Aquaponics and the necessary hydroponics are generic terms for the rearing of fish and plants outside the natural environment, i.e. without soil. In hydroponics, the plants are fertilized using parallel fish farming. The difference between aquaponics and aquaculture is more of an environmental technical.
In addition to the environmentally friendly use of water resources, the purpose of these concepts is also to avoid pesticides, herbicides and medicines (according to previous regulations / 2021 in Germany) with optimal use of fertilizers or. Feed. The systems are separated from nature and in a closed cycle. Contamination of the groundwater and the use of machines, as is customary in previous agriculture and fish farming, is circumvented here due to principles. The rearing of the plants (hydroponics) in combination with a fish farm (aquaponics) is carried out in a closed system. The excretions of the fish are used as fertilizer.
The difference to hydroponics here lies in the additional fish farming. The fish waste consists of a large number of organic substances, most of which are not available for plants. Here, the waste is converted into nutrients using worms and bacteria (destruents). Without this procedure, the plants will not receive enough nutrients and the fish will be poisoned. Holds, at the best of living conditions, they create a nutrient-rich bed. This natural fertilization is more productive than the addition of artificial fertilizer, since the worms release growth-promoting substances for plants. So no more hydroponic fertilizers have to be brought into the system. Since hydroponic fertilizer is expensive and has to be added in a controlled (precise dose), this is the main factor why aquaponics are preferred to hydroponics.It saves time and money.
Aquaponics consists of complex biological systems. These biological systems need know-how because they represent complex units. Aquaponics is process-technically and scientifically more complex than hydroponics. They are highly dynamic systems that can change without external influences. But since it is „ Organsimen “ ( Fish, worms, bacteria, plants ) „ organize “ themselves within a certain framework. If the substance balance between fish, worms, bacteria and plants matches, the system hardly needs to be readjusted. This fine adjustment can take one or even up to two years. You have to feed the fish, remove dead parts of plants and check for pest infestation.
Here is a schematic representation of an aquaponics system. This consists of a fish farm that is connected to a hydroponic plant that uses the residues of fish farming for the nutritional needs.
Historical background:
Aquaponics has ancient roots, although its first appearance is disputed:
The Aztecs cultivated agricultural islands known as chinampas in a system considered by some to be an early form of aquaponics for agricultural purposes,[4][5] in which plants were grown on stationary (or sometimes movable) islands in the shallows of lakes and waste materials dredged from the chinampa canals and surrounding cities were used to manually irrigate the plants.[4][6]
Southern China and all of Southeast Asia, where rice was grown and cultivated in rice paddies in combination with fish, are cited as examples of early aquaponics systems, although the technology was brought by Chinese settlers who had migrated from Yunnan around 5 AD. [7] These polycultural farming systems existed in many Far Eastern countries and raised fish such as the Oriental loach (泥鳅, ドジョウ), [8] swamp eel (黄鳝, 田鰻), carp (鯉魚, コイ) and crucian carp (鯽魚)[9] as well as pond snails (田螺) in the rice fields. [10][11]
The 13th century Chinese agricultural manual Wang Zhen's Book on Farming (王禎農書) describes floating wooden rafts heaped with mud and soil and used for growing rice, wild rice and fodder. Such floating planters were used in regions that form today's Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian provinces. These floating planters are known as either jiatian (架田) or fengtian (葑田), meaning "framed rice" or "rice field" respectively. The agricultural work also refers to earlier Chinese texts, which indicate that rice cultivation on floating rafts was practised as early as the Tang Dynasty (6th century) and the Northern Song Dynasty (8th century) of Chinese history.[12]
4) Boutwelluc, Juanita (December 15, 2007). "Aztecs' aquaponics revamped". Napa Valley Register. Archived from the original on December 20, 2013. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
5) Rogosa, Eli. "How does aquaponics work?". Archived from the original on May 25, 2013. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
6) Crossley, Phil L. (2004). "Sub-irrigation in wetland agriculture" (PDF). Agriculture and Human Values. 21 (2/3): 191–205. doi:10.1023/B:AHUM.0000029395.84972.5e. S2CID 29150729. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 6, 2013. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
7) Integrated Agriculture-aquaculture: A Primer, Issue 407. FAO. 2001. ISBN 9251045992. Archived from the original on 2018-05-09.
8) Tomita-Yokotani, K.; Anilir, S.; Katayama, N.; Hashimoto, H.; Yamashita, M. (2009). "Space agriculture for habitation on mars and sustainable civilization on earth". Recent Advances in Space Technologies: 68–69.
9) "Carassius carassius". Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Fisheries and Aquaculture Department. Archived from the original on January 1, 2013. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
10) McMurtry, M. R.; Nelson, P. V.; Sanders, D. C. (1988). "Aqua-Vegeculture Systems". International Ag-Sieve. 1 (3). Archived from the original on June 19, 2012. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
11) Bocek, Alex. "Introduction to Fish Culture in Rice Paddies". Water Harvesting and Aquaculture for Rural Development. International Center for Aquaculture and Aquatic Environments. Archived from the original on March 17, 2010. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
12) "王禎農書::卷十一::架田 - 维基文库，自由的图书馆" (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2018-05-09. Retrieved 2017-11-30 – via Wikisource.
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