A Green Project Challenge

The intent of this project is to see if being more green is viable given the cost of materials vs. the Return On Investment (ROI) for operating my own greenhouse aquaponics/aeroponics system in our backyard. The challenge is whether I can design, build and operate an aquaponics/aeroponics based greenhouse system in a sustainable manner with a small carbon footprint while providing food for the table at a reasonable cost over conventional methods such as purchasing fish/vegetables at the local grocery. Join me on this journey of discovery while I forge a new chapter in my quest for a better tomorrow.

Friday, July 8, 2011

What is Aero and Aquaponics....

According to Wikipedia, "Aeroponics is the process of growing plants in an air or mist environment without the use of soil or an aggregate medium (known as geoponics)."  Simply put, I will be using plant mister heads from a lawn irrigation system to build the Aeroponics portion of the system, while using trays of some sort to hold the plants root systems for growth. Now for Aquaponics Wikipedia  states that "Aquaponics is a sustainable food production system that combines a traditional aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as fish, crayfish or prawns in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment." Which really means I will basically be growing the Tilapia in large tanks, and using the water from those tanks to feed the plants in a recirculating fashion, i.e. the fish dirty the water with waste by-products and the plants use those by-products for growth thus cleaning the water which can be re-introduced back into the fish tanks. More details on this to follow.

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