BOIS CANO FARMS- Aquaponic Farming

Aquaponics combines the best features of hydroponics and aquaculture while reducing or eliminating their drawbacks. The advantage of hydroponics is short growth times, clean produce (no dirt or dirt-borne diseases), and production volumes up to 30 times the same area of field-grown crops. However, Hydroponics operations dump their water (and any nutrients left in it) many times a year and have to completely sterilize the system before refilling. There are filtration problems that require expensive filtration solutions. In aquaculture, These systems have similar filtration problems as hydroponics systems do and require similar filtration solutions. Their advantage is higher growth rates, shorter fish growth times, production volumes up to 20 times the same volume of pond-based aquaculture, and much better control of disease vectors and the ability to isolate and fight fish diseases that is not present in pond-based aquaculture. Both the aquaculture tanks and the hydroponics troughs use the same pump, the same water, the same electricity, the same biological filters, the same aeration, the same piping system, and the same physical land area. One farm office covers both businesses, as does one cold storage, one supplies and equipment storage, one set of books and bookkeeping, one tax return, and one set of employees.  Although this cost sharing is advantageous, the big difference in an aquaponics operation is that there are two product lines creating profit for the bottom line instead of just one