Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I've been an aquaponics fan for about 6-7 years now and I teach marine science at a high school where I've been wanted to setup an aquaponics system for... forever! I now have one one and am loving it but along the way I've had so many ideas about it to address issues like space restrictions and limited budgets schools have and one such idea is starting to take form pretty clearly in my head and I'm thinking about it more and more as time goes on. I have a friend who owns a trout hatchery down here in Tas and when I told him about my idea he said "don't tell too many people about this because I reckon you're onto a winner with this one". Trouble is I'm a teacher and I don't really have an entrepreneurial bone in my body... I'm more of a free access to information person... that's why I became a teacher afterall! But that doesn't put food on my table or pay the bills.

So, I'm after advice on how to progress past this point of an idea to turn it into something polished enough and tested to be worthwhile and then how to actually start producing it. I really have no idea. I can make it myself... I'm pretty handy and practical and enjoy getting my hands dirty... but realistically I don't think I can do it and teach at the same time and I can't just stop teaching as I'm the sole breadwinner with three kids and a wife to support as well as maintain my small farm and all my other 'addictions'. Money is really tight as well so actually getting things together will be difficult. I also don't want to get taken for a ride and ripped off.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Make it, test it, be sure it's bullet proof, then start thinking about the next step.. It will be an incredibly long and hard road no matter how you look at it, I've been down that road and it hasn't got much easier after many years of product development and sales.

Also, don't imagine that you are the only one thinking along the lines you are thinking. There could be someone out there right now developing the exact thing you are thinking of, almost ready to take it to market. Check for patents and do some market research. Keep in mind that an idea is really worthless unless you have something patented which is a fairly lengthy and expensive process in itself. If you don't patent (assuming it is patentable) and it is a good idea, people will copy pretty quickly, people with more money and better resources and contacts, and you could be squeezed out.

For someone without an entrepreneurial bone in your body it won't be an easy path. But all things are possible, I never had an entrepreneurial bone, I had to grow one fairly quickly though..

How do patents go if you have parts in it (like pumps) that would already have patents etc?

I'm intrigued.... having seen so many variations and permutations in aquaponics through the last 6+ years around the world...

It's hard to think of something that's "new".... but heh... go for it... and hopefully we'll get to see it sometime...

Your best bet would be to contact a patent office. The one we spoke to in our business was very helpful in what we needed to do.

Unfortunately just before we were about to send off the application we found a new product on sale that was nearly identical to ours but that is the way of these things

I would do the research into how much this is going to cost you before you start thinking too far ahead. The patenting system is a long hard road that can become very expensive. I would suggest you are looking at 100k plus once you jump through all the hoops getting all patents designed, approved and then wait for appeals. This can often take 2 -3 years. You can usually get a free first appointment with some patent attorney's and this can give you some indication of the cost and the processes but that is the end of the freebies. You are dealing with an attorney so these guys don't come cheap ($300 - $500 p/h)

I have faced a similar issue with my yabbie balls, the red tape has made it a very anoying process.

I've looked on AusPat and found only 5 references to aquaponics systems... Has anyone tried to do the patenting themselves?

You must have good eyes to pick them off



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I was once young and stupid, i'm not so young now

It is important with your ideas, that you have a well rounded understanding of aquaponics operations and this can take several years in my opinion. Setting up an aquaponics business on a commerical scale is a whole different kettle of fish. If it were me, I would build a proof of concept and see how it goes. I would suggest to have the system you propose to produce up and running for at least a year or two.


Think long and hard before entering this road, and get lots of objective advice from business people you know. A great question to ask would be "Do you believe in this idea enough to invest in my business?" This will give you a clear indication of where they stand.

Many people spend their life savings on business ideas that don't work out. A modular aquaponics system could potentially cost anywhere from many thousands to tens of thousands to millions to get off the ground.

There are multiple factors when looking at propriety systems in any industry:
1. You need to build a prototype.
2. You need to patent it, potentially with patent lawyers.
3. You need to organise manufacturing and distribution at a reasonable price point.
4. You need to do market research and get heaps of purchase orders.
5. You need to manufacture it and fund that process. If it requires injection-dies, etc, you will need to order quite a few at the same time.
6. Usually, you need terrific sales/results, before anyone will take you seriously.
7. You need to market it.


Just about every start-up requires you to work whilst doing it, otherwise you won't be able to fund it, unless you can get a person / business / venture capital firm to invest in you. If they are investing on a business decision (rather than relatives loaning money), you would need proven sales, patents, a proper business structure, and proven results giving them confidence in aquaponics in general and your particular solution/business/strategy. Keep in mind that the aquaponics market is still very small.

I really don't mean to put a dampener on things, just want to give friendly opinions on the roads less traveled. Reading the forums, every bloke/chick and their dog wants to create this into a business, but the reality is, you don't hear about many successful commercial operations in the whole of Australia.

I had a business that patented a device that isn't really related to AP, It was a sand bag filling tool. I live In Utah in the U.S., we used a law firm that we learned about after a lot of research. The way our attorney described the provisional patent (first step in the U.S.) is like a plot of land. You want to draw up your provisional patent with as much ground covered as possible, you should read the patent he wrote "may be used for this," "in this orientation," a lot of vagaries in the description help you in the event of someone doing something similar to what you propose. It cost us around a thousand to file and pay fees, but that only bought us a year, and we have to file the full patent to proceed now.

I don't know the Australian patent process, but if there's an equivalent of a provisional patent, I would have it done professionally if at all possible. Not only will it protect you immensely, it also adds an air of professionalism when you present your idea to potential angel investors.

Right now though I'd recommend 3 things. Research, research, and then a lot more research. Know what's out there, your potential market, and what your cost of production could be, opposed to your planned price point. Fixed costs, variable costs, there's a reason universities charge so much for a business degree. (Which I need to get back to, I'm vegging on BYAP rather then finishing the marketing reading for my class tonight.)

Having looked at IP protection before, can I suggest you consider long and hard exactly how much you want to invest into patents.

Patent costs of submission, enforcement and litigation costs alot of money. Especially if you're talking about multi territorial patents, you'll need to submit to every area you wish to 'protect'.

If what you're patenting is hard to replicate, then that's a tick in the box. If it can be replicated easily, it would be difficult to police and enforce across jurisdictions.

If there are substitutes/options, that's cross in the list.

Maybe being recognized as the 'inventor' of your particular 'solution' and have the product/design/process established or credited as 'yours' in the industry may be enough to give you the sufficient impetus to kickstart your aquaponics 'business venture'.

eg. Aquaponics systems - there are so many variants... you wish to patent a particular type, for a particular species/purpose -- that's all fine and good, but you've got to ensure that the costs of doing all this is less than the expected/realised returns.

Either way, all the best .

Aquaponics to me starts off as a hobby/interest which doesn't necessarily mean big dollar investments. If you're targeting the commercial sector, then different factors come into play, as I'd view that as quite different from the DIY/home type setup.

"What do I know, i'm just a noob"...

Could not agree more.

While here I find little to agree with. Patent s are one of the few things that you really can't skimp on. They need to be professionally done because there are so many things that you can stuff up. The biggest reason that you need a patent/s is that if your serious you will need capital at some point. That source of capital will need security whether it be an investor, bank, government grant etc. and a patent is the only way to begin to supply that security. For example all the development grants require that you have ip security. If not at the start of a grant then a significant percentage of a grant may be used towards the patent process.

Having said that the success in a business is rarely in the invention itself. There are many, many ideas, widgets, thingies etc. but not eniugh people with the right skill set to develop them.Investors are going to be interested in you first and your invention second.

The beta tape player is a great example renowned as a better product but vhs had a better business team so they succeeded.