Beginning

This blog will document my efforts with Aquaponics.

Aquaponics combines Hydroponics, or soiless gardening, with Aquaculture, or fish cultivation. Its appealing to me because I live in Arizona and water is scarce, but space is not. One primary advantage to Aquaponics is that it uses very little water because the water is recycled. The figure I read was that Aquaponics systems use 2% of the water of traditional farming, which I think is a reasonable number given what I know about it.

So Im starting small... I bought a second-hand aqaurium with 4 frogs and a bunch of goldfish ($25). Its a 20 gallon tank and it sits on a table near a window sill. I also purchased a small pond pump that will move the water into the plants which will sit on top of the aquarium. Hopefully I can set it up so that the plants are also an environement for the frogs. Total time spent on this project is about 1 hour.

Eventually I want to set up a vegetable and fish garden in my backyard. I want to make this house virtually self sufficient to 1) prove it can be done, 2) increase the value of the house, 3) make a nice home environment, 4) promote sustainable and appropriate technologies. It is possible to set this up to meet all the food needs of a family of six, and its power requirements are relatively low. A/C is my biggest concern at this point, the system has to survivie 100F+ temperatures in the summer. It think my best option is swamp cooling. Eventually I want to run the solution all over my property and make the whole thing green using only one water unit.