biological fertilizer for hydroponics

Question

It is said that aquaponics (water tank with fish) provides all nutrients for plants with no soil. It is difficult to maintain one single fish, real commitment to build an ecosystem.
Hydroponics has no fish tank and brings nutrients through chemical fertilizers. I am looking for home made recipes to extract “NPK” and other minerals from home biological waste and avoid or at least reduce artificial chemical fertilizers. Any ideas or guidance? There are some tips about compost but not seen anything applied to plants with no soil.

Answer 1

Though aquaponics provide most nutrients, there will still be a need to supplement in most cases. Still, hydroponics offer much more flexibility, since you will not have to balance between multiple different organisms.

With hydroponics, unless you are using a deep water culture system, any organics that you use will eventually clog your filters and equipment.

With deep water culture, all you have are aerators that need to be kept clean. There are no water pumps to clog. This means that you can use any organic liquid or granular that you would like. Just start at 1/4 strength. Deep water culture makes nutrients much more effective, and it is easy to over do it.

Now, there is something about fertilizer that needs to be cleared up.

While organic fertilizers are a, mostly, eco friendly way to use nutrients they still can introduce infections to the area. It can “rot” just like any other organic material.

There are a class of chemical fertilizer that are considered pharmaceutical grade. These are crafted in a pure environment, and are raw nutrient elements, or mixes. They are filtered through 1 micron filters and contain ABSOLUTELY NO solids at all. Since they are raw chemical elements they are used by plants very fast and cause no issue to the environment, since pretty much all organisms can use the nutrients in this form. Pharmaceutical plant nutrient is the cleanest, most reliable, form of fertilization.

Should you still choose the organic option… I would suggest composting your ingredients, and making a “tea” out of it. This article will help: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/composting/basics/compost-tea.htm

This article will help you to compost properly: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/composting/basics/ultimate-beginners-guide-composting.htm