AquaFarm: Growing Food on Self-Cleaning Fish Tank

GOUTUM, The Netherlands, November 12, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Popular self-sufficient eco system makes its way from America to Europe 

The self-cleaning fish tank on which you can grow food and herbs, AquaFarm, is coming to Europe. The self-sufficient eco system already is a big hit in America and Canada, where hundreds of thousands were sold. Vegetables and herbs like basil, thyme, baby greens, oregano, mint or parsley growing on top of the fish tank clean the water and are fed with fish waste. 

Americans Nikhil & Alejandro from San Francisco came up with the idea and launched their eco system in 2013. Since then every large retailer in America sells the smart fish tank. Dutch company Aquaponics Europe managed to get their invention to Europe and makes it available in 28 countries.

"My niece in Canada showed me the AquaFarm on Facebook and I immediately saw the sustainable potential of it," says CEO Romke Brinkman of Aquaponics Europe. "It's completely self-sufficient and applied on a larger scale it may be a solution to problems like food shortage, food safety, animal welfare and lack of clean drinking water."

The principle behind AquaFarm is called aquaponics, a method that was already used by the Aztecs. The idea is to grow crops with less water. The fish poops into the water. The dirty water is pumped up to the plants on top of the aquarium. The plants turn the dirty water into nutrients the plants grow on. Thus the food grows on fish waste, developing a little self-sufficient eco system. This method saves up to 90 percent of water compared to regular methods. In fact aquaponics is a combination of aquaculture (raising aquatic animals) and hydroponics (growing plants without soil). In theory you can breed edible fish, but in the AquaFarm there's only room for one betta fish.

The home garden 2.0 allows people to keep fish and grow food at the same time at home, in the classroom or at the office. Also they never have to clean the fish tank again. Brinkman: "According to our philosophy, working on sustainability is something you do together. The AquaFarm is a fun, simple way to grow food at home, without using fertilizers or chemicals."

High Resolution Photos: http://www.aquaponicseurope.eu/press/presskit.zip

Press information http://www.aquaponicseurope.eu/press/en

Corporate website: http://www.aquaponicseurope.eu

SOURCE Aquaponics Europe B.V.