Aquaponic Gardening

Aquaponics, is a production of vegtables and fish which live in symobiotic relationship. The fish provide the fertilizer for the plants to grow, and as the plants consume the nutrients, they help purify the water that the fish live in. In turn creating a sustainable ecosystem where both plants and fish thrive. The idea was so simple it's mind-boggling... It's about nature balance, which is automatic, for example;1. Trees provide us with Oxygen to breathe... 2. We breathe out Carbon-Dioxide, and... 3. In turn the trees breathe the Carbon-Dioxide... and breathe out Oxygen. It's automatic... we don't have to think about where and how we're getting our oxygen... it just happens.Well, what if you could do the same thing for plants? So their food supply is automated. You can, with [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y31ixOGqY0Q AQUA-PONICS]. It is the combination of hydroponics with aqua-culture.Aqua-Culture is the process of growing fish in a tank... and it has one big problem... Fish produce Ammonia, Algae, Minerals, and all kinds of other by-products that need to be constantly filtered. Wait a minute! Plants eat Ammonia, Algae, Minerals and Nitrates! Everything that fish produce naturally! What if you connect the two together? This is where the magic of aqua-ponics comes in!...If you connect the fish-tank water to the water of the hydroponics system... your plants get an automatic food supply of almost everything they need to grow from the fish water... and in turn... the plants filter the water for the fishAnyone can do Aquaponics basically once you get set up, it becomes a self cleaning system, with miminal maintenance.The Aquaponic system can be set up on a backyard scale or commercially will run in a shop or quansit size building. There is no wrong way to make the system, you just have to balance the fish, biofilter, and plants.Commercially, aquaponics is a small but growing industry, as businesses have realized that aquaponics and controlled environment agriculture can provide high quality, locally grown fresh food on a year round basis. On a hobby scale aquaponics is catching on quickly, an aquarium size hydroponic system combined with growing herb's, vegtables, flowers can Gardening provide food for the year.Aquaponics is a natural organic processes, nurturing a biological cycle. It is the same process which happens in our streams, rivers, and lakes.Using any chemical in this system upsets the balance, it is not recommended.Imagine a garden where there is no weeds, bugs, no tilling or cultivating, no fertilizing or compost shredding..... No tractors.Your plants grow and taste great they are healthy for you.Containers used for the system can be anything that holds water. Large plasic tubs or plastic barrels. Materials that might leach into the water supply, such as is often the case with metal tanks should be lined with sturdy food grade plastic before being used. Plastic barrels, trays, wading pools have been used with success.