The plants take care of the fish in return. Plants get what they need without the fuss of mixing chemicals. After the initial effluent is pumped from each tank, the return through the beds takes from 10 to 30 minutes. A bucket containing a pump in each node holds 10 to 15 gallons. This oxygenates the water to optimum levels for the tilapia.
Additional aeration is unnecessary.
The system is simple and revolutionary for the very reason that it does not make use of technology normally assumed to be necessary for aquaculture, hydroponics, or both. The system is flexible. A node can be constructed small enough to fit into a kitchen, one or more nodes could fit into a backyard greenhouse, or any number of large nodes could function in commercial greenhouse operations. In addition to flexibility of size and simplicity of operation, the system is environmentally friendly . There is no effluent runoff.