My pilot project Francois

[Francois Lemmer]

I started messing around with tilapia 2006-2010

2010 - the end of july i had to take  my system down

i am currently trying to get a piece of property to set up a scaled system.

basickly i dont have a system that is running

but i want to share my last 4 years with aquaponics

with members.......

 

[Francois Lemmer]

 

i bought these..i dont like buying seedlings...you dont know what you are putting into a system.

closed my eyes and planted them into system...they seem happy

 

 

 

[Darrin Charbonneau]

Epic story, so encouraging. I appreciate your openness and humility in sharing your successes and failures. I've been entertained, educated, and inspired from your posts. Looking forward to seeing what's next.

[Francois Lemmer]

thank's Darrin

Darrin Charbonneau said:

Epic story, so encouraging. I appreciate your openness and humility in sharing your successes and failures. I've been entertained, educated, and inspired from your posts. Looking forward to seeing what's next.

[Francois Lemmer]

Hi All
Well most of the peppers seedling +-90 gone…..dead…so much for trying to full the system with peppers…try again later
In the system I have celery, basil, peppers and rocket.
The 12 celery and 12 rocket seedling I bought…
The basil I have grown from seeds and they are taking of now…I have a few +-6 small pepper seedlings that survived…..and then the old peppers I moved…..cut down and left to take out later…new leaves and flowering again…so I left all the old pepper plants to see what happens
The fish are happy and eating well…….and getting big
Still feeding worms and pellets 4-5 times per day….the duckweed is growing now so I don’t feed to the fish.
I am very happy with the changes I made to the worm/bio filter….the filter has no more smell and the snails and worms are doing well with the breaking down of solids coming from the fish tank.
The snails I think can be good for breaking down solids but their numbers have to be controlled…
And that becomes a headache
All and all I am happy
Yust me thinking

[Francois Lemmer]

[Francois Lemmer]

[Francois Lemmer]

[Safwat Zaki]

Hi Francois, the big question is the profitability of Aquaponics, from your experience so far do you think AP is profitable, or just a hobby? Can a person make an investment to get a good return?  

 

[TCLynx]

Are you comparing to buying the cheapest food possible or would you be comparing to purchasing high quality organics and saving on the medical bills?

[Francois Lemmer]

Hi Safwat

......very good question

With the right management and design I believe it can and will be sometime in the future.

Time will tell

watch this space

[Francois Lemmer]

Hi TC
Because I am not only feeding pellets, I try and buy the better...? expensive food.
Feeding my fish a few times a day and alternating pellets, worms and duckweed
I feel I have to use the better pellets for the fish.
Up to now my fish are healthy and the Kio that were 80mm long now are +-250 mm long and fat.(+-6 months...)
I am very happy with the results I am getting up to now.

The tilapia eat the same food as the kio.....

[TCLynx]

Sorry Francois, I was actually kinda trying to answer Safwat's question about profitability.

I think you are doing a great job with what you are doing.