Commercial Aquaponic Systems –

The science and engineering of integrating recirculating fish culture with hydroponic plant production.

Wilson Lennard (PhD.)

Acknowledgements:

Preface:

Aquaponics is becoming one the fastest growing areas in the agricultural technology production space. Even though
aquaponics is becoming very popular, little, if any, scientific or engineering knowledge appears to be currently applied
to it. Despite this anomaly, many small and larger aquaponics enterprises are being constructed and applied in the
urban and vertical farming sectors and unfortunately, many are failing. Many of these failures are due more to the
exacting economic conditions required to make small, urban farming enterprises viable businesses. However, system
technical design and management issues also represent a good proportion of the reasons behind failure.

Aquaponics, in a commercial context, is essentially the integration of two established technical production
approaches; Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) for fish production and hydroponics for plant production. It
therefore makes sense to try and use the existing hardware (components), knowledge and expertise associated with
these two technologies to design and configure commercial aquaponic systems, rather than taking an approach to
start over again from scratch. Again, and often sadly, this freely and broadly available existing knowledge is rarely
utilised in many current aquaponic designs.

Another important aspect of aquaponics is the development and evolution of the varying methods used to integrate
fish production with plant production. Classically, the term aquaponics is applied to fully recirculating system designs
where the water used is completely shared between the two major components (fish culture and plant culture).
However, in the last few years, the sharing of the nutrient resources available in aquaponic systems between the fish
and the plants has undergone a development towards other technical integration approaches and so now, the
definition of what is “aquaponic” has broadened to also include designs which are either non-recirculating (eg: using
the waste nutrient streams produced by standard RAS to feed a plant culturing unit with no return of water to the fish
component) or semi-recirculating (eg: using the available nutrient-rich waters on a side stream loop).

The purpose of this book therefore, is to not repeat the knowledge that is already available for standard, tank-based
fish production (RAS) or standard hydroponic plant culture in detail, but to rather concentrate on the requirements of
the integration process so as to produce the most efficient and optimised aquaponics designs and management
methods available. This book will therefore not go into detailed design or engineering aspects of either the fish or
plant culturing components of the aquaponic system design process; all of which may be found in other, excellent
references and resources related to stand-alone RAS fish culture and stand-alone hydroponic plant culture. Rather, it
will concentrate on the application of science and engineering principals to the integration of these two existing
technologies in a number of ways that meet the ultimate aquaponic outcome; the efficient and optimised use of the
nutrient resources (ie: fish feed) added to the system.
Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 8
What is Aquaponics? .................................................................................................................................... 8
Is Aquaponics Natural?.................................................................................................................................. 9
Is Aquaponics Sustainable? .......................................................................................................................... 10
How Aquaponics Works ............................................................................................................................... 10
The Ethics of Aquaponics ............................................................................................................................. 11
Chapter 2: Fish and Fish Keeping ....................................................................................................................... 13
The Environment Fish Want .......................................................................................................................... 13
Applicable fish species ................................................................................................................................ 16
Fish keeping technology – standard RAS technology .............................................................................................. 18
The importance of solids removal .................................................................................................................... 20
Engineering RAS and Aquaponics ................................................................................................................... 22
Fish component as a profitable business unit – the RAS analogy................................................................................. 23
Chapter 3: Plants and Plant Culture ..................................................................................................................... 25
What Environment Plants Want ...................................................................................................................... 25
Applicable plant species............................................................................................................................... 29
Plant keeping technology – the Hydroponics analogy .............................................................................................. 31
Plant component as a profitable business unit – the Standard Hydroponics analogy ........................................................... 33
The importance of correct nutrient provision ........................................................................................................ 34
Chapter 4: The Aquaponic Integration Process – A System of Aquatic Nutrient Flows ........................................................... 36
Nutrient Dynamics ..................................................................................................................................... 37
Where nutrients come from – fish feed protein and lipid ........................................................................................... 37
What plant nutrients come from fish waste .......................................................................................................... 39
What plant nutrients are limited in fish waste........................................................................................................ 42
What nutrients plant use (Plant Nutrition)............................................................................................................ 43
The aquaponic conundrum – nutrient imbalance between fish waste and plant nutrient requirement ......................................... 45
Aquaponic Feeding Rate Ratio’s – UVI and others ................................................................................................. 48
The reliance on buffering .............................................................................................................................. 49
Primary buffering requirement – pH control ..................................................................................................... 50
Secondary buffering requirement – supplementing deficient plant nutrients ................................................................. 51
Designer Aquaponic Diets ............................................................................................................................ 53
Chapter 5: Dissolved fish waste/nutrients ............................................................................................................... 54
Ammonia ............................................................................................................................................... 54
The Nitrogen cycle in aquaponics .................................................................................................................... 55
The biofiltration process ............................................................................................................................... 56
Sizing biofilters ......................................................................................................................................... 59
Biofilter technology .................................................................................................................................... 61
Chapter 6: Solid fish waste/nutrients .................................................................................................................... 62
Accessing the nutrients in solid fish wastes - mineralisation ....................................................................................... 62
Anaerobic mineralisation .......................................................................................................................... 63
Aerobic mineralisation ............................................................................................................................. 65
Batch aerobic mineralisation ...................................................................................................................... 67
Continuous aerobic mineralisation ............................................................................................................... 67
In-system mineralisation .............................................................................................................................. 69
Media beds as mineralisation devices ........................................................................................................... 69
Sizing media beds for solids mineralisation ..................................................................................................... 70
UVI filter tank (bird netting) mineralisation ....................................................................................................... 74
The challenges of in-system mineralisation ..................................................................................................... 74
Problems with anaerobic zones .................................................................................................................. 75
What do worms do in media beds ................................................................................................................ 76
Exterior-to-system mineralisation..................................................................................................................... 78
The advantages of exterior-to-system mineralisation ........................................................................................... 79
Mineralisation devices ............................................................................................................................. 80
Sizing aerobic mineralisation devices ............................................................................................................ 81
Chapter 7: Types of Aquaponic Systems ............................................................................................................... 84
Fully recirculating aquaponic systems (FRAS) (eg: UVI) ........................................................................................... 87
De-coupled aquaponic systems (DAS) .............................................................................................................. 88
Non-recirculating de-coupled aquaponic systems (NRDAS) ................................................................................... 88
Recirculating de-coupled aquaponic systems (RDAS) ......................................................................................... 89
Balancing fully recirculating aquaponic systems .................................................................................................... 90
Balancing non-recirculating de-coupled aquaponic systems ...................................................................................... 92
Chapter 8: The UVI Model................................................................................................................................ 95
The UVI technical configuration ...................................................................................................................... 97
 Over-supply of fish feed to ensure total plant nutrient supply .................................................................................... 100
Over-supply of Nitrogen ............................................................................................................................. 101
Managing and buffering the UVI Model ............................................................................................................ 103
Chapter 9: Alternate Aquaponic System Models ..................................................................................................... 108
The Nitrogen balancing approach as an example alternate aquaponic approach ............................................................. 110
The fish feed N:P ratio............................................................................................................................... 113
The importance of N:P ratio and protein content of fish feeds ............................................................................... 114
The importance of fish metabolism and system design to N:P ratio......................................................................... 114
Imbalanced N:P ratios ........................................................................................................................... 116
Other nutrient imbalances associated with alternate aquaponic models ....................................................................... 117
The SymbioponicsTM Model ......................................................................................................................... 119
Managing and Buffering the SymbioponicsTM Model.............................................................................................. 121
Chapter 10: Designing Aquaponic Systems .......................................................................................................... 124
Fully recirculating aquaponic system design ...................................................................................................... 124
Overall fully recirculating design approaches and calculations .................................................................................. 125
Designing fully recirculating systems based on a known plant component size ........................................................... 128
Designing fully recirculating systems based on a known fish component size ............................................................. 129
Plant component design approaches and calculations ........................................................................................... 129
Plant hydroponic component types and choices .............................................................................................. 130
Fully recirculating plant hydroponic component sizing and calculations – deep flow ...................................................... 133
Fully recirculating plant hydroponic component sizing and calculations – NFT ............................................................ 135
Fish component design approaches and calculations ............................................................................................ 140
Fish tanks sizing, shapes and calculations .................................................................................................... 141
Mechanical filtration types, sizing and calculations ........................................................................................... 145
Biological filtration types, sizing and calculations ............................................................................................. 150
Sumps and other components, sizing and calculations ...................................................................................... 152
Mineralisation tanks ............................................................................................................................. 154
Plumbing and pipes sizing and calculations ................................................................................................... 157
Designing de-coupled aquaponic systems ........................................................................................................ 158
Designing fully recirculating, “hybrid” aquaponic systems........................................................................................ 161
Chapter 11: Aquaponic System Management ........................................................................................................ 163
How to manage system chemistry ................................................................................................................. 163
 Source water effects ............................................................................................................................. 164
Water testing (pH, temperature, D.O.) ......................................................................................................... 167
pH management (what pH level to maintain & buffering) .................................................................................... 168
Water temperature management (system insulation, water heating, water cooling) ....................................................... 169
D.O. management (aeration, injected oxygen) ................................................................................................ 169
Using E.C. as a management tool.............................................................................................................. 169
Full nutrient analysis ............................................................................................................................. 169
Fish production Management ....................................................................................................................... 169
Rotational fish production ....................................................................................................................... 169
Staged fish feeding .............................................................................................................................. 169
Grading fish ...................................................................................................................................... 169
Harvesting fish ................................................................................................................................... 169
Plant production management ...................................................................................................................... 169
Rotational plant production...................................................................................................................... 169
Harvesting plants ................................................................................................................................ 169
Seedling production ............................................................................................................................. 169
Chapter 12: Aquaponics as an Ecosystem ........................................................................................................... 169
Aquaponic system chemistry ....................................................................................................................... 170
Aquaponic system biology .......................................................................................................................... 170
Aquaponic system ecology ......................................................................................................................... 170
The ecological argument – aquaponics vs stand-alone RAS and Hydroponics ................................................................ 170
Chapter 13: Greenhouses and Lighting ............................................................................................................... 170
What greenhouses do ............................................................................................................................... 171
Types of greenhouses ............................................................................................................................... 171
Glass .............................................................................................................................................. 171
Polycarbonate .................................................................................................................................... 171
Plastic Film ....................................................................................................................................... 171
Lighting ............................................................................................................................................... 171
High pressure sodium ........................................................................................................................... 171
Metal halide ...................................................................................................................................... 171
Florescent ........................................................................................................................................ 171
LED ............................................................................................................................................... 171
Chapter 14: Aquaponic Pest Control .................................................................................................................. 171
Chapter 15: Aquaponics as a business ............................................................................................................... 172
Is it an aquaponics business? ...................................................................................................................... 173
Small-scale, niche business case .................................................................................................................. 173
Large-scale, wholesale business case ............................................................................................................. 173
The dead zone ....................................................................................................................................... 173
Chapter 16: Aquaponics Resources ................................................................................................................... 173
Chapter 17: References ................................................................................................................................ 174
Chapter 1: Introduction

What is Aquaponics?

In its simplest form, aquaponics is the use of fish waste nutrient resources to hydropincally culture plants. Classically,
the term aquaponics was applied to system designs that recirculated the water in the system between the fish and
plant components to thus, share (and attempt to balance) the available nutrient resources produced by the fish as a
waste product with the nutrient requirements of the plants. Aquaponic designs however, have moved beyond the fully
recirculating context. This evolution in aquaponic system configuration has occurred because more researchers and
designers wish to fit the aquaponic integration process with existing fish or plant production technologies and
enterprises (eg: adding a plant culturing component to an existing RAS, or adding a fish culturing component to an
existing hydroponic facility). Classical, fully recirculating aquaponic design approaches, whilst still applicable, are not
always practical in this context.

An excellent example of this effect of impracticality is sizing a plant culturing component that will fully integrate and
balance in a fully recirculating context with an existing RAS facility of hundreds of tonnes of fish production per year.
In this case, the plant growing area required to fully balance hundreds of tonnes of fish production per year is very
large and therefore, very expensive. In addition, it also requires the RAS operator to change the management
approach they have grown to utilise. This is often a “bridge too far” for the RAS operator, who does not wish to risk
changing the management practices they have taken years to learn and perfect. What is generally preferable to the
existing RAS operator is to be able to simply treat and utilise the waste stream of water and nutrients which arise
from the RAS facility, rather than changing the entire RAS set-up. In addition, this approach of treating RAS waste
streams with hydroponic (or other), plant culturing components, allows the business enterprise to choose or tailor
which product they will concentrate on (the plants or the fish) as the profit generator.

The above discussion outlines the fact that aquaponics has now moved beyond its fully recirculating pedigree and
therefore, it is time to also evolve the definition of what aquaponics actually is or means. Because there are many
different technical design approaches and aquatic resource (water and nutrients) sharing proportioning approaches
now available, and because some of these are not fully recirculating, it seems pertinent to re-define the term
aquaponics beyond a fully recirculating context. In addition, as stated earlier, aquaponics is essentially based on
nutrient resource sharing between a fish component (RAS) and a hydroponic component and therefore, a definition
based on the nutrient resource sharing capabilities of the technology is probably more appropriate. Rather than simply
saying aquaponics is the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics, it is more pertinent to say that aquaponics is
an aquatic nutrient resource sharing technology that combines tank-based fish culture and hydroponic plant culture
technologies. In this sense therefore, it seems more appropriate to concentrate an aquaponics definition on its
nutrient resource sharing capabilities, rather than the integration of two technologies or the hardware involved.

A new proposed definition of Aquaponics therefore, may well be one that concentrates on the minimal nutrient sharing
capability the system design offers. In this sense, one of the largest defining factors of aquaponics is that the majority
of the plant nutrients provided arise from the wastes produced from fish production. However, when taken in this
context, the question arises; what are the possible upper limits to the proportion of nutrients fish waste can supply for
balanced and healthy plant production? I would contend that the best and most efficient aquaponic system designs
and models currently available provide the vast majority of the nutrients required for plant production from the fish.
However, the facts of the science of the nutrient dynamics involved fully support the case that fish waste, as
produced by fish fed current pelletised, nutrient balanced fish feeds, cannot provide all the nutrients required for
healthy plant production. Therefore, any definition based on nutrient resource sharing in an aquaponic context must
take this fact into account.

In the above context therefore, my personal definition of aquaponics is:

“A system of integrating tank-based fish culture and hydroponic plant culture whereby 80% or more of the nutrients
required to grow the plants arise from the fish waste.”

Of course, the definition of aquaponics will always be something of a contentious issue and not everyone will either
agree with me or each other. For example, I have met many people across the globe who believe aquaponics should
include the culturing of fish in the water of normal and standard hydroponic plant production technologies and
methodologies (meaning that all or the majority of the nutrients used for plant growth are inorganic hydroponic salts
and few fish are swimming around in the system). Because my definition of aquaponics is based on the efficient and
optimised utilisation of the nutrients that arise from fish waste for plant culture, these style of systems do not fit my
definition. As stated, some people may not agree, which is of course, their prerogative. The definition I have provided
is somewhat broader than the one I would have applied some years ago, where I restricted my definition of
aquaponics to fully recirculating technology integration rather than basing any definition on the nutrient resource
sharing capabilities. And I believe this is OK because if you look at the definitions of many technologies, it is far more
appropriate to accept that any definition should evolve and develop with the technology itself, rather than trying to
restrict it.

Is Aquaponics Natural?

A big advantage that is often stated with respect to aquaponics is that it is “natural” or “organic”. That may well be
true, however, what defines the term natural? In an aquaponic context, when the term natural is applied, it seems to
be associated with the fact that plants are growing using nutrients arising from fish wastes (another reason to evolve
the definition way from technology and more towards nutrient resource utilisation?). This is a similar argument as
related to what defines naturally grown, soil-based food (such as in organic or biodynamic soil-based production
systems); plants grown using animal derived fertilisers rather than chemical or “man-made” fertilisers. In addition, this
also generally includes a reference to the fact that microbes play a pivotal role in converting or making those animal
derived nutrients available to the plant in a form that is easy for the plant to utilise. These arguments in an aquaponic
context, as they do in a soil-based farming context, seem to make good sense. So, if it is these aspects that define
aquaponics as natural, then that is fine.

However, unlike soil-based natural farming systems, aquaponics as a technology relies on many un-natural
components. For example, fish are kept in plastic, fibreglass, concrete and other materials; hydroponic components
are made from plastic (NFT, deep flow and media bed liners), concrete, metal or other un-natural materials and even
pumps are made from these material as well, and so on. The use of these materials and the inputs of other things
with arguably un-natural origins (eg: electricity) could render aquaponics as being un-natural in other contexts than
those that render it as being defined as natural.

Therefore, it could be concluded that aquaponics in its totality is either natural or un-natural. I believe it is more
appropriate to be more exacting if the terms natural or organic are going to be applied to an aquaponic context.
Therefore, for me, it is acceptable to say that aquaponics relies on natural biological processes of nutrient generation
(fish waste), conversion (bacterial mediated) and utilisation. But, it is not acceptable to apply the terms natural or
organic to the overall technology as a whole.

Is Aquaponics Sustainable?

The same arguments for deciding if aquaponics is natural may be applied to whether aquaponics may be considered
sustainable. In terms of the nutrient and water resource sharing abilities and efficiencies of the aquaponic approach, it
is most likely acceptable to say that aquaponics is sustainable, because it tries to utilise as much of the nutrient that
is added to produce useable outputs (fish and plants), it tries to utilise the water involved as efficiently as possible
and it tries to negate the requirement to release nutrient-rich waste streams back into the surrounding environment.
However, again and as for the natural label discussed above, applying the term sustainable to a technology that uses
many materials with high values of embodied energy (plastics, concretes, metals, etc.), relies on fish feeds produced
from naturally sourced fish meals and oils (in the current, commercial context) and uses electricity for pumping and
aeration requirements, it does seem a stretch to apply to term sustainable to the whole of the technology.

How Aquaponics Works

How aquaponics works is simple to understand when you know all of the processes involved. Because there are so
many processes involved, it can sometimes seem complex and detailed. However, the basis of aquaponics and how
it works is quite simple and can be easily understood when you know it follows fairly basic and wide spread
processes found in nature. The natural world itself, that which is all around us, works because all the life on the face
of the planet has evolved with one overriding factor applied to it; the efficient (ie: not wasteful) sharing and utilisation
of nutrient resources. In its basic form, life is represented by animals that eat things and produce wastes, plants that
eat things and produce wastes and microbes that, you guessed it, eat things and produce wastes. The grandeur of
life on this planet is that it tries to share these resources by producing and evolving animals, plants and microbes that
fit into very specific niches so as to allow the individual to exploit the resources that are available to it.

For example, a lion will eat a gazelle, utilise the nutrients from the gazelle it needs to grow and repair its own cells
and to produce energy for itself, and then release whatever else it cannot use by way of liquid, gaseous and solid
waste products that it releases into its surrounding environment. Some of that waste will be utilised by microbes for
their own growth and metabolic requirements and some of it will be converted by those microbes as part of their own
metabolic pathways. Some of the waste the lion produces will also be directly used by plants as a nutrient source and
some of it will only be used by plants as a nutrient source after it has been adequately converted by the microbes.
This short, very simple and very incomplete breakdown of life on the African plains is used to illustrate how nutrients
flow through environments and life in a holistic sense.
An aquaponic system is designed to operate in essentially the same way. The fish, plants and microbes present
utilise and share the available nutrient resource between each other in ways that the natural world has honed and
evolved over millions of years. In nature, many of the present animals, plants and microbes are completely and
inextricably reliant on each other so that the individual gets its requirement and share of the available resources.
Aquaponic systems simply rely on these existing associations, partnerships, etc. between the animals (fish), plants
and microbes present, that have evolved over millions of years to be highly efficient, to grow the products we require
(ie: food in the form of fish and plants). In reality, the life form often not thought about in an aquaponic context, but
which has a pivotal and large influence in terms of the sharing and utilisation of the available nutrient resources, is us
(humans), because we provide the nutrient inputs to the system (ie: the fish feed) and also share in the nutrients
available by harvesting out the fish and plants we require to eat to gain access to the nutrient resources we require.

Aquaponics works to grow fish and plants because we add in the essential nutrient inputs (the fish feed), we provide
some of the energy required to enable this nutrient resource sharing (ie: electricity) and the sun and air around us
supplies the energy and some of the input nutrients or elements also required (carbon and oxygen). Basically, we try
to integrally link into existing nutrient resource sharing processes that occur in the natural world, via technology use
and application, so we can control the production and proportion of the products we need for ourselves.

Therefore, in its simplest form, how aquaponics works is via the human engineered sharing of nutrient resources
between a suite of living organisms that work in concert together to efficiently share those available nutrient resources
amongst themselves.

The Ethics of Aquaponics

As we have seen, and many of us already know, aquaponics is the human engineered sharing of nutrient resources
among a suite of living organisms. Human engineered simply means we have designed and constructed the system
to enable us to provide the best conditions for all the organisms involved so as to provide the most productive and
efficient pathway possible. In this sense, to enable us to contain the organisms involved, we must design and
engineer the vessels (environment) or conditions (again, environment) they live and exist within.

The important point is that the primary driver is for the aquaponic system to be as efficient and productive as
possible. However, the ethical point is that we do this in a way that is responsible and aware of the life that is under
our care and to some extent, control. I have seen many aquaponic systems, especially in a hobby or backyard
context, but also in a commercial context, where the humans that own them are happy but the fish, microbes and
plants are not. My number one example for this is the operating pH environment I often see fish subjected to in
aquaponic systems. I see many systems which are never buffered to control the pH and the fish are living in water
with a pH that is acidic (ie: below pH 7). I would have thought that most people would understand what the term
acidic means or at least be aware that acids are often sited as being dangerous to us humans as they can at the
least, cause burns to our skin or other organic areas. I therefore have no understanding how anyone can justify
keeping fish in acidic water conditions. Fish have evolved to and spend their entire lives in a water environment and
therefore, the chemical state of that water has a large effect on them. Most fish have an internal pH that is closely
matched to their surrounding environment and therefore, if they are freshwater species, like those we keep in
aquaponics, then their internal pH is close to about a pH of 7.2. When a fish is then placed into an environment of
lesser pH, it can be very stressful to the fish at the worst and at the least, it can cause the fish to use valuable
energy to work against that external pH and try and keep its internal pH at balance. In addition, as I said earlier, and
as many people know, aquaponic systems naturally tend towards acidic water development if not buffered correctly
and so the fish are externally subjected to conditions that we as humans recognise ourselves would be harmful to us.

The ethical question is therefore, if it is not acceptable for us humans to live in less than perfect conditions then why
should it be acceptable for fish or any other organisms present with our aquaponic systems?

The answer is simple to me if you have a practical, grounded and ethical view point; it is not acceptable!

Therefore, it is our ethical responsibility to ensure that if we are going to employ an aquatic food production
technology, like aquaponics, that we have control over, it is incumbent upon us to make sure we provide the best
conditions we possibly can for all the life that lives and exists in that system.