Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

60% vegies ,, my wife has has a higher percentage than that as part of her diet ..... she is still an Omnivore not a vegetable-tarian ( she get's a little tongue tied with that one , having English as her third language) .
The animal proteins just cannot be replaced by veg ,, simply true ,, maybe one day that will change but for now they require animal protein.
Eggs , although not veg are a viable alternative ,, they have near perfect protein , but the cost would be prohibitive.

As stated earlier ,, I'm making a loss ,, hopefuly this year will be first year with positive cash flow ,, but I cannot produce fingerlings cheaper than the supplier ..... and i cannot produce the needed food pellets , cheaper than the supplier. trust me I've done the numbers.

Again, I am generalizing too much. Let me be more specific as to what I am trying to say.
Originally, you said that feed was your greatest expense. I am not suggesting that you operate your own feed mill- that was my opinion for myself and not a suggestion for anyone else.
Secondly, the ease of feeding pre-formed pellets can't be beat but you said that it was a huge cost. My suggestion, which I should have been more specific about in the beginning, was to suppliment your feed requirements, with feed of your own, to drive your operating costs down but from your previous post, you are already doing that to a certain degree, by growing algae and using vegetable scraps. If that is all you can do, then that is all you can do. And if the young need a great deal of protein, I would be using floating solar lights and attracting bugs for the fish to catch.

Angie I'm not poo pooing all your ideas , I'm an ass8hole but not THAT bad.

The lights over the water have been tried , successful in function ,but NOT economical.

I have spied ..... an unusual BUT yet to be utlilised cheap animal protein source.

Rats?

Think it might be better if we were to take discussions of your intentions over into your own thread Angie, where we can continue discussion.. perhaps ask the "mods" to split this section out....




If I'm reading the scale of your intended aquaculture operation correctly Angie....

Then frankly I think the amount of AP filtration you'll require will be so vast, expensive to locate, expensive to setup and so hugely time consuming to operate...

That IMHO, there is a better financial case to be built based on a pure pond based aquaculture...

If you really want to do LARGE scale recirculating aquaculture... then I think you'd be better served... from both a time management and setup cost perspectives..... in utilising traditional aquaculture water filtration methods....

There are FEW successful large scale Aquaponic businesses in the world.... maybe S&S is a case in point...

Certainly "Barramundi Blue" and "Taylor Made" here in Australia.....

But S&S has concentrated (successfully) on production and supply of Basil... the fish are essentially a side-line, albeit an additional profit stream....

Barramundi Blue & Taylor Made here in Australia are successful based on sheer scale.... but are both primarily focused on lucrative Barramundi export markets... with the vegetable crops an additional profit stream that just happens to filter their water and assist them in effluent disposal issues.....

Nobody in the industry understands "how" Taylor Made obtained their license... they wouldn't qualify these days....and both operations are "run to waste".... again no longer and acceptable business or environmental model

Both will be serverly impacted within the next 12 months by EPA and Water Allocation licensing issues.... to the point of near inprofitability.... indeed Barra Blue is for sale already


Have you considered the licencing and regulatory requirements and cost of both initial and ongoing compliance Angie??

Then there's the food safety regulations and licences....

Issues that might not be so applicable in Africa and Synaptos case...


And have you considered and sourced the "possible" large amount of water you'll require for your operation.... and possible need to dump and replace large volumes of water, for one reason or another?


I mention these things to try and highlight that while these operations are to some extent "integrated" and have economies of scale by sheer size.... they all essentially focus on a particular main product... the others are by-products... and are farmed the most cost efficient way....

Low infrastructure cost (relatively).... floating raft, NFT via stromwater pipes... and LOW maintenance....

NONE of them bother with a "hatchery" operation..

You have the advantage with Tilapia... as they're self breeding... where as our fish stock here in Australia aren't....

Obviously this skews the cost factors such that NOBODY in Australia, on any large scale or committment, operates BOTH an aquaculture growout business AND a hatchery....

Its one way or another....otherwise.... "it gets ya.. gets ya... gets ya"....

Sorry for hijacking thread- unfortunately, it is way to easy to do. I'll try to curb that in future- cut and splice away.

In regards to my propective commercial operation, it is a grand scale operation but not unlike others raising the same fish, so it is not something that hasn't been done before. Target fish has long lead time so traditional aquaculture at start up is not viable unless you have corporate deep pockets, which I don't. AP prototypes are to see if this is viable in operation- science is sound and business plan has shown it is profitable.
I like challenging but I'm not going into this blind, I've spent 10 years researching certain aspects of this- global competitors, market research, food safety regulations- and I have spoken, either through e-mail, regular mail, on the phone or in person, with scientists in their respective fields, Calif. Fish and Game Dept. permitting division, and local authorities. It took me a solid eight months, just to draft my business plan, had it checked with the Small Business Administration, because I wanted to be sure before I put up my rentals as collateral- I'm not going into this lightly.
Lettuce is only a start but once parameters are set, I will be trialing strawberries for viability and greater profitability. The produce will carry the fish operations until fish operations are in full production- at that point, AP may even be abandoned but I have to get to that point first. If I make it, I am sure you will know.

Wow, this thread has been busy. As far as hijiacking, Angie please feel free to stay here as your input is as valued as the rest of the guys.

Some feedback as far as permitting. In South Africa for fresh water (non-alien) species an environmental impact assessment is only required for annual production of over 10 tons. As we fall under this limit for this particular site all that is needed is a simple transport and hold permit from Cape Nature Conservation.

The head of this department drove 550km from Cape Town today to visit this site and my other commercial site and gave both the "thumbs-up" and asked me to convey his personal regards to Joel and all of you at BYAP for your input. He is completely SOLD on the whole concept of AP and I believe that we have a very powerful friend in high places preaching the benefits of AP for food security in this country.

Our permits for both sites were issued on the spot for the grand sum of R65 (AUS$9) each and he has expressed full confidence in me to proceed with these and any other projects in this area with full regard at all times to the environment.

Tomorrow the greenhouse tunnels arrive and I will spend the next week or two erecting them before deciding on my next move.

Please guys KEEP UP THE COMMENTS, as I said before, this is as much your project as mine.

Cheers

Angie ,, good guess with rat's ,, but they are a very valued human protein source in most of Asia.I kid you not.
" It's pink and drops poop in your drink".

I knew that about rats, that's why I mentioned them.

Chappooooo, have you been drinking with the Flamingos again??????
Aw, you peaked my curiosity and getting ready to leave for a while- not fair......

Your on the way up synapto

Man, I just love these early images. The truck arrived today with the two greenhouses and everything was offloaded, checked and sorted neatly to commence construction next week. Because the land is nice and flat, site preparation just involves removing the grass and digging the little foundation holes for the greenhouse frame.

Great!

Look at all the room for stage 2

The frames are going up quickly. We build them in 3 sections, pop them into their holes concrete them in and then join the sections up. Attached an image. I'd like to get the plastic on before the rains come (Aug - Oct).

I've really been giving the grow beds a lot of thought and seeing as the client wants strawberries, I thought "what the hell, how about something really different?"

The two 7m diameter ponds will be at the one end of each of the two tunnels. Thats at least 14m of the 30m length used up. What about loose strawberry towers hooked onto a conveyer system attached to the greenhouse frame and driven by a motor? A couple of spraybars high up OVER the tank and then as the tower moves over the pond it gets watered and drains back into the tank? Any drips after the ponds could be collected in gutters and routed to a sump. If we could time it so that a lap around the tunnel and then back over the ponds would take about 15 - 30 minutes. I could then run a submersible pump continuously, That way watering takes place in one area only, harvesting in another. To work on all the plants you just stand in one place and switch the drive motor on and off.

Maybe I could sink the 1.2, high ponds about 500-600mm down so that I have a bit more clearance. Oh yes and a solids filter BEFORE the spraybars. My existing towers are getting badly clogged with solids.

Or does this make no sense at all?

Disney does something like that. I am sure it could work. I have also seen strawberries grown in overhead nft trays where the berries hang down just above head level making for easy harvest..