By Joel Malcolm

Picture it now, just outside your back door is a beautiful pond, reflections of the garden beyond shimmer across the surface of the water, broken only by bright green lily pads, and a brilliant pink lily flower, so perfect in shape and form as it emerges into the open from the depths of the water..

An insect meanders on the summer breeze, gliding down to the water surface for a cool drink at the edge of a lily pad, when splash, the pond surface erupts with a powerful burst, the fish below had seen the insect settle down for a drink and now the insect is gone in a flash of silver scales, nothing but a quick snack. As quickly as the excitement began, calm is returned, all is peaceful again, apart from the trickling of the water flowing back into the pond..

The fish below the surface of the water go about their daily routine, weaving between the lily pad stalks as they meander on their endless search for food.. The water’s crystal clear, a large marron pushes his black claws out from his hiding spot, scanning the area, and the Murray cod pokes his head out from the pipe he’s been hiding in, the large silver perch are tussling, chasing each other lazily trying to defend their little spot in the tank. While the large black bream swim around gracefully, ignoring most of what’s going on around them, their eyes swivelling in their sockets as they calmly scan the other activity around them….

The plants in the grow bed are booming, lush new growth can be seen each day, as they tirelessly go about their work helping to filter the water for the fish. Fresh herbs are flowing out over the sides of the grow bed, mint and basil so pungent their odours waft on the summer breeze as if they were flowers. Fresh red tomatoes are ripening and filling with colour, and the red capsicums are so heavy it looks like they’ll pull the plants over…

Animals and plants growing together in a symbiotic nature, as they should, all right on your back doorstep and you did it all yourself, this is what greets me every day on my back patio. Just check out this tomato plant growing in a bed, it produced over 32kg of tomatoes from the one plant.

 

 

Want to learn more?

Please visit our Information section for lot of information about aquaponics.

 

Here you can see a number of aquaponic systems we have installed for people.