The smart household connected to the energy dispatch arises to overcome the environmental crisis, encourages the penetration of renewable energies and promotes consumer respond to intraday market prices. Aquaponic production results from the combination of fish farming and hydroponics (cultivating plants using fish waste as nutrients). The prototype was built based on the rule of the 3 Rs: reduce, reuse and recycle. The crop reduces the consumption of water and energy, reuses water in a recirculation process, which is filtered by: 1) gravity, 2) biofilters and 3) porosity. Recycling is expanded to plastic containers and food containers of polystyrene. The aquaponic production system is decorative, completely organic (without chemicals), promotes the growth of green areas for comfortable homes and allows the consumption of healthy food, as well as energy planning to save energy. The system is done with a digital level control connected to a water pump and an oxygen pump. A novel method allows the aggregator to optimize the recirculation programming of the aquaponic system for periods of 24 hours. The method maximizes the economic benefits with the help of an energy balance between hours.

The depletion of natural resources such as freshwater and cropland makes it necessary to find a new solution for sustainable food production. Aquaponic systems seem to be a great alternative to traditional agriculture, however, there are still many unknowns that need to be explored. It is already known how fish stocking affects water quality in aquaponic systems, but not how it affects the plants’ growth, and especially on chlorophyll fluorescence. In this study, we examined how the density of 0, 2, 4, 8, and 16 stocking fish in five aquaria affects lettuce growth. The first tank was only a hydroponic system with plants but without fish (control). In the remaining four aquaria – 2, 4, 8 and 12 specimens of common carp fry with an average weight of 20 grams (average 8.5–33.2 g) were placed in the aquaponic growing system. Physicochemical analysis of water was conducted to determine the levels of pH, electrical conductivity ( EC), N-NO ₃, N-NO ₂, N-NH ₄, P-PO ₄, O ₂ and physiological parameters of plants (nitrogen balance index – NBI, chlorophyll content index – CCI, quantum yield – QY, flavonoid content – Flv) were analysed. The results showed that fish stocking density has different effects on plant physiological parameters, but in most cases, was insignificant. It seems that the greater number of fishes and higher density indirectly causes growth inhibition (lower photosynthetic efficiency) due to the increase of N-NO ₃ and a decrease of O ₂ in the water.

The paper discusses the current prognoses of aquaculture development worldwide putting an emphasis on its effect on the environment and the issue of the protection of water reservoirs in different countries. Water consumption in diversified aquaculture systems is presented herein as well as the characteristics of the mechanical and biological water treatment methods in fish farms, with particular attention paid to the recirculating water systems. New aquaculture technologies using post-production waters are presented. The paper provides a discussion on the contribution of aquaculture to the global greenhouse gas emissions and the means of limiting this emission. The effect of climate change on aquatic ecosystems is presented in the context of the changes of the aquaculture production profile. The paper includes a brief presentation of the methods of mitigating the changes with respect to contamination of aquatic ecosystems as well as climate change. Reducing the water footprint can be achieved through selective breeding, species diversification and implementation of more technologically advanced aquaculture systems such as: integrated multi-trophic aquaculture, aquaponics and recirculation systems in aquaculture. The need for certification of fish farms with water recirculation systems is justified in the paper. The issues addressed herein are summarised and the main areas for extending the research promoting preservation of aquatic ecosystems in aquaculture are presented.