Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ok I think I underestimated what is going on at growing power!

They are claiming:
1 Million Pounds of Food per year
10,000 Tilapia(3000 pounds?)
10,000 Perch
300-500 Yards Compost
3 acres
$5 A sqFt in the greenhouse, $200,000 per Acre

Year Around Producer
Vertical Growing Space, Gravity Return from 2 levels
Compost Heat
1 pump

Now even if those numbers are off they are still doing some amazing growing over there. Now, of course ,most of their food is raised in worm processed compost. They have refined their AP system a bit since I last looked at it. Take a look at their system. They double stack the grow beds over the fish tank which is more than waste deep; all made with liner. I see no apparent oxygenation other than those water returns.



Compiled video: Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV9CCxdkOng

If you ask me this makes small scale food production look very hopeful.

Fantastic. I'm digging the compost heaters in the corners. Thanks for posting.

Thanks Dan, I found this link, Growingpower.org

It is impressive looking. I will have to check out the training center they have in MS. Will share when I know more.

Nice stuff... Reminds me of a similar place I saw once online where they turned a 1/4 - 1/2 house block, with a house on it, acre into super highly productive area. Produced some crazy levels of food from the front and back yard.

So, anybody tried this method here? As in, utilising the compost/coir method they use? Looks very interesting!

i would love to know more, would definetly give it a go in the back yard.

Watching some of their other videos I think each AP system has 1000 fish in it, or 2000 per greenhouse. So when they say 10,000 fish, thats the total fish in all their AP greenhouses. At first I was trying to figure out how they were filtering water for 10,000 fish with less than 3.5 inches / 8.89 centimeters of gravel and water cress LOL. BTW in one video they said they have cool or cold weather 9 months out of the year. That also explains the lack of bug problems.

I am going to visit the Milwaukee location next week. I have a lot of questions for them and look forward to the visit. The videos I have found on them don't show many details, however, using the heat from the compost is brilliant. The other curious thing I saw, they said in one of the videos that they do all this by using 1 (one) pump.? The fish production they claim seems pretty impressive 1 tilapia per 1 gallon of water harvesting at 1.5lbs. Should be an interesting visit.

1.5 lbs per Gallon ,, I assume you mean a US Gallon not a real gallon?
tHAT TRANSLATES RUOGHLY TO 200 KILO PER CUBIC METRE ,, 7 TIMES WHAT IS RECOMMENDED HERE.
AHH I know , they must use that special water additive ,, Tears of a Tibetan YAK ,, blessed by a Mongolian Monk and rinsed by the bones of Buddha himself.
And only $1,000 per 5ml bottle.
Sorry but if it smells like BS , looks like BS then it's a good chance to be BS.
Either that or they have an extremely suffisticated filtering system and also using pure oxygen.

When you go PLEASE try to verify the number of fish in each system when they start and the number when they reach market size as well as their yearly food production. Then we can know if its a fist tale or not.

From what I gather their AP is more aquaculture and they use the fish water to water all those planted and potted plants.

I do hope you are going to take a list of questions and a video camera!

AHH apologies ,, if it's a non recycling system ..... dump to waste ( or in this case dump to garden) ,, then high stocking levels are very possible,....., hate to pay the water bill but.

Chappo its a gravel bio filter with water cress in it and the compost crops are watered from this fish water. So its... umm.. an open recirculating system...??

I may have to drive up there some time if I cant nail down the facts from here.

I have no idea but that is one of my biggest questions. That quantity of fish for size would be impressive no matter how they do it. But the founder of the foundation is the one who made the claim, not the guy who runs the operation. In one scene on the video he puts a large net into one of the tanks and only gets three fish. I was thinking if they were at 1 fish per US gal. the net should have been so heavy and full he couldn't lift it. I am also curious as to their compost fed potted crops. I have never grown with compost and am curious as to how that could compete or would be a good addition to an existing aquaponics set up.

I will be adopting their bio filter in addition to my indoor system because it looks like I am going to have 1000+ fingerlings in 700 gallons of water. 2x4's, pond liner, gravel, and water cress. What could be easier?

I look forward to hearing an account of thing from an AP'er!