Fish function as a nutrient provider for the plants. Therefore, selecting the right fish species to raise in your desktop aquaponics setup is essential because fish have specific living conditions.
Aquaponics combines aquaculture (the growing of fish and other aquatic animals) and hydroponics (the growing of plants without soil) in one recirculating environment. In aquaponics, the fish produce waste that is converted by the nitrifying bacteria into nutrients for the plants. Plant roots absorb these nutrients to thrive. In return, the plant roots clean and filter the water for the fish to live.
Within an aquaponics system is a delicate ecosystem composed of fish, bacteria, and plants. For everything to work perfectly, each part of the system must be balanced and healthy. Fish are required to be healthy to produce ammonia that is converted by the bacteria into nutrients for the plants.
Having the right and efficient water pump will ensure that the water is continuously pushed through-out your aquaponics system to provide the fish and the plants necessary nutrients. If your water pump is not reliable to do the job of distributing the water in the system, the consequences could be a failure in building and maintaining your own aquaponics system. That is why we made this article to help you choose the right water pump for your aquaponics system.
A vertical aquaponics system is one aquaponics method that grows plants without soil in columns above a fish tank. This method is popular with aquaponics gardeners because it is a water-efficient and space saving way of gardening and fish raising. Growing vertically also lets the aquaponics gardener grow and produce twice the amount of plants as with the media-based aquaponics system of the same area.