News

Aquaponics taking place in the local area

By Scott Wagar

01/08/2013

For one man in the Turtle Mountains, the opportunity to conduct aquaponics is allowing this entrepreneur the chance to take part in two of his favorite hobbies in life, which he hopes to make into a full time business in the near future.

“Aquaponics is combination of aquaculture, which is raising fish mainly in tanks, and then, hydroponics which is raising vegetable and flowers in a kind of non-soil type situation,” said Keith Knudson, owner and operator of Aspen Aquaponics. “I don’t have soil here in the garden beds, I have pea rock. The plants receive its nutritional value through the process of running water from the fish tanks into the garden beds, which adds nutrients to the beds themselves.”

OPERATIONS

Knudson runs his operation in a greenhouse on his farm in the Turtle Mountains. Although the aquaponics system looks complicated, it’s rather a simple process. The fish tanks and garden beds are all connected by pipes to provide the water and nutrients the plants and fish need.

The process starts with filling the fish tanks with water, Knudson then place fish in the tanks and feeds them through fish pellets.

The fish’s waste water is then collected in a filtration/sewer container where the heavy waste water is filtrated to the bottom of the container and disposed of outside of the greenhouse. The lighter waste water from the fish tanks is piped to the garden beds where the plant life receives water and fertilizer with the appropriate nutrition.

As the water goes through the garden beds, the pea rock and plants filtrate and clean the extra fish water that is not needed for the vegetation, along with placing some nutrition from the beds back into the water. Then, the water left over from the garden beds are piped back to the fish tanks, granting the fish fresh water with some nutritional value in the water for them, too.

“The water is gravity fed and its flows through all the pipes,” Knudson said. “And, it doesn’t take a lot of water to keep this system going and there is no wasted water.”

Knudson replaces only five to ten gallons of water in the system per week. Water is lost in the filtration/sewer container, plant and fish use and through evaporation. “Other than that it takes care of itself,” Knudson said.

FISH PRODUCTION

When it comes to fish, Knudson grows rainbow trout, perch, walleye and bluegill, which he sells to private lake owners in North Dakota.

“The majority of what I sell has been in the Turtle Mountains,” Knudson said. “But, I sell as far south as Bismarck and to an individual in Towner.”

In 2012, Knudson started growing tilapia for human consumption. His plans are to sell tilapia, along with trout as a food staple starting in the near future.

The fish are placed in the tank when they are four to six inches in length and will leave the tanks when they are 12 to 14 inches in length.

Presently, Knudson has two tanks in his operation with 400 bluegills in one tank and 100 tilapias in the other tank.

Although Knudson has automatic feeders for his fish tanks, he likes to personally feed the fish himself.

“I like to keeps a close eye on the fish to make sure their oxygen ammonia levels are good,” Knudson said. “When I feed them I get to look at the fish and see how they are doing. If there oxygen levels are low they become sluggish and if their ammonia level gets too high they get lethargic. Keeping a close eye on them helps me raise them better than depending on an automatic feeder.”

VEGETABLE PRODUCTION

In his garden bed, Knudson grows such vegetables and herbs as radish, peppers, peas, leeks, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, garlic, strawberries, chives, sage, basal, salad greens and lemon grass.

When it comes to keeping the plant’s root systems under control, Knudson uses red wiggler worms to do the job, which works well in this type of hydroponics operation.

“It works well because the worms like the nutrients in the fish water and eating the roots of the plants,” said Knudson.    

The plants he raises are presently being sold to local families in the area, and Knudson and his wife, Mary, personally use them the vegetables and herbs, themselves.

“I have four or five families that pick up vegetables from me,” he said.

GREEN

What makes this green operation even more green is that Aspen Aquaponics is completely heated in the wintertime from a wood stove, which has a water boiler that provides heat to the greenhouse through its cement floor. On an average, Knudson uses anywhere from 10 to 12 cords of wood to heat the greenhouse during the wintertime, which he cuts himself and burns in his wood stove between the months of October through April.

Knudson has a manual back up generator just in case power is lost on his farm.

“It allows me to keep my pumps running in the greenhouse,” Knudson said.

Knudson started raising fish in 2001 with Earl Kamrud, who is his next door neighbor. The two men raised 1,000 perch and 2,000 walleye in their initial year and the fish were released into a local lake in 2002.

HISTORY

In 2009, Knudson starting growing vegetables in a shop on his farm where he was raising the fish and started the aquaponics process.

Since that time, he has constructed an 18 by 26 foot greenhouse for Aspen Aquaponics and a 30 by 72 foot high tunnel where he grows additional vegetables to assist his business.

FUTURE

Knudson, who is the farm business management and vegetables production instructor for Dakota College at Bottineau, calls aquaponics operation his “side business to hobby,” but he is focusing on making his business his full time job one day where he would provide his vegetables and fish to local markets.

PRESENT

For now, Knudson is just enjoying his time with Aquaponics.

“I enjoy working with plants and fish,” he said. “They work really well together and the system works really well together because there are very few opportunities for disease with this system and everything seems to stay healthier.”

EXHIBITS

Individuals, who would like to get a glimpse into Knudson’s business, he will be having an exhibit of Aspen Aquaponics at the Tech Center this week in correspondence with the Smithsonian’s exhibit “Key Ingredients: America by Food.” Hours for the exhibit are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sunday from Noon to 4 p.m.  

On Saturday, Jan. 12, Knudson will be having an open house at Aspen Aquaponics for the general public to see from noon to 4 p.m. The open house is also in association with “Key Ingredients.”