Page 17 - Pocket Farm (Alec Deacon) : Flip It & Read It

…that costs three mes less than what I was hoping for. But before I get to that, let
me explain what aquaponics is all about.

In simple words... an aquaponics system is a pocket-sized garden of Eden... where

fish and plants sustain each other in an almost perfect balance. The plants purify the

water for the fish... while the fish do all the hard work for you, fer lizing the plants
with their waste. You get tasty fish and juicy vegetables... almost without li ing a

finger.

Aquaponics is a happy "marriage" between the soil-less prac ce of "hydroponics" and
fish farming.

You may have heard of hydroponics. It requires very li le space and gives high yields

throughout the year...

And even NASA is using it in space.

Yet it's also complicated to set up... requires a lot of water... and the nitrogen-rich

plant food can be very expensive.

Fish farming, on the other hand, gives all the protein you need to survive... that you
simply can't get from tomatoes or broccoli. But it's also imprac cal and dirty. It

creates a lot of waste that's toxic to the fish. And filtering that waste can get really

expensive... really fast.

Aquaponics gets the best from hydroponics and fish farming... with none of the
drawbacks. The ammonia-rich fish waste is turned into the perfect plant food... while,

in turn, the plants purify the water for the fish. It's win-win-win... for the plants, the

fish, but mostly for you, because there's

no watering required

no fer lizing

no bending

and actually, no real work

Learning about aquaponics got me really excited but also a li le frustrated. It seemed
that all the stuff I could find on the internet was either confusing or downright

worthless. The books I read lacked essen al details or were too academic and
complex. And the people I talked to were just weekend enthusiasts who couldn't help

me with my goal.