Hello aquaponics growers.
So today, I have one question for you.
Do you think it is possible to completely close the loop in aquaponics?
So you know that in my different aquaponics videos, I always try to push sustainability
very far in aquaponics.
I focus on the size of the pump, on a lot of different things to reduce the consumption
of energy resources and the impact on the environment and today the question is will
we be able to run an aquaponics setup without adding anything in the setup and to run it
by itself in a completely closed environment?
That’s what we’re going to see today in this video.
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So what do we mean by closing the loop?
So let’s take the example of the water.
You know, in aquaponics, we put some water in the system and the system is closed.
So the water remains in the system and runs continuously.
So we could think that the loop is completely closed, but what happens is that in aquaponics
we got some evaporation, right?
So there is the sun going in the setup and some water is evaporated.
Also, when the vegetables are growing, they are composed of a high percentage of moisture.
So when you harvest your vegetables, you remove water from the system which means that the
water level in your aquaponics system is decreasing, and you have to add water in the system.
So yes, somewhere we close the loop, but the loop is still open to the environment.
Because we have some evaporation, we consume some vegetables and we remove some water from
the system.
So the loop is maybe closed but we need to add new material.
And my question to you is would it be possible to basically stop adding new material not
from a water perspective but from a fish food or nitrogen perspective?
So let's be clear.
In aquaponics, we try to be super sustainable.
We limit the quantity of power, of energy that we need, you know.
If you compare it to a classic aquaculture or a classic hydroponic system, the consumption
of energy in aquaponics is quite low.
So that's a really good point.
The consumption of water as well is very low.
So the limited resources such as water are very, very well utilized.
In aquaponics, we are in a system where the water is kind of trapped and as I said before,
we got some evaporation but the consumption is definitely lower than a classic garden
and a class in aquaculture.
So from those perspectives, we are really good in aquaponics.
But there is one thing where we are not so good.
It’s from the fish food consumption.
The fish food that we use in aquaponics is the same that the one is used in aquaculture
and therefore, we have a negative impact on the environment because the fish food is composed
of fish meal and this fish meal obviously, it's fish that are trapped in the ocean.
They are caught in the ocean.
They are processed and all this has an impact on the natural resources, on the population
of fish, the natural population of fish that are caught in the ocean and also on the energy
because you need a lot of energy to transform it into pellets and that’s the pellet that
most of us use in aquaponics.
So the question is if we use an alternative to those fish pellets if we produce our own
fish food and we use it in the aquaponics setup and if we produce this fish food thanks
to what we produce with the setup, can we just close the loop and therefore being kind
of self-sufficient?
It's very interesting and there are different techniques, right?
I made some videos about duck weed.
So duck weed they are floating plants.
So I got some here.
You see those green things on my hand.
Probably you don't see much but I made a special video about it and you can produce them and
you can feed your fish with it.
They grow up very fast but the reality of duck weed is that only specific species of
fish are able to eat them.
You know, a fish that is carnivore, a fish that is a predator will not be able to eat
duck weed.
So depending on the species, you can use those duck weed and you can grow them with the water
of your aquaponics setup.
So in this way you could think that you close the loop.
It’s same thing if you grow insects.
I made a video about insects and we can see that it's possible to grow insects and to
feed them, thanks to some vegetables that we will grow in aquaponics.
In this way, we’ll use the vegetables to feed the insects and then we’ll use the
insects to feed the fish and the fish when they pooh, they feed the plants.
So you see, we also close the loop somewhere.
I mean, it seems that we close the loop.
But when we think about it, you know an aquaponics system is like a black box.
What we do currently with our aquaponics systems is that we add some fish food in the system
and we get some vegetables and some fish.
So if we stop adding fish food in the system and obviously, we’ll produce the fish food,
thanks to the system, but we continue to collect vegetables and to collect fish.
At one point, we're going to decrease the quantity of proteins, of nitrogen available
in the system.
It’s not only nitrogen but also minerals and a bunch of other things which means that
at one point or another, the system is going to be weaker and weaker and at one point the
system is not going to produce.
It’s almost going to be empty.
If you see the representation of the ecosystem as a black box, you can imagine that at one
point you're going to empty the system of all the nitrogen or the nutrients that are
necessary for the system to work and therefore at one point, you empty everything and you
can't produce anymore.
So we need to add something in the system but it doesn't necessarily need to be fish
food.
So the fish food we use at the moment as I said before is not sustainable and it has
a negative impact on the planet.
So if we use those two ways of recycling or of producing some fish food so duck weed or
insects, then we can add nitrogen under another form.
Instead of adding it under the form of fish food, we can simply add in it in terms of
nutrients for the plants.
So it could be simply adding some fertilizer or adding just a compost tea.
You know you compost or the organic waste that you have at home.
You can collect them, collect the compost tea and this compost tea is very high in nitrogen
as well and very high in minerals and other things so you could technically add this compost
tea in your aquaponics setup.
I'm not saying that's a good thing to do because there are some risks because under compost
you do, you got a lot of pesticides on the fruits, on the on the skin of the vegetables
that you are eating, right, and that's why sometimes we peel the vegetables off.
We put them in the compost but then if you put this in your aquaponics system, you have
some risk to add some pesticides in the system.
So if you do this, please wash your vegetables before throwing anything into the compost,
but the point is you can definitely instead of adding fish food in the system, you can
swap it for fertilizer for the plants.
I mean, as long as you add nitrogen in the system somewhere, then the system can continue
to run and you can collect the vegetables and the fish in the other side.
So it's even better, right, because the fish food we need to buy it but the compost at
home you got waste.
We all got waste, right?
We call it table waste.
So it's organic waste.
So I was talking about it, the fruits, the vegetables that you eat even if you have leftover
of meat or whatever, all this can be composted, fermented, and you can basically get the juice,
what we call the tea, and this can go back in the system and some people are experimenting
of putting a compost bin on top of the aquaponics setup where basically the compost tea is going
directly in the setup.
But then you need to be able to manage the quantity of nitrogen in your system so if
you take this option, you will have to record those levels of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate
that you have in your water and the pH as well.
But it's one option.
Now, is it possible to completely close the loop?
The response, the obvious response would be no, right?
If you completely close the loop, if you don't add any nutrients, if you don't add any compost
tea in your system, the system is going to be weak, weak, weak.
That’s the obvious response but there are some tricks to basically maintain a good level
of nitrogen in a system without physically adding nitrogen in the system and that's what
we're going to talk about right now.
So if you look at the atmosphere, you understand that the atmosphere is composed of different
gases, right?
We got oxygen 20%-21%.
We got CO2 and other rare gas 1% but there is one gas that is in very high concentration
78%, and that's nitrogen and nitrogen is what we need to grow our plants, right?
Then it's just different forms of nitrogen and the plants, most of the plants are unable
to absorb the nitrogen that is in the atmosphere but there are some specific family.
We call it the Fabaceae and those species they have developed a symbiotic relationship
with some bacteria and those bacteria are basically able to trap the nitrogen that is
in the air and to transform it into nitrogen that is available for the plants.
So you can think of it.
I'm not saying that I am able to manage this or that anyone is able to do it at the moment,
but in the future, you can completely think of a system where you have in your grow bed
a very big grow bed and a low concentration of fish and in this grow bed you have different
plants plus you have a lot Fabaceae plants that are basically releasing nitrogen into
the soil.
And therefore the concentration of nitrogen is always present so your plants are always
producing and then from those plants you can then feed your fish or you can just use the
water that is high in nitrogen to grow some duck weed and feed your fish or you grow some
insects and feed your fish, but you understand the principle.
Here, you close the loop, never completely close the loop because you still have a problem
of minerals.
At one point or another, you still need to have potassium, calcium, and a lot of other
minerals in the loop but not in big quantities.
So you see somewhere, we are very close to be able to close the loop on the paper, in
theory.
Now, in practice you would need a very big grow bed to be able to do that, but it’s
still a possibility.
So I hope this opened your mind and respond to the question.
can I completely close the loop to my aquaponics setup?
If you are new to aquaponics, you know, that I offer you a six-step guide training that
is available in the description of the video just below, and in this training you will
find some crucial very, very important information to be able to build your own aquaponics setup
but also to manage it in the best conditions and to be able to produce sustainable, healthy,
and tasty food at home in your own backyard.
So download it.
It's just below.
You just have a link to follow.
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Have a good crop!