Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

This one looks like it might be big. 14 greenhouses, 4000m2, 1 acre or 43055ft2 with 3577m2 of plant growing area. roughly 1,000,000 plants per year. With a little 30 ton per year fish farm attached.

Must be close.... to the world's biggest... construction began yesterday...

Reuses 100% of the water and is smack in the middle of the desert dealing with temps up to 52c....

In terms of water use it grows 1kg of food per 40 litres of water.... worst case

Have more on it? Website, links?

No website Domani.... and probably wont be... it's a commercial pilot....

It might get posted... when it's built... which shouldn't take long...

Where?

UAE...

have you seen the JBA video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCsTTAbk9b0

"fish waste is removed by precipitation and direct up take by the plants"

it seems to show a system without much in the way of bio filtration?

plants look like they are all on DWC.

How do they do that?

This is not the JBA system... it's much bigger... and it will have adequate and appropriate filtration...

No way. There is a 5 acre gutter connected DWC system fairly close to where I live.
5...acres...

DWC aquaponic?....Got a link Ryan...

Bare in mind... the build of this project... is just the "feasibility pilot" ....

It is expected that the main system will be built within 12 months... 10 hectares (24 acres).. and 500 tonne of fish ...

Yep, all growing tilapia and Kang Kong. The guy doesn't have a website, just a big crew of Mexican workers that bust there butts. To give you an idea of how low tech it is... I went there last winter for a consult on his meter and they literally had built fires in some of the greenhouses to heat them... They were filled with smoke and 45 min later I came out smelling like a mesquite grilled pork hop.

If Earthan Group is involved with this UAE project they've got some good things going for it, going by the caliber of his past projects.

They're trying to setup a sustainable food supply and hope in a pretty desperate, hostile region.. I'm all for that

? In the UAE there is a lot of oil money from what I remember. They don't really need to take the trouble to grow the food there because there is more than enough money to import it. Let's debate that.

Dave, they are preparing for when thier oil money runs out.
would hate to think how much money dubai have spent trying to transition from oil to tourism.

I know but it just seems like the ultimate in greenwashing trophy system.

IMO people shouldn't live in the desert where there is no water and no plants and no animals and no food. Putting an AP system there just encourages more people to live in an unsustainable place, or something. Reminds me of the canals you see in Arizona going from the mountains to the cities, people shouldn't live there either. :-)

Yavimaya is right

"The UAE imports about 85 per cent of its food, at a cost of around Dh11 billion a year. This makes it, like other countries in the region, particularly vulnerable to both changes in prices and shortages, says Huma Fakhar, a lawyer and agriculture expert"

http://www.thenational.ae/lifestyle/foo ... z2ghRg0ZT5

"..any disruption in global food supply or prices, similar to the food crisis of 2007–2008, is likely to significantly impact food security in this region. This makes food security a critical policy issue for GCC governments"

http://halalfocus.net/uae-over-dependen ... dangerous/

Trading oil for food was never going to work longer term, and now they're past peak oil, things aren't looking so good.

It's easy to sit back in your first world country arm chair and say "they shouldn't live there", but it's not that simple.

These sorts of projects should be encouraged IMO

Anyhow, what alternative are you suggesting Dave - UAE residents immigrating in waves to Maryland? A war? Or letting them starve?