Report On An Experimental Solar-heated Aquaculture System

(Page 5 of 5)

January/February 1975
By James B. Dekorne 
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Thus you can see that, in practice, my ecosystem has run up against some snags not foreseen in the planning stage. This by no means indicates that the concept is invalid, since each problem is relatively minor and capable of easy correction. As I observed in my wind generator article in MOTHER NO. 30, few experiments are 100 percent successful the first time they're tried. In the meantime, in its first year of operation, our little setup has already provided our family of four with many, many meals of fresh produce . . . and almost two months after the first killing frost wiped out our garden, we're still eating fresh tomatoes from the greenhouse. If you've priced tomatoes in the supermarkets lately, you know that that alone is something to brag about!

RELATED CONTENT

AQUACULTURE BIBLIOGRAPHY

Organic Gardening and Farming magazine, April 1971, "We Must Learn to Walk Through the Water", Robert Rodale, pg. 32.

Ibid., August 1971, "An Introduction to Aquaculture on the Organic Farm and Homestead", William O. McLarney, Ph.D., pg. 71.

Ibid., November 1971, "The Farm Pond Revisited", William O. McLarney, Ph.D., pg. 88.

Ibid., January 1972, "The Backyard Fish Farm", John Todd, Ph.D., and William O. McLarney, Ph.D., pg. 99.

Ibid., October 1973, "Raising Catfish in a Barrel", Philip and Joyce Mahan, pg. 112.

SPECIAL NOTE: The pamphlet, Hydroponics by Steve Fox—mentioned prominently in the second Installment of JIM DeKorne's series on building an ecosystem in MOTHER NO. 29—is apparently no longer available.

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  • Wayne 1/31/2009 10:11:39 AM

    I understand that this piece was written in the 70's and there have been many advances in aquaculture since then. The following is my plan for my own compost heated aquaponics/greenhouse.
    I am just as broke or broker than the author seems to be and I believe in making everything as near self-sufficient as possible. I will be raising some Tilapia that eat vegetation and hope to feed them mainly on duckweed,and some sunfish that will be fed on combination of earthworms,crickets and mealworms that i will raise in the greenhouse as well as flying insects attracted to light in warm weather. To maintain water temp and greenhouse temp I will use compost heated water tempered with cold water. All waste laden tank water will be filtered through flood and drain vegetable beds planted in lava rock or similar small gravel. The bacteria that makes it's home on the gravel convert the fish waste, both solid and liquid, into usable plant food. after the water leaves the fish beds it will be further cleaned in shallow ponds with duckweed to polish it off then leftover runs down hill to my in ground pond or to my garden in summer. The heated water in tanks and heat from compost piles should be enough to keep the vegetables growing in winter.Remains of fish after harvest will be used for poultry feed and fertilizer.The poultry manure will go into compost pile to supply heat. As I build the system I will do a more detailed report but that is the gist of it.

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