swiss aquaponic

[maximus]

I am involved with the development of a Photovoltaic greenhouse in Switzerland (the first of its kind here). That is east west oriented greenhouse with PV on the south side covering 50% of the roof area for 365kWp (here the sun shine on the south!).
A similar greenhouse (1MW) is planned in Italy but with the whole south side covered with PV therefore heavy shadow. (see attachment)

In both cases we are have a quite large area underneat, but due to light reduction we were tempted to put fish tank on the shadow side and DWC on the sunny area.
Because commercial aquaponic is totally new over here (there is a system using thermal water in the north but the main income come from turist visiting the tropical garden) we plan to start with a pilot project.

We have a premium market for swiss fish (perch 25-30$ kg) or trout (10$kg) and Swiss organic lettuce.

Now I have read about aquaponic in cold area, but most where research study and not commercial set up. Can anyone point some succesful example?

I fear that heating and manpower could financially kill the project.
What are the ideal temperature range for perch (I find 16°C?) and how long will take to grow them? what would it be the personel to run a facility as the UVI to get a known example?

What additional feature a system in cold area needs to have?

thanks
Cheers

Max

[GaryD]

Hi Max,

I'd suggest that you google Dr Nick Savidov. He's a greenhouse crops researcher (and broadly experienced in commercial aquaponics) in Alberta Canada.....and he grows tomatoes and other crops in very cold conditions. His work would be a good place to start.

Gary

[maximus]

Thanks Gary,
I have in fact read some of the material from Alberta, and I found it very interesting, but certainly a more scropolus view is suggested.

The main difference from the Alberta development is that we aim to to keep our greenhouse at lower temperature (costs!) and because Tilapia that is difficoulty to market here (almost unknown). However perch has a good market but although there is a RAS facility it has been so far impossible to obtain any information from such a source.

Could you suggest me where to look for perch in aquaponic development? so far I found a 1.5 feed conversion rate, suggested water temperature 16°C (11°-27)? Since RAS do not have to worry about the crops I expect some quite different data (ph, ammoni-nitrogen levels, etc)

Cheers
Max

[Ravnis]

I really don't know where to find the information you are looking for, but I found thiis site helpful when I first started selecting a species. I attempted to find the specific fish you were referring too. Are these the ones?

http://http://fishbase.org/Summary/speciesSummary.php?genusname=Perca&speciesname=fluviatilis


This is another publication you might find helpful.
http://www.feap.info/FileLibrary/12/Perch2004.pdf

[maximus]

I really don't know where to find the information you are looking for, but I found thiis site helpful when I first started selecting a species. I attempted to find the specific fish you were referring too. Are these the ones?

http://http://fishbase.org/Summary/speciesSummary.php?genusname=Perca&speciesname=fluviatilis


This is another publication you might find helpful.
http://www.feap.info/FileLibrary/12/Perch2004.pdf

Hi ravnis,

they were useful liks thanks a lot!