Aquaponics Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Aquaponics can be a highly sustainable way to grow fresh food at home.

One of its biggest advantages is water use. Instead of continually watering a garden and losing much of that water into the soil, an aquaponics system recirculates the same water through the fish tank, filtration and growing areas. Water is mainly added to replace what is used by the plants and lost through evaporation.

Aquaponics also turns fish waste into a resource. Beneficial bacteria convert waste produced by the fish into nutrients that plants can use, while the plants help remove those nutrients from the water before it returns to the fish.

This creates a productive little ecosystem that can:

* grow vegetables, herbs and potentially edible fish;

* use water efficiently by continually recirculating it;

* grow food without traditional garden soil;

* make productive use of courtyards and small spaces;

* grow food close to where it will be eaten, reducing food miles;

* reduce reliance on synthetic fertilisers; and

* give you greater control over how your food is produced.

Aquaponics systems do require energy for pumps and aeration, as well as inputs such as fish food, but equipment can be chosen for energy efficiency and running costs can be calculated when designing your system.

Sustainability isn't about using no resources. It's about using resources wisely.

Aquaponics takes water, nutrients and biological processes and keeps them working within a recirculating ecosystem — allowing you to produce fresh food efficiently, even where a traditional vegetable garden may not be practical.

Aquaponics continually recirculates water through the fish tank, filtration and plant-growing areas rather than using it once and allowing it to drain away.

Plants take up the water they need, while much of the remaining water continues circulating through the system.

Water is still lost through evaporation, plant transpiration, harvesting, splashing and maintenance, so you'll need to top the system up.

But instead of continually replacing the entire water supply, aquaponics keeps putting the same water back to work.

Aquaponics can use substantially less water than many traditional growing methods because water is captured and recirculated rather than continually draining into the ground.

Exactly how much water is saved depends on climate, system design, crops, maintenance and what you're comparing it with.

The important difference is that recirculation is built into the way aquaponics works.

Aquaponics can help reduce the environmental impact of growing food by creating a recirculating ecosystem where water and nutrients are continually reused.

Water circulates between the fish, filtration and plants rather than being used once and discarded. This makes aquaponics particularly water-efficient compared with many traditional growing methods.

Fish waste also becomes a valuable resource. Beneficial bacteria convert waste from the fish into nutrients the plants can use, creating a natural relationship between fish, bacteria and plants.

Aquaponics can also:

* reduce the need for synthetic fertilisers;

* grow food without traditional garden soil;

* produce a large amount of food in a relatively small space;

* allow food to be grown in courtyards, backyards and other areas where traditional gardening may be difficult;

* reduce food miles by growing food where it's eaten;

* reduce packaging associated with purchased vegetables and herbs; and

* allow materials and containers to be repurposed when building home systems.

Growing food at home also means you have greater control over how it is produced and can harvest only what you need, helping reduce food waste.

Pumps and other equipment still require energy, but energy-efficient equipment can be selected when designing the system, and some aquaponics systems can also incorporate renewable energy.

Aquaponics works by turning what would otherwise be waste into a resource and keeping water and nutrients circulating within the ecosystem.

That's one of the reasons it can be such an environmentally responsible way to produce fresh food close to home.

Yes. Aquaponics can be a practical way to improve household food security by giving you the ability to produce fresh food at home.

Food security isn't only about having enough food today. It's also about having reliable access to nutritious food when prices rise, supplies are disrupted or particular foods become difficult to find.

Aquaponics can produce herbs and vegetables throughout the year, depending on your climate and what you're growing, and can also produce edible fish if that's part of your system.

Because aquaponics doesn't rely on good garden soil, it can also produce food in places where traditional vegetable gardening may be difficult — including courtyards, small backyards and rental homes.

And one of the most valuable things an aquaponics system can give you is knowledge.

You learn how to grow food. You learn how to care for fish and plants. You learn how a living ecosystem works, how to recognise problems and how to keep food production going.

Those skills don't disappear when supermarket shelves are full again.

An aquaponics system doesn't have to provide everything your household eats to be valuable. Every bunch of herbs, lettuce, tomato, cucumber or other vegetable you harvest is something you don't need to rely on somebody else to produce, transport, stock and sell to you.

Food security isn't necessarily about becoming completely self-sufficient. It's about becoming less dependent — and more capable of producing some of what you need yourself.

Aquaponics can be an important part of becoming more self-sufficient and less dependent on outside food supplies.

Depending on the size and design of your system, you can produce a regular supply of fresh herbs and vegetables and potentially edible fish at home.

But self-sufficiency doesn't have to mean producing absolutely everything you eat or never visiting a supermarket again.

It can mean growing the herbs you use every week instead of buying them. Producing leafy greens outside your door. Harvesting vegetables when you need them. Raising some of your own fish. Learning to propagate plants and becoming more confident in your ability to produce food.

Aquaponics can be particularly useful if you're renting, have limited space or don't have suitable soil for a traditional vegetable garden. You can begin with a relatively small system, learn the fundamentals and expand your food production as your space, knowledge and circumstances allow.

Just as importantly, self-sufficiency is about skills as well as food.

Learning how to grow plants, care for fish, manage water quality, understand nutrients, prevent problems and maintain a productive ecosystem gives you knowledge that you can continue using and building upon.

You may still buy food. You may still rely on outside inputs. That's okay.

Self-sufficiency doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing destination. Every food you can grow and every practical skill you develop makes you a little more self-reliant than you were before.

Aquaponics can produce a surprising amount of food in a relatively small space, but exactly how much depends on the size and design of your system, climate, available growing area, fish stocking and feeding, crop choices and how well the ecosystem is managed.

And you're certainly not limited to lettuce and herbs.

Depending on your system, you can grow leafy greens, herbs, peas, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, chillies, eggplants, brassicas and many other food plants. If you're raising an edible fish species, your system can also produce fish.

One of the reasons aquaponics can be so productive in a small area is that plants don't necessarily need the same spacing they would in a soil garden.

In soil, plants are spaced partly so their roots aren't competing for limited water and nutrients. In aquaponics, nutrient-rich water is continually delivered to the root zone. That can allow plants to be grown more closely together, provided they still have enough room, light and airflow above the growing area.

The result can look less like neat rows of vegetables and more like a food jungle — different plants filling the available space, climbing upwards, spreading over edges and producing food from an area that might otherwise grow relatively little.

You can also use vertical space where appropriate, succession plant as crops are harvested and combine plants with different growth habits.

There are still practical limits. Large plants need physical room to grow, climbing and heavy plants need support, and every system has a limit to the amount of nutrients its fish population can provide. Planting more densely doesn't remove the need to keep the ecosystem balanced.

But small doesn't have to mean unproductive.

A well-designed and well-managed small aquaponics system can produce a useful amount and variety of fresh food, while a larger system can become a substantial part of a household's food production.

Start with what you want to grow, understand the space those plants need, and design your aquaponics system to make productive use of the space you have.

Yes. An aquaponics system can grow a substantial amount of fresh vegetables for a family, and a well-designed system can provide regular harvests throughout the year.

How much you can produce depends on the size and design of your system, your climate, what your family likes to eat and the types of plants you choose to grow.

One of the advantages of aquaponics is how productively you can use the available space. Plants have continual access to water and nutrients, so they can often be grown more closely than they would be in a traditional soil garden. Climbing plants can grow upwards, sprawling plants can grow over the sides, and different crops can make use of different parts of the available space.

A productive aquaponics system doesn't have to look like neat rows of lettuce. It can become a food jungle of herbs, leafy greens, peas, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, chillies, eggplants, brassicas and other seasonal crops.

You can also plan your planting around what your family actually eats. If you regularly buy lettuce, herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers and greens, growing those foods continuously can significantly reduce how much you need to buy. Crops can be replanted as they're harvested so the system continues producing rather than giving you one harvest and then sitting empty.

There are limits, of course. The growing area needs to be large enough for your goals, larger plants need adequate room and support, and the amount you grow needs to remain in balance with the nutrients available within your aquaponics ecosystem.

But the goal doesn't need to be simply producing the occasional vegetable.

Aquaponics can be designed to provide an ongoing, productive source of fresh food for your household — and you can start at a size that suits you and expand your food production over time.

Yes. Producing both fish and plants within the same ecosystem is one of the defining features of aquaponics.

If you choose an edible fish species and provide appropriate conditions, the fish themselves can become part of your food production.

But you don't have to eat them.

Ornamental fish can also support plant growth, making it possible to use aquaponics purely for vegetable and herb production while keeping the fish as part of the living ecosystem.

Aquaponics has some important environmental advantages over conventional hydroponics, particularly because it works as a living, recirculating ecosystem rather than relying on manufactured nutrient solutions to feed the plants.

In hydroponics, plant nutrients are generally supplied through concentrated mineral fertilisers mixed into the water. As the plants use different nutrients at different rates, the nutrient solution can eventually become unbalanced or accumulate salts and may need to be replaced. That nutrient-rich wastewater needs to be disposed of responsibly rather than simply released into the environment.

Aquaponics works differently.

Fish produce waste. Naturally occurring beneficial bacteria convert that waste into forms of nutrients the plants can use. The plants remove those nutrients from the water, and the cleaned water continues circulating back through the system.

Instead of treating waste as something to dispose of, aquaponics turns it into a resource.

Aquaponics can also be operated outdoors using natural sunlight, reducing or eliminating the need for artificial grow lighting. Like any pumped growing system, it still uses electricity for water circulation and aeration, but energy-efficient equipment — and where practical, renewable energy — can reduce that environmental footprint.

Both aquaponics and hydroponics can use water efficiently, but they achieve plant nutrition in fundamentally different ways.

Aquaponics combines fish, plants and beneficial bacteria in a living ecosystem where water and nutrients are continually recycled. For people wanting to grow food using natural biological processes, minimise nutrient wastewater and make productive use of fish waste, that can give aquaponics significant environmental advantages over conventional hydroponics.

Aquaponics doesn't rely on conventional chemical fertilisers in the way many other growing systems do.

Instead, fish feed, fish waste and the natural biological processes within the ecosystem provide most of the nutrients the plants need. Beneficial bacteria play an essential role by converting fish waste into nutrients that plants can absorb.

Plants do, however, need a range of nutrients to grow. An aquaponics system can sometimes be low in particular nutrients — commonly iron, potassium or calcium — and these may need to be supplemented.

That doesn't necessarily mean adding conventional chemical fertilisers. Some nutrients can be supplemented using natural sources, while others can be added in forms specifically chosen to be safe and appropriate for aquaponics.

The important difference is that anything added to an aquaponics system becomes part of a living ecosystem. The water isn't simply feeding the plants; it's also home to your fish and beneficial bacteria.

This is also why conventional garden pesticides, herbicides and many chemical treatments have no place in an aquaponics system. Something intended to solve a problem on a plant could harm the fish or microorganisms that keep the entire ecosystem functioning.

Aquaponics works with natural nutrient cycling rather than relying on a manufactured fertiliser solution. When supplementation is needed, it should support the plants without compromising the health of the fish, bacteria or wider ecosystem.

Yes. Growing food with aquaponics at home can significantly reduce the distance some of your food travels before reaching your plate.

Supermarket vegetables may travel from a farm to packing facilities, distribution centres and retailers before you eventually take them home. Depending on where the food was grown, that journey can involve hundreds or even thousands of kilometres.

With backyard aquaponics, the journey can be as simple as:

aquaponics system → kitchen → plate.

Growing food at home can also reduce some of the packaging, refrigeration, storage and transport associated with commercially produced fresh food.

And there is another benefit: you harvest only what you need, when you need it.

Instead of buying a bag or bunch of produce and potentially throwing some away before it's eaten, herbs and vegetables can remain growing in the system until you're ready to harvest them.

The result is food that can be fresher, locally grown, convenient and incredibly low in food miles.

When your dinner has travelled only a few metres from your aquaponics system to your kitchen, that's about as local as food gets.

Absolutely. Aquaponics is a wonderful opportunity to reuse, repurpose and give old materials a completely new purpose.

You don't necessarily need to buy everything new.

Old bathtubs can become grow beds. Suitable tanks and containers can become part of a system. Timber, plumbing components and other materials may be able to be reused rather than thrown away. Sometimes creating an aquaponics system is as much about looking at what you already have and asking “What could I turn this into?” as it is about buying equipment.

Repurposing materials can reduce waste, lower the cost of getting started and create aquaponics systems designed around your space rather than something bought straight from a catalogue.

There is one important rule: anything that will hold or come into contact with your recirculating water needs to be safe.

Avoid containers that have held unknown or harmful substances, and check that reused materials are strong enough for their new job. Water is heavy, and something that was perfectly suitable for its original purpose may not necessarily be suitable as a fish tank or grow bed.

You don't need to build an entire system from recycled materials, either. Reuse where it makes sense and buy new where safety, reliability or practicality matters.

One of my favourite things about aquaponics is that there isn't one way a system has to look. With a little creativity, something somebody else no longer needs can become part of a productive little ecosystem growing food at home.

Aquaponics may not be literally zero waste, but it can come remarkably close to turning many of its waste products into useful resources.

The ecosystem itself already does this beautifully. Fish produce waste, beneficial bacteria convert nutrients into forms plants can use, the plants take up those nutrients, and the water continues circulating through the system.

But the recycling doesn't have to stop there.

When solid fish waste is removed from filters, it doesn't necessarily need to go in the bin. It can become a valuable resource for other parts of your garden, including soil gardens, wicking beds and worm farms. If you don't have somewhere to use it yourself, other gardeners may be very happy to take it.

Plant waste can have another life too. Old roots, prunings and suitable leaves can go into compost, worm farms or worm towers, and some garden greens can be fed to chickens.

Those systems can then produce more useful resources — compost, worm castings and liquid from worm systems can all be used elsewhere in your food-growing garden. Surplus garden products may even be shared, swapped or sold.

So rather than thinking about aquaponics as an isolated system, you can make it part of a much larger cycle:

fish → plants → harvest → plant and fish waste → worms, compost, chickens or gardens → more food and useful garden resources.

There will still be things that eventually need replacing or disposing of. Pumps wear out, packaging enters the property and not every material can be endlessly reused.

But the goal doesn't have to be a perfect definition of zero waste.

The goal can be to look at each waste product and ask: can this become a resource somewhere else?

That's where aquaponics can fit beautifully into a more circular, low-waste way of growing food.

For many people, absolutely.

Aquaponics gives you the opportunity to turn part of your backyard, courtyard or other available space into a productive living ecosystem that can provide fresh food again and again.

You can grow herbs, leafy greens, peas, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, chillies, eggplants, brassicas and many other crops — and, depending on your system, you may also raise edible fish.

There is the convenience of walking outside and harvesting what you need for dinner. The freshness of food that hasn't spent days being transported and stored. Greater control over how your food is grown and what pesticides or treatments are used. Less packaging, fewer food miles and the satisfaction of making productive use of the space you already have.

There is also resilience.

Food prices change. Fresh produce can become expensive or difficult to find. Supply chains can be disrupted. Every food you can reliably produce at home is one less thing you're completely dependent on someone else to grow, transport and sell to you.

Aquaponics can also be incredibly productive in a relatively small space. Plants have continual access to water and nutrients, allowing you to create something closer to a food jungle than a traditionally spaced vegetable garden.

Yes, there are costs. Every form of gardening has establishment and ongoing costs. But an aquaponics system isn't something you use once. Build it well, understand the ecosystem and look after it, and it can continue producing food for years.

And along the way, you learn something incredibly valuable:

how to produce some of your own food.

You don't need acreage. You don't need to grow everything your household eats. And you don't need to become completely self-sufficient for it to be worthwhile.

You can start with the space and budget you have, learn how the ecosystem works, produce real food — and expand later if you want to.

So, is growing your own food with aquaponics worth it? If you value fresh food, convenience, greater control over how your food is grown, productive use of space and becoming a little less dependent on the supermarket, it certainly can be.