Welcome!


You are now at the home of The Green Finned Hippy!  One of the few sources in Illinois for all your aquaponics and quality grown tilapia needs!

 

Our mission statement:

                To create avenues for sustainable living using renewable energy to farm and produce a source of food and knowledge for the community.

 

The Green Finned Hippy is an aquaculture facility like no other. We pride ourselves in being one of the few tilapia hatcheries in the state of Illinois. Our tilapia are born and raised in high quality fresh water aquaponic habitats. Our aquaponics systems provide the cleanest and healthiest form of filtratation for aquaculture.

 

Aquaponics is the merging of hydroponics and aquaculture. In hydroponics plants are grown in a highly controlled nutrient rich water.  Aquaponics uses Fish waste as a form of fertilizer to enrich the plants with nutrients they need to flourish.  Aquaponics is a technique used to safely raise fish and vegetables with as little waste as possible. The following illustration will show the cycle.

 

 

As you can see with the picture, the fish eat and then produce waste.  This waste is then pumped out into a biological filter that houses beneficial bacteria to help break down this waste into a rich fertilizer (Nitrates).  The plants then remove this fertilizer from the system.  Aquaponics is by no means a new process.  Aquaponics has been around for quite awhile, but it has recently grown into a common practice amongst hobbyists and entrepreneurs.

     This process allows us to grow without commercial fertilizers, with fish food being the only input to the system.  Our fish are fed with a high quality fish feed, which allow them to grow from a half inch in size to a pound in only 9 months.  Our fish are not treated with any kind of hormones or sex reversing agents.  See products and services for more information on our tilapia.

 

This site is still under contruction, I apologize for any malfunctions.  We welcome constructive suggestions to improve our site and our message!

Come check out the videos we have posted on youtube.  They will help give you an idea of the operation we have going, and also give you previews of the different fish we have available:

Subscribe to our channel for future updates!