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What are they using do you think

Here is a link to a greenhouse that was on another post and I wanted to find out what you think they are doing for bio-filters. http://www.herbanfarms.com then click on the greenhouse link and look at the photos at the bottom of that page.

They have 2 3' deep fish tanks with rafts on top of the fish tanks plus a grow out deck.

Any ideas on what they are using for bio-filtration.

This looks like a great way to save on space using rafts and fish tanks.

Because they are in Pennsylvania they have to heat the greenhouse or the water or both.

There is a photo of a small area attached to the greenhouse with a pipe coming out so it must have a boiler in there I would think.

This looks like a great idea what do you all think?

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Permalink Reply by TCLynx on April 19, 2012 at 6:34pm

They don't mention fish capacity so I suppose it is possible that they are doing low density fish and simply using all the surface areas in the system as the bio-filter and just keeping the solids under control with minimal fish stocking.

Or there could easily be a full sent of UVI type filtration that they just don't advertize much about.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Bifano on April 19, 2012 at 6:52pm

I looked at the video and one of the photos under the greenhouse tab and there is an area that is open for sure after I looked at it closer. So there is a fish area for sure. It is hard to say with the 3' deep rafts if the fish area is the same depth or deeper. The other way I figured that there is a difference is they say they have 2 30' wide greenhouses and in the info on that page is says that there is a grow area that is 27.5' wide and 2 11' wide tanks in the second greenhouse. Then when you look at the plant capacity there is a difference on the 2 11' wide areas and that is another reason I think they have the fish area in the front.

The video and photos do not show any UVI type bio-filter so you could be right on with the surface areas for sure. That is a lot of surface area for sure. I want one haha

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Permalink Reply by Jimi Subgum on April 20, 2012 at 7:18pm

whoever says commercial aquaponics can't be done needs to see this. they are doing it.

my bet is that it's a raft type system with uvi type filtration system, using swirl or mechanical filtration. water looks clear. lots of bubblers in the fish tank. looks great whatever they got goin on.

IMO= over an acre in production? 2/4 employees? veggie production is their profit, that's alot of basil, tilapia. so yes, in PA they are heating the water. tank looks at least 8x80x3' , gh maybe 30x100 x2+. who knows how many gh they have. its sexy.