Get Involved In The Future

Over the past 2 years the ASC Magazine has been delivering a monthly magazine to readers from all over the world. The magazine has grown to the point where we need more help from industry leaders, business owners and the public. 

We have been publishing stories from backyard growers, commercial growers and gardening fanatics. The magazine has also become more interested in publishing white papers and studies from universities, educators and people with experience in aquaponics, aquaculture, agriculture and permaculture. This is something our readers have asked us for so we are giving them what they want. 

We are also including more stories and advertisements from greenhouse manufacturers, lighting specialists, solar panel companies, aquaculture suppliers, suppliers of all kinds of growing equipment and other similar companies. 

The magazine has reached a point where we are now sharing some of what we do with other interested people who want to help us spread the word and make some money on the side. 

We are inviting commercial growers, business owners and interested parties to become an affiliate for the ASC Magazine. 

The ASC Magazine is now offering the following incentives for Lifetime Conversions: 

• The magazine affiliate program will be offered through Clickbank ( a 3rd party verification company.  

• Your percentage of selling the magazine will be sent to you in the form of a check or direct deposit, directly from this company. They will let you know the options available to you.

• We will provide the banners and other tools (if need be) which will enable you to make money.

• The ASC Magazine will make up the pre-made E-Mails if you need help with that.

• The Minimum payout will be $20.00 per conversion of the Lifetime Subscription.

If you would like to learn more please E-Mail Us for more details:  Click Here 

This is a great opportunity to make money and help us spread the word to others. The ASC Magazine is going to keep on reporting the changes, advancements and industry leaders because Aquaponics is set to be one the futuristic businesses by the year 2030 according to Business Insider.

"Aquaponic fish farmer: In 2030, populations of wild fish are disappearing — so new production methods like aquaponics will step in to replace fish that we can no longer catch in the wild. Aquaponics combines fish farming with gardening, where plants grow over water to cover its surface, while fish live below. The plants return oxygen to the water, and the fish produce waste that provides fertilizer for the plants."

Happy Gardening Everyone

Victoria Kelley 

ASC Magazine Editor 

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Being the only aquaponic system practitioner in Malaysia that:
1. Had won accolades both domestically & internationally
2. Have the largest lobster breeder network in Malaysia
3. Enjoys the Malaysian governments attention & support,
I am proud to announce that AgroBank has principally agreed to support our mission & vision. For that, all course participants (previous & future) can now be eligible to apply for loan to setup their own lobster farm, within Malaysia.

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There are 4 categories of loan available:
1. Setup for small size system (Personal Loan of RM500-RM10,000)
    Please click here: http://www.agrobank.com.my/product/ar-rahnu/

2. Setup for medium size system (Personal Loan of RM10,000-RM50,000)
    Please click here: http://www.agrobank.com.my/product/agrocash-i-2/

3. Setup for large size system (Personal Loan of above RM50,000)
    Please click here: http://www.agrobank.com.my/product/hartani-i-tawarruq/

4. For Business Financing Programs
    Please click here: http://www.agrobank.com.my/product/program/

* Disclaimer: AgroBanks terms applies.

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Upon completion of course, please request the following items:
1. Training Certificate
2. Recommendation Letter
Both the above items are from Persatuan Akuakultur Malaysia (PAM), registered with Company Registrar (SSM) & Ministry of Finance (MOF) since 25 March 2014

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THANK YOU

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Learning From The Past To Carry On Into The Future

When the ASC Magazine first came out in March of 2013, we started off with community members contributing stories about growing through aquaponics and soil grown foods. We were extremely happy with the different responses from local people who had an eagerness to write about their growing experiences. We didnt care which part of the world you lived in because by telling your story, there was that camaraderie to help other people. 

Since that time 2.5 years ago, the average person has become painfully aware of the need to grow their own food because of preservatives, additives, glyphosate, fluoride, ethoxyquin and other chemicals being found in our food and water. 

While some people have the knowledge and skills to grow just about anything they can, other people still need to learn and this is where our magazine comes into play. I personally have found some of the best lessons in growing come from people who tinker around in their backyards or greenhouses. 

It takes all kinds of people to grow food anywhere they can and there are many great lessons that can be taught from local people. These are community members willing to step up and help others learn. For many good reasons this is probably where food in the future will be headed. 

More people now realize big agriculture has become a dominant and greedy eyesore on the landscape, so they want the knowledge in how to grow their own food.

We have become very aware the food we are eating from grocery stores is less nutritious and more chemical laden, so it will be the local people, backyard tinkerers and community growers who will be teachers for the future.

People desperately want safe, toxic free, naturally grown foods to eat and they know big Agro is NOT giving it to them. When you have the backing of congress supporting big Pharma and big Agro, it makes the decision to grow your own food a whole lot easier.

In all seriousness folks, I dont know anyone who wants to eat food laced with poisons. Do you? 

Thats why the ASC Magazine is so important for everyone. We promote local growers, local teachers and community leaders. 

Here is a story from our very first edition about a teacher named Bryan Vincent King who is doing this very thing with his students. He happily became an Urban Farmer and his students have benefitted immensely through his knowledge.  

So have you become a part of the ASC Magazine yet? 

Below is a link to the lifetime subscription. Its a ONE TIME Fee and then you receive in your mailbox on the 10th of every month, a magazine teaching you how to grow through aquaponics, permaculture, agroforestry and other viable methods of growing SAFE, pesticide free, FOOD.  

http://aquaponics-how-to-guide.info/aquanewsletter/

If you would rather not subscribe but would like to purchase back issues you can do that as well: 

http://aquaponics-how-to-guide.info/magazine_back_issues/

The ASC Magazine believes in paying it forward to benefit all people. This also means businesses, schools, educators and the awesome backyard growers. 

"Pay it forward is an expression for describing the beneficiary of a good deed repaying it to others instead of to the original benefactor. The concept is old, but the phrase may have been coined by Lily Hardy Hammond in her 1916 book In the Garden of Delight."

So what does that mean to you? Well I suppose that is up to you...tell us your story because we listen and then we publish your article to other people. They will read what you have to say and will be inspired by it and possibly teach your skills to someone else. Get involved and pay it forward...

http://aquaponicssurvivalcommunities.com/article-submissions

Brightest Blessings

Victoria Kelley

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credit to AQUAPONIC GARDEN

http://www.aquaponicgardeningguide.com/prevent-an-aquaponic-disaster/

Prevent an Aquaponic Disaster

When someone new is getting into aquaponics, they need to take the time to carefully review and learn about aquaponic system maintenance. They need to learn about the most common issues that cause problems in aquaponic systems and it will help them to be more successful from the start.

One of the most disastrous aquaponic problems that can happen is when you use cold, chlorinated, un-adjusted pH water to top off and fill the system’s reservoir. Using this type of water will stress and kill everything from your fish and plants to even the healthy bacteria living in the system.

When you are “topping-off” the reservoir in the aquaponic system, you can get away with using less than 10% of this type of water. However, using too much will cause aquaponic problems in a very short time and you will need to start salvaging your system all over again.

Many times, people who are topping of their system using a water hose will forget that the water is on and flood their system. By setting a timer it will remind you to shut off the water to avoid this aquaponic problem.

The Options

Always evaluate the situation first.

Figure out what is wrong, ways to fix it and then pick the best option. Using chlorinated water essentially sanitizes your entire aquaponic system and will possibly eliminate all of the gathered plant nutrients.

When using cold, chlorinated, un-adjusted pH water for your system, the most likely state of each of the living elements in your system are as follows:

The Fish

Chlorine is not good for fish and the best case scenario is that they are just really stressed. The temperature level of their water most likely decreased considerably and the pH of the water is most likely changed.

While it is best to not utilize aquarium dechlorinators since they add sodium and other chemicals that can be hazardous to plants and cause aquaponic problems.

You should reduce the amount of chlorine in the system as quickly as possible to recover the fish’s slime coat that keeps them healthy, using a good aquarium water conditioner will do both of these things.

In extreme aquaponic problem cases, many of the fish may be very sickly, or floating in the water.

The Plants

Your plants also are stressed as a result of the temperature and pH changes, in addition to the chlorine that is presenting the water.

If your aquaponic problems are extremely bad then you might have to clean the system, which removes all of the beneficial nutrients from the system. It is strongly recommend that you add some Maxicrop into your system that will feed your plants while the aquaponic system comes back into balance.

If you catch the aquaponic problem before the water has made its way from the fish reservoir into the plants in the system, then quickly shut off the water pump. You will need to treat the fish tank water before you turn the water pump back on and by doing this it will help to minimize aquaponic problems caused to your plants and the bacteria in your system.

The Bacteria

Likely, the healthy bacteria in the aquaponics system have been destroyed and you will need to start all over again by re-cycling your system.

This is the hardest part since you most likely still have fish in your system and if they all didn’t die, you will need to cycle your system using the fish as your ammonia source.

Unless you have another fish tank or aquaponic system that you can transfer them to and do a fish-less cycling.

All will work out, however be sure to watch the ammonia and nitrite levels very carefully. If either starts reaching the high end of the color graph in the API test kit (4 ppm ammonia and 1 ppm nitrites).

After that be sure to do a 1/3 water change out of your system to dilute the levels back down to where your fish will be able to tolerate to avoid further aquaponic problems.

The Worms

You can assume that they have actually been eliminated by the chlorine and that you should add more worms to your grow beds once you have adjusted the water.

The bottom line is that one disruptive aquaponic problem can reset your system back to when you first started. You may lose a few fish, your plants could stress out and yellow for a few days or weeks, but you will certainly recuperate from the aquaponic problems.

Learn From Another’s Experiences…

The best way to prevent these aquaponic problems is to use a separate water tank to off-gas the chlorine, adjust the pH and water temperature before transferring the water into your aquaponic system.

By doing this additional step, you will save time and heartache from an aquaponic problems turning into a disaster then having to start all over again.

And just think, you will most likely never make these mistakes again or by reviewing this article, you will prevent this aquaponic problem from ever happening!

  

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Aquaponics systems are deficient in one essential thing, and that is iron. As anyone in AP will tell you, it is a metal you must add to your system periodically. Yellow leaves on your plants are usually a good indication that some sort of nutrient deficiency is occurring. Since iron is the one substance AP systems do not naturally contain, and because it has such a tight PH absorption window, it is usually the culprit.

For most people, adding iron is quite simple. Chelated iron is available in most countries at nurseries or from hydroponics suppliers. For most home systems, the amount to add ranges in the teaspoon-measurements range every few months, so it goes a long way.

Chelated iron is simply iron that is loosely bound to a chelating agent, which makes it more soluble and absorbent by cell walls. Commercially available chelated iron for agricultural applications, often uses ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA) as the chelating agent. Chelated iron for human use, marketed as a dietary supplement, often uses an amino acid as the chelating agent.

The reason chelated iron is important is because free-floating iron is difficult for plant cells to absorb, though not impossible. If it is attached to an amino acid or other chelating agent, plant cell walls absorb it readily. Once inside, the chelating agent and iron atom disassociate and the iron can be used for cellular processes. It is especially important for the formation of chlorophyl (itself a chelate), which is responsible for photosynthesis and gives plants their green color. As for how iron is absorbed in nature, or chelated in nature, I do not know - any plant biologists, please chime in!

Some people, myself included, have rusty pieces of metal somewhere in their systems, constantly introducing some iron into the system all the time. I have a rusty chain hung over my tank wall dipped in the water, and Ive buried several rusty nails in my grow beds.

If my PH were the perfect match for the iron absorption profiles and needs of all my plants, this should theoretically work. But as Yogi Berra once said, "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is."

The fact of the matter is that my spinach has suddenly turned a really bad yellow. So has one of my oregano plants, but to a much lesser extent. The strange thing is, everything else looks great. All my tomatoes are thriving, blooms coming out everywhere. The cuke plant must have tripled in size since last week. Everything else - all the herbs, lettuce, even the onion and radish which I didnt expect to do well, are doing great or at least look healthy.

So why just the spinach, and to a lesser degree, the oregano? I remember being told spinach is good for you because "it contains lots of iron". If that is true, I suppose it must need lots of iron as well. Im just speculating, but that would make sense, wouldnt it?

My problem is I cannot find chelated iron anywhere around here. And despite the iron added by my rusty friends, there is apparently no natural chelator in the system to help get it into plant cell walls.

What I did find out, however, is that molasses, the sugar-cane extract, is supposedly a good iron chelator. That is according to this and this.

It is also supposed to itself contain a lot of iron, without any need to add it. I have no idea if this is true, but I am willing to try.

So, last night I sprayed some molasses on all my plants. I diluted it with water a bit. The reason I had some around is because I had once heard it works as a bug repellant. The sweet smell apparently is not liked by many bugs. I actually sprayed it back when I first started 4 months ago, so who knows, maybe I inadvertently added a chelating agent and possibly chelated iron to my system back then.

This morning, noticing the spinach plants were still quite yellow, I mixed some molasses with water (1:9 ratio) and poured it into a small bucket that had rusty nails and even a nice little pile of "rust dust" at the bottom. I am going to let that soak the rest of the day and apply some tonight and the rest tomorrow morning.

Will report back here with whatever the results are.

Over the next few weeks the ASC Magazine will be posting sections of articles written by our writers and businesses who have contributed to the aquaponics industry and the ASC Magazine. 

This article comes from our February 2015 Edition of the magazine, Written by Vlad Jovanovic: 

Matt Bell Asked:

Hello everyone, Im fairly new to aquaponics I just ran my tests and here are my results.

Ammonia level = .25ppm

Nitrite level = 0ppm

Nitrate level = 160 ppm

PH = 7.5

Are these levels normal, or even the ballpark?

Well Matt, I suppose that would depend on what inning you are in :-) But yeah, you are definitely in the ball park. Its good that your Nitrite and Ammonia levels are at or near Zero. You may (or may not, depending on how hard your top off water is) see your pH slowly start to come down. Itll be good to get the pH below 7.

 It might also be wise to figure out what your Nitrate level actually is. By that I mean, the API Nitrate test only reads up to 160 ppm. Everything above 160 ppm pretty much reads as being 160. So your Nitrate level may actually be 240 or 500 and you wouldnt really know it, it would just read 160. 

What you can do is perform the test with twice the amount of water (10 ml instead of 5 ml). Or use the standard 5 ml of system water in the test tube, but only add half the amount of the reagents. Meaning, 5 drops from each bottle (per 5 ml of water) instead of 10 drops from each bottle. 

With either of these two methods, you are in essence doubling the upper readable limit of the nitrate tests to 320 ppm. If you perform this diluted version of the Nitrate test, and you compare the color of the test tube, to the chart...and it looks like 100ppm (for instance) this would translate to actually having Nitrates present to the tune of 200 ppm (make sense everyone?).

You can move this upper readable limit even further than 320 ppm, if need be, just by further dilutions (but hopefully that wont be necessary). Excessive nitrates are neither very healthy for our plants, or for us human to consume. 

As far as levels being normal...If we were to define what is "normal" as a matter of prevalence, or statistical occurrence; then yes, having excessive Nitrates in an AP system could be said to be "normal". It seems fairly common from what Ive seen, for AP systems to have an excess of nitrogen (and at the same time be deficient in other plant essential elements). But let us, for a moment, step away from defining what is normal only by what is common, or prevalent. Otherwise, we may say things like "obesity is normal" (because it is so prevalent), or "having heart disease is normal" (because it is so common), or "it is normal for our food to be made and modified by the worlds largest pesticide maker" (because it happens to be the condition that we find ourselves in)...and other statements like that.  

Let us instead define what is normal in terms of what would provide conditions for "normal" plant growth/health, and "normal" fish growth and health. In this case, what I think would be "normal" for an AP system to do, is to provide the conditions necessary for the near optimal genetic expression of our plants and fish (in terms of fecundity or productiveness). 

Plants Need These Things To Grow Healthy

I. What do plants need to grow?

a). Water

b). Air

c). Nutrients

d). Structure (root anchor)

e). Light

f). Adequate temperatures (both root and leaf)

g). pH at root zone (slightly acidic) 

h). *Soil *? (equates to substrate)

II. What comprises good soil (or substrate)?

a). 25% Water 

b). 25% Air

c). 45% Mineral Matter (rock, sand, silt, clay)

d). 3% - 5% Organic Matter (at various stages of decomposition)

III. Plant Essential Elements

a). Major Elements - N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S (expressed in percent %)

b). Micro Elements - Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn, B, Mo, Cl, (expressed in ppm, or mc/kg)

c). Beneficial Elements Si, Ni etc...

d). Organic molecules vs. mineral ions (microbial action vs. ionic dissociation)

e). Cations vs. Anions-Soil offers greater buffer for imbalance than water culture (show pH chart)

IV. The Role of Microbes in freeing up different plant essential elements from organic molecules...

Learn more...

If you would like to read more of this article, please consider subscribing to the ASC Magazine: http://aquaponics-how-to-guide.info/aquanewsletter/

OR 

You can purchase back issues of the ASC Magazine here: http://aquaponics-how-to-guide.info/magazine_back_issues/

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SURPRISE VISIT BY
MOSTI DEPUTY MINISTER
ON 5 JULY 2014

Datuk Abu Bakar & myself

Datuk & Editorial crew from The SUN

In the midst of planning something HUGE for the future (for me & my proteges). It may take months or years to materialize but it will happen eventually.

Thank you Datuk Abu Bakar & The SUN.

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There are a few different ways of setting up an indoor aquaponics garden.  Retailers sell entire aquaponic kits, you can buy pieces and parts from a hydroponics store to form your own kit, or you can make one entirely out of recycled materials such as 55 gallon drums (food grade ofcourse).  Buying an aquaponic kit can be pricey and making one can be a little more effort than some want to put into it, but dont let this stop you!  You can get most of the parts you need at your local hydroponics store and be well on your way to sustainability.

Parts Needed:

• A hydroponic flood tray/grow bed
• Hydroponic grow media such as hydroton and/or lava rock, ect...
• A flood and drain kit (ebb & flow)
• A drill and drill bit large enough for your flood and drain kit (you may have to hit the hardware store if you dont have the right size bit)
• A water pump and hose
• An air pump with air stone
• A light source (if grow bed is not in a sunny location you may need a grow light)
• A reservoir large enough flood your grow bed and still have enough water for your fish remaining (I use a large rubbermaid tote for my aquaponic reservoir)
• Fish and Seeds (fish can be purchased from a local pet store if you are not wanting to eat them)

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credit to http://www.friendlyaquaponics.com/

from the post : Welcome to “The End of Malaria”

Are you irritated by mosquitoes in your neighborhood? Do you live in a location where malaria, elephantiasis, filariasis, dengue fever, or any of the other dangerous diseases carried by mosquitoes exist? Are you a health-care professional whose concern is these diseases and their control and eradication? If the answers to these questions interest you, please read on:

An additional benefit of farming aquaponically (that we noticed after our first system was operational for six months) was that the mosquitoes on our seven-acre farm had COMPLETELY disappeared! We live in Hawaii, where there are as many mosquitoes as any other tropical area in the world. Although we are fortunate not to have malaria, elephantiasis, filariasis, or any of the other dangerous diseases that are transmitted to humans by mosquitoes, we DO have dengue fever, which can be fatal in the young, elderly, or those with compromised immune systems.

Before we built our first aquaponics system, our farm was like any other place on the green windward coast of the Big Island: even during a drought, when the soil was dusty and dry and there was no standing water visible anywhere, there were still clouds of mosquitoes at dawn and dusk. If we left a door or window open in the house during the day, even for a few minutes, we knew that we would be tormented by the buzzing of hungry mosquitoes all night long as we tried to sleep. When we built our first aquaponics system, we knew we were creating additional habitat for mosquitoes to lay their eggs, so we introduced a few mosquito fish (gambusia affinis), and neon tetras into our system water.

They thrived and spread throughout the systems we built, and soon had become a self-sustaining population numbering in the tens of thousands. Six months later we noticed there were simply no mosquitoes around any longer. It’s easier to notice the presence of a pest than the absence of one, so we’re not certain when the number went to zero, but it was sometime during that six-month period. That was three years ago Since then, we’ve had the pleasure to live on a beautiful farm in the tropics that has NO mosquitoes! How does this work?

We live in the center of a deadly efficient mosquito trap: every female mosquito in the neighborhood can sense the roughly 50,000 gallons of water in our aquaponics systems, and comes to them to lay her eggs. Each egg hatches into a larva, which is then promptly consumed by one of the hundreds of thousands of mosquito fish in our water BEFORE it can ever develop sufficiently to hatch into an adult mosquito. That mosquito’s bequest of future generations is GONE, down the gullets of little fish who thrive on these meals and produce even MORE little fish hungry for mosquito larvae.

We don’t know what the effective radius of our mosquito eradicator is, but we’ve gone to the corners of our seven-acre property and haven’t found any mosquitoes there; we think there’s a good chance it is significantly reducing mosquito populations on the farms around us. We need help and funding to continue research into this phenomenon in order to understand it better, and to develop it to the point where it can easily be implemented in any location or culture.

This could make a huge difference in the lives of people worldwide who currently lose family members to malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases.

  

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