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gardener
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Location: western pennsylvania zone 5/a
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http://permaculturenews.org/2013/05/28/chinampas-2-0-an-elegant-technology-from-the-past-to-save-the-future/



basically aquaponics designs are just variations on the theme:

separating the growbeds from the ponds(fish tanks)
housing in greenhouses for weather concerns
using tubes and trays and pumps
some things may be necessary for local conditions
but many "improvements" seem to add unnecessary costs and things to go wrong

is the outcome of the project to grow plants and fish
or to see how complicated we can make things?
 
Posts: 145
Location: NW MT Zones 4/5 Rollins Mt
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LOL,
This is how I feel about most of the topics that come up any more,,Not just the aquaponics..
 
pollinator
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Location: Kansas Zone 6a
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"There is nothing new under the sun"

 
Posts: 26
Location: Zone 6b
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cat trees solar
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Wouldn't mosquitoes and the disease they spread be a problem with this system in use in a tropical environment?
 
Posts: 79
Location: Austin Texas
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Matthew Clark wrote:Wouldn't mosquitoes and the disease they spread be a problem with this system in use in a tropical environment?



Actually, the opposite happens. The fish eat the mosquitoes, eggs, and larvae. The mosquito populations drop dramatically when using aquaponics systems. If countries that have problems with malaria would promote a national aquaponics campaign, thousands of people's lives could be saved every year.

Fun fact: Only female mosquitoes bite.
 
Posts: 92
Location: Madison, WI
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I think it depends what you compare it to. My aquaponics has two moving parts - a pump and an aerator. If you count the indexing valve, that's three.

Conventional farming uses 4-5 or more entire machines with hundreds of moving parts each.

However, the complexity of the soil food web will always surpass the methods we employ to make use of it, by a great deal.
 
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