Why aquaponics

[Basil1]

Just out of sheer curiosity, why do you do aquaponics?
More economically feasible?
Trying to be ecologically responsible?
The sheer fun?
A combination thereof?
Or something else entirely. If for economic or ecological reasons, what other endeavors do you undertake in these areas?

[keith_r]

i "found" aquaponics when i was researching raising rabbits, and came across travis hughey's barrelponics.. found out i couldn't raise rabbits in our village, so changed up to ap.. still haven't harvested any fish yet, but right now it's been about learning, and adapting to my situation.. i think there may be some "business niches" (not to many commercial ap systems) in AP, and i have a few ideas, but for now, it's just learning, and keeping my day job (and health insurance!)

[rfeiller]

It allows me the opportunity to combine two of my biggest interest, raising fish for pleasure as pets and they get to subsidize my food bill, not a vegan, but I eat a lot of veggies. The food is top quality nutritionally superior in the veggies and flowers do wonderfully to help my wife's florist business. It's a win win.
Oh, then there is the fun of creating things an reinventing the wheel

[Oliver]

In 2008, after the economic melt-down became evident, my partner, Grace, and I decided that we needed to prepare ourselves in case the economic situation continued to slide. One of the first things we knew we needed to do was to start growing some of our own food. Grace suggested we buy/build a greenhouse as the climate here in the high desert of Southern California has over 70 degree F temperature swings over a period of a year.

I suggested that we look into hydroponics even though I knew nothing about it other than you could grew food more densely. Grace did some web searching and found aquaponics. It made so much sense to me that I immediately read as much as I could find and asked as many questions as I could on the forums for the following three months.

We also decided that if we were to continue down this path we needed to have continuous electrical power and a large amount of stored water. So, we purchased an Aurora 6.5 KW Diesel generator, 10 KWH of battery power, a 6 KW Xantrex inverter/charger and a 2600 gallon water tank along with a pressure pump and tank. The generator has an auto-start function (due to added Xantrex circuitry) when the battery voltage gets down to a preset level and the inverter has a built in auto-transfer switch. We have already real world tested this system when we had a 20 hour power failure starting about 6 PM Valentines day 2011, coinciding with a rather large solar CME and EMP. As we are on town treated water, we installed a whole house water filter, passive softener (no salts) and a 50 watt automatic UV sterilizer to use on both town and stored water.

It was at that time that I decided to go out and purchase an aquaponics system for our soon to be built greenhouse. To my surprise, there was nothing available that would fit our requirements. So, I decided to find the components on some aquaponics site, order them and put a system together. Once again, there was no such single web site that supplied everything we needed. It was then that an idea came that has cost us a lot of money, and that was to build and sell systems and their components so others could also enjoy this great endeavor.

Because I have an engineering background I believed I could design a system that would work right off the design board. As anyone who has built a system from scratch knows, I had much to learn. So, after a few iterations and many modifications and upgrades, along with the mistakes made, the present system works well and it is beginning its third year of operation.

We have grown quite a variety of different vegetables with mixed results. Currently we are growing more peppers than we could possible eat and that is in less than one 10 sq. ft. grow bed. Lettuce, along with basil, is perhaps the easiest to grow. Grace just now Skyped me and I watched her eat part of a small watermelon, our first, as it had fallen off the vine and onto the floor, broke open and had to be eaten. Darn, wish I could have been there for that but I'm currently over two hours driving time away as I made the trip this morning. She said it was extra tasty.

What we have learned has been shared here on this forum. One thing we learned was, that in such an extreme climate, to maintain a growable temperature in a rather heat transparent greenhouse, you need to have some deep pockets for the utility bills. As a result of this enlightenment, we are now completing a grow room from what was our back porch of about the same dimensions as the greenhouse, well insulated with much less heating and cooling requirements. It will need to have grow lights and that is part of what we will be learning and sharing here as we progress through this process.

Oliver

[urbanfarmer]

Curiosity and my general love for science and gardening.

@Oliver Do you have a plan if the generator fails or has a damaged part? For instance, do you have a spare or many spare parts? How long do you think the generator will last? (I ask because I have considered a diesel generator as an option especially since you can grow your own fuel.)

[Oliver]

Diesel engines are very simple and a generally unaffected by EMPs. As for spare parts, no, hadn't even considered it, but now that you mention it, I guess I need to go spend even move money and either buy some possible breakdown parts or an additional generator. Or, not.

The biggest issue, as I see it, is the amount of fuel that can be long termed stored, as Diesel fuel spoils after a time. I add a little acetone which helps with the fuel consumption as well as helping to preserve the fuel, at least that is what I am told.

The generator should last for many years if properly maintained. Regular oil changes are important, more so on Diesels than gas engines. Diesel generators also get about three times the conversion efficiency from fuel to electricity than do their gas counterparts. This is in part due to the use of inefficient carburetors on the cheeper gas generators. Diesels also have a conversion efficiency advantage purely by design.

Oliver

[JCO]

OK Basil1, now that you have heard from a few of our members here, I have a question for you. Are you interested in Aquaponics sufficiently enough to start your own system?

[rfeiller]

diesel generators are extremly reliable, the only recommedation i would add is to have one that will operate on two different types of fuels, i.e. natural gas, propane, alcahol in addition to diesel. in an emergency one or the other of the fuels may not be available. this is a basic requirement for new construction commercial projects especially medical.

another concept for cold weather enviornments are co-gen units where the heat produces steam or hot water which can then be utilized for heating a large greenhouse, or in one case i built a laundry for a nursing home.

[Basil1]

OK Basil1, now that you have heard from a few of our members here, I have a question for you. Are you interested in Aquaponics sufficiently enough to start your own system?

Actually just restarted an in tank raft and looking forward to expanding it with the knowledgable help found here. First one grew just basil, but the best tasting basil ever making fantastic pesto sauce. That one had no fish, just pumped water from the big tank into it during weekly water changes.

[grimsteph]

For me, it was a fun hobby that also produces something of value too.