How to take care of your aquaponics system while you are going on holiday: this is what
we're going to see together in this video.
Hi, my name is Jonathan from Melbourne Aquaponics, and I make videos to help you to manage your
aquaponics system in the best conditions in your backyard in order to grow some food,
sustainable, healthy, and tasty.
I'm talking about vegetables and fish in your own backyard.
So I receive a lot of questions from people who want to start aquaponics, but they are
scared because they don't want to commit, they don't know how to deal with the system
when they go on holiday and actually I'm just back from holiday today, from two weeks of
holidays.
So the systems behind me they have been running for two weeks without anything, without any
maintenance, without any fish food, without adding water in the system, nothing.
And as you can see, I come back and everything is green, while I live in Melbourne and in
Melbourne the weather is very hot very warm.
The normal gardeners they have to water their garden every day and if they go on holiday,
during summertime, everything will be dead.
Everything will be dry while here you see I go on holiday, I come back, and everything
is green.
So that's really a very interesting point in aquaponics.
We can go on holiday without a problem, and when we come back, everything is great because
the system is a real ecosystem actually, and all living creatures are living together and
the water that is present in the fish tank is always distributed into the growbed.
So it's always present for the plants.
The plants have always access to some water but also to the nutrients of the system.
That’s really the beauty of the thing.
So the only limiting part are, you know, in summer you still have a bit of evaporation
so if you don't have a lot of a big fish tank or a sump tank, a sump tank is another tank
that is working as a reservoir of water.
So if you don't have much water in your system, you may have some evaporation and if you go
on holiday there for months, while the temperature is at +40 or something like very, very hot
+30, it can evaporate and the water level decreases.
So if you go on holiday for too long, after a while, you don't have water remaining in
your system, but it's generally not such a big problem if you don't live in such a warm
environment.
For the fish, you don't really need to feed them.
I have been on holiday for weeks and when I come back the fish are all alive.
They are really healthy.
Obviously, when I distribute some food, when I feed them, they all eat very well.
So they were quite hungry but at least they all survived.
It's better than having an automatic feeding system where the fish food is going to drop
in the fish tank even if the fish don't eat.
Or if there is a problem on the water pump, there will be a big issue because then the
ammonia in the system, the toxicity of the water is going to increase.
While here, when I'm not here, when I am not present and when I know that I'm not going
to be present every day to see the fish, I don't feed them.
I prefer not giving them any food.
I'm giving them some food that they don't eat, and then obviously, it's going to be
really bad for the ecosystem and if there is a problem with a water pump or an air pump
the fish can simply die.
So that's my biggest recommendation.
Don't feed your fish if you go on holidays.
In terms of plants, obviously, I was not here so you see I got some tomato here that is
growing in a vine.
I got a lot of tomato plants.
They grow from those growbeds and they grow high, and then I attach them to some cables
so they can grow in a vine and they create some shade.
So it's very good.
The only thing is I always got some dead leaves so I will need to do a little bit of cleaning
just removing those dead leaves.
They are not really a problem for the system.
It's just that I like to keep it tidy and clean, but it's not a real issue and obviously,
I got a lot of tomatoes here that are really ready to be eaten.
So I should have collected some last week, but I was not here obviously, so some of them
are maybe over maturate.
So they may be over-ripe.
Obviously, maybe some of them I will give to the chicken because they may not be the
best to eat, but otherwise, all the veggies, all the plants are growing really well.
There is one that I found on the floor that’s a nice cucumber.
So the plant was dead.
You know it produced pretty well so I had one fruit hanging from the side and obviously,
with time, it fell down.
So when I arrived, I found this one on the floor, a nice fruit, ready to eat, so a nice
zucchini, actually.
And that's it.
So very easy and very simple.
So you see, I come back, I just have to top up the water a little bit, add a bit more
water in the system, feed my fish, and then I can collect, I can harvest the tomatoes.
And that's it.
Very, very simple, very easy.
It's not a big job.
I go on holiday for weeks.
I come back.
Everything is green in my backyard.
That's the real revolution of aquaponics compared to a classic garden where you would lose everything.
You would have to ask someone to come and to water your garden every day.
So I hope you enjoyed this video.
If you are new to aquaponics, I offer a free guide in the description of this video just
below or in the “i” like information in the corner of the video.
You click on it and you're going to find a link to a free training to help you to build
your own aquaponics system, but also to maintain and manage it in the best condition possible
for you and for your ecosystem.
If you enjoyed the video, please give it a like and subscribe to the channel because
I will share one video every week with you in order to succeed in aquaponics.
I’ll see you in the next one and bye-bye.
Don't forget to get your free gift from this screen.
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I really hope to see you soon.
I wish you a fantastic success with aquaponics.
Have a good crop!