Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

But you can have all three no wait five growing methods with what I’m talking about!, each one would be beneficial to the whole process!

You are right Brian! for a successful Commercial AP system you have to Start with Market research and go from there coz I would want to have to eat 3ton of Lettuce after I find out that I don’t have a market!

I have seen a commercial system that takes the plants and grow beds completely out of the fish loop. The solids are filtered out with a micron sized drum drum filter (home made) and a small but efficient bio filter keeps the water very clean. The purging of the bottom of the tanks keeps nutrient levels low. The wast water is sent to a 3 tank digester where anaerobic and erobic digestion takes place. The plants are fed from the third tank and water returns to the first tank. This system produces rapid mineralization and very high nutrient levels allowing the growth of many many plants. I see a real value to such a system.

The key to make it work (I think) is to grow high value and out of season crops and sell these crops at premium prices directly to the organic health crowd. Growing lettuce would take so much time and work for the tiny return; unless you sell a bagged salad mix.

One aqua-farmer takes orders from families for certain types and amounts of veggies and then custom grows their orders. This approach seems fairly successful. I personally have made $36 USD per square foot per year growing basil and sweet banana peppers. Now, I have not found the market for selling all that I could grow because I have other things on my plate at this time. If I did have time and find the market then I would be getting over 14,000 per year from my little 400 square foot system ( here:http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2611&start=525). The reason this works here is because the sweet peppers sell here for $7 a pound out of season and the market never seems to have them available. The peppers grow so fast its not uncommon to get 2 pounds of peppers per plant in a week. I am able to sell the peppers by producing them for 3 months late summer to winter, undercutting the local prices, and selling directly to "organic' people who cook with them. Picking 40 pepper plants is much less work than hundreds or thousands of lettuce.

So stroll your markets, talk to the produces, and see what is in demand. If you have enough health conscience people in your area you can get %50 more than standard produce and they are always demanding fresh.

Well, that's my 2 cents..

Hi DanD. I have followed your thread and find it quite interesting so thanks for posting on this. I have thought at great length about filtering out the solids and then re-introducing them as you said but have decided it would be a little bit to much work because I would need to either buy a good filtration system or build one which I am not qualified to do (although I am getting a whole lot better at it). What type of sweet peppers are they? I am quite interested because if they grow as well as you say they do I should be able to make a decent amount off of them. Again thanks for posting and I hope to talk to you again.