Difference Between Aquaculture And Hydroponics

Introduction

Aquaponics is essentially the combination of Aquaculture and Hydroponics. The recirculating aquaculture research community introduced the idea of aquaponics in the mid-1970s (Lewis et al., 1978; Naegel, 1977; Sneed et al., 1975). In their studies, edible plants were used to remove waste products from recirculating aquaculture systems. Today, commercial aquaponics production exists primarily in controlled environments, such as greenhouses or outdoor locations with favorable climates, using methods and equipment that draw from both the hydroponics and aquaculture industries. Both aquaculture and hydroponics have some down sides, hydroponics requires expensive nutrients to feed the plants, and also requires periodic flushing of the

Increasing the protein content in the feed will improve the quality of the fish (Hatch and Kinnucan 1993). Protein has an effect on the growth of fish, quality of fish, cost of feed, and the water chemistry of the system. Aquatic animals convert feed at better rates than other terrestrial food animals (Parker 2002). Fish require less energy for body support and are cold blooded therefore expending less metabolic energy for body temperature regulation. This will yield low feed conversion ratios (FCR) thus yielding more product per feed unit. The conversion of feed to usable energy and somatic growth in fish is 25-30% (Rakocy & Hargreaves 1993). Studies by Quillere et al. (1995) revealed a 60% nitrogen recovery (fish 31% and tomato plants 28%) from an aquaponics

The concept of aquaponic systems is to balance the nutrients within a given system so that there is no excess accumulation of nutrients, nitrogen in particular. Nutrients are delivered to the system via feed which is consumed, assimilated and excreted by the fish. Balancing the amount of nutrients produced from the fish system with the nutrient requirements of the plants can lead to optimized resource utilization and system productivity. Excess nutrients can decrease water clarity thus initiating algal, fungal or bacterial growth (Timmons 2002, Losordo et al. 1999). In aquaponics systems, dissolved waste nutrients from the aquaculture system are retained within the aquaponics system and absorbed by the plants (Rakocy et al. 2006). Therefore, it is necessary to develop an optimal ratio of fish density to plant density for an aquaponics system that can be scaled up to a commercial level. The filtration components are the pillar of which the aquaponics system is built on. Determining the nutrient inputs, the biological processes within the system, and outputs will help elucidate the efficiency and performance of an aquaponics