Published 2018-03-15
Abstract
Florida agriculture lost 25% of its land use in the last 30 years with a significant portion taken out of production by government buyouts enforcing tough environmental regulations. Farms can reduce leaching, runoff and water discharges by reusing nutrient effluent in environmentally sustainable aquaponic systems. Properly designed and sized systems can take advantage of water uptake and evapo-transpirational losses from the plant production subsystem to minimize water discharges to the environment. Factors affecting a grower’s choice of crop, fish and aquaponic system will be discussed. Startup procedures, water quality and system production and maintenance techniques can all affect the growth of plants, fish and nitrifying bacteria. Factors affecting system sustainability, marketing scenarios, regulations and food safety considerations will also be discussed.