System went in around July 2008... I believe for experimentation purposes...
The supplier of the "salt water" system had only just commenced trials of the system themselves.... and although it some results have been posted and apparantly show "Ulva" growing successfully...
AFAIK, there has been no data posted regarding any yields, market opportunities or cost analysis done...
Quote:
Ulva is a macro algae commonly known as "Sea Lettuce". It has many uses. One is that it can be eaten "fresh", for example in Scotland it is used in soups and salads, as well as "dried", like Nori (the dried sea weed that goes around Sushi and is used in a number of Asian soups etc).
We are going to be experimenting here with a number of different macro algae and some sea grass as well. We recently designed and installed an experimental salt water system into Coffs Harbour. I must stress that salt water aquaponics is completely experimental at this point in time.
They have three beds and we designed one of them to ebb and flow so they could experiment with growing Mangroves. The other beds are continuous flow and will have macro algae and sea grass in them like ours here. Of course Mangroves in these systems are completely for experimental purposes only. We can not see commercial viability for them at the size of systems we can build. Again time will tell.
As far as Mulloway are concerned... trials in a 12,000L recirc tank system were conducted at Natfish Trenayr... and were quite promising.... but growout took 2 years...
And to setup as profitable recirc system to continually supply product would involve probably at least 12 such tanks... minimum...
Mulloway are being successfully grown out in ponds... I'd have to check the salinity level... but it's possible they could work in an AP system...
The equipment installed was all newly produced and essentially untested...but probably works fine...
To my knowledge the system hasn't been duplicated elsewhere, other than the suppliers indoor showroom...
And was (IMO) probably sold as much as a "proof of concept"... as anything else... no doubt it was seen as a way of raising the credibily of the supplier and providing a point of reference for the idea and equipment...
$70,000 would have and could have been utilised to setup a profitable AP operation utilising other technologies and available equipment.... or even a pretty good recirc aquaculture operation...
But I guess it was what the client wanted... I wonder if it has performed to their expectations though... or if they were perhaps "oversold" on it's benefits...
To be fair... the supplier does stress that the saltwater system is an "experimental" system and was installed as such...
Backyard Aquaponics
that incorporates both a salt and freshwater system. They using silvers and Mulloway . The system was made possible from a grant of 70k took numerous pics and will endeavour to put some up after resizing can also email anybody particularly interested. 
I was taken through the new system at Christian Community High School by the caretaker of the school who also happens to be the fatherinlaw. I will go and have another look when the head teacher who runs the show is there for a more thorough explanation of the system and what the objects of the system are I took quite a number of pics and will upload a few at a time i will also ask that the school join the forum and create a thread for all of us keen APers. one pic is tub with netting over top it contains mulloway this is the saltwater system that connect to 3 growbeds first two appeared to be to grow algae and a third that had small mangrove plants although not really much of a producer of food the system is a learning aid and could be very interesting for production of things such as oysters in a controlled enviro without the problems assoc with septic runoff encountered in river leases. The freshwater side contains silvers and the growbeds contain an array of the usual veg ang plants we would normally associate with AP The system is quite complicted with a wide array of sump tanks timed belt feeders ,aerators filter boxes and header tanks it is all switched from a conrtol box definately something we all could enjoy a play with but i guess 70k provides a good bit of play time? A company from Central Coast did install and i will get their name when i go back for a second sticky beak.
