Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello members, Lawrence here from Shenzhen China.

I am new to the forum and also new to the subject of Aquaponics, but I have started reading my way into the industry this week and this forum is a goldmine for both practical and scientific information, from my early readings of the member postings.

As a brief bio; I am an Australian systems engineer [ex RAN] involved in the renewable energy industry and also a product designer and manufacturer for both the water and energy industries. As a consultant to the Chinese renewable energy industry for 6 years now I split my time between offices in Shenzhen [China] and my manufacturing facility on the Gold Coast.

I have done some brief work with Austrade discussing fish farming technologies with the Chinese Regional Government in Zhuhai in my capacity as a systems and process control engineer [not as a fish farmer] and since then I have been interested in developing a community based Aquaponics pilot plant in China based on Australian best practices. This idea has also been kicked along over 3 years due to the fact that my Chinese PA comes from a small fish farming village in Hubei Province near Wuhan and this area is known throughout China as “China’s home of fish and rice”.

After a lot of searching, the local council of a small fish and fresh water lobster farming village has offered me an abandoned school to establish an Aquaponics Regional Research Centre. So I now have the green light and the project is up and running.

From my perspective the five most important aspects that I needed to tick off in evaluating a suitable location, have now been fully satisfied:

1. Plenty of water is available [pristine water way runs parallel to the site] and it is not expensive;

2. Excellent roof space for installation of 50 kW PV Solar System including 10,000 Ah Battery Storage plus 22 kWh of Solar Thermal Water Heating capability for 6 hours average per day, to power the facility control systems and water management systems. The Solar PV is being donated by a manufacturing associate;

3. Suitable buildings are available. The abandoned school comprises a group of tile roofed buildings the main one running parallel to a waterway of about 50 x 15 mtrs;

4. An enthusiastic village population eager for some technological farming innovation beyond the buffalo and plough which is the only form of “heavy machinery” available. This is a rural village with a history of over 3000 years. Its population is about 220 people [80 families] all fish farmers owning small individual lots of about 2 hectares each. They have an average annual income each family of about AU $2000.00;

5. There is four hectares of fertile pasture available next to the facility for growing whatever would be the most efficient combination of food sources for the fish farm component.

So you have all got the general drift of where I am at with all this up to now. I am hoping that the forum experts might see this as an interesting [Australian flavoured] exercise and put on their thinking caps and start to “fill in the technical farming gaps” for me.

Like the Chinese say, “the longest journey is simply step by step” and I believe most projects can do well following this simple rule.

Thank you in advance and I look forward to your comments and ideas; also anybody who would like to be involved in some capacity is most welcome to join the project team. Our plan is to use this as a pilot project to promote further scalable mirror developments within the region.

Lots of interesting ones in there.

"Like the Chinese say, “the longest journey is simply step by step” and I believe most projects can do well following this simple rule."

All the rest are other resources. Your labor force will need convincing it works and so will you (small project or multiples to start with). Upgrading skills can be a 'Bank 'process or a real get dirty process, I favour the latter.

What fish are currently being farmed, what veges are currently being grown, what veges would you like to grow, what is their value and is it possible there?

Politics might be fun after you have sorted out the fundamentals.

Thanks Sleepe.

This project isn’t connected with the local industry standards or methods at all. It is a stand-alone enterprise from scratch based on world’s best practice in the industry. So I am an open mind from this point on and want to hear what the forum experts think about the best way to clean start a large project through proven models.

For me it’s about starting right. Having a proven best practices plan to work through. The community will provide whatever supplementary resources are required to service the plan, but no involvement beyond that from a management viewpoint.

So as I am starting out I am now a listener to others comments rather than specifying stuff I don’t yet know about such as what vegetables are the best contributors to the total system, or fish types.

The region is a proven food bowl for fish rice and fresh water lobster, but farming techniques and agri science is very light on here. The yields are low. The stock is small. The growth nutrition science is weak. The farming management practices are poor etc. Process control; automation; feed forward controls based on media analysis is unheard of.

This project is located in the right place weather wise though, and we have good energy and prime resources [water and crop options] to work with. Equivalent to say Hunter Valley. What has to happen though is the design is a scalable model. Small scale anything in China doesn’t mean much, but after a system has some demonstrated performance points on the board it should be scalable, and replicable.

Sure the by-product [vegetables] are useful and have some value. But the main choices should be about automating an optimised system towards high yield fish protein through modern process control nutrition and fish growth cycle controls.

I am on the learning curve and today is only day 1. Day 2 will follow.

Politics don’t play any part in our operations in China only performance. I have been operating as an engineer in the Asian Region since 1968 and like anywhere else only good business counts.

flowtech, a good starting point for us all to help would some photos of what you have available to you. Also a rough napkin style drawing to give us some rough dimensions. Also any climate info you could provide is a must.

Sounds like a fantastic opportunity!

AP is a, how can I put this nicely; solving the nitrate etc build up in aquaculture with a usable product and less run to waste or veges produced without the conventional hydroponics model, with a useful byproduct, and less run to waste.
If you only want fish aquaculture, if you only want veges hydroponics.
I have no idea what the climate of the Hunter Valley is like; Victoria to me was like taking a woolly jumper and a tee shirt all in the same suitcase.

huh??? ... please explain???

Your main (?only) product is fish, assuming high tech with limited space and a pristine water supply (?) and no limitations on dumping effluent, and being a real bastard, which way would you go to make money ?

BTW politics is not about Governments necessarily, it is the social interaction of people with different positions on a local scale.
This is a local village, engage the people, show it will work, show them the benefits, and do a steep learning course yourself .

I'm a little confused... you mention having talked to "Austrade discussing fish farming technologies "...

And mention "Australian best practices".....

So are you looking at setting up a fish farm based on Australian best practices.... RAS or pond based??

Or are you looking at setting up an integrated aquaculture... RAS aquaculture with a hydroponic vegetable production module????...

If the latter.... then there are very few real "best practice" models in implementation... not only in Australia... but world wide....

Having said that... Australia does have a successful long running integrated aquaculture model based at PT Stevens.... Taylor Made.... but it is still a one pass... irrigation to soil style model....

A more recently open "best practice" operation... UES, based in Sydney.... is probably a potential, viable model... but still "unproven"...

The primary consultants that built the UES installation... are about to, or may have already... signed a contract... for integrated aquaculture projects... in China...

rsevs3

I have added some Met data for the location and also an overhead G.Earth showing the general flat plains layout of the immediate farming region.

This is a commercial project to produce fish for direct sale to two nearby major towns. The facility will be a cooperative owned by the participating village residents [cooperative members] of HongHu specifically to increase their annual income.

The village residents are not the consumers of the fish produced at all. It is for commercial sales only, initially to selected major restaurants to establish a market for the fish, followed by “value adding” through the cooperatives own restaurants group.

This is a pilot plant that will provide onsite training courses for others to learn about the science and logistics and start up similar mirror farms of their own. We will also be looking at providing plant development services from this facility based on a part franchising model. The scope of the business model is being addressed soon, but my priority is to work my way into the current technical literature available and learn from those who have proven practical experience.

Of course there are boundaries to the project scope. As a pilot plant it must be autonomous in its ongoing operations though, there are no external support industries, so breeding programs underpin the go forward.

Importantly the logistics to work up the plant design from are already in place. Adequate power resources [Solar PV and Thermal] as required to support the facility functions. Excellent water reserves on site at the right cost. Dedicated substantial buildings as part of the facility are already available. Good semi-skilled labour source in support of running the plant and producing fish food resources is available.

Having the opportunity to start from the ground design wise up means we can start right. Or at least “should” start right. We want to implement a good level of automation though through feed forward process control design particularly for water quality and feed cycle management.

Thanks for this info.

Can you help me with contact details for these projects please RupertofOZ - sounds like good paths for me to explore.

Having said that... Australia does have a successful long running integrated aquaculture model based at PT Stevens.... Taylor Made.... but it is still a one pass... irrigation to soil style model....

A more recently open "best practice" operation... UES, based in Sydney.... is probably a potential, viable model... but still "unproven"...

The primary consultants that built the UES installation... are about to, or may have already... signed a contract... for integrated aquaculture projects... in China

RupertofOZ

I promote Australian innovation at every opportunity I get at many forums I am involved with in Asia, Middle East and Europe.

Principally these days in off grid and mini grid hybrid energy engineering design solutions, but I am often invited by some Australian innovators to review a technical design concept from a commercial viability [i.e. manufacturing in China] standpoint.

So "Australian Best Practice" in innovation across all areas is something that is well worth advancing at home and internationally.

Value added “Agri business models” in particular.

Sleepe

Your right re Aquaculture, which is what we are really looking at I believe. The value add in this project will come from the fish mass rather than vegetables.

There may be some correlation between water borne flora and optimization of the food chain and feeding mechanics, so I am interested in hearing from the forum experts if this subject has any relevance at all to system design.

Flowtech... you can contact Taylor Made here... http://www.tailormadefishfarms.com.au/

The UES group was discussed recently... here's a link to their website... and an attached zipped pdf file...

http://www.bluesmartfarms.com/freshfood/

PM me if you want some info about "best practice" RAS.. and/or integrated aquaculture designers