The origins of Aquaponics can be traced back to ancient Egyptian and Aztec cultures.
It takes about 2 years in an aquaponics system for the biocycle to reach its full potenial.
I wanted to try aquaponics out but time and other things have come up.
I picked up an old commerial fridge, to set up an aquaponic system but not needed anymore the benifits from the aquaponics system is best found in areas where space is a problem and water is scarce, I have space, 5 acres with a pure freshwater underground spring that can supply me with over 2,000 gals a day, but never use it because I have never run out of rainwater and I only have 2,500 gals in storage tanks.
It's an old woolworths open fridge disply unit from the local tip for $50, it's insulated, about 4mtrs long x 1.3 wide x 350 mm deep in stainless steel, with a frame 900 mm hight made of sq steel tube on 4 heavey duty casters.
For a side line business.
Worm farms can provide some food for the fish and worm juice is a great natural fertiliser, I made my worm farm out of an old fridge/freezer, supported on its back with 4 pieces of angle steel screwed to each corner as legs. Old fridges can be sourced easily for free and make great worm farms that are covered and sealed from other creatures and insulated. Coat of paint. Build time 1 hr. Waterd down worm juice sells for $1 per litre at local markets, about the price of milk but worms don't care what time you milk them. Reused old 2 ltr milk containers work well for transport.
Another sideline.
Freshwater Yabbis (shrimp) can be grown in small tubes with the system, and make good eating, could supply local restaurants.
Doing it small in the backyard is very cheap, most expensive part is the pump.
Commerical food production is big business, set up costs are high because of food standards, requirements are many and varied if you are thinking food Plants & Fish on a COMMERCIAL level, do the sums first.
I am not putting a downer in it, just be prepared for the long hours with no pay to set this up.
