Fascinated by the many Youtube and Pinterest I seen (just go and search!) on aquaponics, I decided set up one for myself.
According to Wikipedia, aquaponics is
"a food production system that combines conventional aquaculture (raising aquatic animalssuch as snails, fish, crayfish or prawns in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. In normal aquaculture, excretions from the animals being raised can accumulate in the water, increasing toxicity. In an aquaponic system, water from an aquaculture system is fed to a hydroponic system where the by-products are broken down by nitrification bacteria into nitrates and nitrites, which are utilized by the plants as nutrients. The water is then recirculated back to the aquaculture system."
Cost is pretty minimal at RM15.70. Mineral water from Giant supermarket cut into half. Bamboo from outside my house, some perlite I got from Ace hardware and zip ties and I was done. I got 3 cheap guppies from a pet shop nearby. Didn't want to get the goldfish (RM 8) which has a high risk of dying by my hands :)
Ulam Raja plant, one chili plant and 3 recently germinated durian seeds in perlite.
3 red eye guppies.
Mineral water bottle RM 4.75
Fish (red eye guppies) RM 3.00
Perlite RM 7.95
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Total RM 15.70
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Price exclude water pump (not in picture) as I already have an old one lying around.
My only problem is the water pump is too big and powerful for this small system. I am manually scooping the water up a few times a day to the perlite for the moment. There are tiny holes made in the bottle cap so the water will slowly trickle down back to the fish.
