Aquaponics Project

The Aquaponics Project was a  demonstration system located in the Concordia Green house from 2010-2015. It is currently transitioning facilitation.

Aquaponics is the loving marriage between aquaculture, or fish farming, and hydroponics, growing plants in a soil-less medium. Traditionally, these techniques ask for highly controlled and managed, near-sterile environments. However, an aquaponics setup is designed to be more like an ecosystem including many forms of life, and which yields both vegetables and animal protein.

With aquaponics, little water is wasted because most of it is recirculated and purified. In general terms, the fish waste provides a nitrogen-rich fertilizer to the plants, and in turn the plants in the growing beds end up gladly cleaning the water for the fish. The details are much more intricate, where the number of beneficial relationships extends beyond just that of the fish and plants to make a system like this function.