not stupid at all. i will try my best at explaining the two.
hydroponics is pretty much grow veggies in water (i think hydroponics means water working) the idea here is using rich water the plants sit there roots in(which is full of chemicals by the way) to produce plants, its almost 100% man made/artificial, my cousin did hydroponics a few years ago and this is pretty much what he said, it worked very well but the chemicals are super expensive it costed him around 50 bucks a month to run the system. but the veggies where some of the best he ever had.
aquaponics is what am into, so here is my view at it.
pretty much take hydroponics but subtract the nasty chemicals, then take aquaculture fish waste and combine the two, so pretty much your feeding fish which produce waste, which then is pumped to the plants which clean the water that is then filtered back to the fish. (its 100% organic most of the time) and its a man made ecosystem giving you both a fish and plant crop.
Aquaponics is a system of using water to grow fish and plants in a symbiotic relationship. The fish fertilize the water. The water is pumped repeatedly into plant beds which do not contain soil. the plants extract the nutrients from the fish poo. The cleaned water is recirculated back into the fish tanks. If the system is well balanced, the fish feed the plants, and the plants keep the fish water clean. The only input is fish food. However, it's a delicate balancing act which also includes the correct bacterial load in the filtration substrate, correct water temperature, good filtration, and good oxygenation of the water. Break down of any of these elements can mean disaster to the whole system.
Hydroponics is growing plants without soil. Nutrients are added to the water. The plants grow (often) in floating platforms with their roots suspended in the water, or they can grow in a soil-less medium such as volcano or clay "rock".
Thanks for all the info! This is very helpful!
They both seem cool but the fish thing seems like a lot of work