Hello,

Like everyone else, I am looking into ways of providing healthier food for my family. To this end, I've been considering auqaponics, but I am concerned about the toxic chemicals from the various petroleum products required for this (pond liners, plastic tanks, PVC piping and glue). I was hoping we could talk about ranking the different sources. Maybe auqaponics isn't perfect, but better than some alternatives? Or maybe it should be avoided all together, and other methods should be looked at.

Here is a quick list to rank, and add any other sources I have forgotten.

fast food
typical supermarket fair
organic supermarket
hydroponics
auqaponics
home garden (best? not feasable 8 months of the year in my area)

Thanks,

Long time listern
Tim

Tim Mass wrote:H...I've been considering auqaponics, but I am concerned about the toxic chemicals from the various petroleum products required for this (pond liners, plastic tanks, PVC piping and glue).

First, if you do set up an AP system, don't use glue like I did. You need to be able to take things apart and dry fitting without glue is fine.

If the products used are food safe plastic and/or safe for potable water there should be no issues with toxicity. If PVC is OK for your house pipes, it should be OK for your AP system. An important point to keep in mind is that fish are very sensitive to toxic gick - much more sensitive then we are. For example, you can't use copper at all in AP systems because it will kill the fish where as we still use copper for potable water systems.

Many things that leak a little bit at first, will develop a slime coating that seals the leak.

Thanks for the replies, maybe I'm being a little too paranoid.

Cautious is fine. Paul Wheaton doesn't seem to care for AP too much but geoff lawton thinks is does produce nutrient dense food unlike hydroponics (which he thinks doesn't).