aquaponics book

Aquaponics Book: Aquaponics Food Production System

/0 Comments/in /by

The last couple of months have been super excited. Our aquaponics project in Namibia is proceeding, Boris is working in a research institute in Belgium on aquaponpics, and Simon is currently supervising several PhD students in Aquaponics all over the world (and currently staying in Brazil). However, the biggest milestone we have recently achieved was the publication of the aquaponics book we have all been working on within the last 2 years. Read more

Aquaponic Sludge Mineralisation & Desalination Loop – EAS2017

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

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%

/1 Comment/in , , /by

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

/0 Comments/in , , /by

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

lettuce grown on RAS and hydroponic water

Lettuce Growth Experiment

/1 Comment/in , /by

Today, Simon has started a lettuce growth experiment together with Tycho Vermeulen in Bleiswijk, the Netherlands. We are going to assess to what degree micro organisms in RAS water have an impact on lettuce growth by adding it to a hydroponic solution. The control group is a standard hydroponic nutrient solution for lettuce. We expect this experiment to take 8 weeks, and publishing the results somewhen mid of next year. Cheers!

Digestion Experiment at ZHAW

/1 Comment/in , , /by

Simon, Boris, and Zala are currently preparing some aquaponics experiments at ZHAW in Wädenswil (Switzerland). Two of them comprise sludge digestion for nutrient and water recycling. We hope to see the performance of both digster types on the nutrient dynamics on the system. The results will be published in a open access peer-review journal. Below some pictures of motivated young scientists. 🙂

Read more

aquaponics logbook

Aquaponics Logbook

/0 Comments/in , , /by

We are currently running an experiment on specific nutrient uptake of lettuce grown in hydroponic, and both one and two loop aquaponic nutrient solutions. To guarantee that all relevant data is available after the experiment, proper data logging is an often underestimated factor. The excel logging file can be used and adapted by everyone for personal usage. You can find the aquaponics logbook in our new section “Tools”. The tool can log pH, light, air temperature, air humidity, water temperature, volume, EC, N-NO3, N-NO2, TAN, P-PO4, K, S-SO4, Ca, Mg, Cl, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, B, Mo and converts ppm (mg/L) to mmol/L automatically.  It also allows you to log how much acid/bicarbonates you added to your system for pH adjustment purposes.

COST Meeting Gran Canaria

/0 Comments/in , , /by

All four Developonics members attended the Aquaponic Hub‘s 3rd Management Committee meeting in Gran Canaria that was held from 22nd to 24th of April 2015. The meeting can be considered very productive; especially as several agreements have been made to press ahead with respect to jointly publishing papers in the field of aquaponics. All of us are currently involved in preparing at least one manuscript on European basis. We are looking forward to sharing the results on this site.

Read more