New at aquaponics and looking for advice

[traci marin]

Hello All,

 

We have a self sustained bass pond and a large adjacent area for produce growing.  What is the best way to utilize the natural pond as a source for aquaponics nurturing of the plants?

 

Traci

[TCLynx]

In general natural ponds supporting only as much fish as they can naturally may not have much extra nutrient left over to really support heavy produce production.

Aquaponics is more of a recirculating aquaculture method that uses plants to take up the excess nutrients rather than doing water changes to keep nutrients in check the way they do for the normal recirculating aquaculture.

So if the pond is being fed enough that you need to add extra aeration and do water changes, then you will be able to support Aquaponics by doing a little extra filtering of the water and sending it to the plant beds (if the plant beds are gravel beds, you might simply pump water from the pond through the gravel grow beds and let it drain back to the pond since gravel grow beds are good filters.)