Complete Guide To Aquaculture

Complete Guide to Aquaponics
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Contents
Chapter 1: What is Aquaponics and Why Is It Valuable? .......................................................... 9
What is Aquaponics? ........................................................................................................................ 9
The Benefits of Aquaponics ...........................................................................................................11
Reducing Physical Labor and Heavy Machinery Use ...............................................................11
Generating a Healthy Profit ........................................................................................................11
Enriching the Local Community .................................................................................................12
What You'll Learn from This Book .................................................................................................12
Chapter 2: Aquaponics vs Hydroponics vs Recirculating Aquaculture ................................... 13
The Basics of Hydroponics ............................................................................................................13
Hydroponics vs Aquaponics ..........................................................................................................14
The Basics of Recirculating Aquaculture ......................................................................................14
Hydroponics vs Recirculating Aquaculture ...................................................................................14
Cross Training in All Three Practices ............................................................................................15
Cjapter 3: All about Fish for Aquaponics............................................................................... 16
What Do Fish Require?....................................................................................................................16
Water Temperature .........................................................................................................................16
Stocking Density .............................................................................................................................17
Growth Period .................................................................................................................................17
Dissolved Oxygen............................................................................................................................17
Feed Conversion Ratios..................................................................................................................18
Water pH Level ................................................................................................................................18
Which Fish Species Work Best? .....................................................................................................19
Cold vs Warm Water Systems ....................................................................................................19
Watch Out for Breeding ..............................................................................................................19
The Best Cold Water Species .........................................................................................................19
Rainbow Trout .............................................................................................................................20
Sturgeon.......................................................................................................................................20
Coho Salmon ...............................................................................................................................20
The Best Warm Water Species ......................................................................................................21
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Tilapia...........................................................................................................................................21
Channel Catfish ...........................................................................................................................22
Perch ............................................................................................................................................22
The Best Ornamental Fish ..............................................................................................................22
Goldfish ........................................................................................................................................22
Koi ................................................................................................................................................23
The Best Non-Fish Aquaponics Additions ....................................................................................23
Crayfish ........................................................................................................................................23
Shrimp and Prawns .....................................................................................................................24
Mussels and Oysters ..................................................................................................................24
Sourcing Fish for Initial and Ongoing Supply ................................................................................24
Check Legality First ........................................................................................................................25
Make Contact with Ornamental or Edible Hatcheries ..................................................................25
Choosing Between Fry and Fishlings ............................................................................................25
Quarantine and Tempering New Fish ............................................................................................26
Quarantine .......................................................................................................................................27
Tempering .......................................................................................................................................27
Chapter 4: Considering the Plants ........................................................................................ 29
What Do Plants Require in Aquaponics Systems? .......................................................................29
Light .............................................................................................................................................29
Nutrients ......................................................................................................................................30
Water ............................................................................................................................................31
Growing Medium .........................................................................................................................31
Climate Considerations for Plant Choice ......................................................................................32
What Plants Do Best in Aquaponics? ............................................................................................32
Edible Plants....................................................................................................................................33
Annuals ........................................................................................................................................33
Perennials ........................................................................................................................................35
Ornamental Plants ..........................................................................................................................36
How Do Fish Provide What the Plants Need? ...............................................................................37
What Conflicts Can Occur Between Fish and Plant Needs? ........................................................38
Chapter 5: Buffering, Waste Control and Biofilters ................................................................ 39
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Types of Mechanical Filters ...........................................................................................................39

Biofilter Ideas and Designs ............................................................................................................40
Buffering the Water .........................................................................................................................41
Chapter 6: The Most Common Methods of Aquaponics ........................................................ 43
Deep Water Culture .........................................................................................................................43
Benefits of DWC: .........................................................................................................................45
Nutrient Film Technique .................................................................................................................46
Benefits of NFT: ..........................................................................................................................47
Media-Filled Beds............................................................................................................................47
Benefits of Media Beds:..............................................................................................................48
Chapter 7: Recirculating Aquaponics or Not?........................................................................ 49
Challenges of Recirculating Water ................................................................................................49
Benefits of Recirculation ................................................................................................................50
Challenges of Open Loop Systems................................................................................................50
Benefits of Open Loop Aquaponics ...............................................................................................51
Chapter 8: Before You Design Your Own Aquaponics System ............................................... 52
Consider the UVI System ................................................................................................................52
Avoid Barrels and Small Tanks ......................................................................................................52
Source Materials Locally ................................................................................................................53
Check the High Cost of Modular Systems ....................................................................................53
Find a Designer or Design Consultant ...........................................................................................54
Chapter 9: Designing an Aquaponics System........................................................................ 55
Approaches to Design ....................................................................................................................55
Starting with Fish or Plant Volume ................................................................................................55
Recirculating or Not? ......................................................................................................................56
Basic Components..........................................................................................................................56
Choosing Materials for the Tanks and Troughs ...........................................................................57
Supporting Tanks and Troughs......................................................................................................59
Materials for Tank Walls ................................................................................................................59
Digging In-Ground Troughs and Ponds .........................................................................................60
Sizing a System for Deep Water Production .................................................................................61
Sizing Aquaponics for a Nutrient Film Technique Installation ....................................................62
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Sizing for Pond-based and In-ground Systems ............................................................................63

Sizing for Non-Recirculating Decoupled Systems ........................................................................64
Mechanical and Biofilter Requirements ........................................................................................64
Swirl and Clarifier Tanks.................................................................................................................66
Degassing Tanks for High Stocking Systems...............................................................................66
Sump Pumps for Processing and Returning Water ......................................................................66
Aerating the Tanks ..........................................................................................................................67
Designing the Plumbing to Connect Everything Together ...........................................................68
Chapter 10: Managing Water Quality in the Aquaponics System ........................................... 69
Source Water Considerations ........................................................................................................69
Water Testing ..................................................................................................................................70
Treating Water in Response to Test Results.................................................................................71
Adjusting the pH .............................................................................................................................71
Controlling Ammonia and Nitrates ................................................................................................71
Increasing Dissolved Oxygen .........................................................................................................72
Controlling Water Temperature .....................................................................................................72
Chapter 11: Managing the Fish and Harvesting Them ........................................................... 74
Choosing a Production Method .....................................................................................................74
Benefits of Staggered Production .................................................................................................74
Drawbacks of Staggered Production.............................................................................................75
Benefits of Batch Production .........................................................................................................75
Drawbacks of Batch Production ....................................................................................................75
Feeding Your Fish Properly ............................................................................................................75
Carnivores vs Omnivores ...............................................................................................................76
Sourcing Fish Feed .........................................................................................................................76
Determining How Much to Feed ....................................................................................................77
Automating Feeding Routines........................................................................................................77
Fish Diseases and Illnesses ...........................................................................................................77
Preventing Disease .........................................................................................................................78
Slow Growth ....................................................................................................................................79
Signs of Common Fish Illnesses ...................................................................................................79
Treatment Tips ................................................................................................................................80
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Harvesting Your Fish and Grading Them ......................................................................................80

Deciding When to Harvest ..............................................................................................................80
Grading the Harvested Fish ............................................................................................................81
Purging the Fish ..............................................................................................................................82
Hygienic Handling and Processing................................................................................................82
Chapter 12: Managing the Plants and Harvesting Them........................................................ 83
Light Sources for Plants .................................................................................................................83
Staggered Harvests ........................................................................................................................83
Buying Starts vs Direct Seeding vs Onsite Seed Starting.............................................................84
The Transplanting Process ............................................................................................................85
Plant Diseases and Pests ...............................................................................................................86
Harvesting and Storing the Crops..................................................................................................87
Chapter 13: Supercharge Your Aquaponics with Greenhouses .............................................. 89
The Benefits of Greenhouse Aquaponics .....................................................................................90
Protection from Predators..........................................................................................................90
Temperature Control...................................................................................................................90
Prevention of Water Loss and Contamination ..........................................................................90
Reliance on Natural Light ...........................................................................................................91
Longer Production Windows ......................................................................................................91
Which Greenhouses Work Best for Aquaponics Purposes? ........................................................91
Polyethylene vs Glass vs Polycarbonate ...................................................................................91
Structural Styles ..........................................................................................................................91
Arch and Hoop.............................................................................................................................92
A-Frame .......................................................................................................................................92
Lean-To ........................................................................................................................................92
Passive Solar ...............................................................................................................................92
Chapter 14: Running an Aquaponics Business ...................................................................... 93
Research Your Market ....................................................................................................................93
Draft a Business Plan .....................................................................................................................94
Find Mentors and Hands-on Training ............................................................................................94
Fund Your Startup Costs ................................................................................................................95
Hiring Employees ............................................................................................................................95
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Moving from a Hobby System to a Commercial One ...................................................................96

Finding Wholesale Buyers ..............................................................................................................96
Direct Sales Opportunities..............................................................................................................97
Making Money from Waste Products ............................................................................................97
Chapter 15: Selecting a Location for an Aquaponics Facility ................................................. 99
Considerations for the Raw Land ..................................................................................................99
Support for Tank Weight ................................................................................................................99
Grading and Clearing Costs ........................................................................................................ 100
Erosion Control ............................................................................................................................ 100
Planning for Utilities..................................................................................................................... 100
Electricity ...................................................................................................................................... 101
Water Source ................................................................................................................................ 101
Heating ......................................................................................................................................... 101
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Chapter 1: What is Aquaponics and Why Is It Valuable?
T
raditional gardening and agriculture, even in the controlled environments of
hoop houses and greenhouses, result in a lot of physical labor. Whether it's
pulling up weeds, applying plastic mulch sheets, or preparing the soil for
planting, working in the ground has always posed plenty of disadvantages to the
hard-working farmer. Turning to growing high-value crops in water and soil-free
media, the practice known as hydroponics, was a ground-breaking invention. It lifted
the roots of farming out of the dirt and into a new system of production.
Still, there are always ways to improve systems and optimize them further. When you
introduce fish into the system of hydroponics, you create aquaponics. Aquaponics is
often still thought of as a hobby or backyard project, but it has great commercial
potential for both crop and fish production. Adding the right fish to a water-based
system creates a natural source of the nutrients that plants need to grow quickly. With
a little daily management and maintenance, a large commercial system could
produce enough of a profit to create a strong family or local business. Once the
system is perfected, opportunities abound for franchising and expanding locations.
What is Aquaponics?
Aquaponics is the process of growing both edible plants and fish in the same system.
This system may be a closed loop in which all the water is treated and recycled, or it
may be a more open, linear system where water enters the local ecosystem again
instead. The name aquaponics is a combination of the terms hydroponics and
aquaculture. Aquaculture refers to growing fish in an enclosed tank or pond system,
while hydroponics involves growing crops without soil and in some kind of water-
based system that delivers the necessary moisture and nutrients. When the systems
were first combined in the 1980s, aquaponics was born as its own discipline.
The system begins with the fish, which produce a lot of waste as they eat and grow.
Many of these waste products are useful to plants as a source of the three primary
nutrients all crops need: nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous. However, just like with
animal manures used for in-ground growing, the waste products of fish need further
processing before the plants absorb them. Separating the waste and exposing it to
open air allows high levels of ammonia to convert into the nitrates that plants can
actually absorb as a nitrogen source. Bacteria are also recruited that live in the
growing medium of the plants and work hard to help the roots take in enough
nutrients.
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Because growing fish in ponds, tanks or even open waterways produces dangerously
high levels of ammonia that can kill off the fish and damage other aquatic life,
processing those waste products into a useful plant food helps close the loop on this
potential source of pollution.
Aquaponics offers benefits over both types of traditional hydroponics and

aquaculture, which will be explored later in this book. However, it still requires plenty
of planning and a dedicated management to succeed. Understanding what
aquaponics is not may be equally important before you start a commercial project.
Aquaponics is not:
• A set-it-and-forget-it system that can completely manage itself until harvest

time (although automation will likely make this possible one day).
• A guaranteed success in any market. You need either existing demand for
quality crops and fish, or extensive marketing.
• An entirely closed system. Most designs require at least occasional external

supplementation for certain nutritional needs of the fish and plants.
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The Benefits of Aquaponics

Choosing aquaponics over other forms of market gardening and organic agriculture
offers numerous benefits to both the farmer and their local community.
Reducing Physical Labor and Heavy Machinery Use

Many new farmers who are drawn to the agriculture industry from other careers,
greatly underestimate how taxing traditional methods can be on the body. Even
raised bed and intensive greenhouse growing requires a lot of bending, lifting,
stooping and miles of walking each day.
If you turn to heavy machinery to speed up production and reduce physical labor,
you're adding significant upfront and recurring costs to the farm's budget while
producing plenty of pollution along the way. The smaller footprint and reduced labor
requirements of an aquaponics system make it an ideal choice for new and
experienced farmers. It provides a way to grow crops without the constant bending
and physical strain typically required for weeding and harvest.
Generating a Healthy Profit

There's never a guarantee that any particular business will succeed or turn a profit.
With proper planning and access to an established market, an aquaponics business
definitely has a good chance at becoming profitable. A study completed in 2014 by
John Hopkins University provides the best information about the profitability of new
aquaponics businesses. Some factors that were positively associated with
profitability in the 257 businesses surveyed included:
• Making the aquaponics business the business owner's primary source of

income, allowing them to devote more time to it.
• Living in USDA hardiness zones 7 to 13, which allows for a wider range of crop
and fish varieties, and reduced needs for supplemental heating and cooling for
year-round growing.
• Developing a strong understanding of aquaponics through training programs

and hands-on internships.
Enriching the Local Community

Aquaponics businesses have the potential to solve food desert issues because the
systems are easily adapted to urban and rural environments alike. Wherever people
are living miles away from affordable sources of fresh vegetables, fruits and healthy
protein sources like fish, aquaponics farms have an opportunity to expand local food
supplies and enrich the entire local area.
What You'll Learn from This Book

This book will cover the basics of everything you need to (1) decide if aquaponics is
right for you as a business, (2) plan and design the system, (3) deal with common
issues, and (4) structure the business itself. We'll touch on all the major topics of
aquaculture and hydroponics as a solid start to your education in aquaponics.
Chapter 2: Aquaponics vs Hydroponics vs

Recirculating Aquaculture
E
arly and basic systems combining fish and crops date back to Ancient Chinese
techniques of raising fish among flooded rice paddies. Everything was
harvested at once, and ducks were often used for both pest control and an
additional source of fertilizer through their manure entering the water. Hydroponics
was developed as a commercial agricultural system in 1938, while recirculating
aquaculture reached a pinnacle of optimization for commercial use in the 1970s.
Aquaponics were in use as early as 1969, but the recirculating systems most
commonly used today weren't designed until the late 1970s through programs at the
University of North Carolina and the University of the Virgin Islands. The three systems
may have inspired each other and share many similarities, but they're also very
different in terms of yield, cost, complexity and maintenance. Explore the differences
between hydroponics, recirculating aquaculture and aquaponics to decide which
type of business is right for you.
The Basics of Hydroponics

Any system that involves growing plants without soil and supplied with nutrients
through their water supply is considered a form of hydroponics. The plants still need
something to root in, so soilless growing mediums for these systems may include:
• Expanded minerals like vermiculite and perlite.
• Pumice, gravel and crushed rock.
• Rice hulls, coco coir, sawdust and other byproducts of food processing.
There's no need to till, add amendments, measure the organic matter, fertilize or
worry about compaction of soil when working with a hydroponics system. However,
there is a need for a steady supply of water, and many modern hydroponics systems
also rely on lighting and even heating in some climates. Growers also tend to
purchase all the liquid nutrients needed for their plants, adding extra costs to
production.
Hydroponics vs Aquaponics
The biggest difference between hydroponic and aquaponic systems is presence or
lack of fish. Aquaponics systems rely on the fish for the majority or some of the
nutrients required for the crops, resulting in lower recurring costs with each planting.
The fish also provide a source of income. More testing and management is required
in the aquaponics system, as a sudden change in temperature, water pH or nutrient
levels could affect both the plants and fish. Hydroponics tend to be either manually
or computer controlled to keep the release of nutrients as even as possible, so they're
slightly less prone to certain fluctuations in water quality.
Yet hydroponic systems can still experience failures if sensors fail and irrigation gates
stick open, so proper maintenance and care is required for both types of systems.
Some hydroponics systems pack more crops into each square foot than
corresponding aquaponics systems, but they also only tend to work with smaller
plants like lettuce and radishes. With creative design and proper sizing, an
aquaponics system can support even perennials like smaller tropical fruit trees and
shrubs.
The Basics of Recirculating Aquaculture

Recirculating aquaculture is focused on the production of fish in a controlled
environment that is usually separate from natural waterways. Older forms of fish
production relied on large nets to section off rivers and lakes to keep fish easy to feed
and harvest. The high stocking rates push too much ammonia into the water, resulting
in oxygen loss from algae blooms in response to the source of fertilizer. Recirculating
aquaculture and aquaponics both solve that problem by keeping the fish out of the
waterways and processing the waste in the water to put it to good use as a fertilizer.
However, recirculating aquaculture generally doesn't involve growing any plants or
crops aside from water plants, like duckweed, that serve as a natural food source for
the fish.
Hydroponics vs Recirculating Aquaculture

With no crops involved to harvest and sell, a farmer using recirculating aquaculture
must rely solely on the fish, and their by-products, to turn a profit. With Americans
eating only 10% as much fish as all other meats, it can be hard to find a market with
enough demand for fish to overcome relatively low costs per pound and high
competition.
Ornamental fish work well in heated greenhouse environments and tropical climates,
but there's still a limit to demand for koi and other aquarium and pond fish. You can't
simply add rafts of floating plants directly to the ponds and tanks used in recirculating
aquaculture either. The direct exposure to unprocessed ammonia, high nitrate levels
and solid waste particles can kill the plants or at least stunt their growth.
Most fish tanks are also kept out of the bright and direct lighting that plants require in
order to discourage algae growth. Because hydroponics separates the fish from the
plants and processes the waste and water in between the two with the help of
bacteria and biofilters, it's possible to control the levels of exposure to certain
nutrients for optimal growth for both sides. Even with recirculation, aquaculture
systems tend to need higher levels of fresh water coming in and more waste water
going out than aquaponics. This is because there's no intermediate level of plants to
absorb a large percentage of the waste products before filtration is used, resulting in
a greater load on the biofilters and mechanical filters used in recirculating
aquaculture.
Cross Training in All Three Practices

Training opportunities for hydroponics or recirculating aquaculture programs will still
give you a strong foundation for starting an aquaponics business. Techniques for
keeping fish healthy or plants growing well in water apply to all three disciplines. You
may have to adjust the designs and rates for some aquaponics systems due to the
differences in water quality goals, but the basics apply universally. Many areas only
offer training in hydroponics and traditional recirculating and non-recirculating
aquaculture, as these systems have been in development for longer periods of time.
Learning whatever you can locally and combining it with distance and online
education specifically in aquaponics will boost your chances of building a successful
and profitable business.
Cjapter 3: All about Fish for Aquaponics
F
ish are complex living organisms, but they still only have a fixed set of
requirements. By supplying what a specific species of fish requires, while
avoiding diseases and other disasters, you can harvest a steady supply of
healthy, low-fat protein that can fetch a healthy price in the right market. However,
raising fish in an aquaponics system is often trickier than you might expect at first.
Proper fish selection, sourcing healthy fry and fingerlings, and knowing how to supply
for the fish’s needs, goes a long way in ensuring aquaponics success.
What Do Fish Require?

The exact requirements vary among fish species, but each one requires a specific
amount of feed, water temperature, stocking density, growth period and dissolved
oxygen levels. Offering the wrong conditions to a fish species or mixing together two
or more species with drastically different culture requirements, will eventually lead
to catastrophic losses. Even if the conditions don’t immediately kill off an entire
system full of fish, raising them out of their optimal range will result in slow growth
rates, poor feed conversion ratios and increased disease rates. Because each tank of
fish can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars to replace after a loss, it’s best to
match the fish species to the conditions you can provide most easily rather than trying
to manipulate conditions with heaters and intensive water conditioning routines.
Water Temperature
As long as winter temperatures either stay naturally above freezing or you can
provide heating and greenhouse cover to prevent these dips, you can grow fish in an
aquaponics system year round. Fast-growing fish are a good option if you prefer to
only raise fish during the warm months and want to finish multiple harvests in just a
few months of warm weather. Heaters may sound like an easy way to keep water
temperatures steady year round, but they can have many issues such as:
• Malfunctions that lead to overheating or a lack of heating; killing off fish either
way.
• High electricity costs that decrease the profits of every fish harvest.
• Routine equipment replacement costs; as commercial scale aquarium heaters
only last a few years.
• Circulation issues leading to hot and cold spots that kill off fish that can’t reach
water with the appropriate temperature.
Choosing fish that thrive in the natural temperature ranges of your proposed site
reduces or eliminates the need for water heaters. Greenhouses can further protect
the fish tanks and plants from temperature swings, making the most of any
supplemental heating that can’t be avoided. Fluctuations of more than three degrees
in a single day can kill off even the hardiest fish. Air temperature changes don’t
immediately change the temperature of a few hundred gallons of water, but without
insulation and backup heating, a sudden cold snap can lead to thousands of dollars’
worth of losses.
Stocking Density
The stocking density of a fish species refers to how much crowding the fish can
handle before experiencing growth issues. Packing too many fish into a certain size
tank results in damage and death of fish stock. When density is too high, fingerlings
can attack one another or smother the smaller fish. Stocking densities in aquaponics
are based on more than just the size and growth rate of the fish species, which are
the primary considerations for traditional aquaculture. Since aquaponics systems
must maintain a specific level of dissolved nutrients to support plant growth, the
stocking densities for these systems must also take these nutrient rates into account.
Growth Period
Adding two species with similar requirements to the same tanks can work well, but
there’s often too much competition if they’re identical in needs. Mixing two species
that are the same in everything but growth rate results in reduced competition and a
double harvest window from the same tank without any extra work. Make sure the
fish share similar feeding needs before combining them in the same tank. This is
imperative so that the slower-growing fish are not starved out by more aggressive
and faster-growing competitors.
Dissolved Oxygen
It’s a common misconception that fish breathe water. Their gills actually extract the
oxygen dissolved in healthy water. So, losing that oxygen due to a sudden algae
growth, unintended spike in nitrogen levels or long periods of high water
temperatures, can kill fish. You might think that all fish would need the same general
levels of dissolved oxygen, but even this requirement varies quite a bit among
species.
Aerators are the best tool for adding oxygen to tanks and troughs used in aquaponics,
but adding live plants that generate oxygen may work for some large outdoor tanks.
Deeper tanks with smaller surface areas can reduce the amount of oxygen lost
through evaporation and gas exchange. Yet, this leads to a separation of oxygenated
and depleted water known as stratification. Because each type of fish tends to prefer
a certain height in the water, a loss of oxygenated water at the bottom of a deep tank
can wipe out bottom-resting species. Balance tank depth and surface area to
promote oxygen gain through surface rippling while minimizing oxygen loss from too
much exposed water.
Feed Conversion Ratios

It’s tempting to try and choose a fish species by feed conversion ratios alone. It’s true
that a fish that generates as much weight as possible per pound of food reduces costs
significantly. However, don’t forget to factor in the extra costs of keeping a species
that isn’t right for your existing conditions. A fish with a high feed conversion rate that
requires extensive year-round heating and specialty feeds are not worth it. A less
effective species may turn out to provide a much more reliable profit, with lower
upfront costs, resulting in more business income in the long run. Don’t forget that
some fish with high feed conversion rates and wide ranges of temperature tolerances
are also banned by many states for being potentially invasive if they escape into
native waterways. Tilapia is one example.
Water pH Level
Many fish species used for aquaponics can handle a surprisingly wide range of water
pH levels between 6 and 8, compared to more delicate aquarium species that can
often only handle within a few points of 7. However, there are still plenty of types of
trout that will stop growing or start dying off due to relatively small changes in the pH
level. Because pH can change quickly and takes much more time to adjust back to
the desired range, it’s essential to check these rating regularly. It is imperative to
adjust often, and early, rather than waiting until there’s a serious problem.
Which Fish Species Work Best?

Cold vs Warm Water Systems
Your first decision regarding fish will depend on your local climate and your
willingness to cover and heat the system. Cold water aquaponics tend to produce
slightly lower yields and will only work for hardy fish species, but heating is greatly
reduced to only fall and winter growing periods in most areas. Warm water
aquaponics requires supplemental heating in all but the warmest and most tropical
areas. Fish species that require warm water include almost all ornamental types and
the fastest-growing edible varieties, while a few high demand and higher cost species
like rainbow trout require a cold water system instead.
Watch Out for Breeding

It’s a common assumption that the rapid sexual maturity and fast-paced breeding
habits of fish like tilapia make them ideal for a self-sustaining aquaponics system.
However, having your maturation tanks constantly fill up with new generations of fry
and fingerlings is not necessarily a good idea. First, fish in each life stage require
different feeding styles and amounts. Juvenile and adult fish easily out-compete the
fry for food, not to mention often eating the eggs and fry as food as well.
Harvests are also much more complicated and time consuming, and therefore less
profitable, when mixed ages of fish are all combined in a single tank. It’s possible to
grow multiple ages of fish in a tank by stocking percentages of the total stocking rate
in multiple additions of new fry. By adding a quarter or more of the total population
all at once, there is a distinct size difference among generations. This allows for easy
net removal of just the most mature stock. Free breeding leads to many mixed ages,
resulting in underweight fish that are still just large enough to get caught in the
harvest nets.
The Best Cold Water Species

Cold water fish species, for the purpose of aquaponics, are fish that will continue
eating and growing when temperatures dip below 65-70 degrees Fahrenheit. Many
of these species require temperatures to stay below the low 80s. In near-freezing
winter temperatures, even if their growth slows or stops, many of these fish can
survive. Thus, making them ideal to raise in unheated greenhouses within temperate
regions.
Keep in mind that the plants receiving colder recirculating water will need to be able
to withstand the lower temperatures, so plants that usually grow in the spring and fall
like lettuce, leafy greens and radishes work better than squash and tomatoes that
prefer warmth.
Rainbow Trout
Rainbow trout is the most popular and widely tested of the coldwater aquaponics fish
species. They do their best eating and growing in water temperatures between 56
and 68 degrees F, and this is fairly easy to achieve in many climates with a
combination of aeration and shade. These fish offer a high relative conversion rate
and mature within about 12 to 16 months. Demand for rainbow trout is high due to its
flavor and omega fatty acids profile, but you will have to focus on providing a lot of
dissolved oxygen and very clean water. Excessive ammonia levels and spikes in
dissolved solids can cause trout to suddenly stop growing or die off within a matter
of hours.
Sturgeon
Sturgeon is an appealing choice for cold water aquaponics because it can produce a
high value roe crop for caviar production in addition to its dressed meat weight.
However, you’ll need some ten to twenty- year-old female sturgeon to harvest the
roe, so don’t assume that you can turn a quick profit off these fish. There is only limited
information currently available about raising sturgeon in an aquaculture system, so
there are many unknowns for aquaponics as well. They grow well in temperatures
between 60 and 69 degrees F, making them easy to keep in many different regions.
Most species require salination, which changes over the life stages of the fish as well.
Maintaining a very high dissolved oxygen rate of 90% or above is also required,
especially to trigger roe growth in mature females.
Coho Salmon
Farm-raised salmon reduces pressures on wild stock, but many pond and open
waterway systems become polluted and produce poor tasting fish. Aquaponics are
ideal for producing flavorful and premium coho salmon, which is a species that
prefers much cooler temperatures than many other farmed fish species. Because
aquaponics systems rely on quality water supplies for crop growth, the fish also
benefit from growing in cleaner and healthier water.
Salmon are a little tricky because they require water temperatures between 55 and
65 degrees F. You’ll also need to provide more turbulence and water turnover than
other coldwater species need, which means more pumps per tank.
The Best Warm Water Species

Most aquaponics systems are designed around warmwater species. This is either due
to a tropical location for the facility or the use of extensive heating systems to control
water temperature in cooler climates. Warm water species tend to offer the highest
conversion rates and short harvest windows, allowing for multiple harvests within a
single year without complex staggering schedules. However, these fish also tend to
produce very high dissolved nutrient levels compared to coldwater fish. This usually
means scaling back the amount of plant growth per tank or expanding the biofiltration
systems to compensate.
Tilapia
Tilapia is the single most popular fish species used for aquaponics as well as in the
world of recirculating aquaculture. This fish combines a high conversion rate with a
wide range of acceptable feeds to make for much lower feed bills than with species.
Some fish require high-protein foods that cost more per pound to keep up a steady
growth rate, but tilapia can be fed primarily grain-based feeds that are less expensive.
They also freely breed every four to six weeks after a few months of growth. This can
supply a free source of fry for replenishing your tanks if it’s worth the extra work to
sort them out.
Water temperatures should be maintained above 55 degrees Fahrenheit at all times.
Ideally, temperatures should be between 73-85 degrees F for optimal growth. Very
high and low water temperatures will kill the tilapia. This species can handle a much
wider range of pH, dissolved solids and oxygen levels than other types. Yet, they will
grow slower in less than ideal conditions. The fast six to nine-month turnover rate,
from hatching to harvest, is the biggest reason for their popularity. Keep in mind that
tilapia has the most state bans against it in the US; including exclusion in Florida,
Louisiana and more.
Channel Catfish
Catfish are far from the most luxurious or high-value fish, but there is a steady demand
for fresh farmed supplies in many parts of the country. They’re also very reliable and
relatively low-maintenance fish that can mature in as little as eight to ten months.
However, they’ll need high temperatures and can’t handle dips much below 80
degrees F. Keeping the water around 85 degrees F or even above is preferred.
Despite their reputation for eating anything, catfish actually require a high-protein
diet, as they primarily eat small insects and other fish.
Perch
Perch is a great option for warm areas that can still experience serious cold snaps
during the fall, early spring and winter. Many species of perch grow best between 70
and 80 degrees F but won’t stop growing until 55 to 60 degrees F. Occasional dips of
temperature won’t put your fish harvest at risk when you’re growing silver or jade
perch. Their carnivorous diet makes feeding these fish more expensive than other
varieties, but the higher value for their meat can make up for the cost. The one
drawback is a long maturation period. You’ll have to wait at least 16 months before
harvesting, which is a long time for a carnivorous warmwater fish.
The Best Ornamental Fish

If demand for fish is low in your area and competition from imported products is high,
consider skipping the edible varieties and sticking to ornamental fish. Most
ornamental varieties are tropical in origin, so you’ll definitely need heated water if
you’re in a temperate or cool area.
Goldfish
Finding a contract with a national level aquarium and feeder fish supplier could make
goldfish the perfect profit machine for your aquaponics system. With some
supplemental heat and minimal aeration, goldfish are happy to reproduce and grow
to surprising size with a minimal amount of basic pelleted feed. Even if a particular
type of fancy goldfish might take six to 12 months to mature to the desired size, the
low-maintenance requirements of the species make it worth the wait. There’s also a
need to process the fish or freeze them according to food safety standards, speeding
up delivery when it comes time to transfer them to the buyer.
Koi
While koi are larger and slightly hardier than their smaller goldfish cousins, they
actually require more care and attention due to greater sensitivities to water
conditions. Koi can handle slightly cooler temperatures at 65 to 75 degrees F, while
goldfish generally need 70 degrees and up. Some cultures consider them edible, but
they fetch higher prices when grown to large size for pond and aquarium display. The
omnivorous diet simplifies feeding, but you’ll need plenty of dissolved oxygen and
tightly controlled ammonia levels to keep them growing to the sizes that fetch the
highest prices. It can also take years to grow a koi that demands a collector’s attention.
The Best Non-Fish Aquaponics Additions

Fish aren’t the only non-plant additions to an aquaponics system that can generate
the needed nutrients and extra profit. Crustaceans of all kinds can fit into a well-
planned aquaponics system; especially the freshwater varieties that tend to stay
smaller and reach a harvestable size faster than their saltwater relatives. But don’t
assume you can simply add a whole new layer of life to every fish tank simply by
tossing crustaceans into the bottom level.
Many fish species will happily eat these tank mates, even the hard-shelled varieties,
leaving you with nothing to show for your investment. Consider either stocking tanks
entirely with crustaceans, or mix them with herbivorous and omnivorous fish species
to reduce predation.
Crayfish
Crayfish are the smaller, freshwater relative of the lobster. They are tough and quick-
growing crustaceans that can fetch a healthy price per pound whether live or frozen.
As long as you don’t overcrowd them and cause cannibalism, they don’t need much
dissolved oxygen or perfect pH balance to thrive. They’re a good mix with non-
predatory fish because they eat solid waste products and can keep tanks clean. It’s
also possible to add them to grow beds rather than just the fish tanks to introduce
more life into the overall aquaponics system.
Shrimp and Prawns

Most shrimp and prawn species require saltwater tanks, but some freshwater
varieties work well as a part of aquaponics. They require some of the highest water
temperatures of all species at 78 to 88 degrees F. Only heated systems and hot
tropical climates are appropriate for shrimp culture. However, you need just four
months of growth to harvest fair-sized juvenile prawns, so it’s possible to grow just a
single shrimp harvest every summer and wait until temperatures return the next year
for another run. You’ll need one to two yards of pond or trough space per juvenile
prawn to avoid internal predation, so don’t expect a high stocking rate on smaller
commercial systems.
Mussels and Oysters

Freshwater shellfish harvested from rivers and lakes tend to have high levels of heavy
metals and pollution. Aquaponics offers an ideal alternative for clean production. The
hard shells protect these additions from most fish, while the water-cleaning benefits
of the mollusks will improve quality throughout the system. Watch out for new
mollusks settling in pipes and filter areas where they can create clogs. Be aware that
populations can die off suddenly if food levels drop unexpectedly for them due to
subtle changes in fish habits or a total harvest.
Sourcing Fish for Initial and Ongoing Supply

Regardless of the species you choose, you’ll need to order your first set of fish fry or
fingerlings from a local hatchery or aquaculture supply service. Even if you plan to
set up spawning tanks or encourage natural reproduction within the growing tanks,
you’ll need at least an initial supply to get your business started. Selecting the right
supplier is tricky when you’re new to the world of fish and aquaculture, but there are
a few common guidelines to picking the right company.
Check Legality First

Before placing any orders or even shopping around for fish fingerling and fry prices,
check your state’s restrictions on aquaculture. Each state sets its own rules about fish
species that are legal to raise and sell, both for personal use and commercial sale.
Just because a species is legal to own in a backyard pond doesn’t make it legal to
breed, raise and sell in your state. You never want to find out about the legality of a
fish species only after making a large purchase, as suppliers don’t accept returns and
often won’t cancel orders in process.
Make Contact with Ornamental or Edible Hatcheries

In general, fish hatcheries focus on either ornamental or edible species and many only
hatch one or two primary varieties. Check the minimum orders before assuming a
large-scale hatchery is right for even the largest aquaponics system. Most first orders
are only in the low hundreds, as it’s best to stock new tanks to 25% at first, then add
more fish by the quarters until reaching 100% stock density. A facility that requires you
to purchase thousands or tens of thousands of fingerlings at once may not work well,
except for the very largest commercial aquaponics systems.
Choosing Between Fry and Fishlings

The fish used in aquaponics have four general life stages:
• Fry; which is the smallest stage immediately after hatching.

• Fingerling; which is when the fish reaches a few inches in length and is growing
rapidly.
• Juvenile; when the fish starts to reach lengths of four to six inches, develops
more adult features like scales, and may reach sexual maturity in some species.
• Adult; at which point the fish will eventually reach its full weight and may
reproduce if conditions are right.
Fish stock is brought into an aquaponics system at either the fry or fingerling stage.
Fry is less expensive and easy to transport due to its compact size. Yet, at this stage,
they are easily shocked and require a very fine crumble feed to be dispensed every
few hours. Small fluctuations in water quality and temperature are more likely to kill
fry as well. Fingerlings are more expensive and can take up a lot of space to transport
safely, but they are hardier and grow much faster. They’re also large enough to eat
the same pelleted feed or carnivorous foods you’ll be feeding the fish until they’re
adults.
In general, most commercial aquaponics businesses should stick with fingerlings

unless they want to produce their own fry or buy fry in bulk and become a reseller of
fingerlings to other companies.
Quarantine and Tempering New Fish

It’s not as easy as simply dumping a cooler or bag full of new fingerlings into prepared
tanks and hoping for the best when you first get your order of fish. Whether you’re
setting up fish tanks for the first time or are just adding the latest batch of fingerlings,
you’ll need to quarantine the fish and perform tempering procedures to acclimate
them to the system’s water supply.
Quarantine
Brand new systems can function as the quarantine area for the first round of fish, but
all future additions must start out in a tank separate from the rest of the facility. Even
when you’re buying from the most reliable suppliers, it only takes a single infected
fish to introduce diseases and parasites that spread rapidly and costs you thousands
of dollars to fight. Keep new fish in a purge tank for at least one week, preferably two,
before introducing them into the stock tanks. Watch for signs of infection such as low
feeding rates, sideways swimming and floating, reddened or tattered gills, and tucked
fins.
Tempering
All new fish need tempering, even the very first batch introduced into empty tanks
that have cycled and tested. Check the water the fish are packed in for pH and
temperature. Fish can only handle a single degree of pH change and two degrees of
temperature change per half hour, so you may need to spend a few hours slowly
introducing them to the water. Use the hauling tank they arrived in or set up a separate
tank for tempering and fill it with the hauling water. Replace 10% of the tank’s volume
with the system water every half an hour to slowly acclimate the fish without shocking
them. It takes hours to eventually reach a level where they can be released into the
main tanks, but the time spent on tempering pays off with healthier fish that start
eating and growing almost immediately, rather than lingering or dying off from stress
and subsequent disease.

Chapter 4: Considering the Plants
R
aising fish without plants isn’t hydroponics, it’s aquaculture. Plants are equally
important to the fish you use in your system, even if they seem much more
passive. It’s not as simple as plugging in seeds and transplants, providing
nutrients, and waiting until harvest time. Edible crops and ornamental flowers alike
can suffer from diseases, pest attacks and even weird genetic mutations or unknown
failures. Practicing your general agricultural and horticultural skills will take you a long
way in preparing to manage this part of an aquaponics business.
What Do Plants Require in Aquaponics Systems?

Plants grown in an aquaponics system require the same light levels, nutrient amounts
and water supply as when grown in soil. However, in contrast to traditional agriculture,
aquaponics allows you more options for delivering each of the three essentials for
growth. It’s also easier to control nutrient and water levels and adjust for oversupply
without losing all of your crops right before harvest time.
Light
Each type of edible or ornamental plant has its own light requirements, usually broken
down into the general categories of: full sun (6+ hours of bright and direct light a day),
partial shade (4+ hours of bright light or 6+ hours of partial light), and full shade (less
than 4+ hours of bright or partial sun a day).
Open air aquaponics systems are generally easy enough to orient to a southern
exposure that provides 8+ hours of continuous full sun a day, barring any unforeseen
shade producers like mature trees or nearby buildings. Supplying light in an enclosed
greenhouse system is a little trickier. Even with the highest light transmission rate poly
films or polycarbonate panels, some amount of the light is blocked. Greenhouse
frames and solid ends can also cut off hours of early and late sun exposure.
Supplemental lighting is one option, but it comes with high upfront costs while also
raising the electricity and maintenance bills. Choosing plants that need less light, or
at least less intense levels of light, is a better option for most greenhouse growers.
Complete indoor aquaponics systems will require a strong lighting system. Most full
sun plants each need at least 20 to 30 watts, and this must be the actual in-use
wattage, not just the equivalents used to advertise low-energy LED and CFL fixtures.
Nutrients
A big part of the appeal of aquaponics is the idea that the waste products released
by fish can supply the nutrients required by the plants. Even with careful balancing
and management, the best systems can still fall short of supplying all of a crop’s
nutrient requirements. However, reducing the need for external fertilizers by just half
or more can greatly increase the profit margins on the final harvested products. All
plants, ornamental or edible, need some combination of the following three nutrients:
Nitrogen, or N. This is the most copious nutrient released from fish waste in the form
of ammonia, but plants prefer to absorb it in a nitrate form. Nitrogen is required for
strong, lush leaf and stem growth. Too much of it can kills plants from shock or at
least delay flowering and fruit formation in favor of endless leafy growth. Leaf crops
like lettuce and greens tend to require the most nitrogen.
Phosphorous, or P. Without phosphorous, plants grow weak and small roots, can’t
extend their stems, and won’t set flowers or form fruit. Overall plant vitality, and
resistance to pests and diseases, are based on phosphorous intake. It’s also a tricky
nutrient to supply to plants in all forms of agriculture and horticulture. Fish waste
provides a decent supply. Yet, plants that set a lot of individual fruits, like tomatoes,
will likely benefit from some timely supplementation. Careful management is
necessary for supplemental applications, as phosphorous is even more likely than
nitrogen to set off algae blooms.
Potassium, or K. It’s often considered the least important of the three major plant
nutrients, but some edible crops have a particularly high need for it. Potassium is used
in most of the plant’s primary functions; including producing its own food through
photosynthesis and new tissue growth. Without a steady supply, plants are sickly or
just grow slowly in general. Some sources estimate that 90% of serious nutrient
deficiencies in aquaponics are caused by low potassium levels. This occurs because
proper potassium levels are necessary for the absorption of other nutrients like
calcium. Although fish feeds tend to be high in potassium, little of that makes it
through the nutrient cycle to the plants. Test regularly and don’t be afraid to
supplement potassium levels, especially for heavy feeders like tomatoes and
peppers.
NPK may be the macronutrients of the plant world, but they need more than these
main three to stay healthy. Calcium, sulfur and magnesium in particular are the three
most important trace nutrients for plant growth. Most well-balanced aquaponics
systems supply plenty of all three to meet crop needs, but a lack of N, P or K can
prevent the plants from absorbing these trace nutrients. Addressing an imbalance in
NPK is often more valuable than trying to add supplemental calcium or magnesium,
as the plants still won’t be able to absorb the extra nutrients.
Water
In general, there’s no need to be concerned about the amount of water supplied to
the plants in an aquaponics system, unless there’s a clog or failure that dries out the
trenches. As long as a steady flow is fed through the system, the plants will adapt to
take up as much moisture as they need. This is one of the major benefits over
traditional container or field agriculture. In these more traditional methods, farmers
must constantly calculate accurate irrigation rates based on evaporation,
temperature, soil texture and other conditions.
Growing Medium
You’ll notice that the title of this section is not soil. Most edible and ornamental plants
do need something in which to anchor their roots that’s a little more solid than water,
although some species can grow entirely rooted in water. It’s just that there’s no need
for this medium to be soil. Some of the most popular growing mediums for various
types of aquaponics systems include:
• Fine crushed and sifted gravel; which was the original material used for the
development of hydroponics, but eventually requires time-consuming
cleaning to clear out accumulated biofilms.
• Coarse sand; which is similar to nutrient film techniques but doesn’t allow for
recirculation of the water and is particularly prone to settling and clogging.
• Sawdust; which encourages good root growth and maintains a healthy

structure through multiple uses but can be expensive now that it is in high
demand for pressboard manufacturing.
• Rockwool; the most popular and commonly used substrate made from basalt
rock liquefied and spun into fine strands, offering the most oxygen storage
space and water holding capacity of all media.
• Coco coir, a fluffy fibrous material harvested from the outer layers of coconut
shells, which is considered similar in features to rockwool while being
biodegradable and most sustainable to produce.
Sawdust, gravel and sand tend to be available locally in more areas than coco coir
and rockwool. Because you’ll need dozens of cubic yards to fill thousands of even the
smallest net pots for a commercial system, it’s easier to find a local supplier for the
materials than to order from a distant seller or over the internet. Rockwool and coco
coir are usually compacted greatly for shipping, so you may be able to find an
affordable deal on sourcing these materials from farther away without paying high
freight shipping or special delivery costs.
Climate Considerations for Plant Choice

Just like selecting fish, it makes sense from a business standpoint to choose plants
that already perform well in your general climate. Check out the USDA growing zone
for the area where you plan to start your business. The zones are ranked from 1a to
13b based on winter and summer temperatures. These zones also help you determine
when your first frost arrives in the fall and when spring temperatures are warm
enough for frost-sensitive planting. Even if you plan to grow in a completely indoor or
greenhouse enclosed, heated system, understanding the climate you’re dealing with
is essential to determining how much heat you’ll need and when you’ll need it.
What Plants Do Best in Aquaponics?

With modifications to the standard rafts and pots used in aquaponics and
hydroponics, nearly any edible or ornamental plant can be grown in the system. Some
of the strangest plants trialed in these systems include dwarf banana and citrus trees,
huge rooted taro plants, and sprawling raspberry and blackberry canes. But just
because it’s possible to grow a certain plant in aquaponics doesn’t mean it will be a
profitable or worthwhile endeavor. For commercial systems that aren’t for research
or hobby use, farmers need to stick to proven plants to get a few reliable harvests
sold before branching out into trials of the unusual and alluring.
Edible Plants
Edible crops are the most common plants grown in aquaponics systems. It makes
sense if you’re already marketing fish as food that you can use the same connections
to find restaurants, consumers and wholesalers interested in vegetables and fruits.
Edible plants also tend to grow relatively quickly, although that varies whether you
choose to grow annual or perennial crops. Many people assume that only quick lived
annuals will turn a profit in a system like aquaponics, but long-term perennials may
be even better if you can afford to wait a few years for them to settle in first.
Annuals
Annual plants are those that accomplish all their growing within one season – or at
least one calendar year – and then die off. This includes sprouting from a seed or root
and reproducing. The majority of food crops, including everything from melons to
grains like wheat, are annuals.
The benefits of annuals in an aquaponics system are:
• A shorter growth period; allowing for multiple harvests in a year of a single type
of crop and continuous harvests with staggered planting and by growing a
variety of different plants.
• Regular replacement cycles and shorter growth periods; which reduce disease
pressure that can build up with long-term perennial plantings.
• Crop rotation; which is possible to reduce disease pressure when media beds
are used instead of rafts or nutrient film systems.
• Easier estimations of harvest size for profit forecasting and budgeting; many
annuals are harvested by the entire plant, such as lettuce, radishes and more.
Some of the best annuals for profitable production in an aquaponics system include:
Lettuce and salad mixes with arugula, colorful mustards, spinach and similar small
and leafy greens. These plants thrive on the nitrogen offered by the fish and require
relatively low levels of other nutrients because they don’t need to flower or set fruit
by harvest time. You can cut them at baby size and fetch a higher price, resulting in a
very short growth period of as little as 20 to 30 days with the right varieties and an
optimized system. They’re also some of the most cold-tolerant crops to grow in
aquaponics without heated water, but the right varieties still grow well in warmer
climates nearly year round.
Watercress. As the name suggests, this plant doesn’t even need rafts or any growing
medium to produce copious amounts of peppery flavored leaves. It is happy to float
along on the surface of water troughs and reproduces rapidly enough that it can pose
a clogging hazard to filters and pipes. Don’t add it to fish tanks because it can’t
necessarily handle the raw ammonia produced by their waste. It’s a great filler for
gaps between rafts where the water’s surface is exposed, and can be harvested
weekly once established with little impact on the overall growth.
Edible herbs like mint, cilantro, basil and parsley. Some varieties are more finicky
about water culture than others, but in relatively warm climates, most edible herbs
grow well in the aquaponics system. These plants tend to demand a much higher
price per pound than other crops, but some areas and markets are already saturated
with these products. Don’t overestimate your ability to sell specialty crops with limited
demand, even if they fetch a very high price. You may need secondary processing
facilities for drying and packaging the herbs to make their culture worthwhile.
Tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. These three members of the nightshade family
can all produce in heated aquaponics systems with high stocking rates. They need
plenty of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous to grow large enough to set fruit
successfully. You may be able to raise them in outdoor and unheated systems in
warm climates that don’t experience freezing temperatures in the winter. Peppers and
eggplants are relatively compact compared to tomato plants that can grow six to 18
feet tall in aquaponics greenhouse environments, but they’re all larger plants that
take up a lot of space on rafts or nutrient film tubes. Hot peppers and chiles are among
some of the best peppers to grow due to high demand and high prices, along with
wholesale demand for hot sauce production and canning.
Root crops like radishes and turnips can grow well, but tend to need a raft and
growing medium that holds the main root out of the water and only keeps the tip and
feeder roots wet to prevent rot. These pots can be tricky to set up and seed for
beginners.
Squash and melons enjoy the nutrient balance and wet environment but take up a
lot of space for the amount of harvestable product. One sprawling zucchini plant,
even from a variety bred to save space, may produce a dozen pounds of harvestable
fruit in a season. But if you compare that to the ability to harvest over 100 quick-
growing lettuce heads from the same space in the same amount of time, you’ll likely
find the smaller plants are more profitable in the long run.
Sweet potatoes are a great option if you can design rafts that keep the growing
tubers out of the water to prevent rotting, which is the main reason why Irish potatoes
won’t grow properly in aquaponics systems.
Corn tends to be too large for these systems and either tips over and snaps or weighs
down rafts until they sink. Finally, grains are simply impractical to grow in these kinds
of enclosed systems, as each plant produces so few grains that acres of open land is
required for the scale needed to get a decent harvest.
Direct seeding is the most popular method for most aquaponics systems, including
rafts, media beds and nutrient film tubes. Seeds can be planted right into the growing
medium in most systems, and floating rockwool cubes are available for water culture
systems that don’t usually rely on any media. For complete beginners, ordering
transplants prepared for hydroponic or aquaponic use is a great idea. The cost of
these started plants will likely be high enough to minimize the profit of this first
generation, but the experience you’ll gain from starting with healthy and ready-to-
grow plants is likely worth the cost. You can practice your seed starting skills while
tending the transplanted crops to make sure you’re ready to follow them with a
steady succession.
Perennials
Perennial plants keep coming back, year after year. In warm climates, without hard
frosts in the winter, perennials planted in the ground tend not to die back and continue
growing all year round. In the heated greenhouse environment, this can mean
continual harvests if light levels remain high enough to trigger flowering and fruiting.
There’s also no need to constantly baby new seedlings and transplants until they start
growing vigorously, reducing upfront labor at the beginning of planting cycles.
Unfortunately, perennials do have some drawbacks in the aquaponics environment.
They tend to be much larger plants, including shrubs, trees and canes. Some, like
blackberries and raspberries, sport irritating thorns or spines. Due to their long growth
periods, they’re more likely to face a disease or pest at least once. Also, most
perennials need years of growth before they produce anything worth harvesting.
Despite all these disadvantages, the ability to create a steady harvest of high value
fruits and vegetables makes it worth considering at least a few perennials as part of
your overall crop system.
Viable perennials for aquaponics include:

Strawberries, which require a moderately cool climate and a lengthy spring-to-
summer transition or careful heat control to trigger flowering and fruiting. One
challenge to growing strawberries, and most other fruit, in covered aquaponics is the
need for pollination. You’ll need to bring in bees or other pollinating tools to get a
good crop of strawberries, even in some cases for outdoor and uncovered systems
that lack natural pollinators.
Dwarf fruit trees, although they can take five or more years to begin fruiting and
require a lot of space. These trees need modified raft or nutrient film systems that are
designed to accommodate their extensive root systems without clogging, so they
can’t just be mixed into other systems. However, tropical climates and heated
greenhouses can produce bananas, papayas, pomegranates, figs and more. It can be
used for either fresh sales or dried fruit production.
Rhubarb and asparagus. Both harvested for their stems rather than leaves or fruit,
these two perennial plants are easy to purchase in bulk in the form of root cuttings.
Within just two to three years, you should be able to start harvesting them without
damaging the plants. Both require lower temperatures and tend to only produce in
the spring, but some manipulation of the greenhouse environment may allow you to
produce multiple harvests a year in cooler climates.
Ornamental Plants
In areas where there is too much competition for fresh produce from traditional
agriculture methods, ornamental plants may offer a much better profit margin. The
majority of ornamental aquaponics commercial sales are focused on cut flowers, but
that’s not the only option for production. It’s also possible to sell nursery stock and
even houseplants directly to consumers after culturing them from seed or cuttings in
the aquaponics system. This method even works for edible herbs that are sold at
direct sales platforms like farmer’s markets, or wholesale to companies, who retail
them through grocery stores and plant centers.
Cut flower production is often a challenging way to earn money because most
flowers bruise easily and require plenty of chilling and careful handling, not to
mention extensive packaging. Yet, if you’re located near a large metropolitan area
with plenty of demand for wedding and florist supplies, the extra work of cut flower
growing is likely worth the high rates you can charge for higher quality and local
plants.
Ornamental aquaponics plants are almost entirely annuals, as roses and other
perennials tend to be too large and disease sensitive for this kind of growing. Some
popular varieties include:
Houseplants like pothos, cast iron plant, small palms and dwarf elephant ears. These
tropical plants all tend to root well in water even with a growing medium, but using
net pots is recommended if you plan to sell them in pots. They will experience shock
if roots are transferred from a water culture to a soil or soilless growing medium. As
long as you can supply plenty of warmth, these plants tend to have lower light
requirements and relatively low nutrient needs compared to edible crops or flowering
ornamentals.
Edible flowers can be sold as both decorative and delicious products to two different
markets. These include violets and violas, many orchids, nasturtiums, calendula,
some begonias and carnations. Many of these plants are also in high demand for floral
arrangements, creating two distinct streams of income from the same plants.
How Do Fish Provide What the Plants Need?

There’s a misconception that fish can somehow feed on the plants to sustain
themselves, but commercial-sized aquaponics systems rely on inputs in the form of
fish feed. That fish feed creates the nutrients the plants need, both when
decomposing after being missed by fish and by turning into fish waste products. Fish
release both liquid and solid waste, both of which are high in ammonia. While
ammonia compounds are often used as fertilizer in soil-based agriculture, they’re too
harsh for water-based systems like aquaponics. So biofilters and treatment tanks are
used to convert that ammonia into nitrites, which eventually turn into nitrates after
further processing by beneficial bacteria.
When this treated water is finally flushed down to the trenches or tubes containing
the plants, it’s rich with the forms of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium they can
absorb best. If the plants were in direct contact with the fish waste in the original tanks,
they’d receive too much nitrogen from the raw ammonia and mostly die off or fail to
grow. Relying on the natural processes offered by bacteria, water movement and air
exposure, results in a conversion from ammonia to nitrates. As the waste breaks
down, it also releases plenty of the secondary nutrients plants need like magnesium,
calcium and sulfur. Any fish that happen to die and start to decompose in the tank will
also contribute these trace nutrients to the water supply, although they will also
produce too much nitrogen and toxic compounds if not removed promptly.
While the solid waste that breaks down in the fish troughs and tanks is also a potent
source of fertilizer, most of it doesn’t make it out of those tanks. This leads to the need
for extensive cleaning among cohorts of fish so the water quality isn’t affected by the
breakdown of too many waste products. These solid remnants are valuable as a
fertilizer source as well as for in-ground and container growing, so consider drying
and selling them rather than just discarding the material, as it represents a potential
source for secondary income.
What Conflicts Can Occur Between Fish and Plant Needs?

When designing an aquaponics system from scratch, rather than following a pre-
made plan or design, you must pay careful attention to balancing the needs of both
the fish and the plants. Choosing a fish species with a high stocking rate and high feed
demand will result in a heavy nutrient load, so planting low-nutrient-preferring plants
like leafy greens and radishes in the system will result in poor growth. Similarly, raising
a warm water fish like catfish and dispensing that water to plants that need cool
temperatures will only hurt the total efficiency of the system.
In most cases where more nutrients are needed by either plants or fish, there are
plenty of options for controlling the exchange between the two halves to the system.
For example, additional nutrient requirements for plants are easily dealt with, as even
recirculating systems contain filters and surge tanks for removing excess nutrients
before water is returned to the fish tanks. When the excessive levels of nutrients or
high temperatures start with the fish in the system, adding an extra tank or two to
facilitate cooling and to settle out suspended solids or dissolve volatile compounds
can help the water. Some systems may require you to treat the water manually with
pH balancing and ammonia-reducing chemicals each time you discharge a fresh flow
through the system. If you’re having to put this much work into maintaining the right
water quality for the plants, you likely need to redesign the system in some way to
better align the needs of both plants and fish instead of keeping up with multiple
treatments a day.
Chapter 5: Buffering, Waste Control and Biofilters
W
hile the waste created by the fish may act as a valuable source of nutrients
for the plants, it can also hurt the fish themselves if too much builds up in
the system. Both dissolved gases and solids, and more obvious large, solid
waste can cause numerous problems if allowed to build up. This includes, but is not
limited to:
• Damage to the gills of the fish; leading to inefficient oxygen absorption, slow
growth rates and extra risk for disease.
• Higher rates of dissolved ammonia in the water; which can damage both fish
and plants.
• Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD); a factor that causes lower oxygen

concentration as the waste is used up by the bacteria breaking it down.
• Development of anaerobic and heterophobic bacteria in the biofilters that are

harmful to the system rather than helpful.
• Increased clogging of filters, valves, and pipes due to both physical waste
accumulation and thicker biofilms of bacteria feeding on it.
• The release of toxic hydrogen sulphide from the anaerobic digestion of layers
of waste trapped where dissolved oxygen can’t reach.
Both mechanical and biofilters play an important role in managing waste in both
dissolved and solid formats. While mechanical filters are primarily designed to trap
solids, they also become hosts to nitrifying bacteria that help convert ammonia to
nitrites and then nitrates. The biofilter is home to the majority of these bacterial
colonies, but every filter surface still contributes to the total effect.
Types of Mechanical Filters

Many newcomers to aquaponics are confused by the need for both types of filtration
in a system. If the biofilter and bacteria are going to break down the waste from the
fish, why would you need to trap and remove so much of it? This is because the
bacteria need relatively low solid waste levels to perform optimally, and solid waste
also has a serious clogging effect throughout the system when it’s allowed to
accumulate.
The most basic mechanical filters for

aquaponics systems are simple water tanks.
These tanks have one or more layers of tightly
stretched, woven netting for the water to flow
through. Solids are trapped and sink to the
bottom of the tank or stay trapped in the filter
until manual cleaning. This can require two to
four cleanings every single day in a large
commercial system. Aside from netting,
passive filters can also be built with sand,
gravel or other fine particles that will allow
water to flow through while keeping the solid
waste behind.
More advanced, active filter units clean
themselves for a reduced maintenance
schedule. They also typically trap far more
solid waste and capture smaller particles of
dissolved waste as well. Some of the most
popular, active filter units suitable for commercial aquaponics include:
• Rotary drums; that splash the water around in a rotating screen drum to
separate out solids while adding oxygen. Self-cleaning, but still need
maintenance at least once a week.
• Radial flow and swirl tanks; that use a naturally generated cyclone effect by
offsetting the inlet and outlet pipes to send waste to the bottom of the
container. Both work best on larger solids and do little for dissolved solids.
You’ll likely need both static mesh filters and at least one active filtration unit for most
large-scale aquaponics systems. Check the water filtering capacity of the commercial
filtration units to determine how many you’ll need. This will be based on the system’s
total gallons of water, fish stocking rate and desired water quality parameters.
Biofilter Ideas and Designs

In both media bed and deep water culture/raft growing systems, the plant troughs
are generally considered the only biofilters needed. This is because both media beds
and the net pots used in the floating rafts are filled with porous growing mediums that
can host millions of nitrifying bacteria. For a nutrient film technique (NFT) or highly
stocked raft system, you may need a separate biofilter, or two, to host enough
bacteria to power the nitrogen cycle.
Fifty-five or 100-gallon tanks filled with loosely wadded plastic netting work
surprisingly well as bacterial hosts and biofilters. The mesh can be shaken and gently
rinsed on a regular schedule to wash away any accumulated solid waste without
losing the bacteria growing on the surface. The netting is widely available and easy
to replace whenever needed. Containers full of sand, gravel and growing mediums
like expanded rock can also function as biofilters as long as the material is porous
enough to host the bacteria.
Buffering the Water

In addition to testing and managing the waste in the aquaponics system, you’ll need
to keep the pH relatively constant and within the range preferred by the fish. Yet, if
you only consider the pH preferences of the fish, you may notice reduced plant
growth along. Ammonia and nitrite levels may also rise as the bacteria become less
efficient at producing nitrates. For most commercial aquaponics systems, with plenty
of filtration and settling units, a pH of 6.5 to 7 is the ideal goal. The majority of fish
species fall at least partially into this range of preferred pH readings and it’s perfect
for both the plants and bacteria in the system. Even once you’ve picked your pH point,
you’ll need to understand how to adjust the water up and down as you test your tanks
and discover imbalances.
Plants tend to push the pH balance down and towards acidity over time. This occurs
due to the nitrogen absorption cycle; that leaves them releasing nitric acid into the
water as a byproduct. It’s fine to rely on this natural process as a way of slowly
lowering a slightly high pH rate. Excessive fish waste also tends to lower the pH, but
because it causes many other problems, it shouldn’t be considered a pH buffering
strategy. Because the pH level will always slowly drop in a healthy aquaponics
system, you will need to occasionally raise it with the right chemical additions.
Powdered or liquid forms of calcium carbonate and potassium carbonate will both
raise the pH without harming fish or plants. These products come with clear dosing
instructions to help you get just the right adjustment for the number of gallons in your
system.
When the pH goes too high and needs to come down quickly, try either nitric or
phosphoric acids. Both are easily absorbed as nutrients by the plants in the system so
they won’t shock or damage the roots, and they’re also safe for fish in the
recommended application rates. Don’t try citric acid, lemon juice or vinegar (acetic
acid). These will all damage your fish long before you can add enough to change the
pH of thousands of gallons of water.
Establishing a buffer in aquaculture, involves adding a mineral component to the

water that slows down its ability to rapidly rise and fall in pH. Fish are very sensitive
and can die from pH changes of more than .1 to .2 points in a 24 hours period. Even
plants are damaged from constant or severe swings in the alkalinity and acidity. Water
is considered soft or hard depending on the amount of calcium dissolved in it; a
reading known as the carbonate hardness (KH). Hard water isn’t great for washing up
with, but it is better for raising fish and plants because the calcium buffers the pH and
stabilizes it. Testing your dissolved KH rates (dKH) and aiming for a reading of four or
higher will ensure that your pH stays steady, changes slowly, and reacts properly to
any additives you apply.

Chapter 6: The Most Common Methods of Aquaponics
W
hile there are always new systems and ideas under development in the
world of aquaponics, there are three main methods that have been tested
enough to recommend for commercial use. Before you can create a
business plan, estimate your costs, or project profits based on specific production
volumes, you’ll need to pick one of these three methods. They all work generally in
the same way; by processing the nutrient filled water from the fish. Yet, they vary
greatly in size, production potential, water volume, respective fish stocking rates and
more.
Deep Water Culture

Now, let’s look at the basics of deep water culture (DWC), which is also commonly
called raft culture or cultivation. Put simply, build a big tank, trench or pond and float
some lightweight foam or Styrofoam rafts on it. Punch holes in those rafts, tuck plants
in the holes with something to anchor their roots, keep the water quality balanced
and watch the floating plants grow rapidly.
For most commercial growing operations, DWC is the method that will produce the
most profits. The system allows for a much higher stocking rate of fish and therefore
requires an extensive growing space for plants. It is possible to maintain higher
nutrient levels with DWC without risking plant damage due to the water volume in
each tank or trough. Therefore, allowing you to grow heavy feeders like tomatoes and
fruit bushes that are considered impossible, or unfeasible, in other systems.
In addition to building trenches or troughs that are at least 18 to 24 inches tall or deep,
you’ll need to size them to your projected raft size. The guidelines provided in this
section will help you determine the amount of surface area you will need for growing
space in relation to the amount of fish in your system. Once you know that raw
number, you can split that total surface area up into different shapes and sizes to
create your rafts. Almost all DWC systems are built around two-foot-wide rafts so
workers can reach plants in the middle without straining, and two- to-four-foot
lengths keep individual rafts from being too heavy to lift.
Design your trench dimensions around those rafts; leaving at least one inch of space
on either side, so the foam doesn’t fit tightly into the surface of the tank. Tight-fitting
rafts prevent algae growth, but they’re also very difficult to remove at harvest time or
to lift periodically to inspect the roots. Most aquaponics-safe foam tends to crumble
under your fingers, so, a gap on both sides is recommended. This allows for easier
handling without damage to the rafts, which you will want to use repeatedly.
Use only pre-made rafts, sold by aquaponics suppliers, food grade bead Styrofoam
(used to make coffee cups), or DOW brand Blue insulation board for the rafts. There
are pink and yellow insulation boards sold by companies like DOW and Owen-
Cornings, but these are made with polyisocyanurate. Polyisocyanurate can leech
chemicals into the water, that hurt or damage the fish and plants, even when coated.
If you’re making your own rafts rather than purchasing them, you’ll need to cut holes
for the net pots or other growing medium. Net pots are recommended for commercial
use because there’s no need to fill them and they’re reusable. Find the recommended
spacing for your plants on the seed packet and draw out the 2-inch circles on a sheet
of plywood first. Cut the holes out of the plywood and then use it as a stencil for rapid
creation of rafts that are all uniform in size and layout.
After cutting the holes, and before installing any cups or net pots, you’ll need to paint
the top surface of the material. This prevents it from degrading rapidly when exposed
to sunlight; as UV-stabilized products are often unsafe to use in aquaculture. Use a
white exterior latex paint that is confirmed by the manufacturer to not contain any
mildewcide ingredients. This is important because these elements are toxic to the
bacteria, fish and plants in your system. Don’t just assume a paint is safe to use
because the label doesn’t list any mildewcides. Because formulas change constantly
without warning, you must call the manufacturer every time you plan to paint new
rafts to find out which paint from their product lines is safe to use for this application.
Benefits of DWC:
• The growing material in cups or the medialess net pots suspended in each raft
can act as the biofilter for the system; eliminating a separate tank or media bed.
• The higher volume of total water compared to NFT creates a buffer against
sudden changes in temperature, dissolved oxygen or nutrients around the
plant roots that could kill them.
• Easy harvesting; by lifting up the individual rafts and moving them to tables or
sawhorses for standing work with no bending or twisting.
• Eliminates the need for flushing or draining; except in rare circumstances

where extensive cleaning is needed. Most solid waste that does make it to the
grow beds is easily scooped or vacuumed out after lifting the rafts out of the
way.
• Gravity flow between the fish tanks, intermediary filter tanks and grow beds
allow for the use of just a single sump pump to return water back to the start
of the system.
• Lower upfront costs to construct, reduced labor costs for long-term

maintenance, and relatively easy repairs or replacement in the long run.
• More even light distribution; as the large trenches or tanks can’t be stacked or
packed too tightly together like other systems.
• No growing medium in the water; prevents solid waste from becoming

trapped. Reduces clogging and anaerobic bacteria growth, which occurs in
media-filled beds, resulting in less extensive cleaning.
• Much easier to apply treatments for diseases and pests because the plants are
growing in dense blocks rather than long strips of individual plants in a row, as
with NFT systems.
Nutrient Film Technique

The nutrient film technique (NFT) was designed to reduce the sheer amount of water
required for bed and trench style hydroponics. It does a great job of doing just that,
but it also becomes less effective at working within an aquaponics system for the
same reason.
Because aquaponics attempts to utilize freshly created nutrients from fish waste
rather than highly controlled nutrients dispensed from a bottle or bag, there’s a lot
more fluctuation on a daily basis in the water quality and nutrient supply. With the
NFT system, plants are grown in pipes or small trenches that are only flushed a small
amount of water rather than kept full constantly (like DWC or media filled beds). The
roots get plenty of oxygen because they’re not floating in water, but they’re also much
more sensitive water quality as well as any delay in water release.
For most beginners, an NFT system requires too much expertise and constant
maintenance when compared to DWC or media bed systems; especially for
commercial use.
Benefits of NFT:
• No need to buy growing media, although most NFT systems still use some kind
of net or plastic pot to support the plant roots.
• No controllers needed for timed release of water, as is used in the ebb and
flow system.
• Faster application of specific nutrients to remedy a deficiency, but more work

maintaining a steady nutrient supply and water quality.
• Low nutrient requirements for strong plant growth, as the roots absorb most or
all of what’s supplied, which necessitates low stock rates of fish in an
aquaponics system.
• Constant flow washes waste to the end of the pipes or trenches for relatively
easy clean-up.
Media-Filled Beds
Media filled beds are similar to the trenches and troughs used for DWC. Yet, rather
than being filled with only water, so plants can float on the surface, the bed is filled
with a growing medium that allows water to flow through and deliver nutrients.
Because this growing medium also provides the ideal home for the nitrifying bacteria
you need in aquaponics, it is a better fit for this method than NFT equipment.
However, it’s still not quite as easy to use as DWC for commercial and large-scale
aquaponics production.
First, the media mix does a great job of mimicking soil and providing a strong root
growth environment. However, that also leads to clogging. Root remnants and
trapped solid waste can fill up all the tiny spaces between bits of gravel, rock wool or
any other media used for the bed. Digging out the heavy and tightly packed material,
rinsing and tumbling it clean, and replacing it in the bed, takes a lot of physical labor
and must be repeated every few months in high density commercial production. This
kind of deep cleaning is much easier in the DWC-based system, and even NFT tubes
are slightly less work to clean out than clogged media beds, especially after a few
rounds of steady fish and crop production.
Media beds do eliminate the need for separate biofilters and reduce the filtration
needs for solid waste as well. However, they can be difficult to treat when a persistent
disease sets in, which can spread through the water and roots. All those pores and
pockets that host healthy bacteria also become hiding places for disease vectors that
keep reinfecting your plants or fish after each treatment.
Benefits of Media Beds:

• Act as the biofilter for the system.
• Can handle higher fish stocking densities than NFT systems, but still lower than
a DWC system.
• Stabilize water quality changes due to the combination of medium water

volume and the buffering effects of the growing medium.
• Allow for strong root growth for larger plants that are hard to grow on rafts.
• Work well with constructed wetlands for additional natural filtration and water
processing.
Chapter 7: Recirculating Aquaponics or Not?
T
he majority of aquaponics systems are recirculating, which means the water
that leaves the growing beds or pipes is pumped back to the fish rearing tanks.
It’s not surprising that many people assume all aquaponics and hydroponics
are recirculating. However, you can also design and install a non-recirculating
aquaponics system that releases the waste water into the environment in some way
instead. There are benefits to both kinds of systems, but for most commercial
operations, the sheer volume of water released makes recirculating equipment
necessary. Even with the best pumps, and an enclosed greenhouse environment,
aquaponics systems lose around 1-2% of water per day due to evaporation. Thus, they
need constant input of fresh and conditioned water to stay at the consistent water
levels.
Challenges of Recirculating Water

Although recirculating systems make up the majority of aquaponics units, there are a
handful of drawbacks to returning water back to the fish rearing tanks. First, there are
much higher chances of nutrient overload, and waste build-up problems, when the
same water is used over and over again. Testing and conditioning are essential to
prevent fish and plant loss, which interrupts the harvest cycle and costs you
thousands of dollars per incident.
Second, recirculating aquaponics consume more energy because of the extra pumps
required to operate filters and clarifying tanks. If you design an NFT system, you’ll also
need a trickle supply pump for the plant growing trenches or pipes. Electricity costs
can rise quickly when you factor in aeration and water heating as well. Finally,
recirculating systems need plenty of filters and clarifying tanks to prepare the water
not only for the plants, but also for it to return to the fish tanks. Only limited numbers
of filters are needed for non-recirculating systems because fresh water is constantly
supplied to the tanks. You'll still some amount of filtration in an open loop design, to
ensure only a limited amount of solid waste is escaping with the water that leaves the
system. Despite this filtration, there are still plenty of dissolved minerals that manage
to reach natural waterways after a release from an open loop system.
Benefits of Recirculation
In contrast with open loop water systems, recirculating aquaponics incur much lower
water supply costs. Few natural sources of water are legal to use or properly
conditioned for the fish; resulting in the need to connect to a local municipal water
supply or pay for water truck shipments. With recirculating systems losing as little as
1% of the total water per day to evaporation, it makes more sense for commercial
farms that need to minimize costs. Recirculating aquaponics are also much more
stable systems after being set up because the same water is used over and over,
allowing for slow and gradual changes to pH and other qualities. Recirculating
systems may or may not be more profitable than open loop designs, but they’re
certainly more common. Finally, open loop aquaponics can create environmental
issues if the fish waste causes algae blooms in natural waterways or overwhelms the
holding capacity of the soil in nearby fields. Keeping the water within the system
prevents these issues. If you have an excess of conditioned water, it will typically only
be in the range of a few hundred gallons. This amount should be easy to pump by
hand, to release into a relatively small field, without flooding plants or saturating the
soil with too much of any one nutrient.
Challenges of Open Loop Systems

Some people who are interested in aquaponics think of open loop systems as being
more natural, or somehow less expensive, if they have pond or creek available as a
source of natural water. However, almost all water needs some pre-treatment before
going into a sensitive series of fish and plant tanks. Pond and creek water often require
more processing than you might expect. For an open loop system, even if you rely on
a water supply from an urban or rural provider, you’ll spend hundreds to thousands
of dollars on water costs each month. There’s also no way to capture excess nutrients
and return them to the system or to another form of agriculture in many open loop
designs. Finally, releasing hundreds of gallons of sewage per week results in added
expenses, which can wipe out potential profits. If the wastewater from an aquaponics
system is released into an existing water way, like a lake or river, algae blooms will
result. These blooms deprive the water of oxygen and kill off fish and other natural
aquatic life. Either way, before planning a business around an open loop design, you’ll
need to secure a place for releasing the constant stream of water this system will
produce.
Benefits of Open Loop Aquaponics

There are a handful of benefits of the open loop design that can make it worth
considering for some specific situations. In very hot tropical conditions where heating
is not required, open loop aquaponics, with freshly aerated water, can allow for an
electricity-free fish and plant growing system. By diverting water from a well, stream
or other steady supply, the water leaves the tanks and returns to the output zone
before it loses its dissolved oxygen and becomes saturated with nitrates. The energy
savings are not worth the cost of water and sewage in areas where there’s no free
supply of appropriately conditioned water. Because these systems don’t need the
same number of filters and settling tanks, they also tend to have smaller footprints
than recirculating units. However, the amount of space needed for discharging the
water can measure several acres, especially for large commercial systems releasing
hundreds of gallons of water per day. Make sure to consider the costs of extra land
or other storage and distribution facilities to compensate for the processing
requirements.

Chapter 8: Before You Design Your Own Aquaponics

System
D
esigning your own aquaponics system from scratch is a major undertaking
even if you have experience operating and building them according to other
people’s plans. When you’re a complete newcomer to the practice, you’ll
definitely need multiple sources of guidance and inspiration to get it right the first
time. There’s nothing wrong with choosing a pre-designed plan and building to go
along with it, as long as the system you choose is designed for commercial use and
not backyard or hobby production.
Consider the UVI System

The deep-water culture system
designed by the University of the
Virgin Islands is perhaps the best-
known form of aquaponics. It is a
great system to adapt for commercial
use. To follow their model,
you’ll only need relatively basic
materials and can make the clarifier
tanks, filters and biofilters used in this
system all from scratch. You will need
a suitable pond liner material for the
necessary trenches. A laminated
product that combines layers of both HDPE and LDPE is best because it offers
maximum flexibility, tear resistance and water safe composition. BTL liners
AquaArmor, is the industry leading liner for this use.
Avoid Barrels and Small Tanks

Most backyard and hobby level aquaponics systems are based around improvised
and recycled materials to help their designers work within a tight budget. When
you’re trying to build a system big enough to support a business, and turn a profit,
you’ll need to invest in professional quality materials as well.
Don’t try to design an aquaponics system around 55-gallon plastic barrels, IBC totes,
home aquariums, and other small tanks and containers. While some plans call for
using 55-gallon drums for small filtration, degassing and settling tanks, they’re not big
enough to hold a decent number of fish or to provide much surface area for growing
plants.
Consider that even a relatively small commercial deep water culture system may
need hundreds of square meters of raft space to balance plant growth and fish waste
production, and you’ll soon understand the kind of scale you’re dealing with. Even
with hundreds of individual barrels and buckets, you’ll spend so much time on
cleaning and maintenance that you’ll never turn much of a profit off of a poorly
designed and undersized system.
Source Materials Locally

Having to ship in fiberglass fish rearing tanks or growing media from another country
quickly inflates your upfront costs, making it harder to break even and pay back loans.
Look for local sources for all materials you plan to use in your aquaponics system
before committing to any one design or idea. You may have to adapt and change your
plans after discovering that concrete is cheaper than lumber locally, or that you can
find affordable tanks only in sizes bigger than you expected that require you to re-
scale your plans.
Check the High Cost of Modular Systems

There are hundreds of companies out there offering to sell you complete aquaponics
systems you simply unpack and install. Most of them are targeting homeowners and
hobbyists, but some packages claim to be large and efficient enough to provide a
commercial experience. Take all marketing claims with a grain of salt. Unless you can
see the system set up and running in person, verify their claims about the system’s
performance, and have experience in evaluating these kinds of equipment, you
should stick with DIY plans instead. Following a pre-drawn plan where you source
your own components is far more likely to pay off than any all-in-one package. The
seller still has to turn a healthy profit off their labor to put together the system, so
you’re always going to spend more than what’s necessary to start a business growing
plants and fish together.
Find a Designer or Design Consultant

If you feel completely lost by the various systems to choose from, or the instructions
on sizing beds and tanks, you should probably hire an independent aquaponics
designer to help you. A design consultant can guide you through the most essential
parts of getting your business started and increase your chances of success. Even if
you’ve farmed fish before in ponds or recirculating aquaculture systems, a consultant
with experience specific to the type of aquaponics you want to use will help you avoid
many obstacles as you start up a new business.

Chapter 9: Designing an Aquaponics System
F
or large-scale commercial operations, it’s usually not financially feasible to
purchase pre-made kits in a large enough volume to support a profitable
business. Building a system from free or paid plans is a better option, but each
system has its drawbacks and will only work in certain areas and climates. If you want
a custom aquaponics system that perfectly fits local market demand or works around
an unusual limitation in your area, like short summers or rainy seasons, you’ll need to
design your own system from the bottom up.
Approaches to Design
In general, new custom aquaponics systems are either based around a fixed amount
of physical space or the desired volume of fish, plants or both. Designing around fish
and plant production volume is far easier than designing for a specific amount of
space, as each constraint changes everything about the system. You may need the
help of an aquaponics or aquaculture consultant if you’re trying to design a unique
system that can fit into a warehouse, fully planted greenhouse or other space with
many restrictions on size and placement.
Starting with Fish or Plant Volume

You don’t need to know exactly the quantity of both fish and plants you plan to
produce, but you do need at least one target number to start designing the system.
Planning around plants is generally a preferred approach for many farmers because
they focus more on direct sales and restaurant supply contracts and treat their fish
harvests as a secondary source of income. If you prefer a system based around a
high-value fish, use your stocking rates and estimated harvest numbers to determine
the size and layout of the system instead.
Regardless of the projected value you choose to start with, expect to provide much
more water surface for the plants in the system than the fish. In the University of Virgin
Islands raft system, the plant-growing ratio to fish surface space is 7.3. Every square
foot of water surface area devoted to fish raising requires over seven square feet of
plant surface area downstream to make full use of the nutrients. With the proper
balance among surface areas, aquaponics systems can use 97% or more of the
nitrates produced by the fish.
If you design a system that lacks the intermediary settling tanks and biofilters to
reduce dissolved solids, you’ll have to compensate with much higher ratios of plant
surface area to fish surface area.
Recirculating or Not?
After reading Chapter 7, you should have a good idea if you prefer a recirculating or
decoupled system based on the benefits and drawbacks of both designs. Before
starting any designs, you’ll need to pick one style or the other. Decoupled systems
don’t need the same number of pumps and settling tanks as recirculating systems,
so the layouts diverge significantly at one point in the design process. Switching to a
different system halfway through the design, or the construction of the equipment,
will increase costs and create a lot of extra work. So, make your mind up now to guide
your plans properly from the start.
Basic Components
All aquaponics systems, regardless of the method you choose for the plant growing,
require the same basic components:
• Rearing tanks; for fish to grow from fry or fingerlings to harvestable juvenile or
adult size.
• Tanks, filters, water circulation tools, media beds and other water conditioning
components; to remove dissolved solids and improve the water quality.
• Biofilter; the component that is host to the bacteria that transform ammonia
into nitrites and then nitrates
for the plants to absorb, which
is often combined with the
plant-growing troughs or beds.
• The hydroponics system;

where the plants grow and the
treated water is introduced,
which can take many different
forms.
• A sump pump; to return the

filtered and treated water
back to the fish (recirculating
systems only).
Choosing Materials for the Tanks and Troughs

Fish generally grow best in professionally manufactured round fiberglass tanks
designed for aquaculture. Other materials either leech chemicals into the water that
can harm the fish, are too difficult to keep clean, or don’t come in round shapes.
Building square fish-rearing tanks and trenches from scratch is less than ideal
because the corners and flat surfaces make it harder to remove all the solid waste,
leading to water quality issues after a few rounds of fish. Deep corners and flat ends
also interfere with the water exchange, which should be one full tank or pond’s worth
of water per hour. If you must construct the fish-rearing tanks from hand rather than
purchase round fiberglass tanks, consider in-ground ponds instead. They are much
easier to slope along the sides and edges allowing easier cleaning and better water
exchange. Make sure all pond liners and tank materials are food safe unless you are
raising strictly ornamental varieties. Many aquarium and pond products are not tested
for food production, making them potentially unsafe to use when raising fish to sell
as food.
Avoid small plastic tanks, barrels, reinforced plastic tanks like IBC containers, and
other reused materials often promoted for backyard and hobby systems. While they
may work for small-scale systems, the plastic material is too difficult to clean and
sanitize for commercial purposes. The small size of these tanks also makes them
almost impossible to scale to the size of a commercial system.
The hydroponic tanks and troughs used for containing vegetables are much easier to
design and build from scratch. Regardless of the total number of gallons you need,
or the style of growing you choose, you can use materials like lumber and plywood,
concrete blocks, cast concrete and even insulated building panels to create
affordable, large media or raft beds. Above-ground tanks and trenches are built by
creating four sturdy sides that can hold back the weight of the water. The ground is
used as the floor of these structures and a durable pond liner must be installed inside
to hold the water.
Because the water flowing through your aquaponics system must be safe for both
the crops and fish you grow, any liners you choose for troughs and trenches must be
food and fish safe. Just one or the other isn’t enough, especially if you want to qualify
for organic certification. The same material restrictions apply to any barrels, buckets
and tanks you use in the system that aren’t made from coated fiberglass or metal.
Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) is one of the best materials for a tank or liner in an
aquaponics system. It doesn’t release any chemicals or compounds that would be
absorbed by the plants or fish, and it’s relatively resistant to UV degradation. High-
density polyethylene (HDPE) is the toughest material that is food and fish safe, but it’s
also costly and less flexible. For the best liner, look for a product combining layers of
both LDPE and HDPE for your aquaponics system.
Always avoid the following pond liner and tank materials for your aquaponics setup:
• PVC, which releases compounds into the water and degrades rapidly when
exposed to UV light.
• EDPM sheets for roofing, which may or may not be fish safe but are never food
safe.
• Reused or new swimming pool liners, which are treated with compounds that
kill the bacteria needed for a healthy aquaponics system.
Supporting Tanks and Troughs

If you choose to build your own tanks and troughs with a pond liner, there are a few
different materials for constructing the walls. Some materials will work well, when
combined with partial in-ground excavation, to create deeper tanks for growing
plants with larger roots or for fish production. Smaller, pre-made fiberglass and plastic
tanks may need to be raised off the ground for a more convenient working height,
while larger pre-made tanks need a gravel or concrete pad in soft or sandy soil.
Materials for Tank Walls

The materials you choose for building custom above-ground aquaponics tanks must
be able to support the weight of the water. Water weighs 8.34 pounds per gallon, and
a commercial aquaponics system typically contains 30,000 gallons or more among
all the tanks. The higher you need to build to accommodate a large gallon size, the
heavier the total amount of water you must support. Minimum wall height (or pond
depth) is generally 18 to 24 inches, with dramatically deeper tank depths needed for
some perennials. This is why digging into the ground to put some of that weight below
the surface of the soil can help reduce the cost of making troughs that are stable
enough for years of use.
Concrete – either stacked and mortared blocks, or poured in place with forms – is the
strongest and most durable material for building the hydroponic trenches or tanks.
It’s compatible with partially buried installations and works well with a liner. Don’t
attempt to coat the concrete with gel coatings or pool paint, as these products usually
aren’t food safe, cost more than quality pond liner, require a lot of labor to apply, and
often fail within months of installation. Concrete is also the most expensive material
for building custom tanks, especially poured concrete with rebar and mesh
reinforcement. It’s often the only choice for very tall tanks for high water volume.
Thick plywood, 2x4 and 2x6 lumber, and some strong fasteners can create affordable
and surprisingly long-lasting hydroponic troughs and tanks. Use pressure-treated
wood so that the residual moisture and leaks won’t cause the wood to rot in a matter
of months or a few years. As long as the liner remains intact, there’s no chance of
leeching from the wood into the growing tanks. Some commercial plans call for using
fiberglass epoxy instead of liner to seal and coat the inside of the wood tanks, but this
is a costly and time-consuming way to create a large-scale set-up. Liner is much
faster to install and costs less per square foot than epoxy, even when you include
foam board insulation between the wood and liner. Round steel stakes or ¾-inch-
wide rebar should be hammered into the ground every 16 inches along the outside
of the wood frames to reinforce them, even if you frame them with dimensional
lumber and strong screws or bolts.
Metal is rarely used for tank sides because it’s heavy, expensive, harder to anchor,
and tends to corrode from the constant exposure to splashed and evaporated
moisture. However, some pre-fabricated systems are available that rely on
interlocking metal panels that are paired with a liner. The edges of the metal sheeting
used for the sides must be rolled or otherwise reinforced to prevent it from tearing
through the liner. The material should also be powder coated, or otherwise sealed, to
prevent corrosion from weakening the sides. Finally, it’s very hard to maintain a
constant water temperature in metal-sided tanks, as the material is too conductive
and transfers heat in and out easily. Skip metal tanks unless they’re your only option
and you don’t mind insulating them and paying more for water heating in temperate
climates.
Because nutrient film technique (NFT) aquaponics systems don’t rely on tanks or
troughs for the hydroponics portion, the pipes or tubes used for that design require
tables or sawhorse style supports instead. They’re relatively easily supported by
concrete block or lumber stands, as only a limited amount of water flows through the
pipes at any given time.
Digging In-Ground Troughs and Ponds

After working up figures for the cost of concrete or wood sides for your hydroponic
tanks, you may be eager to cut those numbers somehow. If you’re working with
relatively level raw land, you can likely dig down at least a few feet to put some, most,
or all the tank’s storage area below the surface.
This transfers the work of supporting thousands of pounds of water to the soil rather
than pressing against the walls you construct. Other benefits of in-ground aquaponics
ponds and trenches include:
• Natural insulation from the soil; reducing heating costs and preventing fish
losses due to sudden fluctuations in temperature.
• Easy installation of additional

insulation; most commonly used
in the form of solid foam boards
cut to fit the contours and shapes
of the trench or pond, which also
reduces the amount of smoothing
necessary before you install the
liner.
• Sizing is the same; with relatively

little water volume lost to the
gradually sloped sides of an in-
ground trench compared to the sharper edges of an above-ground tank.
• No need to replace the material used for the walls every few years or decades;
only the pond liner as needed.
It is a little harder to find a leak when one occurs in an in-ground pond, but because
the water tends to escape into the soil, you also aren’t left dealing with erosion or
flooding when a leak occurs. To minimize the chances of leaks, take extra care when
digging the trench or pond to smooth the surface as much as possible. Remove all
rocks and even small stones and pebbles, as they will press against the liner and
create a point of wear. Aim for gradual slopes and smooth transitions between the
bottom and sides of the trench. Most importantly, select a high-quality liner for
reduced chances of leaks and wear during the life of the pond.
Sizing a System for Deep Water Production

Deep water culture (DWC), also commonly called raft production, is the most popular
form of commercial aquaponics in warm climates. This system uses a lot of water for
the hydroponics portion of the equipment, so most systems using rafts have a ratio of
about seven times as much water for plants as for the fish. In the University of Virgin
Islands system, the original commercial raft aquaponics design (four 2,000-gallon fish
tanks) is paired with four 3,000-gallon troughs.
Add in a little over 2,500 gallons worth of sump and settling tanks and you have a
22,500-gallon system that produces up to 4.75 metric tons of tilapia and five metric
tons of basil in a year. Raft systems like the UVI design tend to feature higher than
usual fish stocking rates and extra tanks and filters to handle the heavy load of
dissolved solids.
Ideal feed ratios for DWC range from 60 to 100 grams per square meter of growing
area per day. This produces the right balance of nutrients without overwhelming the
filters or leaving the plants starving for nitrogen. This range is relatively wide to
accommodate the needs of different stocked fish. Assuming a daily feed ratio of 75
grams/m2/day to keep tilapia growing rapidly, the following figures would be
possible:
• Average daily feed rates of 150 grams per 100 tilapia
• Stocking rate of 2 lbs. of mature fish weight per 1 cubic foot of rearing space
• 1,000 lbs. of fish in two 2,000-gallon tanks
• 1,500 grams of feed per day
• 1,500 grams/day divided by 75 grams = 20 square meters of growing space

required
While 1,000 fish may sound like a lot, they’re only supporting a relatively small
growing area at that high stocking rate. If you want 300 square meters of growing area
at a daily feed ratio of 100 grams/m2/day, you’ll need around 20,000 lbs. of tilapia to
support that ratio. At a 2:1 ratio of pounds of mature fish to cubic feet of water, you’ll
need over 75,000 gallons of water for all those fish. Some deep water culture systems
run on daily feed ratios as low as 10-20 grams/m2/day, but those rates lead to such
slow growth that the idea is rarely viable for commercial production. Plan for a
minimum ratio of 50 grams/m2/day minimum for raft production that is actually
profitable.
Sizing Aquaponics for a Nutrient Film Technique Installation

With the greatly reduced volume of water required for flushing the plant roots inside
the pipes of a nutrient film technique (NFT) system, it’s no wonder that daily feed
ratios are about 25% of those recommended for DWC/raft culture. Too high of a
stocking density or oversized tanks, resulting in too much feed entering the system,
will lead to nutrient overloading and damaged or dead plants.
Assuming proper filtration and settling tank additions among the fish and plant tanks,
NFT systems should have a daily feed ratio from 15-25 grams/m2/day.
With a chosen daily feed ratio of 20 grams/m2/day:
• Average daily feed rates of 150 grams per 100 tilapia
• Stocking rates of 1 lb. of mature fish weight per 1 cubic foot of rearing space
• 500 lbs. of fish in two 2,000-gallon tanks
• 750 grams of feed per day
• 750 grams/day divided by 20 grams = 37.5 m2 of growing space required
While these low stocking rates and daily feed ratios can save money on fish feed
supplies and filtration units, they also result in relatively small harvests of fish
compared to DWC systems. Unless only plants are profitable in your market and you
are only involving fish in the system as a fertilizer source, raft culture will likely result
in higher profits than NFT growing methods for the low stocking densities and daily
feed ratios alone.
Sizing for Pond-based and In-ground Systems

Pond-based aquaponics are
generally used for DWC/raft
production, so you can use the
same numbers and feed ratios as
you would for above-ground
troughs. If you use in-ground
media beds paired with in-ground
ponds for fish production, you’ll
need a slightly different sizing
plan. You’ll need to use a
calculator to work out the size of
the system according to the
desired size of the bed and
whether you will treat them as the
biofilters or add other filtration. With fewer filters and tanks to capture solid waste, it’s
also important to adjust the calculations based on the protein level of the feed. There
are too many variables to consider to simply provide a formula, but you can find
multiple free and reliable media bed sizing calculators online.
Sizing for Non-Recirculating Decoupled Systems

Decoupled aquaponics systems are rare and still in development for commercial use.
There is only limited data available on which to base designs and measurements for
these systems. So, most growers interested in using them must experiment on their
own to find ideal sizing and daily feed ratio numbers. Even in the systems developed
by private companies and engineers, the sizing requirements are so complex they
require proprietary consultation from the system developers.
Mechanical and Biofilter Requirements

Media beds can act as the biofilter in an aquaponics system, but mechanical filtration
to remove dissolved solids is likely unless very low stocking and feed ratios are used.
DWC/raft culture systems generally don’t need media beds for tougher fish like
tilapia because the growing medium in the rafts supports enough bacteria for nitrate
conversion. However, systems designed to grow more delicate fish like trout, should
involve a separate biofilter in addition to the mechanical filters to control nitrates that
would otherwise return with the recirculating water. Nutrient film techniques (NFT)
definitely need a dedicated biofilter bed or tower to control nitrate levels.
Mechanical filters rely on screens of varying sizes that trap particles of solid waste as
the water is forced through the material. Most aquaponics systems rely on static bag
or plate filters that don’t move as the water flows through. Advanced moving filters
can trap more sediment before needing cleaning, but they’re also expensive and can’t
be built by hand from lumber and screen. Properly sized static screens usually only
need cleaning once to twice a daily, while moving filters like self-cleaning drum and
belt screens, can often go a day or two between manual cleanings. Mechanical filters
still contribute to the bio-filtration process by growing colonies of helpful bacteria on
the screen surface; converting a good amount of ammonia to nitrites and nitrates as
the water flows through the material.
Sand filters are popular for filtering ponds and pools, but neither produces the high
levels of dissolved solids you’ll find in aquaponics. The sand in these filters tends to
clog very quickly and slow down flow enough to reduce water quality for the fish and
starve the plants downstream. Avoid sand filters, along with biofilters based around
gravel and similar aggregates, because they will quickly fill up with the sediment of
solid fish wastes. Water arrives in the filter tanks and biofilter bed after flowing
through clarifiers, which are discussed below. For raft-based systems, with a high
stocking density and large plant growing area, mechanical filter tank volume should
be around 1.5% of the total system. For example, the 22,000-gallon UVI system
includes two 185-gallon filter tanks for a total of 370 gallons of filter tank volume.
Because drum and belt filters are usually about twice as effective as static ones, you
should only need about half as much tank volume for these units.
As with general sizing for an NFT system, sizing for the filters in these aquaponics
designs is complex and requires calculators that take all factors into account. The
same tool you use for sizing the fish and plant tanks for NFT should also provide filter
unit size recommendations based on feed ratios and protein levels.
Sizing and designing biofilters for aquaponics systems is another complex task that
requires the use of calculators that can accommodate the sensitivities of your chosen
fish species and other factors. Proper design of raft and media beds will eliminate the
need for a separate biofilter, dramatically simplifying the design and installation of the
system. Some biofilters rely on specialty bacteria-hosting media like foam or small
porous balls, while others take the form of constructed wetlands full of purifying
plants. Simple biofilters are built by setting up one or two 55-gallon drums stuffed
with plastic bird netting or another fine mesh material. The hundreds of layers of
scrunched material traps the majority of solid waste that makes it through other filters
and settling tanks, while the huge amount of surface volume results in strong
bacterial growth. Even a single 55-gallon biofilter is often enough for large
commercial raft or media bed systems, while multiple units are required for more
sensitive NFT designs.
Swirl and Clarifier Tanks

Swirl and clarifier tanks are intermediary water tanks that rely on the power of gravity
and water movement to settle solids out of the water before it moves on to other
filtration methods. They’re usually installed immediately after the fish-rearing tanks
and before mechanical filtration units and bio-filters. Clarifier tanks are usually the
largest units in the system after the fish and plant tanks. For the DWC/raft culture
style of aquaponics, these tanks are usually 1,000 gallons or more in size. In the UVI
raft system, you’ll find two 1,000 gallon clarifier tanks for every four 2,000 gallon fish
tanks. In a 22,000-gallon system, this translates into the clarifier tanks accounting for
approximately 11% or 1/10th of the system. If these tanks are too small, water will flow
out of them before sediment and dissolved solids get a chance to settle at the bottom.
These tanks require routine manual cleaning, so make sure they’re low and wide
rather than tall and narrow, as it’s much harder to vacuum or scoop out the waste
when balanced on a ladder.
Swirl filters work similarly to clarifier tanks, but they include a basket-shaped filter unit
that traps even more sediment as the water swirls in and out of the tall and relatively
narrow space. With swirl tanks being considered mechanical filters, they’re sized
similarly to other static units at 1.5% of the total system volume.
Degassing Tanks for High Stocking Systems

If you choose a system with high stocking rates for the fish, you’ll need to include a
degassing tank that exposes the water to a large surface area and active aeration.
This turbulence causes volatile ammonia and methane gasses to evaporate rapidly,
resulting in higher water quality. Systems with less than 1 lb. of fish per cubic foot of
water generally don’t need degassing tanks, while those above that rate should
incorporate at least one. These tanks are usually sized at half of the size of filter tanks,
or .75% of the total system volume. This translates into one 185-gallon tank for a
22,000-gallon system.
Sump Pumps for Processing and Returning Water

In recirculating systems, sump pumps move water between tanks, through filters, and
back to the beginning of the system after it leaves the plant tanks and biofilters. Some
systems manage to do all of this with a single large pump. The exact size or power of
the pump is less important than its effective volume of movement. Aim for around
one full exchange of water in your fish tanks per hour.
If you have 10,000 gallons among the fish rearing tanks in your system, look for a
pump that can move that many gallons per hour. Don’t forget to consider the amount
of head lift the pump creates as well. Setting up your system with a slight slope from
the fish tanks to the end of the growing beds encourages a steady and strong flow
without any additional pumps. If the total slope is five feet from top to bottom, your
pump must provide the required flow at that amount of head. Every foot of lift the
pump must provide lowers its hourly volume slightly, so look for a pump with 50%
more head lift than necessary so you don’t lose volume during real world operation.
Aerating the Tanks

Most aquaponics systems only require active aeration in the fish tanks and degassing
units. In warm climates, active aeration is often needed in the plant troughs as well.
High temperatures speed up the loss of dissolved oxygen, leaving little in the water
by the time it reaches the plants. Aeration in the plant troughs is also needed if the
dissolved oxygen (DO) measurement of the water, leaving it and returning to the fish
tanks, is below 4 mg/L. Lower water temperatures reduce the amount of aeration
you must add, so coldwater systems usually only need aeration equipment in fish and
degassing tanks. High stocking rates also use up the oxygen faster, increasing the
need for aeration further down the line.
Air stones, similar to the ones used in home aquariums, only much larger, are the
primary aeration tools used in aquaponics. Look for large, medium-pore air stones, as
both large and small pore sizes are easily clogged by solid fish waste. You’ll also need
a regenerative air pump to connect to the stones. Other tools include paddles, airlift
pumps and rotors that trap air and release it underwater. The size and number of
aeration devices you need depends on the rate of pumping. The faster you pump
water through the system, the more air is added naturally and the less oxygen
escapes before water reaches the end of the troughs. Areas that experience at least
five gallons per minute of flow don’t need their own airstones, and areas that can
maintain stable measurements of DO of 5 to 6 mg/L likely don’t need separate
aeration devices either.
All aeration devices, including regenerative pumps and paddlewheels, are rated by
the cubic feet of air they move per minute (CFM) at a specific depth of water. Airstones
and other diffusers are rated by the number of pounds of fish they will support at an
average of 6 mg/L DO and at the rated depth and an average temperature of 72
degrees. For example, many six-inch-long medium-pore airstones are rated to
support around 14 lbs. of fish each. That means you’ll need an airstone for each 14 lbs.
of fish, along with an air pump that can generate the total CFM once you add up the
rate for each stone.
Commercial quality diffusers tend to support closer to 20 to 30 pounds of fish per

stone, while paddlewheels and rotors can be found that generate enough dissolved
oxygen for hundreds of pounds of fish each. Don’t forget to adjust these rates up and
down by the amount of your average temperatures vary from the 72 degree F
baseline. For example, a system that operates at an average temperature of 65
degrees is 10% colder and will require 10% more aeration volume and diffuser output
to compensate.
Designing the Plumbing to Connect Everything Together

PVC plumbing is the primary piping used to connect the various tanks and pumps in
all aquaponics systems. It’s even commonly used to make the tubes for NFT-growing
systems because it’s food safe, durable and its white color reduces algae growth and
controls temperature gains. Unlike many other parts of an aquaponics system, most
of the plumbing you’ll need to connect your pumps should be available locally at any
plumbing or home supply store.
It is necessary to oversize all the pipes you use in the system to accommodate the
eventual accumulation of bacterial biofilm, algae growth, wandering tree roots and
other obstructions. Using the minimal diameter pipe for the flow calculations of your
system will only result in constant clogs that can kill off your fish or plants before you
notice the problem. Aim for four-inch pipes for parts of the system that contain high
levels of solids and nutrients. Two to three-inch pipes can work just fine further down
the line where filtration and settling has conditioned the water.
Minimize curves and twists as much as possible to maintain optimal flow speeds and
volumes. Pipe length will vary depending on the layout and size of your system, but
connecting the tanks is relatively straightforward. Planning work is based solely on
the distance between individual parts of the system. Make sure to include valves after
every major stage so you can always shut down the system right at the source of a
problem rather than draining the entire system just for a water change or clean-up
procedure. Pipe placement plays a large role in creating the desired amount of slope
across the system as well. Aim to place inlet pipes high on tank sides and outlets
much lower to increase water flow. This is especially important between connected
plant tanks or troughs, as they tend to significantly lose speed and turbulence over a
long run of open water. Water slowing down in the middle of a plant trough causes
uneven distribution of nutrients and dissolved oxygen, resulting in patchy plant
growth.
Chapter 10: Managing Water Quality in the

Aquaponics System
W
ater quality is the single most important factor in any aquaponics system.
No amount of expensive equipment, low stocking densities, or use of
tolerant plants can compensate for poor water quality. There is no one
marker of good water quality, but rather a combination of different factors that must
all be kept within proper ranges, including:
• Dissolved oxygen
• pH balance
• Ammonia and nitrate levels
• Temperature
• Salinity, in systems using salt water or sourcing water from wild bodies
• Suspended solids
• Nutrient levels for fish
Source Water Considerations

Stable and high-quality water in your aquaponics system starts with a clean, fresh
source. With commercial systems requiring tens to hundreds of thousands of gallons,
this is trickier than you might think. Ponds, streams and rivers are often available near
the facility, but even the cleanest of these usually supply water with one or more
serious quality issues. Even wells can produce water that is out of pH balance, and
public water supplies often contain compounds like chlorine that can harm the fish.
Even in recirculating systems, like most aquaponics designs, you must add one
percent of the total system volume every day to compensate for evaporation. Not
only will you need a source for the large filling required at the start, you’ll need a way
to keep adding a few dozen gallons here and there. The following water sources are
ranked from best to worst. They include notes on what to look for during testing and
how to prepare the water for use in aquaponics.
Wells and springs: Because both of these features are producing water filtered by
many layers of soil and rock, they tend to offer the highest water quality. You still must
check for pH, as filtering through layers of rock tends to dissolve minerals like calcium
that buffer the water and make it harder to adjust. Dissolved gases also tend to be
high in these sources, but all the gasses common to spring and well water tend to
evaporate rapidly with agitation. Temperature is usually constant with these sources,
making it easier to pump directly into the system.
Rivers, creeks, streams, ponds, and lakes: Due to being open to the air and full of
living creatures, including fish, these sources tend to be higher in contaminants and
unwanted nutrients. Using this water in aquaponics may lead to nutrient overloading
that wouldn’t occur in hydroponics without the fish component. For many rural areas
where water rights can be secured, this is often the only available water source.
Extensive filtering and treatment may be needed to prepare the water to enter a
closed loop system. So, you may need to set up multiple tanks just for daily
processing of the replacement supply.
Municipal water: While drinking water from a municipal supply is often the highest-
quality water available in an area, it’s also very expensive. Filling up a commercial
system for the first time can cost hundreds of dollars and refills continue to add a
monthly operation cost. There are still a lot of chemicals and compounds either not
removed from the water, or added to it on purpose such as chlorine and the
chloramines, that can harm both fish and plants. Look for alternatives before
connecting the system to your local municipal water supply.
Water Testing
It isn’t sufficient to only test water that’s being added to the system. Even when the
water is perfectly conditioned and balanced going in, the aquaponics system is full of
factors that can push any quality measurement out of range within a matter of days.
A proper testing routine is the only way to ensure water quality remains steady for
rapid plant and fish growth.
Daily testing routines should involve measurements of the dissolved oxygen, nitrates,
nitrites and ammonia levels. Simple vial or strip tests are available in bulk for all four
of these, and tests for nitrates, nitrites and ammonia are often combined into one. All
four of these water quality factors can change very rapidly. They are very destructive
to both fish and plant roots, so they shouldn’t be assumed. At a minimum, they should
be checked at least once every 24 hours.
Other water quality parameters are safe to test weekly, as they’re less likely to change
rapidly. As long as the incoming water is tested routinely and comes from a stable
source, factors like pH and suspended solids take days to weeks to change enough
to affect your fish. Temperature measurements should be monitored constantly with
the use of digital probes. Alarms should be set to go off when there’s a drop or spike,
eliminating the need for daily or weekly readings.
Treating Water in Response to Test Results

Discovering a dangerously high nitrite level or unusual pH reading may make you feel
like panicking, but water quality treatments require a calm and steady hand. Treating
too aggressively, in an attempt to make a big change in quality, will only shock the
system and increase the chances of fish and plant loss. Treatments should be done
in graduated steps to ensure the adjustments occur slowly and are long-lasting. This
prevents rapid swings in pH or nutrient levels.
Adjusting the pH
Adjustments to the hardness or softness of the water are best handled through a
device known as a pH controller. This is a constant monitoring device that also
dispenses the right amount of treatment to lower or raise pH as needed. It will
maintain pH within the range you set. For a less high-tech solution, fine nylon mesh
bags filled with the right treatment can be added to the filtration tanks to adjust the
pH gradually. Aquaponics systems tend to become more acidic over time due to the
nitrogen cycle that feeds the plants. So, you’ll need to add potassium hydroxide or
calcium hydroxide in powder form to compensate unless you are adding alkaline
water as a replenishment. Systems that are too alkaline will need treatment with
phosphoric acid. Adding powders or liquids directly to the fish or plant tanks will
damage the living components of the system, so always adjust the pH by making the
addition in a filtration tank or a specific dosing container.
Controlling Ammonia and Nitrates

Because the conversion of ammonia to optimal forms of nitrogen is handled by
bacteria, the primary treatment for high ammonia levels is to increase bacterial
activity. Ammonia issues often go hand in hand with pH imbalances, as the bacteria
also need a pH level above seven to function and stop entirely below this point.
Using chlorinated water, even if there’s only the tiniest amount in the supply, also kills
off bacteria and stops the nitrogen cycle. You may need to improve your filters or
increase the amount of media bed space to boost nitrifying colonies.
Partial water changes are the best way to deal with nitrite and nitrate levels that have
risen too high for the fish and plants. This indicates a system imbalance in which there
are not enough plants to absorb the nutrients provided by the fish. Even though the
bacteria are doing their work converting the waste into fertilizer, there’s simply too
much fertilizer to go around. Reducing stocking and feeding rates, and increasing
plant surface area, is the only permanent way to prevent these imbalances.
Increasing Dissolved Oxygen

The only two methods for increasing dissolved oxygen levels are to add more oxygen
through aeration and to reduce the causes of oxygen loss. Direct sunlight, high water
temperatures, algae, other water plant growth and overstocking of fish, can all lead
to oxygen loss.
Controlling Water Temperature

Water temperature is one of the most rapidly changing water quality parameters, so
it deserves constant monitoring from a dedicated probe system. Each tank should
have its own probe and separate reading, as an outlying tank may drop in temperature
faster than one located in a more sheltered position. Both rising and falling
temperatures are hard on fish, plants, and even the bacteria in the system. Insulating
the tanks and troughs is the first step in preventing this swings. Insulation is applied
to the outside of tanks and installed underneath liners in troughs, trenches and ponds.
Rigid foam insulation tends to be the best option for ponds and troughs. Round
above-ground fish-rearing tanks have many more options for insulation, but the best
is usually spray foam insulation. This foam isn’t fish safe, so only apply it to the outside
of the tanks. Be certain to give it a full curing period before adding water, and fish, to
prevent gassing from affecting the water quality. Fiberglass batting can also be
wrapped around the tanks for a low-cost solution, but it requires sealing around the
edges to prevent loose fibers. It also loses effectiveness fairly rapidly as it gets wet
and fails to dry out fully.
Greenhouses are the best buffer for maintaining constant water temperatures. With
proper ventilation and automatic lifting sides, the greenhouse will release excess heat
during summer days, but keep it trapped inside at night and over the winter. Even if
you plan to cool the water because of a tropical climate, a greenhouse still offers an
enclosed space to make cooling effects more efficient. A quality green house cover
will ensure effectiveness, so be sure to select your cover carefully. BTL liners offers
an industry leading cover; ArmorClear. This cover allows 87% light transmission for
optimum growth, is durable and able to withstand tough weather conditions, is
fabricated with anti-condensate technology to allow optimal natural light and
promotes healthy plants and accelerated growth. For more detailed information on
BTL liners industry leading covers, visit BTLliners.com
Chapter 11: Managing the Fish and Harvesting Them
T
he management and care of the fish in your aquaponics system is only minorly
affected by the species you choose. While feed types and amounts, preferred
pH levels and dissolved oxygen requirements may vary from one type of fish
to the next, many of the basic parts of fish care are the same among all commercially
viable varieties. Plants are much less sensitive to routine changes or management
mistakes than fish, and they also tend to be less expensive to replace after a major
loss. Learning the ins and outs of fish management in the aquaponics system is
essential to a profitable and successful business.
Choosing a Production Method

Fish can either be raised in a staggered or batch method just like the crops. Almost
all commercial aquaponics systems are based around batch production of fish, but
there may be benefits to choosing staggered designs in certain markets. With
staggered production, groups of fish of different ages are grown in separate or shared
tanks and harvested continuously as they reach maturity. For batch production, fry or
fingerlings are added all at once to fill all the tanks and then harvested at one time as
well.
Benefits of Staggered Production

Staggered production works best for commercial aquaponics businesses that sell the
fish directly to consumers through a farmer’s market stall, membership arrangement,
farm store or other outlet. Buyers can pick up fish on a monthly or bi-monthly basis
rather than only being able to make purchases every few months or less than once a
year. This flow of income can be life-saving during the first few years of running the
business. Mixing fish of different sizes and ages in the same stocking tanks also
reduces food waste because the younger fish eat particles missed by their bigger
counterparts.
Drawbacks of Staggered Production

Mixing fish of different ages doesn’t work well for carnivorous fish like perch and
barramundi because the larger fish will eagerly eat the smaller ones. With these fish,
you must grade the tank to remove slow-growing and smaller fish even when using
batch stocking to avoid this kind of cannibalism. Staggering production also increases
the total amount of work necessary to raise each pound of harvested fish and makes
it harder to reach the production volume required for wholesale contracts.
Benefits of Batch Production

Batch fish stocking is the primary method used in aquaponics because it’s easier and
more convenient. There’s no need to pick up new fingerlings every six weeks for
months at a time, fewer issues between the smaller and larger fish, and easier
calculations of feeding rates. Because smaller fish eat much more than larger fish by
percentage of body weight, staggered stocking makes it tricky to ensure every fish is
eating just the right amount for rapid growth without waste.
Drawbacks of Batch Production

Some aquaponics businesses find it difficult to move the sheer amount of fish
harvested all at once in a batch production system if they don’t have a wholesale
buyer. Fish can only be held for so long after harvesting without losing quality, even
when flash frozen, and therefore may end up being wasted if buyer demand wanes.
It’s also easier to lose an entire fish population in a batch system than in a staggered
system with multiple rearing tanks. Separate rearing tanks reduce the spread of
disease, preserving some of your stock when one or more tanks experiences a full
die-off.
Feeding Your Fish Properly

Proper fish feeding is not just important for growing valuable fish on a profitable
schedule. The food for your fish is what eventually becomes the fertilizer for the
plants. Low-quality feed products, uneven feeding schedules and over- or under-
feeding can all lead to damage to the entire system. Profitable aquaponics systems
begin with quality commercial fish food that is appropriate for the fish species you
choose.
Carnivores vs Omnivores
All fish require some amount of protein and fat supplied by insects and other fish. The
amount required for their diet determines whether they are carnivorous or
omnivorous. Carnivorous fish food costs more because it requires more expensive
ingredients and more processing steps than omnivorous pelleted or crumbled feed.
However, carnivorous fish also tend to command a higher price and offer higher
levels of demand from customers. Omnivorous fish need protein and fat from the
same sources used in carnivorous feeds, but they simply require less of these
macronutrients. This allows for more of the calories to come from plant sources that
are less expensive and require less processing, resulting in more affordable feed.
Don’t just purchase fish feed in pelleted or crumble form based on its nutritional value
alone. Feeds formulated for ponds and open water raceway systems lack many of
the minerals and nutrients added to feeds meant specifically for aquaponics use.
Even if the fish don’t need all of these extras, your plants do. Sourcing an aquaponics
specific fish feed is one of the most challenging parts of starting a profitable
aquaponics business. If you absolutely can’t find a formula that meets all the
requirements of the plants in the system, you can add these nutrients separately as
necessary, but at a much higher cost than if the nutrients were supplied by the feed
alone.
Sourcing Fish Feed

Start by looking for local feed mills and aquaculture supply companies. If you find a
feed mill that isn’t currently producing a feed you can use, you may be able to order
a custom formulation with the exact nutrient balance necessary for both the plants
and fish. Aquaculture supply companies tend to charge much more per pound than
general feed suppliers, but you’ll get the right formula from the beginning and
experience fewer issues. With the right formula, the system will require fewer system
adjustments compared to compensating for lacking nutrients. Global companies
producing aquaponics appropriate fish feeds include Cargill, AquaMax, Skretting and
EnviroFlight.
Determining How Much to Feed

In general, fish in the fingerling size and above need to eat around 7% of their body
weight per day at the youngest age and drop down to 4% of their body weight per
day nearing harvest age. Look for a feeding chart based on the specific species of fish
you choose. Fish raised in aquaponics systems require the same rates of feeding used
in other forms of recirculating aquaculture, so as long as your feed rates fall within
the guidelines listed in this book for proper plant growth, the entire system should
function well. If you end up introducing too much feed into the system to keep up
with high stocking densities, you may need to expand your crop growing surface area
to compensate for the extra nutrients entering the system. Adjust your feeding rates
every two weeks according to the average weight of a sample of at least 5-10 fish to
ensure you’re not wasting food or underfeeding and slowing the growth rate.
Automating Feeding Routines

Hand-feeding fish may work just fine for backyard and hobby systems, but it’s too
time consuming and unreliable for commercial production. Almost all commercial
aquaponics businesses rely on automated feeding equipment to keep fish evenly fed,
especially during the early stages during which fingerlings may require up to four
different feedings a day. The automated equipment used for pond cultures is often
too large to work for the smaller tanks or ponds used in aquaponics. Recirculating
aquaculture feeders should work fine, as tanks are still used for these systems. Avoid
homemade or improvised fish feeders; they’re too prone to failure to rely on for
commercial purposes.
Fish Diseases and Illnesses

Most of the fish suitable for commercial production are relatively hardy and disease
resistant. However, illnesses still can reach the aquaponics system and cause a
serious or total loss of fish. Even less serious illnesses slow down growth enough to
eat into the profits you earn off the fish themselves. In addition to learning how to
identify and treat fish diseases, you should focus on preventing them in the first place
to reduce the costs of medication and monitoring.
Preventing Disease
Techniques for encouraging good fish health in aquaponics include:
• Maintaining proper stocking and feeding rates; to reduce excessive ammonia

levels that weaken the immune systems of the fish.
• Sanitizing rearing tanks between batches of fish; especially after any suspicion
of disease in the previous batch.
• Sanitizing the entire system after the outbreak of a serious disease that leads
to a partial or total die-off.
• Maintaining strong circulation throughout the entire system; to prevent water

quality fluctuations.
• Covering fish rearing tanks with at least a canopy of shade cloth or tarp; to
prevent birds from releasing droppings into the water that can spread disease.
• Sterilizing water from a natural source like a pond or river; since the wild fish
populations may be carrying diseases.
• Feeding a high-quality feed at appropriate intervals; for healthy immune

systems and rapid growth that makes it harder for a disease to settle into the
population.
Slow Growth
Even with optimal water quality and feeding
routines, some fish simply won’t grow quite as
quickly as the rest of their cohort. Slow-growing
fish won’t cause disease problems, but they can
trigger cannibalistic behavior that leads to
damage to larger fish in carnivorous and
aggressive omnivorous species. Grading the fish
every few months and removing the smallest 2-
5% of the population is recommended if you’re
using batch production. This is usually
accomplished by using a grader bar to capture
the largest fish and move them into a different
tank until only the smallest are left behind.
Grader bars are simple tools made of metal bars
spaced perfectly to only grab hold of fish of a
certain size, letting the smaller ones slip through
and remain in the tank. Weighing the fish is the
most accurate way to determine their true size, as two fish of the same length may
have a distinct difference in weight.
Signs of Common Fish Illnesses

Ichthyophtirius: This common fish parasite creates white fuzzy patches on the scales,
fins and gills of the fish. Early symptoms can include dull or tattered looking scales,
clamped fins and gills and sluggish behavior.
Vibriosis: This disease caused by the Vibrio anguillarum bacteria can infect over 50
species of both fresh and saltwater fish. The bacteria is widely spread, but fish don’t
tend to develop infections until they’re stressed, injured or both. Rapid and
unexplained die-off is the main symptom, along with refusal to eat, darkening of the
skin and red spots around the ventral fins due to internal bleeding.
Dactylogyrosis: This disease involves infestation of the fish by Dactylogyrosis

nematodes. Transferred directly from fish to fish or by infected water introduction,
this infestation can spread rapidly before you notice a problem. Symptoms include
pale or patterned gills, gasping for air, crowding at the inlet for fresh water and weight
loss that leaves the head of the fish visibly too large for their bodies.
Treatment Tips
There are plenty of antibiotics, anti-parasite treatments and other medications
available for treating these diseases. All fish medications feature a withdrawal period
in which the fish aren’t safe to harvest for food purposes. Some medications make the
fish permanently unsafe to eat, making these products unsuitable to use in
aquaponics systems. Check all medications and treatments before using them on a
food-producing system. Vaccines are available for preemptively treated fish if you
live in an area with active infections or high risk levels and they’re likely worth the cost
since vaccination can prevent complete losses of thousands of dollars’ worth of fish.
Harvesting Your Fish and Grading Them

Once you’ve managed to get the first cohort of fish past the feeding challenges and
disease risks, it’s eventually time to harvest them.
Deciding When to Harvest

Before worrying about knowing when to harvest, set a goal for the fish you plan to
sell. Most aquaponics systems aim to raise fish to a weight of between 1.5 and 2
pounds, as this weight point offers the best balance between the cost of production
and the sale price. Due to the slowing rate of growth as a fish gets larger, aiming for
a weight above this range will take much longer than the amount of time it took to
reach the two-pound mark. You don’t need every fish to reach the same weight, but
at least 75% of the fish you harvest should be at the target weight or you’ll find it
difficult to meet the standards of wholesale buyers or consumers. There’s relatively
little demand in most markets for fish larger than two pounds, especially in the
species that are well suited to aquaponics production.
Grading the Harvested Fish

Grader bars are the primary method for separating out the fish that are large enough
to harvest, but you can’t count on this tool alone. Aim to weigh around 10% of the fish
you harvest with a grader bar to verify they’re reaching your goal weight and not just
the right size. Grading is an extensive process in mixed age rearing tanks, but goes
relatively quickly in batch tanks where only a small percentage of the fish should be
under the goal size. Grading bars are popular in aquaponics, but they’re not the only
grading tool. Mesh bags are also a valuable tool for sorting out smaller and larger fish.
Three or more mesh bags are stacked inside each other. The mesh size gets
progressively smaller towards the outer mesh bags. The largest fish can’t leave the
first and smallest bag while smaller fish escape into the outer bags. Then it’s simply a
matter of lifting up the middle mesh bag to scoop out the largest fish without stressing
the rest of them.
Purging the Fish

Before you can pull a single fish out and process it, you’ll need to process all the fish
you’ve determined to be of the right size and weight. This is generally done in a
separate tank, but can be done in-tank if you’ve sorted out any undersized fish. Fish
that are harvested without purging tend to have an unpleasant muddy taste. You
simply need to hold the fish for ten to 14 days without feeding them and change the
water daily by 25%. Only use clean, fresh water that hasn’t circulated through the
system or the same flavor compounds will continue to build up in the meat.
Hygienic Handling and Processing

Because most fish produced by aquaponics methods are destined to become human
food, they must be handled hygienically from the moment you harvest them. Killing
the fish is best accomplished with a tool known as a fish bat, which is a solid piece of
hardwood you use to firmly hit the fish a few times in the center top of its head. This
immediately kills the fish with no suffering or damage to the harvestable meat.
Once a fish is dispatched, the gills must be cut to release the blood. Hang the fish
from its tail for a few minutes until the blood stops flowing freely. Many areas don’t
allow for on-site processing, so many companies end their harvesting here by moving
the fish to cold storage at this point. If you are allowed to further process on-site, you’ll
need to slit the belly of the fish and remove its organs, then cut the head off or at least
remove the gills with a sharp knife. Fish should be kept on ice from the moment
bleeding ends to prevent spoilage. Freezing fish whole is usually the best option for
preparing them for sale to both consumers and wholesale buyers.
Chapter 12: Managing the Plants and Harvesting

Them
W
ith plants producing the majority of profit for most commercial aquaponics
systems, it’s surprising that many newcomers to the field spend little time
considering their care. Plants are often assumed to be less complex than
fish and basically need little to no attention. Unfortunately, plants often need more
attention than fish in order to produce attractive and bountiful harvests. Plants aren’t
hard to manage or harvest in an aquaponics system, but they do require some
amount of care and proper handling to reach the consumer in top condition.
Light Sources for Plants

For open and uncovered aquaponics systems, all the light needed for plant growth is
usually supplied by the sun. Systems located inside warehouse structures and under
some greenhouse covers will need supplemental lighting. Our greenhouse films,
ArmorClear, are designed to maximize light transmission. BTL liners industry leading
cover allows 87% light transmission, thus making it the perfect choice to reduce or
eliminate the need for supplemental lighting. Aim to avoid providing light if possible,
as it inflates operational costs and adds a lot of maintenance to the facility.
Staggered Harvests
While batch harvests may be more popular for the fish part of a system, staggered
harvests are far more common for the plants. Even if you have large scale wholesale
orders, it’s much easier to budget for a business that is making multiple sales per year
rather than just one or two big orders. Staggering is often accomplished by planting
a mix of fruiting and leafy crops that all mature at different times. However, you can
stagger even a single crop such as basil or lettuce simply by timing the seeding or
transplanting in batches so they reach maturity for harvesting at different times.
Buying Starts vs Direct Seeding vs Onsite Seed Starting

Buying young plants with their first few leaves already growing is the easiest way to
stock the rafts in an aquaponics system. The plants grow rapidly, need a lot less
specialized care and attention, and reduce losses during the fragile seedling stage.
However, most commercial operations can’t turn a healthy profit when buying
transplants in bulk. Direct seeding may require learning a few new skills, but it’s worth
the effort for most aquaponics operators in exchange for the savings that contribute
to higher profit margins.
Seeds only cost a small fraction of started plants, but you’ll only get a portion of them
to grow into successful crops. Direct seeding is tricky for aquaponics for a few
reasons. First, most of the media used in deep water culture have large particle sizes
that don’t hold seeds at the right depth for sprouting. Second, you must water the
rafts until the seeds sprout and the seedlings manage to grow roots deep enough to
reach the supply from the troughs.
Finally, seedlings often die in response to the same nutrient levels that help them
grow once they’re well rooted. Transplanting is generally the best option, whether
you use nursery trays to start the seeds yourself or purchase stock from a supplier.
The Transplanting Process

Transplanting requires a delicate touch, which can be frustrating when you’re trying
to install hundreds or thousands of individual plants. However, you’ll soon get the
hang of handling the plants delicately while working rapidly and efficiently. Don’t
plant the rafts while they’re in the troughs. Pick up each raft and bring it to a table or
pair of sawhorses so you can work quickly to fill each net pot without stooping and
bending down. The process for transplanting seedlings into a deep water culture raft
system is:
• Remove the seedling from its pot or cell. If the seedling was started in a soilless
media that is different from the material used in the net pots, rinse it off gently
by dipping the roots into a tub of clean water.
• Apply rooting compound by dipping the roots in a solution of it if you’re using

difficult plants that tend to respond badly to transplanting. Lettuce and other
leafy greens can fall into this category if you are planting them very early
because the shock can kill off their delicate roots. Make sure the rooting
hormone is approved for use on edible plants unless you are strictly growing
ornamentals.
• Make a deep enough hole in the medium inside the net pot to accommodate
all of the plant’s roots without bending them back up or crowding them. Wait
to transplant crops until they have enough root length to reach the water level
in the trough. This may be much longer than crops would wait to be planted in
the ground.
• Gently press the growing medium around the stem or base of the plant to
anchor it in plant. Taller transplants will likely need stakes and other supports
to keep them from leaning over and either losing root contact with the water
supply or snapping off at the stem. Once the plants begin to grow, you should
be able to remove these supports unless you’re growing tall and vining plants
like tomatoes and beans.
Transplanted seedlings tend to droop and wilt from the stress of this transition, and
this is even more likely when taking plants from a soilless medium based on peat
moss to a more granular material like hydroton. The plants should recover within a
day or two. If they do not recover during this period, they will likely need replacement.
Plant Diseases and Pests

Plants are even more susceptible to diseases and pests than fish because there are
many more vectors for infection. Spores are easily carried by the wind or by insects,
while fish generally must be infected through bird or animal waste or contaminated
water supplies. There are thousands of potential diseases and pests that can strike an
aquaponics system, but the most common and devastating varieties are covered
below.
Pythium: An aggressive fungus that is responsible for rot and stem rot in maturing
plants and damping off in seedlings. It’s particularly aggressive towards seedlings and
transplants in which it causes part of the stem to weaken, turn dark and collapse until
the plant falls over. Mature plants will wilt suddenly and reveal rot among the roots
or on the main stem. Pythium can only attack weak and stressed plants, so the best
prevention and treatment is improving growing conditions. Proper aeration is the best
tool to prevent it from causing root rot in maturing plants.
Early and Late Blights: While lettuce and other greens are relatively safe from this
threat, both diseases can wipe out herbs and fruiting plants right before they’re ready
to sell, especially tomatoes. Early blight cause rotten spots on the stem, yellow
lesions on the leaves with brown circles in the center, and lumpy cankers at stem
junctions. Late blight causes brown or gray leaf lesions as well but without the yellow
color with no stem symptoms. Both are best treated by removing all infected plant
material and spraying fungicides on any healthy plants before the infection can
spread.
Powdery mildew: The most common fungal disease of crops in general is powdery
mildew, and this remains true for aquaponics systems due to the relatively high
humidity around the plants. High humidity encourages the fungi to flourish, spreading
a white or hazy looking film over the leaves and stems of plants. The leaves affected
by mildew eventually wilt and die back, starving the plant by interrupting its
photosynthesis process. Your plants may look like someone has coated them with
powdered sugar, which will usually start as just a few small circular spots of fuzzy
white growth. There are dozens of treatments available, but most of them are not safe
for fish. Skim milk sprays have been proven to treat and prevent powdery mildew in
traditional agricultural settings and should work fine for aquaponics systems. Another
option is to mix water with a pH level of at least 9.0 with 30% hydrogen peroxide at a
rate of 3 mL of hydrogen peroxide per liter of water. This won’t damage the crops or
fish while killing off the fungus.
Aphids: These pests are the most common insects to attack aquaponics systems,
especially if they’re contained inside greenhouses. The enclosed space protects
them from natural predators and encourages them to breed in huge numbers, which
can cause serious damage. Thankfully, aphids are easily washed off with the right
spraying equipment to knock them loose without damaging the leaves. There’s no
need for specific pesticides just to get rid of an aphid population, just some thorough
spraying a few times a day until they’re gone.
Fungus gnats: These little gnats are often found in homes with houseplants, as they
move in anywhere damp soil is available for laying their eggs. While fungus gnat
larvae do eat plant roots, they rarely cause any damage this way. The true danger of
a fungus gnat infestation is due to their ability to spread Pythium and cause extensive
damping off and rot. Fungus gnats can be caught with traps and managed by
lowering ambient air humidity levels with proper ventilation and air exchange.
Slugs: Any wet and relatively warm environment will attract slugs, but aquaponics
systems are even more attractive to them, thanks to the steady food supply. Hand
removal is usually the only option available for aquaponics because traps like dishes
of beer and piles of cornmeal rarely attract enough of them to dent the population
when there’s a steady supply of food. Spreading thick and wide layers of
diatomaceous earth powder around the edges of the troughs or tanks is the most
reliable way to create a barrier to stop them from reaching the plants. This powder is
all natural and won’t harm your fish, but it is made of very sharp particles that hurt the
slugs’ soft bodies if they try to cross.
Harvesting and Storing the Crops

Once you manage to establish strong plants and avoid the perils of diseases and
pests, eventually it’s time to harvest and package the crops. Harvesting methods
depend on whether you’ve chosen leafy or fruiting plants. Fruiting plants are simply
picked by hand whenever there are crops to harvest. Some tomato varieties and other
plants spread out their ripening processes over a long period, a trait known as
indeterminate growth. These kinds of crops are less than ideal for most aquaponics,
even for staggered production, due to the need to check daily for ripe fruits ready to
harvest. Look for determinate varieties for easier harvests.
Wholesale buyers and restaurants tend to desire unwashed produce that is dry,
allowing you to simply cut plants or pull fruit, chill quickly, package and ship off. If
you’re selling directly to consumers, you’ll need to wash your own produce. Dunk
tanks and produce spin dryers are essential because letting too much water stand on
the fruit or leaves will quickly lead to damage and low-quality produce.
Harvesting whole plants at once is usually done by moving an entire raft to a
convenient location. This also works for plants harvested leaf by leaf as long as the
roots don’t stay out of the water for more than an hour or two. Large fruiting plants
like tomatoes are generally harvested in place unless the entire plant is being pulled
before individual fruits are removed.

Chapter 13: Supercharge Your Aquaponics with

Greenhouses
O
utdoor and open air aquaponics systems may work just fine in tropical
climates without cold winters, but that doesn’t mean that commercial
operations are limited to these areas. Temperate and cold climate aquaponics
are definitely possible with the help of a greenhouse. While it’s also possible to install
aquaponics indoors in a large open building like a warehouse, a greenhouse is the
ideal structure for growing both crops and fish. Find out why you should definitely
consider a greenhouse for covering your system and how to pick the right one.
The Benefits of Greenhouse Aquaponics

Greenhouses aren’t just for in-ground and hydroponics growing. While fish may need
slightly different conditions than plants for ideal growth and weight gain,
greenhouses of all styles are easily adapted to the specific demands of aquaponics.
Even if you must order a custom design to fit your particular layout and system, these
five benefits make it well worth the investment.
Protection from Predators

Enclosing the tanks and trenches of your commercial system with any structure
prevents hungry predators like cranes, raccoons, mink and more from taking
advantage of the food you’re growing. In most parts of the world, there’s at least one
major predator that can cause thousands of dollars of damage in just a few visits. In
urban areas with few animal pests, enclosing an aquaponics system can discourage
theft by keeping the most valuable components obscured from view.
Temperature Control
The main reason most commercial aquaponics installations are enclosed in
greenhouses is to control both air and water temperature for healthier plants and fish.
The warmest climates may not call for additional heating, but temperature and cold
climates definitely need the heat-trapping effect of a greenhouse. Heat from the sun
enters the structure but is trapped when it attempts to leave through the film or
panels covering the structure. Even if you must use air conditioning and water cooling
to deal with high summer temperatures, greenhouses are relatively easy to control
this way as well.
Prevention of Water Loss and Contamination

Not only does a greenhouse trap heat while letting light in, the structure also
interrupts the evaporation cycle. While you will still need to top up the system to
maintain the proper amount of water, you’ll find your daily refreshment rates much
lower when growing inside of a covered space. Greenhouses are designed to handle
the humid conditions of an aquaponics system without rotting or molding like you
may experience in a building made from absorbent materials like wood and drywall.
Reliance on Natural Light

Another reason to choose a greenhouse over another type of enclosure or structure
is to take advantage of natural sunlight rather than paying high electrical bills for
artificial lighting. Fish may need to stay out of direct light to prevent water heating and
algae growth, but this is easily accomplished in any greenhouse structure just by
covering the fish area with shade cloth or opaque cover materials.
Longer Production Windows

Finally, the temperature control offered by the greenhouse enclosure allows you to
grow outside of the usual season in your area. With cooling equipment, you can even
use the greenhouse at the height of summer in warmer climates, but they’re most
widely used for growing through the spring and fall or even during winter with
supplemental heating. Expanding your production window may be necessary if
you’re interested in growing fish species that take more than a few months to reach
harvest size.
Which Greenhouses Work Best for Aquaponics Purposes?

Polyethylene vs Glass vs Polycarbonate
Considering both the cost and benefits, a polyethylene cover greatly outweighs the
alternatives. Glass may sound like a more durable material, but it’s far more
susceptible to damage from hail storms, falling branches and other debris. It’s also
much more expensive than either polyethylene or polycarbonate panels and
overheats more easily. Polycarbonate panels durability is comparable to
polyethylene covers, but they’re still more expensive and don’t offer any benefits
aside from slightly higher security against unwanted entry. Your best option is BTL’s
specially formulated polyethylene ArmorClear cover. It contains high-density
polyethylene weaving for superior durability, allows up to 87% natural light
transmission, and has high UV protection for the optimal growing environment.
Structural Styles
Most styles of greenhouses will work fine for aquaponics use, but some structural
types do offer a few extra benefits. Passive solar greenhouses are likely the best
choice for cold and temperate climate systems because they maximize heat gains
without requiring as much supplemental heating.
Arch and Hoop

Hoop and arch greenhouse structures are the most common types because of their
strong resistance to damage from both falling debris and wind tearing. The curves of
this Gothic arch style also help shed snow in cold climates to prevent collapses. If you
don’t get significant snow loading, the hoop style is less expensive in most cases to
build and still offers plenty of damage resistance.
A-Frame
A-frame greenhouses are some of the most affordable designs because the lack of
curves allows for using standard wood framing rather than bent pipe structures.
However, A-frame greenhouses aren’t as good as curved designs at maintaining an
even air temperature, and they lack some of the head space of those designs as well.
An A-frame greenhouse is still better than no enclosure at all if it’s the only kind of
cover you can afford. You can always upgrade to a better greenhouse later after
determining if your business can turn a profit.
Lean-To
Lean-to greenhouses require some kind of building to form one wall of the structure,
but that use of an existing insulated wall helps reduce heat loss in cold climates. It
also reduces the construction costs and can sometimes simplify repairs. However,
these structures cover much less space than freestanding units and can be tricky to
build large enough to accommodate a commercial aquaponics system. If you’re
already using a building to contain a hydroponics or aquaponics farm, expanding the
space with a lean-to greenhouse is likely the most affordable way to grow.
Passive Solar
Passive solar greenhouses can be expensive to build due to the need for the north-
facing wall to be highly insulated and traditionally framed. Using a polyethylene
greenhouse cover only on the southern-facing side maximizes heat gain while
reducing losses. In cold climates, passive solar greenhouses may be able to keep
aquaponics systems going throughout the winter with only minimal water and air
heating. These structures also tend to be relatively easy to maintain when it comes
time to replace the cover or panels covering it, as the solid north wall can support
scaffolding or ladders.
Chapter 14: Running an Aquaponics Business
F
or the backyard hobbyist, the considerations of an aquaponics system can end
after the fish, plants and equipment are figured out. However, a commercial
system is a business and therefore requires a more comprehensive approach.
Many of the steps required for starting an aquaponics business are the same as other
farming operations, but there are some unique challenges to setting up this kind of
company.
Research Your Market

With the global market for aquaponics products expected to reach over $1.3 billion
USD by 2024, there’s clearly demand for new businesses. Yet this demand is
concentrated in certain markets and not spread evenly over every area. Choosing one
town over another, even when they’re only a few dozen miles apart, could be the
difference between failure and success due to the proximity to the right market.
Market research for an aquaponics business relies on the same basic methods as any
other business. The most effective research methods include:
• Customer surveys of people already shopping at farmer’s markets, high-end

grocery stores and similar outlets, which can be completed with the help of
local Facebook groups for a low-cost alternative to hiring professional survey
administrators.
• Collecting information on any competitors already in the area, including non-

aquaponics businesses that produce fish and edible or ornamental plants.
Competitive analysis is essential for determining how your competitors are
doing and whether you can break into the market by identifying their
weaknesses.
• Checking prices at all competitive retailers and outlets to ensure you can
actually compete while still making a profit. For example, ff the competition
can sell fish for $1/pound but your system would require charging $2/pound
to stay profitable, you’ll need to identify some market aspect that would
guarantee demand for the higher price point.
• Purchasing market sector analysis to determine which parts of the country

already feature plenty of competition and which areas have market demand
with little competition.
Draft a Business Plan

Unless you already have savings to cover both the setup and operation costs for your
new business, you’ll likely need to take out loans. Don’t expect to secure funding from
a lender without a full business plan. Even if you’re going to fund your business
entirely yourself, you should still write up a business plan to increase the chances of
success. Business plans ensure you’ve considered the most important risks and
verified you have a good chance of turning the expected profit.
If you’re having trouble writing up a cohesive business plan, the Small Business
Administration (SBA) is a great place to turn. The tips and templates offered by the
SBA can be used for businesses of any size, but if you’re planning to need $500,000
or more to start your aquaponics farm, you’ll likely need to hire a business plan
consultant as well to make sure your documents are through and correct.
Find Mentors and Hands-on Training

Running aquaponics equipment successfully requires dozens of different skills.
Trying to self-educate yourself on all of them with books and videos alone is not ideal.
While you certainly can teach yourself the basics and build your skills with small
hobby projects first, the fastest way to get the skills you need for a commercial
operation is through hands-on training and mentorship. Of course, this means finding
either a university/college offering training in aquaponics or a nearby facility that is
somehow not a potential future competitor.
Because aquaponics is still a relatively new and developing field, you’ll likely find it
much easier to seek out learning opportunities in general aquaculture and
hydroponics. With aquaponics combining many techniques and pieces of equipment
from both of these fields, an education in both should give you most of the hands-on
training you’ll need to run your own system. You may want to consider a long-
distance mentorship with a specialist in aquaponics, even if it’s just over the phone or
through video chats, in order to have someone to call when there’s an emergency
during the first few years of operation.
Fund Your Startup Costs

Traditional business loans are available for aquaponics, but the unproven nature of
the business idea can make it a hard sell to many lenders. Even if you’re not
independently wealthy and don’t have borrowing options, your idea of starting an
aquaponics business isn’t over. Partnering with a community group to start a non-
profit aquaponics farm could give you more business data to take to a lender to
convince them of demand or viability. Crowdfunding is another option, especially if
there’s something groundbreaking or unusual about your business plans. You also
may be able to find other people interested in opening the same kind of business to
create a pool of savings that is enough to start a company that no one person could
afford to finance on their own.
Hiring Employees
It’s perfectly possible to run smaller commercial scale with just a single operator.
However, even systems that can be managed by you alone will leave you with no
time off for essential family or self-care tasks. When you’re the only one testing the
water and checking that the automated systems are running properly, taking a day
off to go to the doctor could lead to a catastrophic collapse. Hiring at least one reliable
employee is the best way to run a commercial aquaponics system.
However, improper hiring puts the aquaponics system at more risk than just running
it all alone. Employees need to be invested in the success of the company and must
know the proper practices for maintaining the system, as a single mistake could kill
hundreds of pounds of fish or crops.
If you can’t find staff that have specific aquaponics expertise, look for employees with
experience working at fish hatcheries, hydroponics facilities, greenhouses or even
traditional farms. A background in plant or fish care will make it much easier for the
workers to learn the ins and outs of aquaponics and reduce the likelihood of early
mistakes.
There are many opportunities for sabotage in a delicate system like aquaponics from
a disgruntled employee. No one wants to think about their employees acting against
them, but there are ways to protect your equipment against this potential problem if
you do consider it. Remote monitoring and control systems let you know immediately
if someone turns off the heating elements or aerators in the fish tanks. Other
techniques are more psychological and less physical. Keep your employees happy
with fair wages and good benefits and scheduling routine training meetings.
Moving from a Hobby System to a Commercial One

Starting a backyard hobby aquaponics farm is a great step to building familiarity with
the processes and equipment before investing in a full-sized company. However, you
can’t assume the same equipment, layout, or growing style will work for a commercial
expansion. For example, many backyard systems are based around nutrient film
technique (NFT) designs that are hard to expand into profitable commercial units. You
may need to set up a whole new backyard system with the techniques you’d like to
use commercially to get more specific practice with troughs and deep water rafts
before starting your business.
It is possible to turn a small profit off a large enough hobby system. However, true
commercial systems, that can create a full-time income for more than one person,
are designed differently than even the biggest hobby units. Don’t expect to simply
add more and more of the same tanks and barrels and get the same, favorable results
as you’re getting with a small system.
Finding Wholesale Buyers

Wholesale buyers will purchase as much as you produce in a certain interval,
eliminating concerns over waste when demand slows down from consumers.
However, you’ll need to be able to produce large volumes of fish and crops within
tight deadlines to meet the needs of the wholesale buyer. Finding buyers in search of
new suppliers is a little tricky as well. Don’t just limit your search to the city and state
where you’re locating the aquaponics business. Many wholesale buyers are happy to
send a truck hundreds of miles to pick up quality produce and fish.
Attending agricultural conventions in your region is a great way to meet wholesalers
shopping around. Search for local “terminal markets,” which are centralized hubs for
agricultural sales, and attend a few sales there to see who is selling what. You can
bring your harvests to one of these sites to shop around for a buyer, but you can also
make contacts during the events to arrange for direct pickup from your aquaponics
facility.
Direct Sales Opportunities

Direct sales to consumers and restaurants offer higher profit margins, but demand
can rise and fall suddenly to make it difficult to earn an even income. There’s also no
need to harvest hundreds or thousands of pounds of one crop just to go to market. In
addition to directly selling harvests to consumers, you can open up a secondary
income stream by offering services to design and install small backyard systems for
consumers who’d like to try growing their own food.
Crops and fish sold directly to consumers tend to be distributed in one or more of the
following three ways:
• Booths at a farmer’s market or a store located on the farm; which allows for
direct contact between the company and the customers.
• Partnerships with local grocery stores and other retail outlets; which expand
your reach without requiring as much marketing because you benefit from the
outlet’s marketing efforts.
• Consumer Supported Agriculture (CSA) agreements; which are contracts

where you are paid at the beginning of a season and offer weekly or monthly
boxes of vegetables and fish in exchange for the investment.
Unless there’s extremely high demand through just one of these methods, your
aquaponics business will likely earn the best profit from embracing all three. Farmer’s
market sales are usually the first to be dropped by a growing business, as there’s
much more effort and labor involved in this method. Be wary of setting up a CSA
membership club before you’ve produced a few rounds of harvests. Many farms take
in thousands of dollars of needed income at the beginning of a season this way but
fail to return produce to the customers due to crop losses and other failures. These
farms can end up going into debt when refunds must be issued.
Making Money from Waste Products

Don’t forget about the value of the solid waste you remove from your growing
trenches and filtration units. It may look like nothing more than sludge to you, but it’s
a rich source of nutrients and makes an ideal fertilizer for many other agricultural uses.
Fish emulsion fertilizers are made with the discarded waste of processed fish,
including guts and heads, making it another great option for a secondary set of
products. Since these fertilizers are easily processed when they’re available and then
stored until there’s demand, you can continue making sales during periods in which
you’re not harvesting any plants or fish.
Solid wastes are generally spread on screen boxes and dried, then powdered or
crumbled and stored in air-tight bags. Drying out the waste stabilizes it so it doesn’t
break down further or develop unwanted compounds. If you are located in an
agricultural area with many acres of surrounding farmland, you may be able to see
the sludge directly after removal to be mixed into a liquid sprayer tank and applied to
the ground. This technique is commonly used for evenly spreading poultry manure,
but it also works well for fish waste fertilizers.
Fish emulsions are made by grinding fish waste products into a slurry. Letting the
slurry stand for a few hours at a refrigerated temperature results in oil rising to the
top, which should be skimmed off. The rest of the slurry is mixed with a large volume
of water, usually at least ten to twenty parts of water to each part of fish slurry, and
then heated to kill off bacteria that could create unpleasant odors. The resulting
emulsion still doesn’t smell great, but it’s full of nutrients for field crops and can be
applied as both a ground treatment and a foliar spray.

Chapter 15: Selecting a Location for an Aquaponics

Facility
W
hile you can design a commercial aquaponics system around practically
any property you already own, it’s just as acceptable to lay out your ideal
design and then shop for land that will work with the plans. Knowing an
estimate of the size, layout and structural requirements of the system is essential to
determining which property will work best for you. However, there are plenty of
considerations that are universal to all aquaponics and hydroponics businesses that
can help guide your choice.
Considerations for the Raw Land

Even if there are existing structures on the property you purchase for the business,
it’s the raw land itself you should be most concerned with during the shopping
process. Unless you plan to build a costly and inefficient indoor system, your fish
tanks and plant troughs will be supported by the ground itself, even if the dirt is
covered with weed barrier or other materials. Weak soils, steep slopes and heavy tree
cover can all make an affordable property less than ideal for aquaponics.
Support for Tank Weight

Most soil tests for stability are designed around the weight of an entire home or other
structure, and it’s true that the aquaponics tanks won’t weigh quite as much as
buildings. However, the weight of thousands of gallons of water quickly adds up with
each gallon weighing around eight lbs. Loose, sandy and unstable soils may hold the
weight of the tanks just fine for years until a rainstorm or flooding event destabilizes
the ground and leads to extensive crop losses and costly equipment damage.
The entire U.S. has been mapped by thorough geological survey. You can find maps
on the USDA website that go into fine detail about the particular soils present on any
given property. Reading up on their composition can help you determine if the ground
has the right weight supporting capacity or not. You should still follow up with testing
from a soils engineer who can tell you exactly how much weight the ground can
support.
Grading and Clearing Costs

Even perfectly flat properties will need extensive clearing if they’re covered in brush
and trees. Most properties affordable enough to use for commercial aquaponics will
fall into this category, as cleared areas tend to cost much more for their appeal to
buyers ready to build homes. If there are any slopes on the land, you’ll also need
some amount of grading to create flat areas for the tanks and troughs. Slopes are
inherently less stable than flat land and increase the chances of a system collapse or
landslide. Setting up the tanks along a slope may allow for gravity-fed water flow, but
it also tends to lead to erosion under and around the system. Don’t forget to work in
the costs of site preparation when comparing properties. If a piece of land is $10,000
less than anything else you’re considering but the grading company gives you a quote
for $20,000 to prepare it for proper use, you’re losing both money and time on the
deal compared to ready to use plots.
Erosion Control
Most people interested in starting an aquaponics business are at least tangentially
concerned about the environment. Yet, aquaponics facilities can still contribute to
topsoil loss and waterway degradation if you are careless about erosion control
during both the construction and ongoing operation phases. Bare soil should be
covered as soon as possible, even if it’s just with a layer of gravel or straw. You’ll need
to establish some kind of living groundcover like turf grass around outdoor systems,
and even greenhouses need proper liners on the ground to keep dirt from being
carried away by running water. Hillsides and slopes are particularly prone to erosion,
so look into geogrids, straw ballasts, and hydroseeding to prevent these areas from
becoming a problem.
Planning for Utilities

Aside from the suitability of the land itself, access to affordable utilities is one of the
most important parts of site selection. Affordable properties are usually located far
from power and water supplies, leading many entrepreneurs to dream of completely
solar- or wind-powered businesses. However, the need for constant and relatively
high levels of electricity makes this far more expensive than most realize. Locating
your facility near existing utility suppliers is much smarter than trying to design an
entire power and water supply system from scratch.
Electricity
Electricity is the number one most important utility for aquaponics. Water can be
trucked in if necessary and waste products and water can also be shipped out. Yet,
without electricity, it’s impossible to power the pumps, aerators, water quality
monitors and other tools necessary to raise fish. If you are set on running an off-grid
and electricity-free business, hydroponics is likely your only option.
Verify that power is available in the area you are considering and ask for average KW
costs from the potential providers. A difference of 1 cent per KW may sound like
nothing at all, but when you factor in those extra pennies piling up over years and
decades of operation, you’ll find the cost quite surprising. Buying a property at a
higher price that’s in an area with low electricity rates will result in long-term savings
over the life of the business.
Water Source
It is possible to bring in fresh and conditioned water by truck, but this is very expensive
for the initial setup and inflates the costs of operations permanently as you continually
bring in replacement supplies. Purchasing a property with a well, municipal
connection, lake, water access to a river, or any other water source is a much better
solution. You may need to purchase water rights separately in many states in order to
install new wells or tap into natural water supplies, especially if they’re shared by
multiple properties.
Heating
Electrical heating is the best option for greenhouse and indoor aquaponics because
there are no fumes produced. Invest in a heavy-duty generator to ensure you can
continue to run essential heaters and aerators when the power goes down, especially
if you’re relying partially or entirely on renewable energy sources.
With this guide, you should be prepared to draft a business plan and design your own
aquaponics system. From selecting property, to design layout and purchasing
supplies, this information should help you get started on the right foot. Once your
business is up and running, we hope the chapters on water quality management and
treatment options for fish and plant disease will help you continue confidently
forward. Contact your local extension office and other agricultural services to find
support for your projects and don’t hesitate to reach out to BTL’s knowledgeable
team with any liner or cover questions.


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Complete Guide to Aquaponics

Thank you for downloading BTL's Complete Guide to

Types of Mechanical Filters ...........................................................................................................39

Sizing for Pond-based and In-ground Systems ............................................................................63

Harvesting Your Fish and Grading Them ......................................................................................80

Moving from a Hobby System to a Commercial One ...................................................................96

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BTL's ArmorClear is the strongest and most reliable greenhouse cover on

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Chapter 1: What is Aquaponics and Why Is It Valuable?

Aquaponics offers benefits over both types of traditional hydroponics and

• A set-it-and-forget-it system that can completely manage itself until harvest

• An entirely closed system. Most designs require at least occasional external

The Benefits of Aquaponics

Reducing Physical Labor and Heavy Machinery Use

Generating a Healthy Profit

• Making the aquaponics business the business owner's primary source of

• Developing a strong understanding of aquaponics through training programs

Enriching the Local Community

What You'll Learn from This Book

Chapter 2: Aquaponics vs Hydroponics vs

The Basics of Hydroponics

• Expanded minerals like vermiculite and perlite.

• Pumice, gravel and crushed rock.

The Basics of Recirculating Aquaculture

Hydroponics vs Recirculating Aquaculture

Cross Training in All Three Practices

Cjapter 3: All about Fish for Aquaponics

What Do Fish Require?

Feed Conversion Ratios

Which Fish Species Work Best?

Watch Out for Breeding

The Best Cold Water Species

The Best Warm Water Species

The Best Ornamental Fish

The Best Non-Fish Aquaponics Additions

Shrimp and Prawns

Mussels and Oysters

Sourcing Fish for Initial and Ongoing Supply

Check Legality First

Make Contact with Ornamental or Edible Hatcheries

Choosing Between Fry and Fishlings

• Fry; which is the smallest stage immediately after hatching.

In general, most commercial aquaponics businesses should stick with fingerlings

Quarantine and Tempering New Fish

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Chapter 4: Considering the Plants

What Do Plants Require in Aquaponics Systems?

• Sawdust; which encourages good root growth and maintains a healthy

Climate Considerations for Plant Choice

What Plants Do Best in Aquaponics?

Viable perennials for aquaponics include:

How Do Fish Provide What the Plants Need?

What Conflicts Can Occur Between Fish and Plant Needs?

Chapter 5: Buffering, Waste Control and Biofilters

• Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD); a factor that causes lower oxygen

• Development of anaerobic and heterophobic bacteria in the biofilters that are

Types of Mechanical Filters

The most basic mechanical filters for

Biofilter Ideas and Designs

Buffering the Water