Farms: Backyard aquaponics: DIY system to farm fish with vegetables
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Rob Torcellini bought a $700 greenhouse kit to grow more vegetables in his backyard. Then he added fish to get rid of a mosquito problem and before long he was a committed aquaponic gardener. Now his 10 by 12 foot greenhouse is filled with not only vegetables, but fish. And the best part is: the poo from that fish is what fertilizes his garden. Aquaponics combines fish farming (aquaculture) with the practice of raising plants in water (hydroponics). It's organic by definition: instead of using chemical fertilizers, plants are fertilized by the fish poo (and pesticides/herbicides can't be introduced to kill pests because they could harm the fish). Since the plants don't need dirt, aquaponics allows gardeners to produce more food in less space. And in addition to the vegetables they can grow, most aquaponics gardeners cultivate edible fish as well. In this video, Rob shows us the aquaponics greenhouse in his Connecticut backyard, that he built mostly from scavenged parts, as well as his DIY indoor system where he's growing lettuce under a grow light. Bigelow Brook Farm: www.bigelowbrook.com Original story on faircompanies: http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/backyard-aquaponics-diy-system-to-raise-fish-with-veggies/
Comments
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Beautiful!!!
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Is your fish food organic?
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Do NOT drink aquaponics water. Bad idea.
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bluegill and crappie (I say croppie) are great for aquaponics. never tried aquaponics, worth a shot though
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What a great set up (and durable Laptop)! I love all the automation and would love to see some elaboration/schematics of the system.
I also wondered what fish food do you use? Anything special, organic, etc.?
(I apologize if it's answered in the comments below). Again, great work and use of space! -
I was amazed by the automated green-house, then you revealed the bowling ball gold fish. Anyway, will you share more on how you automated your green house? You are not the only lazy gardener.
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outstanding! thank you for sharing
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Good ol' Cold Blooded Cows...
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Do you think maybe keeping a bug zapper in there would help the bugs?
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I think having your system automatically ran is genius! what program did you use with ur puter to do this? how did you get ur water to the strawberry plants and how is your bottle set up for draining? can you make a video showing this?
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You should release ladybugs into the greenhouse they will eat the aphids and if they slip into the fish tank the fish will eat them.
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I'd like to know how to do this without the use of electricity.
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oooooohhhhh my goodness, my jaw got stuck in the open position after I yelled WAOW!
fully automated, internet monitoring capabilities. This dude is smart. -
That was great !!! Love his computer stuff. A over kill no doubt, but cool just the same. Can be at work and tweak it!! My only thing is gold fish??? Sure they LOOK cool but c'mon. Can't eat that. Pure urine/ammonia. There are cold water fish he could use.
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How do you handle insects or caterpillar problem?
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What is that exterior drain on the grow bed
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Thanks for posting
Very informative. -
You have minimal amount of fish. I would like to know, is there a general rule as to how many fishes should there be for particular number of plants? Thank you.
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goldfish are edible though
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I only eat fish as a meat product love Tuna, Shrimp love shrimp and I love fish tacos. Every other food I eat is vegetarian not a vegan. because I still need my Dairy.