Chapters 7 and 12

Seeing the "zones" of aquaponics helped me to better understand how the system functions. The information about ratios put scale into perspective. One could not make "plate-sized" fish with a small table top aquarium, though this size seems ideal for a small crop of herbs. Though the system seems relatively simple, it is good to know that there are so many things that need to be considered before getting started including size and shape. I never would have guessed that a shallow wide tank would be better than a deep and narrow one. Chapter 12 help reinforce many of the ideas that I had about comparing soil farming and aquaponics, especially the differences in water use; More importantly, why these difference occur. Understanding that plants use energy to grow was not something that I had really considered. It makes sense that if the plant uses more energy to grow longer roots needed for finding water that they would not grow leaves as big. I liked that even though they said that most plant types can be grown using aquaponics, they explained that there are better methods for starting different types of seeds.