raft

[Woodland_River]

Greetings, my name is Keith

I am looking to develop a commercial, small scale aquaponics business. It would have geothermal heating, and part or all of its electronics would be funded by a photovoltaic system. The photovoltaic system would be on a north wall of a separate building, which couldbe a fish house.

Without getting into too many details--i think a raft system allows the most square footage and seems to be well suited for aquaponics.

When I consider how to obtain 35 by 10 foot basins that are 2? foot deep, I can only think to pour it in concrete. Perhaps pools? Part of my problem with pouring it in concrete is that I have been thinking that I wanted the plants to be grown above worms, to maximize square footage. (And I don't think it would be convenient to pour shelves.) The worms are to keep nutrients in the system, and provide their own products based on waste. But the two methods might not be reconcilable.

I am left with the question, should I try to find a turn key system? Or create my own and have to adapt, possibly taking losses due to simple errors.

[GaryD]

Hi Keith,

Welcome to APHQ.

Your desire to build an energy-efficient aquaponics system is commendable and is shared by many people.

For what it's worth, however, my advice would be to treat the establishment of the aquaponics unit and the energy efficiency thrust as distinct projects. The geothermal and photovoltaic elements of the project will probably cost as much as (if not more than) the aquaponics system.

You can then set your aquaponics business up and get it into production while you sort the energy project.

Raft systems seem to be the popular choice for commercial systems since I suspect your climate would rule out NFT. It might be worth doing a quick check of what local commercial hydroponic facilities there are to see if anyone is successfully using NFT.

The sheer mass of raft tanks means that they are usually on the ground so I'd be looking for another way to reconcile your worm farming.

Have you investigated the approach that Will Allen's Growing Power is using? That might provide you with some ideas about how to integrate fish, plants and worms.

What prompts your thinking around the 35 by 10 foot basins? I'm unclear as to whether you mean that there are 35 of them.....or that they are 35' x 10' (by 2' deep) each.

As for your last question, I'm not aware of any commercial turnkey raft system (that is cost effective) so you're probably going to have to build from scratch.

Hope this helps.....keep the questions coming.

Gary

[Crusty]

Hi Keith

I think it is really important to get on with the growing then work your way towards sustainable practices, unless you have an unlimited budget. Build the fish and plant systems run as efficient as you can in terms of power usage. Run it, make money then reinvest in sustainable practices as you grow. Growing enough product to be commercial is hard enough, having somewhere to sell that product is an other thing all together. Far too many people spend too much money and time on how their systems work rather than building ones that actually work and make money. Spend that time and money on the gear required to grow your product and grow.

[Woodland_River]

you both make good points.

one of the things is that, no, while i dont have unlimited money. I am dealing with investors who don't care to take it block by block but instead just doing it effectively. Of course we need to weigh any consequences. This is a long term project with a short term starting point.

from my point of view, I need to start making money, so I am shooting to start with an effective system. the goal is not regardless to money but this is also an attempt to see if there is any scaleability. So with the development of long term energy at very cheap rates (if not a profit?), and a food production system--we see long term viability.

I'm open to all suggestions, but greatly altering the plan is not an interesting option. If we can develop a system that turns profit then we can build several of these, as long as we don't outsell ourselves.

The sales have always been my main concern. But we are close to NYC in a very locally-grown minded place. He has some contacts in NYC at markets, and I have a good local base. I'm still assuming we can get it sold.

[Woodland_River]

sorry for the poor grammar, its late

[Woodland_River]

also... im new here. if you can think of any particularly good threads, or articles... pertaining directly to these things please let me know. thanks for the comments to a newb

[Crusty]

also... im new here. if you can think of any particularly good threads, or articles... pertaining directly to these things please let me know. thanks for the comments to a newb

I would suggest you talk with local people that grow commercially using these techniques and see if you can hire them to consult. Gaining any real numbers and options in a public forum is highly unlikely as they filled with hobbyists that will not be able to relate or scale their experience to commercial applications. This brings me back to if your investors want to get it right the first time, hire a professional with a commercial track record to design it for you rather than attempt to reinvent the wheel. There are only a few of them and easy to find.

[Dia]

Might also want to see what kind of on grid power you will be using; since if it is renewable power i.e. wind; or solar then you might want to skip the solar panels - at your farm since all the batteries and equipment aren't necessarily very good for the environment. Also you might want to look at making the raft system at waist level (31 inches) so then your employees will have less strain from working which is important in the long run since back issues can be expensive for a company with employees taking days off/lower productivity.