THUNDER BAY — Maybe fish can't ride bikes, but it turns out they can help grow lettuce.
That's exactly what's happening at Lacroix Aquaponics in Ware Township.
The farm is dedicated to growing premium greens in an enclosed, environmentally controlled environment. They harness the natural synergy between fish and plants to create a thriving ecosystem.
Patrick Lacroix and Shelly Poluchowicz said their operation is the first and only aquaponics farm in northwestern Ontario.
There were hurdles along the way, but the couple was happy to announce Lacroix Aquaponics is now fully open and operational.
“My wife wanted to do something different. We're both health-care professionals for 30 to 40 years. She came up with the idea of aquaponics and here we are today with a brand-new state-of-the-art aquaponics facility,” Lacroix said.
“The fish produce ammonia as well as excrement. What we do is collect the excrement as well as the ammonia through a biofiltration system.
“That is where the beneficial bacteria converts the ammonia and the excrement into a nitrate which is absorbed by the plants. Basically, the plants absorb the nitrates and in the same time cleaning the water to return to the fish.
“It's a closed loop ecosystem that benefits both fish and plants. They work in a symbiotic relationship,” he said.
Lacroix said they also have a biofiltration aquaculture system.
“It is filled with beads. Once the excrement gets drawn into the bio filtration system, that is where your nitrification process occurs. Where your beneficial bacteria convert the nitrites and your ammonia, it converts those into nitrates.
“Nitrification occurs in the biofiltration system and then clean nutrient rich water goes into our sump tank. That's where it gets oxygenated by our Moleaer technology, which is Nanobubbles.
“That is one of the best (pieces of) equipment that you can have for water quality.”
Lacroix said this provides the fish and plants with the best conditions that are possible.
Poluchowicz said there has been research on the Nanobubbles done by Virginia Tech.
“They discovered that within five minutes, E. coli and Listeria was eliminated from their system because it provides a protective barrier over top of the water. It actually allows the plants to be healthier and allows our fish to be healthier as well,” she said.
Poluchowicz said it took them a little longer than expected to open up the aquaponics farm; they had hoped to open about a year ago.
“It's a huge learning curve for us. We're both from a mental health background. This was such a learning curve for us, so it took a while, but we're getting there.
“We recently have been bringing our greens to George's Market. Here at the farm, we have some customers who come out and then also to the farmers market.
“We partnered with Paul from Eat the Fish. We think that's a wonderful partnership for us.”
Poluchowicz said they are growing many different kinds of baby greens in their deep-water culture.
“We have two salad blends. One we're calling the Bay blend and one we're calling the Thunder mix.
"They have several varieties of baby greens in each of the mixes. We also grow some spinach and baby romaine and also some kale. We have two different kinds of kale mixes that we've been using as well. And now we're trialing basil in our system,” she said.
The first harvest of fish will occur sometime in December, Poluchowiz said.
“We're hoping the rainbow trout will be about 2 to 2.5 pounds by then," she said. “We have a list of people who are wanting the fish."
"People can access our website and send us an email through there or purchase through our website, either our greens or our fish,” she said.
The couple is happy to say everything is going well.
“It feels wonderful after all the challenges that we've experienced; it helped us to grow in terms of our knowledge and we're very excited that it's actually getting off the ground now,” Poluchowicz said.
