Is Aquaponics the Future of Agriculture? 

Yes. Also labor is tough to find, making robotics the next phase in agriculture.

I think it's just a few discoveries / tweaks / innovations away from being a prominent part of the future.

Seeing the title of aquaponics had me hopeful. However, the fact that it's not profitable but mainly environmentally friendly is a big pill to swallow for farmers. Since the specifications of the organisms involved are the problem, would it be a good idea to etampt to modify them? Like selective breeding or maybe more extreme methods to speed things up. As dangerous as it that is, the world needs it as soon as possible right now.

I wrote a separate comment about Aquaponics as I have been down this rabbit hole for about a year. But in regards to your comments on traditional farming I really think you should look into it a bit more. Im fairly certain your off on a few points. For instance you stated that farming uses mono culture growth damages the soil and to pollinators like bees. The truth is this is why they do crop rotations. Some plants will take a certain nutrient out of the soil while on a different rotation another plant will actually replace that nutrient, Most farmers will use natural fertilizer such as cow, chicken or pig dung as fertilizers to replace what their rotations are not able to. Farmers will also allow a field to rest every few years where they will not plant anything on the field and let it grow wild. Where I will acknowledge that in some places farmers using up to 70% of water can be an issue in dry places like California, but the vast majority of places dont put extra water in their fields. As you have said the margins on farming in general are thin, and it cost money to move water enough to water a field. The truth is farmers make the world go round, The reason our food is so expensive isnt because farmers are holding it hostage, its actually because of government agencies telling farmers they are only allowed to sell X amount of product. Anything over X has to be disposed of and goes to waist and farmers hate it not because they are greedy and want to make more money, but because they cant even take extra milk or eggs and donate it so a homeless shelter or a food bank or any kind of organization that could put them to use. Its very interesting if you look at the timings where the cost of eggs started to sky rocket you had articles pouring out of major outlets telling everyone how bad chickens are to keep. Im not trying to drag you with any of these comments I encourage you to do a deep dive on modern farming, and even look into how the regulation is actually harming both farmers as well as your every day people. I look forward to seeing your next vid you always have something interesting to discuss.

Thank you for doing this topic.. I think i request you talk about it a ... few times 😉If you do not know potentponics, he has done literal 24 hour nonstop live education classes here on youtube regarding it, with the top aquaponics growers in South America, Asia, and the states for sure. I help moderate his educational content (warning, we often talk about hemp and related plants)

Thanks for sharing!

Just curious, Is it possible to make it in smaller levels mostly for earnings around 100$ a Month in profit and be able to keep your home and family happy for the most and still be helpful for the environmental footprint even in small margins? Also how difficult would that be in a Scale from 1-10 ?

I talk to the top aquaponics educators here every week... if you are not onto PotentPonics, you are way behind... I moderate his chat... let me tell you, we had a literal 2 day, full on 12 hour show he created here, last month... and it was the top tier of aquaponics, literally. 12 hours fullstop he hosted many growers on commercial scale doing it... and then, sunday did it again. All from Thailand where he now moved his states operations to there (because of that one funny herb which is factually medical... for sure 🙏 )

I have been running a system in my garage for about 5 months now. Definitely just a hobby. Actually saving money or making money is a full time job

Couldn't you have the fish water pumped into a separate tank before it goes to the plants so that way it can be prepared to the right specifications. And then do the same thing with the clean water leaving the plants.. then you have two tanks ready to be used when needed instead of pumping the fish water directly into the plants. You can also mitigate things going wrong quicker by isolating.

A lot of quarries have a pH level unsuitable for fish or plants.

@@MattyEnglandat least in the area of southern Ontario that I live, these quarries were simply stone quarries, not open pit mines for other mining purposes. I’m my community we have a half dozen of these (including active stone quarries) the abandoned quarries for the most part already sustain fish and flora quite well.

@@MattyEngland Hopefully, we can bioengineer the first few ecosystems in such inhabitable pits, to make it more suitable for future flora and fauna. I know there are plants out there that suck up heavy metals and/or can live in weird pH levels!

@@brettgracey9682 One thing is to sustain a few minnows and a handful of weeds, another thing is to grow fishes and plants to commercial sizes under the clock. What you suggested has been tried for decades unsuccessfully. Dunning-Krugger alert.

@@rashakor thanks for warning us you were here- the guy you suggested acts like he knows more than he does actually only expressed his opinion, you on the other hand seem to think you know everything about this subject and claim because we couldn't do something decades ago means we still can not now. Tool alert.

Couldn't you also produce plant material to sustain the fish within the facility? It would reduce some space, but that's not a limiting factor in this model. Another promising development is the prospects of combining aquaponics with waste water management, bringing value into the system while remaining contained and self-sufficient.

@@uhitsethan Yeah that would be the solution, but so far Aquaponics have only been able to produce low energy dense vegetables, like salads, maybe some herbs, even tomatoes are hard to produce atm. You´re not getting energy dense, protein rich matter out of this system (yet). Which is the bottleneck. And fish need Protein and calories to grow.

@@uhitsethan no, when you harvest the plants to sell on the market you are extracting nutrients from the system. Those nutrients have to be added back into the system in some way. You can reduce the amount of nutrients needed to be added to the system by using the undesirable parts of the plants to create fish feed, but you can't produce enough to sustain the system on its own.

@@uhitsethan As you are harvesting, and thus eliminating material from the system, you also have to supply some input.

Yes, sustainable fish feed is a major challenge. As Matt said, Aquaponics is not a silver bullet. It is just one interesting component of a sustainable food system. Fishmeal is not as non-sustainable as we think, at least as long as we consume wild catch. Slaughter waste from aquaponics can also be recycled as fish meal btw. Blood meal and bone meal from meat production are allowed in aquaculture feed. Essentially I think insects, like black soldier fly, are the most promising direction on this issue. Can be fed with organic waste. But the novel food regulation in Europe is a major barrier. Can not use anything as insect feed that has been declared as waste, no matter how good and clean this ressource stream actually is (organic agricultural waste has huge potential for example). Also duck weed and azolla, grown on low nutrient density run off can be a sensible solution.

What kind of plants grew in saltwater?

@@tschadschi1010 Perhaps he means he grows macro algae.... I know some plants will handle brackish water perhaps

What the hell grew in saltwater? I grow kratky and a DWC linked to my NFT during the summer to try moderate temperature and it's a nightmare if I'm not keeping on top of it PH and nut!

​@@mikep8080lmfao a nice marketable product lol what would happen if you started adding nutrients to saltwater lol you would definitely drop house prices with that smell

That’s actually one of the hardest parts of aquaponics. Balancing the animals with the plants.

this how Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles started🐢

Have you seen VonPonics? He does them and is going hard on a new project doing the same thing with koi also

I had a pet turtle and I can attest to their, er, Fertilizer Productivity lol

That is a new one I have not heard of, though I won't try it myself, I had my fill for a lifetime dealing with aquaponics.

They already do that... you paying attention to it lately? Its done commercial in many states like Colorado and Oklahoma.. for sure for years already. Also Purdue has content proving it for 12 years now

This is exactly what I want to do! I would love to hear more about how you got started/ any other tips and tricks you found worked for you!

I use vertical towers I made myself for my patio system

With all of that monitoring and complexity, aquaponics seems to be exactly that kind of industry which is cut out for AI.

Yep You are right sir

O, I forgot to mention... With sandponics the pump can be cycled 15 minutes on, 45 minutes off. This because sand drains slower than other mediums. So it should be more energy efficient. Plus the pump is kept off overnight.

Yo, how is it going?@@gtowr

I actually did the same thing, but I wasn't able to get much to grow very well, I was using mollies, so I'm not surprised it didn't work out.

You might want to follow the INCiTiS-Food project we just started recently. Setting up two labs in Lagos and Ibadan, as well as in five other african countries.

What all were you growing? Did you buy a hydroponic system, or fabricate something yourself? Wish I would have thought of that! (Grew some peppers and A tomato on my windowsill, but it didn't even occur to me to try hydroponics -- good thinking!)

@@ocaeocae we started with a prefab desktop system with integrated lights. We mostly grew lettuce and basil. But we eventually built our own deep water culture system that was integrated into a bookshelf with grow lights, and air bubblers. On that we again mostly grow lettuce, but experimented with herbs, flowers, tomatoes, and peas. But given are limited space, let us work best for us.

Nice insight!

It also works for weed! Lol

@@zaczane yep it does but not my interest 🤪.

​@@zaczane Potent ponics?dual root zone experiment looks like a winner. Steve Raisner ❤🙏🌞🌍🍄

❤

@@brucehitchcock3869 ???? You mean like growing with Shrooms?

_"A small backyard setup easily feeding a few families"_ ..... Absolute nonsense. Absolutely no way on earth is that possible! For starters you can only use aquaponics to grow leafy plants such as lettace, there are nowhere near enough nutrients to grow proper fruit and vegetables.

​@MattyEngland we have grown tomatoes, peppers, and cannabis for years in aquaponics

@@MattyEngland That's actually not true. I've worked in the industry for 3 years and grown everything from tomatoes to cucumbers and even butternut. The problem is that most aquaponics farms eliminate the solid waste from fish, eliminating your denser nutrients that fruiting crops need. A simple redesign of the system could make facilities like the one in the video produce tomatoes in addition to the lettuce.

@@brandonspurlock8059 aquaponics or hydroponics? If aquaponics, then where are you getting all your potassium, phosphorus and trace elements from? They don't come from a fishes a hole.

@@ryanblandindechalain120 It's not denser nutrients they need, it's phosphorus, potassium and plenty of other trace elements that aren't in fish waste.

I could see this scaled up pretty easily, too. Maybe a Raspi Pi per tank with a more powerful computer handling the entire system?

@@geogmz8277 You are describing a cybernetic system - a hierarchical arrangement of feedback-controlled control systems working towards a goal. This is a good application of cybernetic theory (whether the implementer knows that's what they are doing or not)

The big problem is that a reactive solution, like you're proposing, will likely kill the fish. They're extremely sensitive to changes in water, and some hydroponic cycles do precisely that. It's pretty challenging.

I have a startup that is trying to reduce the operating costs while creating a system that requires less maintenance. This is the future and these are the small hurdles we need to overcome.

@@Greenskies321 Great news!!!

Big respect, Steve.... Matt, you need to redo this episode for a version 2, and talk with Steve 💯

Ah just like how important the biodiversity for farming plants is its also good for biodiversity farming fishes as well

Which also brings up the question: Is spirulina good fish food?

@@AssassinX-kf3nn wonder if Walstad method for ponds and aquariums could help in this scenario.

@@bunny_apocalypse let see what's effective in order to make the system work

How many turtles dos it take to feed six plants ?

Are the water rights for aquaponics different than the water rights for traditional farming? Or is Matt wrong about it needing less water?

​@@skeptibleiyam1093the water is continuously cycled throughout the system. You only have replace evaporation or leaks

@@spencervance8484 The products physically contain a significant amount of water that is being removed from the system. Industrial scale has to factor that into its usage.

👏

You can use air pumps... to move water. Also, solar can power them easily with a few humans and a horse.

In our experience (12 years running systems and 9 years of research) this is an overrated problem. We have been running low pH aquaponics (5.5 - 6.5) just fine with catfish. Using a well sized biofilter. The aquaculture drives pH down, the plant side drives it up. This only becomes a task, when running decoupled aquaponics (dubbed DAPS, not a fan). In a healthy coupled system pH drops slowly. pH management can be easily done with low cost chemicals that also give you the opportunity to balance nutrients like potassium, calcium or magnesium.

To add to your "have to flush the whole system" statement: this is completely not true. For example pH management with potassium hydroxide only adds potassium which will be extracted by the plants. Calcium hydroxide only adds calcium, which also will be consumed by the plants. The problem you state does not exist. I know one aquaculture (not aquaponics) producer who has been running his system for 25 years without ever stopping it or exchanging the process water.

@@jaysilence3314 Sounds great, don’t enough about catfish and Aquaponic, are the catfish still good eating being raised in that environment? Go a link sounds very impressive.

@@YellowRambler in my opinion catfish are underrated on the markets. Good fish for human consumption. Taste in RAS systems is great. No muddy taste at all when treated right. With African Catfish great production because it tolerates high stocking densities. But low market prices.

A well run facility can produce comparable vegetables to healthy soil grown vegetables. Aquaponics has the ability to even be superior on a nutritional basis if designed and managed correctly and after one year to allow the system to mature.

Don't misunderstand his intentions, the is unlimited potential for vertical agriculture. The sky is the literal limit. R&D is limited for this field as of right now, which is the biggest limiting factor IMO. Since R&D is driven by profit incentives, even if this is more efficient with CURRENT, even ANCIENT tech, it might take a second to really catch steam. But it will. It's not like we have a choice, anyway. Remember at the start of the vid where he was talking about arible land?

Skyscrapers are unfortunately prime real estate right now. But a skyscraper comboponics (hydro, aqua, aero) farm would almost certainly be far more viable. Now to find a county near me that'll issue me a building permit for a 40-storey farm 😅

@thegurw1994 I feel like you'd have to live near a place with lots of sun. That way you can load the building up with solar panels. Doesn't have to be pretty just functional. Then you devote a certain percentage of your crops to the schools in your county. They'll have to approve that. If not, you can shame them into approving it by saying they don't support the kids!"

They already do it in Oklahoma and Denver, for years, ha

@@thegurw1994 Buddy, they already do aquaponics on top of major city buildings.. one is in Denver 👋

@dertythegrower true, but not at the scale of a 40-story building. You're talking about a few thousand square feet, possibly 10K sqft. That's barely a quarter of an acre. There are no acre sized, multi-floor farms.

The Philippines can't even grow enough rice to feed itself.

You mean hydroponics ? I rarely see Aquaponics

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers 🐟

@@allankamen9875 Yeah, your right. But context matters here, "why can't we be a food exporter" 1. Archipelago (we have scattered fertile land) compared to Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia 2. Archipelago with not much flat land (Mountains are abundant too "not good for farming reasons") 3. A more frequent and harsh weather And for the Rice Issue (The Neglect of the Government and Monopolized land) "Villiar Issue" With all these facts considered, in the most basic principle. "This doesn't we can't." We can be self-sufficient, it would just need more attention(policy), investment, and innovation. But being "food exporters," I think it's a goal too far for us.

Well that would depends on the brand of fertilizer I imagine. Tomato master blend is my go to.

Not necessarily true, but definitely a possibility. I can’t see people not caring about the nutrition of their foods in the future though.

Even without that you know the issue is real with droughts ever increasing. You might be lucky if you haven't experience it but sure is hell for people out there in the other parts

@@pauloazuela8488 Repeating it over and over doesn't make it true.

@@elminster8149 This

Oh really? Youll love Paragraphic then .. they did one on this 🤙

so you could do two separate things and completely defeat the original purpose, what a brilliant idea...

@@royce9018 Please elaborate on "completely defeat the original purpose"

*_It all came about after a project I worked on to design a green subdivision with many others. I thought I could do more and started gathering info. That was when G+ was still invite only. A village is a 50 million dollar undertaken. Then broke it down to a what I call Dartanyan’s Restaurant & Farm but again that was 5 million dollar undertaken. So I decided trying a homeless shelter with my knowledge._* *1.9848 acre per person living in a sustainable village (234 people [35% are child under the age 12] and 464.4432 acres for the village)* 80% crafted, made and grown in said village And 20% are raw materials, food not grown, medical equipment/supplies, electronics and etc. - 0.6250 acre of farmland/person (146.2500ac) - 0.0892 acre of farmland products to be sold/person (20.8728ac) - 0.2321 acre of living area/person (54.3114ac) - 0.0214 acre of wine vineyards/person (5.0076ac) - 0.0714 acre of ponds/person (16.7076ac) - 0.1069 acre of coffee/person or 3,456 trees (25.0146ac) [555 trees/2.4711 acres or 1 Hectare] - 0.0071 acre of teas/person (1.6614ac) - 0.0142 acre of herbs/person (3.3228ac) - 0.1428 acre of schools/person (33.4152ac) - 0.2142 acre of park & wildlife/person (50.1228ac) - 0.1428 acre of village square/person (33.4152ac) - 0.1785 acre of livestock/person (41.7690ac) - 0.1392 acre of roads & etc/person (32.5728ac)