Aquaponic is a combination of fish farming (on land) and a vegetable garden without using soil. It is used and developed in very dry countries like Australia and Israel.

Aquaponics is..

1. a tank full of water, for example a ibc container with 700 liter water
2. some fishes, carp (eatable) or goldfish (not eatable) or other
3. a pump to move the water from this tank to a raised bed (higher than the tank)
4. some technical tools to monitor and controll (ph of the water and temperatur…)
5. some plants in the bed (salad, vegetables…)

2do..

1. give food to the fishes
2. controlling water and animals
3. harvesting (fish and plants)

aquaponics is a way, to get good fish meat and good vegetables. also it is possible to combine it with our targets of dye plants and medicinal plants.

there are 3 different systems in aquaponics running:
1. water is pumped into a system of tubes and inside the tubes the water went back to the container with the fishes, by passing the routs of the plants (good for salads).
2. water is pumped up to a raised bed with ceramic peaces and the roots of the plants are permanently inside of this water (good for some sorts of vegetables with deep roots).
3. like 2. but the water lavel is moving between a minimum and maximum (good for plants with short roots).

How it works

The waste of the fishes is converted by bacterias (living in the system) to food for the plants. combined with solar energy it is a self-sustainable system. the plants are growing very fast.

In winter 2015/16 we talked a lot about aquaponics. The consens between the members of the home unit in cervera was No aquaponics in the garden. Again in a new constellation in summer 2016 we talked about the project and we decide now, to offer Luke and Nafisa a piece of land to start a pilot project.

We think, aquaponic is to important for the future of this planet. We want to get knowledge about it to be well prepared in further political debattes.

Now we start with arranging a space in the garden for this new project (which could become a working unit later).