Hello aquaponics growers.
This is Jonathan from Melbourne Aquaponics.
So my aim is to help you to grow sustainable, healthy, and tasty food locally in your own
backyard, thanks to aquaponics.
Today, I would like to talk about the difference, the main difference between aquaculture and
aquaponics.
So aquaponics is a combination of two techniques: aquaculture and hydroponics.
That's on the paper, right?
But in practice it's completely different.
What we do in aquaponics is we work with a whole ecosystem.
In aquaculture, we are growing fish and the only aim is to produce fish.
There is nothing else that is important, and we are not dealing with an ecosystem.
We are just dealing with the fish we are trying to grow.
So the aims are completely different.
You understand in aquapanics, the aim is to maintain a good ecosystem so the fish but
also the bacteria and the vegetables and all the insects, the worms that are living all
together.
So in aquaponics we really try to give the best chances to this ecosystem to grow and
to produce nice quality food.
So we are talking about vegetables.
You know, in aquaponics we grow 10 times veggies than fish.
In aquaculture, it’s completely different, right?
The aim is to really produce as many fish as possible.
So the densities that we’re going to have in aquaculture are going to be way higher
than what we're going to have in aquaponics.
One big, big difference is the density of fish.
So obviously, to maintain this density of fish, in aquaculture we are using some very
specific equipment that cost a lot of money.
So in aquaculture, they use pure oxygen that they’re going to dilute with the water later
on and to so saturate, over saturate the concentration of oxygen in the water.
In aquaponics that's different.
The oxygen that we're going to have in our setup is just going to be brought, thanks
to an aeration, so we're just going agitate.
We’re just going to mix basically the atmosphere with the water to saturate the water in oxygen
and to balance the concentration.
So you know the techniques we use are definitely different.
And this brings us to the whole mind-set that we're going to have in aquaponics.
This is where we have a huge difference.
The mind-set we have in aquaponics is that we want to maintain our system in the best
conditions.
We want all the living creatures to live in good conditions, to avoid stress, and therefore,
to avoid disease simply because in our setup, we want to produce food that is very healthy,
that is 100% healthy, and sustainable.
But also if there is a problem, physically we can't really treat the problem.
You know, if your fish are falling sick, you don't want to add any chemical in the setup.
Otherwise, it will have an impact on the bacteria that are living in the grow bed.
While in aquaculture, when there is a disease, the fish farmers are putting some chemicals
into the pond, into the rivers, into the cages where the fish are grown and they just release
these in the environment.
So it's going to basically kill the parasites or the bacteria that are living on the fish.
If the fish are sick due to bacterial infection, they can also use antibiotics.
So sometimes they put antibiotics into the fish food and therefore they treat the fish.
In aquaponics, if we do this obviously, the antibiotics are going to be in the water and
they're going to be raised into the grow bed where the bacteria are living and therefore,
we're going to lose our population of bacteria.
So we definitely don't want to use this technique to manage the quantity of disease that we
have in aquaponics.
So the principle is very simple.
In aquaculture, the fish are grown in very, very high density therefore, they are stressed.
They are grown in poor conditions and the fish farmers have to basically use some chemicals,
antibiotics, sometimes vaccines to manage the disease while in aquaponics, the way we
manage the disease is that we give the best conditions to the fish so they live in nice
conditions and they don't fall sick in the first place.
So it means not to over stock your ponds so working with low density of fish and giving
the best conditions to your fish.
So that's the really big difference we have between aquaponics and aquaculture.
So before we stop this video, I have one question for you.
Guess what this is?
I found this and I thought I really have to share this with you.
It has nothing to do with aquaponics really, but I think that's a very interesting object.
It has to do with permaculture and the shape is very unusual here.
So you can give me your response in the comment of this video, and the one who’ll get the
correct response, the first one to give me the correct response, I will offer him the
digital aquaponics manual.
So yeah, give me your response in the comments, and I will give you the response to this question
next week, in the next video.
If you are new to aquaponics, I'll give you a free training.
At the end of this video you go into the description and you’re going to find a link that is
going to give you access to this free training which is a six-step process to help you to
build your own aquaponics setup but also to understand the principles of aquaponics and
to understand the critical limits that you really need to respect in order to build an
efficient aquaponics setup but also to manage it in the best condition.
If you enjoyed this video please, give it a like and share it with your friends.
Don't forget to get your free gift from this screen.
You can also leave me a comment below the video.
Subscribe to the channel and see my last video.
I really hope to see you soon, and I wish you a fantastic success with aquaponics.
Have a good crop!