Aquaponic Sludge Mineralisation & Desalination Loop – EAS2017

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Two weeks ago, we have attended the Aquaculture Europe 2017 conference in Dubrovnik. I (Boris) presented our latest findings with respect to sludge mineralisation in aquaponic systems. It is a challenge to treat fish sludge within aquaponic systems to reduce the quantity of waste. Even more important is the objective to recover the valuable nutrients that are trapped in the sludge. Nutrient recovery by sludge mineralisation constitutes a great opportunity to complement the hydroponic nutrient solution in a sustainable manner.  Read more

aquaponic lettuce seedlings

Cracking the Aquaponics Code: Outperforming Hydroponics by 39%

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Aquaponics is a trending topic, but this finding on plant growth performance could be path-breaking for further aquaponics development. The Developonics team has published a new paper in the peer review journal Water (MDPI) with the title Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. var. Sucrine) Growth Performance in Complemented Aquaponic Solution Outperforms Hydroponics. The results were beyond our imagination. Read more

Experimental Aquaponic Setup using supernatant from anaerobic remineralization practices

The Potential of Anaerobic Remineralization in Aquaponic Systems

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As you guys might have noticed, we are currently running an experiment on the anaerobic remineralization potential of RAS-derived fish sludge. In order to clarify open questions regarding the impact of anaerobic effluents on plant growth, we have conducted a small experiment. In that experiment we compared the lettuce growth (as well as shoot:root ratios) for lettuces grown in RAS water that has been supplemented with either anaerobic or aerobic fish sludge supernatant.  The experimental setup can be seen in Figure 1. Read more

Decoupled Aquaponics – The Future of Food Growing?

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There is lots of discussion going on on the internet and within academic worlds, whether decoupled aquaponics has a general advantage over conventional recirculating aquaponic systems. Figuring this out was our objective in the last years and led to the publication “Navigating towards Decoupled Aquaponic Systems: A System Dynamics Design Approach“. Following the KISS principle, I will briefly outline the main points of the publication and discuss them a bit in non-academic jargon (excluding the paper’s abstract). Read more

commercial aquaponics

Challenges of Sustainable and Commercial Aquaponics

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Simon Goddek‘s and Boris Delaide‘s publication in the peer review journal ‘Sustainability’ summarizes the challenges of “aquaponics”, that is combining fish production (aquaculture) and out-of-ground crop production (hydroponics), in particular nutrient recycling advantages and knowledge gaps concerning nutrient forms and flows. Hydroponic systems allow precision controlled dosage of both water and nutrients (macronutrients, in particular N, P and K, and micronutrients) to crops, as a function of their growth and needs. This is more difficult in aquaponics, where the nutrient supply is a function of the fish production. Nutrients and micro-nutrients therefore should be monitored and supplemented where necessary for plant needs. Read more