Posted by henri pereira on 30th Mar 2014

Myaquaponics - Valverde Country Restaurant Commercial aquaponics JV

In 2013, Craig was approached by Pamina and Kino from Valverde Country Restaurant in Honeydew, Johannesburg, South Africa, to build a commercial aquaponics system with the main purpose of supplying the restaurant with fresh vegetables and spices and to a lesser extent, fresh fish from time to time.

An agreement was reached and construction started within a few months. Craig went about designing a solution that incorporated various aquaponics systems, including flood and drain, DWC (deep water culture) and NFT (Nutrient Film Technique) for vertical growing.

Being located in the highveld, which experiences below zero temperatures in winter, a solar heating system had to be incorporated in the design. The 4 x 3500 litre fish tanks are housed in a tunnel covered with plastic. This will hopefully retain a lot of heat in the cold winter days.. All pipes, tanks and grow beds have also been insulated with a variety of insulation material, from expanded foam to polystyrene panels.

Besides maximizing yields, our main focus is to research the feasibility of the complete system and we will be monitoring power consumption, water usage, fish growth rates, yields per sqm for all planted crops and comparison on the different types of systems, as well as all other operating expenses and revenues. After all the goal of a commercial system is to make it financially viable and ensure it makes a profit. WE THUS INVITE ACADEMIC, AGRICULTURAL AND AQUACULTURE INSTITUTIONS TO WORK WITH US... ACADEMIC & RESEARCH VOLUNTEERS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD ARE WELCOME.

Herewith some photos of how the project has evolved over the past year..

Fish Tank tunnel in the process of getting covered