this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2024
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Solarpunk Farming

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Farm all the things!

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Aquaponics For Urban Living πŸŸπŸŒ±πŸ™οΈ (slrpnk.net)
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Aquaponics is similar to hydroponics, but makes use of fish to create fertilizer-rich (fish waste πŸ’©) water for the plants to thrive. In turn, the plants help clean the water for the fish.

You can put the pumps and fish feeders on a timer to automate them, and even use fish types people eat for fish farming.

My only ask is that you remember to make the tank nice for the fish. A stressed fish is a dead fish, and way too many aquaponic users just throw a bunch of fish in an empty(no stimulation) and overcrowded tank.

The below videos talk about using the systems to grow food in urban spaces.

https://youtu.be/9ZLDDhFLWCY

β€œEver heard of aquaponics? In urban areas, aquaponics helps combat barriers that come with farming in cities, like lack of access to space. β€œ

https://youtu.be/_YmkWODcqbA

β€œThere are so many barriers in place when it comes to growing food in cities, but education and lack of access to space are the hardest to overcome. Yemi Amu has dedicated her life as a farmer to solving this problem, by starting the only Aquaponics farm in NYC. Oko Farms in Brooklyn is both a working farm which provides fresh food to surrounding neighborhoods, while also actively engaging the public in education on how to grow food for yourself in urban environments.”

https://youtu.be/hKWREFjNWX4

"What's up everyone, in this video i build part 1 of an indoor DIY aquaponics system for my 10 gallon fish tank! I have been interested in aquaponics for a while now and know i wanted to build an indoor DIY aquaponics system early on when i saw the price of most retail aquaponics kits. This DIY aquaponics system was built using all materials found either on Amazon or at local hardware stores and came in under $50 total! "

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Has anyone done a study on the best things to use to stimulate fish?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Worms seem to work

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Do they eat them?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I was making a joke about fishing, so yeah

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

πŸ€¦β€β™‚οΈ joke is funny now.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Yes! There are studies about fish for that. You might have to be more specific for the species of fish if you want more specific answers(since fish behavior can be so different between species), but here are some studies:

A lot of it typically comes down to the basics. For example, fish feel less stressed when they have somewhere to hide, and so if you put driftwood in a tank(simulating a log they might hide behind in a natural environment), they feel safer. Part of it making them live longer can also come from it being a breeding ground for healthy microbes, but driftwood can also release tannin's, which help with the water PH.

Here are some other studies you might like:

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I wonder how viable it might be to add an algae loop in to feed the fish. Something like the unit from Cody's Lab on YT.

I'm doing some science fiction hobby writing with the premise that all life in an O'Neill cylinder interstellar colony is in full balance with all elemental cycles. The second cylinder is dedicated to agriculture, organic materials processing for external industrial production mechanisms, and the basis for a managed cycle budget amongst the inhabitants. The story is posited in an era well past the age of scientific discovery has past. Science is 99.997% complete and largely considered an engineering corpus. I wonder what unexpected aspects of the elemental cycle will become most difficult. I'm leaning towards problems acquiring nitrogen within any given Type-G stellar system, as it seems bound to larger gravity wells and past the ice line.

Anyways, same idea as this post, but exponentially scaled :)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I don't see why you couldn't add a loop! A lot of fish owners use sponge filters now (they sit at the bottom of the tank and release bubbles), so you wouldn't have to worry about your floaters being sucked into your filter. Also, floating plant coverage can cut down on harmful algae blooms(it cuts down on sunlight in the water) and gives your fish more places to hide, so it would be extra ideal for people with a window tank or outdoor tank. I think most people put the outtake pump (going to the plants) under the rocks or with a filter, so I don't think it would bother the setup either.

Woah! Your story sounds crazily detailed. It must be taking you a lot of research. If it helps, there are plants called "nitrogen fixers" that add nitrogen back to soil

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Thanks for the insights. Will carp/(easy fish to farm) eat algae or does it require some intermediate lifeforms or maybe pelletization or something? I know Cody was eating the stuff and talking about its protein contents etc.

The nitrogen problem is actually acquiring the element in the first place. In space, nitrogen is often found in the form of ammonia. This compound boils off/evaporates easily. It takes a large gravity well to hold onto such a gas on stellar cycle time scales as the stellar radiation will break it down to lighter components while the stellar wind will strip off the gas with time. Gravity wells are very expensive things to deal with overall. We can only barely escape Earth's gravity well. It is like a prison of sorts. The prison is even worse because of gravitational differentiation that separates heavier elements drawing them down into the depths. In space, small bodies have a lot more even distribution of rare heavy elements. The wealth of space is immense. However there are other types of rarity and processes that impact distribution.

This was simply me probing at random to see what kinds of awareness people have about the complete elemental cycles involved with life in a practical sense. There are cycles of hydrogen, carbon, phosphorus, sulphur, iron, oxygen, nitrogen, etc. It is easy to take for granted the things the Earth provides, but that a space station that is tens of kilometers in scale will need to source directly :)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I have never owned carp, but a lot of fish are opportunistic, though have food preferences(so basically, if they are starving, they may resort to eating something, even if they prefer something else). If your setup is outdoors, they may get enough food from wild insects. For example, my mother has a very small outdoor goldfish pond with some real lily-pads, and thanks to the wildlife insects, she does not have to feed them and they are many years old. Otherwise, you could grow your own fish food (example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6k9xuW2Irck ) or some fish even like certain kitchen scraps.

AH WAIT. πŸ’‘ I just remembered a video of a system in Japan where the people of a town wash their produce and dishes in a kabata. It is basically a network of streams going from house to house, and the free-roaming fish there(which I think *might *have been carp) eat all the waste and help keep the water clean. Here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rwxsjzjDhs I also remember this article being informative (and is where the image is from): http://ihcsacafe-en.ihcsa.or.jp/news/harie/

In regards to your story, haha I am sorry to say it does not sound like I will be much help for that. The science your story is going into is far too smart for my brain, I'm afraid. You sound like a scientist! hahaha.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This is a really helpful suggested reference that will definitely make it into my tech tree. Thanks!

I'm just naive enough to imagine a world with such future tech, and have too much time on my hands. The little ideas like these you shared all add up into something bigger eventually. It's about dreaming of a better future and a magnifying glass to view the present, even if I'm the only one that is ever interested in it all. Thanks again!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

No problem! I am glad I was able to help!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

You cannot place a completion percentage on science as you cannot and do not know the entirety of existence

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 weeks ago

Yes you do; Planck to observable is finite. Eventually the end percentage is the areas that are empirically unknown; the point of diminishing returns where the questions exist, the answers pursued but not found and where the potential results do not merit further investigation. The question is only time scales. Writing a story about hundreds of thousands of years in the future, I'm fully confident that such a percentage will be clear to see and understand. Nothing in the real world is idealized integer values, but time has a way of firming up statistics beyond doubt.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Pee is pee. So if you don't want to raise fish, for example if you're vegan, human pee can work.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Wouldn't that be way too salty (especially Sodium) and a risk for hepatitis and such?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Ya you should always have at least 2 stages of animals/plants between any feed/nutrient cycle or you risk disease and build up of things like sodium

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Same with the fishtank idea then, no?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

I think the idea is that the fish do NOT eat the plants that are being grown, so no significant buildup.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Hepatitis passes through the bowels.

Anyway, the idea and process is similar to using urine to water the garden.

https://www.aquaponiclynx.com/pee-ponics

If you don't want to raise koi or eat fish, it's a viable option for home gardens.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 weeks ago

Pee kills grass and leaves behind a nasty smell, no thanks