Commercial Aquaponic Systems Integrating recirculating fish culture with hydroponic plant production.

Transcription

1 Commercial Aquaponic Systems Integrating recirculating fish culture with hydroponic plant production. Wilson Lennard Design and Layout by Wilson Lennard Cover Design by Ben Spiby Published in 2017 by Wilson Lennard 7/2-4 First Street Blackrock 3193 Victoria, Australia Internet: Wilson Lennard 2017 Printed in Australia ISBN All rights reserved. Except under the conditions described in the Copyright Act 1968 and subsequent amendments, no part of this publication may be commercialised, reproduced, photocopied, scanned, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of Wilson Lennard. 1

2 Acknowledgements: My journey through the field of aquaponics has been a long and interesting one which has been influenced and assisted by many people. I would like to thank all of the researchers and academics who came before me and provided such a sound scientific base from which I could work to develop my understanding of aquaponics. There are too many of them to thank individually, but I would like to say that from my scientific point of view of starting my journey in 2000, the old stuff (pre ) is far better than the new stuff (post 2000)! My friends and family need to be thanked because although few of them have directly contributed to my scientific and engineering knowledge acquisition, they have all had to put up with my obsession with aquaponics and the industry. I am sorry you have all been subject to my fairly constant communicated frustrations with the industry I work within. Many thanks go to my best friend, Ben Spiby, for designing the cover of my book and putting up with me for his entire life! I would like to thank my Honours and PhD supervisor, Mr Brian Leonard, who had the presence of mind to leave me alone with my own musings and allowed me to develop and manage my own research. I am endlessly grateful for having that space and trust given to me. I especially would like to thank my professional aquaponics mentor and friend, Dr James Rakocy, who has been open and always sharing with his knowledge of aquaponics. He has become an even greater influence in my life as a friend and for that, I am eternally grateful. Finally, I would like to thank my dad; for everything. 2

3 Preface: Aquaponics is becoming one the fastest growing areas in the agricultural technology production space. Even though aquaponics is becoming very popular, little, if any, scientific or engineering knowledge appears to be currently applied to it. Despite this anomaly, many small and larger aquaponics enterprises are being constructed and applied in the urban, indoor and vertical farming sectors and unfortunately, many are failing. Many of these failures are due more to the exacting economic conditions required to make small, urban farming enterprises viable businesses. However, system technical design and management issues also represent a good proportion of the reasons behind failure. Aquaponics, in a commercial context, is essentially the integration of two established technical production approaches; Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) for fish production and hydroponics (and substrate culture) for plant production. It therefore makes sense to try and use the existing hardware (components), knowledge and expertise associated with these two technologies to design and configure commercial aquaponic systems, rather than taking an approach to start over again from scratch. Sadly, this freely and broadly available existing knowledge is rarely utilised in many current aquaponic designs. Another important aspect of aquaponics is the development and evolution of the varying methods used to integrate fish production with plant production. Classically, the term aquaponics is applied to fully recirculating system designs where the water used is completely shared between the two major components (fish culture and plant culture). However, in the last few years, the sharing of the nutrient resources available in aquaponic systems between the fish and the plants has undergone a development towards other technical integration approaches and now the definition of what is aquaponic has broadened to also include designs which are either non-recirculating (e.g. using the waste nutrient streams produced by standard RAS to feed a plant culturing unit with no return of water to the fish component) or semi-recirculating (e.g. using the available nutrient-rich waters on a side stream loop). The purpose of this book therefore, is to not repeat the knowledge that is already available for standard, tank-based fish production (RAS) or standard hydroponic plant culture in detail, but to rather concentrate on the requirements of the integration process so as to produce the most efficient and optimised aquaponics designs and management methods available. This book wont therefore, go into upper level design and engineering aspects of the fish or plant culturing components of the aquaponic system design process. More detailed information may be found in other, excellent references and resources related to stand-alone RAS fish culture and stand-alone hydroponic plant culture. This book will concentrate on the application of science and engineering principals to the integration of these two 3

4 existing technologies in a number of ways that meet the ultimate aquaponic outcome; the efficient and optimised use of the nutrient resources (i.e. fish feed) added to the system. This book will also consider many of the satellite technologies associated with aquaponics, such as greenhouses, lighting, etc. However, and again, there are many excellent resources already available for these requirements, all of which go into far more exacting and complex detail than this book could attempt to do. Therefore, while these other technologies will be considered, it is more the purpose of this book to concentrate on the integration principles associated with fish and plant culture and so these other technologies are better served by trying to provide a list of appropriate external resources. 4

5 Contents Acknowledgements:... 2 Preface:... 3 Chapter 1: Introduction What is Aquaponics? Is Aquaponics Natural? Is Aquaponics Sustainable? How Aquaponics Works Aquaponics as an Ecosystem The Ethics of Aquaponics Chapter 2: Fish and Fish Keeping The Environment Fish Require Applicable fish species Fish keeping technology standard RAS technology The importance of solids removal Engineering RAS and Aquaponics Fish component as a profitable business unit the RAS analogy Chapter 3: Plants and Plant Culture What Environment Plants Want Applicable plant species Plant keeping technology the Hydroponics analogy Plant component as a profitable business unit the Standard Hydroponics analogy The importance of correct nutrient provision Chapter 4: The Aquaponic Integration Process A System of Aquatic Nutrient Flows Nutrient dynamics Where nutrients come from fish feed protein and lipid What plant nutrients come from fish waste What plant nutrients are limited in fish waste

6 What nutrients plant use (plant nutrition) The aquaponic conundrum nutrient imbalance between fish waste and plant nutrient requirement Aquaponic feeding rate ratio s UVI and others The reliance on buffering Primary buffering requirement ph control Secondary buffering requirement supplementing deficient plant nutrients Designer aquaponic diets Chapter 5: Dissolved Fish Waste and Nutrients Ammonia The nitrogen cycle in aquaponics The biofiltration process Biofilter technology Chapter 6: Solid Fish Wastes and Nutrients Accessing the nutrients in solid fish wastes re-mineralisation Anaerobic re-mineralisation Aerobic re-mineralisation Batch aerobic re-mineralisation Continuous aerobic re-mineralisation In-system re-mineralisation Media beds as re-mineralisation devices Sizing media beds for solids re-mineralisation UVI filter tank (bird netting) re-mineralisation The challenges of in-system re-mineralisation Problems with anaerobic zones What do worms do in media beds Exterior-to-system re-mineralisation The advantages of exterior-to-system re-mineralisation Re-mineralisation devices Sizing aerobic re-mineralisation devices

7 Chapter 7: Types of Aquaponic Systems Fully recirculating aquaponic systems (FRAS) (e.g. UVI) De-coupled aquaponic systems (DAS) Non-recirculating de-coupled aquaponic systems (NRDAS) Recirculating de-coupled aquaponic systems (RDAS) Balancing fully recirculating aquaponic systems Balancing non-recirculating de-coupled aquaponic systems Balancing recirculating de-coupled aquaponic systems Chapter 8: The UVI Model The UVI technical configuration Over-supply of fish feed to ensure total plant nutrient supply Over-supply of Nitrogen Managing and buffering the UVI Model Chapter 9: Alternate Aquaponic System Models The Nitrogen balancing approach as an example alternate aquaponic approach The fish feed N:P ratio The importance of N:P ratio and protein content of fish feeds The importance of fish metabolism and system design to N:P ratio Imbalanced N:P ratios Other nutrient imbalances associated with alternate aquaponic models The Symbioponics TM Model Managing and Buffering the Symbioponics TM Model Chapter 10: Designing Aquaponic Systems Fully recirculating aquaponic system design Overall fully recirculating design approaches and calculations Designing fully recirculating aquaponic systems based on a known plant component size Designing fully recirculating systems based on a known fish component size Plant component design approaches and calculations Plant hydroponic component types and choices

8 Fully recirculating plant hydroponic component sizing and calculations deep flow Fully recirculating plant hydroponic component sizing and calculations NFT Fish component design approaches and calculations Fish tanks sizing, shapes and calculations Mechanical filtration types, sizing and calculations Biological filtration types, sizing and calculations Sumps and other components, sizing and calculations Aeration sizing and calculations Re-mineralisation tanks Plumbing and pipes sizing and calculations Designing de-coupled aquaponic systems Designing fully recirculating, hybrid aquaponic systems Chapter 11: Aquaponic System Management How to manage system water chemistry Source water effects Water testing (ph, temperature, D.O.) ph management (what ph level to maintain & buffering) Temperature management (system insulation, water heating, water cooling, greenhouse air temperature) D.O. management (aeration, injected oxygen) Using E.C. as a management tool Full nutrient analysis Fish production Management Rotational fish production Staged fish feeding Grading fish Harvesting fish Plant production management Rotational plant production Harvesting plants

9 Seedling production Optimising the plant growing area Chapter 12: Greenhouses What greenhouses do Types of greenhouses Glass Polycarbonate Plastic Film Lighting Chapter 13: Aquaponics as a business Is it an aquaponics business? Small-scale, niche business case Large-scale, wholesale business case The dead zone Chapter 14: Fully Recirculating Deep Flow System Design Example Chapter 15: Aquaponics Resources Chapter 16: References