting in a constant water supply so that they will not get the root rot and it’s a special siphon that siphons the water out until it’s all siphoned out and then basically it will slowly fill up again until it’s full. When it gets full again then it siphons all the water out fast again. So this way you’re getting a drain and flow without any additional appliances or electricity or anything. It’s all happening on suction. This is definitely an ingenious way to make this happen and then it’s just kind of cool to look at the water as it’s working in there and see if it’s sucking or if it’s filling or if there’s air bubbles or if it’s sucking air or what man. Definitely so cool. Let’s go ahead and fill this guy back up so this can continue to work how it should. So you guys just learned what you can grow. Then you learned how to do it are the 2 ways you can accomplish this. Next I want to get into the Nitti gritty the bare bones of how the aquaponics system works. It’s actually fairly simple but yet complex on some levels so pay attention to this part. It’s probably the most important part of this video in my opinion. So as you guys know what happens is you feed the fish, the fish poop and then the poop is pumped up through and then put into the top here so that it can filter down and there’s a few components to this system. Number 1 is they got a very simple screen here. So this screen catches all the solid waste you know cause we don’t want that solid waste going into the gravel bed and get all funky and stuff like that right. You can then take the solid waste and this is solid fish poo. (Joking) But this is solid fish waste you can probably wash this out. I’d probably put it in your garden and use it as a fertilizer. So this is going to catch all that stuff. Now the non-solids then are going into the cinder bed and what happens is the plants just don’t absorb those nutrients directly. There’s a middle man involved you know, when buying things I like to cut out the middle man whenever possible but in this system I’m afraid you cannot cut out the middle man or the system will not work and it will crash. So the thing that you’ll need to know for this system to work is, and the middle men, what they are, are in this bottle here. It jumps starts the system. Now the middle man will occur naturally but by jump starting the system, you’re guaranteed a system that’s going to work more effectively and work right the first time. This is actually simply called organic digesture. So this product reduces the ammonia, phosphate, nitrites and nitrates actually in there and they do this by a very special way using beneficial microbes, bacteria and enzymes will break down the bad stuff in the fish poop and make it bio available for the plants to absorb. So without this critical component, that will also occur naturally if you don’t want an add it like this. Your aquaponics system can work properly and flourish. The other thing that’s very important is the medium so they got this cinder here and you know the cinder if you look at that closely, kind of looks like a sponge. There’s all different cracks and crevices, so this gives the bacteria and the mirobes a place to live in this system so that they can flourish and break down the solids from the fish to make it plant absorbable. So yeah, as you guys know that have been watching me for a while, I’m really into microbes and beneficial fungi and bacteria and that is truly what makes the aquaponics possible but if you’re also a home gardener in the ground it also makes a standard garden in your ground possible and will thrive as well. So now that you guys learned how this system works, let’s talk about the inputs required to grow the fish and all your plants. Basically what you need to do is you need to feed the fish so that they can create their bio solids or their poop to feed your plants plus you need to have the bacteria so all these things are pretty much a one-time investment. Once you got all those guys going, you’re only going to need to buy 3 additional things to keep your system going. Number 1 (00:19:00) you’re going to need the fish food of course, so you know, the fish pellets. They’re maybe $33.00 for about 40 pounds of food at this time in bulk and I always encourage you guys to buy it in bulk for the best price. And you’re literally just going to take some and you’re going to feed the fish. We’re going to throw a little bit of it out there and check it out, they’re eating back there. But you know the fish food’s all you’re going to need to keep the fish happy so that they create their poop and their pee because they are living in water so you’re not going to need to provide that but the few other things you will need are Number 1 you’re going to need what’s in this little bag here and what’s in this bag is some special stuff and let’s go ahead and put the bag back in there for you guys but what’s in the bag is this stuff right here. This is actually oyster shells so it’s often used, oyster shell, for like (00:19:44?) and gardening but what this is, this is a PH balancer. So you can use the oyster shells which acts as a PH balancer so that the fish have the right PH to live in properly. Another thing you may need depending on where you live are heaters. The tilapia like to grow and live in the temperature that Hawaii is naturally so you do not need additional heating in Hawaii but in other places in the country, you may need to actually use heaters to keep your water warm enough or your fish are not going to do well, they’re not going to grow fast and they’re not going to make it at all. Another thing you will probably need here and what they recommend at this aquaponics place is the iron chelate so the iron chelate helps keep your foliage green. It’s a nutrient that is not provided by the fish food that will encourage and ensure your plants ae healthy. Now the other thing that I would personally experiment with that they’re not yet doing here, and hopefully one day they will, is the rock dust minerals. I would experiment with the aquaponics and adding rock dust minerals, which will add 70 plus different trace minerals into the water which will also give nutrition and provide nutrition for your fish but also more importantly for the plants, you know and for them and so the plants and the fish will have more minerals and be more healthy. When their more healthy they’re going to grow bigger, grow larger their also going to be more bug resistant in the case of the plants. Probably disease resistant and have a stronger immune system in the case of the fish. So I don’t know exactly how much of that stuff to add but it can be done cause I have heard about people doing it before and I would highly encourage you guys to look into that and add some rock dust, even in small amounts to add some of those trace minerals back into your system so that you can grow some of the most nutritious food ever. So now that you guys know how this system works, we’re going to explain the anatomy of the system or the parts that you need to do it and you know here at the Aquaponics Place they’ll supply you with everything you need including the plants, the fish the containers and the pumps and everything to do that and as you guys can see behind me, there’s a standard system behind me. Now the system prices can range from a couple hundred dollars to a thousand or more dollars depending on how large you want your system. Of course I would always encourage you guys to buy the biggest system possible because the biggest system that you can buy will produce more fish and more greens for you to eat faster just in case you need to eat out of your garden exclusively and not the grocery store. So it’s really simple how these systems work. You got 2 big tanks, you got the bottom tank which is where the fish live and then you basically got some concrete blocks that they stack up to make legs like a table. Then they have basically a 2x4 wooden frame that’s of course the grow bed up top. They have the bed up top they fill it with the cinder and you plant your plants, I mean really aquaponics is really that simple. Now whether you buy a constructed set up like this which is all looking nice and professional or whether you get a standard, what’s called an IBC tote on Craigslist for $100 dollars, $200 dollars depending on where you live, and cut it down, it’s really that easy to do an aquaponics system. Even if you’re renting, have a condo or you know, don’t have land or in ground space, aquaponics system is an excellent way to use some of the extra space that you have and you don’t necessarily need a nice full sun spot if you want to grow tomatoes yes, you will need a nice full sun spot but even in the shade here in Hawaii something like the lettuce and the herbs are going to do quite well so that you can start providing food for you and your family instead of being dependent on the grocery store. So did I tell you that the Aquaponics Place will sell you everything you need including your kit, your fish and yes even your plants. They got starter plants here for sale and what I’m going to show you guys next is actually how they start their starter plants actually in an aquaponics system. This is actually unique cause I’ve never seen this being done anywhere I visited with all the different aquaponics systems I’ve seen. I’ve never seen anybody do it like this. So it’s really cool so pay attention to this section if you’re going into aquaponics and you want to start your own plants from seed. Aquaponics makes it really easy. Alright so this is how they start their seeds in the aquaponics system. Really cool so you don’t have to use any space, use any kind of soil. What they got is they got standard seed slot here, standard slat and what they’ve done is they’ve filled it with Rockwell which is a poplar hydroponics growing medium that they also do sell here and in the poplar they basically just put the seeds in the little holes and because this is a flood and drain table, the, you know, this gets wet and then it drains out so it’s not constantly sitting in water which then you could get, you know, seed rot but in this way this will get just enough water so that the little seeds can germinate into little baby plants. Once they germinate, get a little big then they’re going to transplant them into little individual containers that are next door. So let me go ahead and show you those guys next. So once they got those little baby plants started from seeds or actually you can do cuttings like this you’re going to basically put plants in the little containers here, right, check it out, little containers and these containers once again have the little holes at the bottom and it’s just growing in the cinder there and then you just basically bury this down in the aquaponics bed here just deep enough so that it gets enough water. Enough plants will get fed and once again they got that bell siphon valve here that’s flooding and draining this so like the roots aren’t staying constantly drenched in water, it’s getting enough water and this is literally an automatic watering system for all the baby starts. This is super ingenious. So it looks like they got, they got here water crest probably my top pick for growing in an aquaponics system. Water crest is one of the most nutrient dense vegetables on the planet. In addition they got the kale another yet nutrient dense vegetable. I believe you guys should be eating at least several times a week. They got the shiso, I love the shiso especially the purple one. You guys can’t see that, oh there it is. They got a green shiso, they got the chives, they got some corn growing under the aquaponics. Now probably my favorite crop to grow if I was here in Hawaii. I’d the water spinach or the Ung Choy. It’s actually, classified as, from the USDA, as an evasive obnoxious weed so you’re probably not or supposed to grow it anywhere else in the United States cause it could get in the waterway, all this kind of stuff but you can grow it here in Hawaii and it will grow fabulously under an aquaponics system like this and you can literally just take cuttings and replant it. You’ll have a whole mass of food that will continue to grow day after day, year after year and the great thing about the Ung Choy is that it will have the nice mild flavor it’s not strong or bitter, you know, like kale. Some people might not like and it grows real simple and real easy. I’m all about like sharing with you guys and the best of what I know to make gardening and make growing food at home really easy. So hopefully after watching this episode, you now know what aquaponics is, what you can grow, how to grow it and why it works. I think these are very important fundamental pieces of knowledge that everybody should know how to grow their own food in this day and age. Whether you live in Hawaii and food might stop coming in or whether you want to have a backup plan in case trucks stop running, there’s a financial collapse or whether you just want to eat the healthiest food possible. Based on the current agriculture system, in my opinion, they’re not growing the healthiest food possible. To do that you must do it yourself at home, pick it and eat it fresh for higher levels of nutrition, plus you can add things in like the trace minerals that are not in foods today. If you are here in Oahu and are interested in getting your own aqauponics system, I would highly recommend the aquaponics place and you can check them out and learn more about them on the aquaponicsplace.com. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this episode coming at you from Oahu, Hawaii. Once again my name is John Kohler with growingyourgreens.com. We’ll see you next time, and remember keep on growing.