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Commercial Aquaponics

UVI System

Its really the bugs

• Really, it’s the microbes that make thiswork– Fish waste comes in two forms, solids and

soluble– The solids are removed– The soluble are mineralized

Plant growth is related to food

• The amount of food put into the systemdictates the amount of waste generated– Fish density and size dictates amount of

food

Fish

• This system is based on Tilapia– The amount of water/grow area is based

on the amount of fish food

– Could you adapt to other fish?• Suppose you could, but you are going to have

to figure out how much to feed them

System OverviewComponents

• Fish tanks– Can be made of

most anything– Often rubber/plastic

material– Often rigid fiberglass

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Liner with metal frame Tanks

• UVI uses 4 tanks for one “spur”• Fish mature in 24 weeks• Every 6 weeks they harvest a tank and

refill with fingerlings• Takes 6 “spurs” to harvest fish each

week

Tanks

• You could use fewer tanks– But you have mixed ages in the tanks and

you stress them catching only the big ones

Clarifiers

Removing the Solids

• This is the key to successfulaquaponics in this system anyway

• If solids are allowed to settle on theroots of plants you will see root death– The mineralization process uses all the O2

Clarifiers

• We have to removethe solid waste

• Several techniques• This one causes the

water to slow downand forces it under abaffle, the solids staybelow

• Cleaner water goesout a pipe at the top

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Clarifiers• This is a swirl

separator• Water enters from the

fish tank on the bottomat an angle so thewater turns

• The water spinscausing the solids todrop and the cleanwater goes into thewhite pipe on top

• You can see the drainon the bottom image

Solid Waste

• Here is the solidwaste

• The drain needs tobe opened 3X a day

• Wow, lots of waste• How can you use it?• How can you

automate this?

Filter TanksThe Filter Tank

The Filter Tank

• This is where the very small suspendedsolids are mineralized

• Where the ammonium is converted tonitrate

• Bird netting in a tank

Cleaning the Filter

• Cleaning the nettingremoves themicrobes (2x week)– This reduces the

amount of nitrate– But if you don’t

anaerobic conditionsdevelop

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Degassing Tanks Degassing Tanks

Degassing Tanks

• This is an aerated area where gassesformed from the mineralization processor during anaerobic conditions

Grow Beds

Grow BedsGrow Beds

• The UVI model uses 4 grow beds• Water moves from the degassing tanks

to 2 of the beds, at one end• The water moves down the bed to the

end• Then up the other bed back to the sump

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Grow Beds

• Retention time of the water in the bedsis 3 hrs

• Each bed is 3000 gal but it goesthrough 2 beds (6000 gal water)

Sump

The Sump

• This is the lowest part of the system• Holds the pump• Where the base addition happens• Where the addition of water happens

Other Things

• Like oxygen– This system uses 22 air stones in the fish tanks,

144 in the rafts– Must be cleaned weekly so you need a second set– Powered by a 1.5 hp air blower for the fish tanks– 1 hp for the rafts– Blower needs diffuser and can melt plastic pipe

Other Things

• Base addition– Because the process of nitrification releases H+

the pH decreases– Also, the removed solids contain most of the Ca

and K along with Fe– So, you need to add Ca and K bases to raise the

pH– You need to add Fe chelate for iron

Other Things

• Pump– One pump system, 1/2hp

• Low pressure pump

• Blowers– for fish: 1.5hp– for plants 1.0hp

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Other Things

• Backup generator– If the power goes off and the fish have no O2 they

will die in a very short time– Need to have a generator to operate the 3.0 hp of

pumps/blowers

Fish care

• Need dissolved O2 meter• Need ammonium and nitrite testing

equipment

Details UVI

• Total system volume• 29,375 gal of water• Flow rate: 100 gpm• Pump 1/2 hp• Total land area: 1/8 acre

UVI Details

• Fish tanks– 4 per spur

• 3m x 1.2m (10’x4’)= 7800L or 2060gal• Retention time, 1.37 hrs• Flow rate 21 gal/min in each tank• There are 4 tanks so the pump is actually about

100gal/min

• 22 diffusers (14L/min)

UVI Details

• Clarifier– There are 2 filters for 4 tanks– Retention time, 20 min– Flow rate of 21 gal/min

• Gives you a clarifier size of 420 gal• You need 2

UVI Details

• Filter and Degassing Tanks– 6’ x 2.5’ x 2’ deep– 185 gal

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UVI Details - Beds

• The beds are 100’ x 4’ x 16” deep• 3000 gal of water each (math is not

right but you don’t use the whole 16”depth)– Water is about 12” deep

UVI Details

• Fish feed to raft area• 60-100 g of fish food to support 10.76

sqft of grow beds.– Non flowering on the lower end– Tomatoes on the higher end

UVI Fish Details Fish Selection

• Tilapia• Cat fish• Koi• Blue gill

Fish

• Tilapia are king but who are you goingto sell them to?– Tolerate high levels of ammonium– Tolerate low levels of oxygen

Fish

• Catfish are the most popular farmed fishin the US

• Convert feed to weight better than anyother fish (1.5:1)

• Bottom dwellers– Can grow with bluegill

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Fish

• Koi can be sold as pets, to pet stores oronline

• Need decent O2 levels and lowerammonium than tilapia

• Also tolerate cooler conditions thantilapia and catfish which is better for theplants

Plants

• Basil• Lettuce• Tomatoes

– higher fish density and feed rates• Cucumber

Other options - NFT

• You can have 1/4 fewer fish to provideyou with the same amount of produceusing NFT– Nice if you grow koi and just use them as a

food generator• Or, you can grow 4x more plants

Other options - NFT

• NFT needs all the solids removed or thesolids clog up the emitter andaccumulate on the roots causing loss ofO2

• Need a special filter• Or, use aggregate beds to filter out

most of the solids and then pump someto the NFT