Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ok then...

Deep breath.

No matter the structure im going to mostlikely go with a swirl or radical filter, and im considering doing the mineralization outside the system(put solids in tub with airstones), then add it back into the system.. i did want to incorporate grow beds and nft systems. Ive watched a video that show a man setup with this idea but i know thats going to complicate it further and make more chances of problems arising. Thats why i did come to this forum to get a feel for the best way to construct it.. i would prefer the sequence to go, fishtank-filter-growbed-nft-then dwc back to fishtank all off one pump..that seems nearly impossible for practibility wise

No that is entirely possible but not necessarily a good idea. Although having said that not necessarily a bad idea either.

If you are going commercial at some point you need to know enough about all methods to know which ones suit you and what you are trying to do. By all means educate your self here and else where but when it comes down to it if you are the designer you have to know what works and what doesn't work and why one option is better under certain circumstances and the opposite most appropriate under different circumstances.

Too often we see on here people with a "new" idea stating how good it is and how superior. The things is they don't realise that their idea is most often not new and it is difficult to understand how they can asses whether it is superior or not when they don't understand the alternatives.

In the parent industries of AQ and HP you see a wide variety of technologies and methods I've worked very hard to expand my education so that I understand the pros and cons of as many of them as possible. As such I can make a pretty good assessment of what will suit me.

Lots of reading and searching and practical play are ahead of you

Yes A lot of research, so far I have made some progress. To get my feet wet I'm going to do a dwc with lettuce. Right now I can get the supplies for the bed for nearly free now its just how I'm going to acquire price friendly rafts. Ive seen some bamboo rafts idea's but I got to figure out how practical that approach would be.

Hi stevendogking!

Note that the Cylburn system is mainly a research project, and is not large enough to be a viable commercial system, either. They are funded by grant money (like other high profile AP projects in the USA) and so the experiments that are going on there may or may not be useful to you in a commercial operation. Just the test equipment they use alone I imagine would blow up your entire startup budget.

http://gazette.jhu.edu/2011/08/01/findi ... -solution/

I came across Urban Organics today. I was really impressed with their set up. I assume a commercial set up in an urban setting is hard work but it must be the future of farming. They're based in Minnesota which, I assume, doesn't get local lettuces (etc) for a large period of the year!

"A collaboration between the city of St. Paul­--which ponied up $300,000 in grants and loans--and private backers"

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3029452/this ... hborhood#7


You had me at $300,000 backing from the city.
Step #1, get $300,000 loan and grants from your city
Step #2 Kickstarter campaign
Step #3 ???
Step #4 go out of business.


Good ole IEEE Spectrum has a good article about UO's operation: http://spectrum.ieee.org/green-tech/bui ... onics-farm


Izzybella here's the thread on this forum discussing UO: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=21397

D'oh *hits head* of course there's already a thread. I'm stumbling across AP from interesting nooks and crannies across the inter webs. I really should cross-check before I post from now on. My bad.

Hi
I know nothing about Baltimore. I have 3 months experience in aquaponics.
i do however know a little bit about people.
I should not stick my head above the parapet but, Heck! it;s Tuesday an I am off on holiday on Friday.
Lets’ approach this problem from another direction. Backwards!
Who are you end users? Customers?
What do they want?
How can you exceed their expectations?
How can you get them to pay a premium for your products?
How much local research have you done?
Niche market! How many times have I heard that!
Have you really identified the niche?
My niche market for instance. Sell watercress at a weekly market 100 mtrs from my house.
Now I only want to supplement my pension and have fun but you get the idea.
Have you written out a questionnaire and talked to your potential customers?
I have.
Two threads on this website really impress me. Ryan’s and Howling Moose.
Both of these people put up their own money and sweat.
Ryan talks of BRIX tests and sugar content. Way beyond me, but he knows his market.
Howling Moose reacted to local conditions and moved towards Asian veg.
Let’s say you identify ‘widgets’ as your market.
What is the best way to produce widgets?
Can you produce a better widget?
Can I produce year round? etc
Ryan said, “ DWC was the easiest and least problematic”
Don’t ask me I am from England. But if he said that it would be the first system I researched.
From my own experience . I don’t think one year is enough for a trial. The mistakes you make in spring will echo into summer and autumn.
However I really wish you well.
Nothing can compete with very local fresh food.
Think vertically!
My dream area for watercress production is my flat kitchen roof.
Titus

Ill look into the links that was posted dont have the time at the moment. I dont.have extensive research at the moment on.all the parameters of my customers considering like you all say its going to years and i agree. But for the moment i was just going to middle man it for the moment and sell to people who I know need more lettuce. Right now Im focusing on what will work and become a viable business plan. The things I learn from cyburm is the simple.things like problem plants.grown in the summer from those couple weeks of intense heat. I dont.plan to.go into this venture solo, i plan to lean pn local growers for support and learn more about the market. For.anything im able to produce what i cant eat will be sold wholesale to help recover cost from my.trail and error process.

For urban farm, be prepared for the "pollution" problems...

There have been researches, in France they say it's ok
In Deutschland, they found bad things in the urban veggies...

France is the country where radioactive cloud stop at the borders...

Trust the one you want... but customers may be aware of this.

A last tips, my 50 lettuce a week system is 4x the price of my car (old car I assure you) but to get to perfect design, it cost me a lot more... and to get perfect veggies... you need Ec meter, pH meter, Sugar meter (brix), temperature controle for water and air, vapour pressure deficite so IR cam on the vegs, oxygen meter, full water analysis + leaf analysis... and 140 hours a week during 2 years...

Better to know where you are going

Putting lettuce and fish in water won't really help about what is commercial aquaponics

Edit : vertical veggies look like s*** so premium price is not gonna happend... except sold in bags... but then you lost the fresh looking thing

I've seen some outstanding produce grown vertically. Greens and herbs. It's just another method of growing. My strawberries grew much better in a tower then in the GB's or in DWC. Chives do very well also. Lettuce seem to like vertical, but I have struggled with upper ones shading out lower ones. google: Dr. Nate Story for some very interesting vertical growing methods. To me the biggest selling point is being able to take towers of live plants and allowing customers to "pick" their own produce. People like being involved.