A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Coastview Aquaponics

Information

We are a neighborhood farm dedicated to providing our community with quality food, aquaponics education and other aquaponics services. We would like to see a system in every back yard.

Website: http://coastviewaquaponics.com
Location: Kona, Hawaii
Members: 71
Latest Activity: Oct 12, 2016

8 members like this

Coastview Aquaponics - A neighborhood farm

One year ago our first aquaponic system began growing more produce than we could consume, so began selling to a few friends and neighbors. Everybody really liked our produce and soon there was a demand for more production. We expanded our first system to meet the growing demand, and then decided to build a second system. Today we have three systems operating and we sell to the community three days a week. Customers are invited to pick their produce directly out of the system. We provide free farm tours on sale days. We want to provide the community with fresh food and help keep food miles low. Produce that the neighborhood does not buy goes to a local health food store. Our business grew with the demand of our customers. Every week we get new customers by word of mouth and we hope that in the near future all of our produce will be sold directly off the farm.

Discussion Forum

Thank you!!

Started by Suzi Gibson Jul 23, 2012. 0 Replies 0 Likes

Thank you for sharing this! I am writing a business plan for class and wanted to model it after a commercial aquaponics operation. I'm looking forward to reading this (my children only allow me to…Continue

Farmers Market Sales

Started by Chris Smith. Last reply by Converse Apr 30, 2012. 18 Replies 5 Likes

We have developed a system to sell our live lettuce and other produce at farmers markets or anywhere away from the farm. Basically we have created a miniature mobile AQ system that is compatible with…Continue

Barrel Systems

Started by Chris Smith. Last reply by Tony Vella Feb 25, 2012. 6 Replies 1 Like

My customers inspired me to begin building small aquaponic systems that could fit on a condo lanai. After tinkering around with a few designs a came up with a couple systems that are easy and cheep…Continue

Tags: tower, systems, barrel

The evolution of our farm-multiple sources of income

Started by Chris Smith. Last reply by Gina Cavaliero Jul 24, 2011. 11 Replies 3 Likes

When we decided to make a business out of aquaponics we had a very specific vision of the direction our farm was going to go, which is reflected in our business plan. During the past year since I…Continue

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Comment Wall

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You need to be a member of Coastview Aquaponics to add comments!

Comment by Chris Smith on April 15, 2013 at 9:45am: Our seeding technique was posted under the raft growers group. Here is a link.

Comment by Brad Moreau on April 14, 2013 at 5:23pm: Chris

I'm interested in your gerinating techniques but can't find the write uphttp://www.bkserv.net/images/Frown.gifstarting up my new system & having a hard time with seed sprouting, need help

thank Brad

Comment by Chris Smith on August 1, 2012 at 10:19pm: We had a great new article recently published profiling out farm. Here is the link:

http://hawaiihomegrown.net/reports/355-coastview-aquaponics

Comment by Chris Smith on August 1, 2012 at 10:00pm: Sorry everybody for the lack of updates and activity in our group. My wife gave birth to our son a few months ago. The pregnancy and a baby has taken up most of our time. Farming has taken the rest. We are finally getting some sleep and back on our feet. We have many new exciting things going on with our systems and our farm. We will get some new updated out soon.

Comment by Chris Smith on August 1, 2012 at 9:55pm: Coastview Aquaponics is looking for volunteer help on our farm on Saturdays. We are a small family run commercial farm that sells produce directly to our neighborhood and located on the Kona coast of the Big Island of Hawaii. We need a little help keeping up with the day to day work which usually gets put off until Saturdays when we are all around.

We will compensate your time with food sharing and aquaponics knowledge. Just being on our farm and helping you will have the opportunity to absorb a lot of information. I am always teaching how to do things we have learned over the years of running an aquaponic farm. You will need your own transportation and a willingness to get your hands dirty. I have hundreds of pictures of our farm posted on my page.

Comment by Ryan Works on April 29, 2012 at 5:34am: When can I start working on yer farm?!!!

Comment by Chris Smith on December 2, 2011 at 8:21am: I am not doing anything that requires a permit in Hawaii. My backyard farm follows by all building building codes. I am not aware of any aquaponic farm(including Friendly)that has had to get an aquaculture permit through DLNR. Tilapia are legal here since the state introduced them to many of the states rivers and brackish ponds. I do not do any processing that would require the Health Dept to get involved with. We sell ALL our produce as whole and single cut. If there is more than one cut or processing a proper Health Dept approved facility is required. All our produce is sold direct to our neighborhood through a small honor farm refrigerator in our driveway. We no longer sell at any farmers markets or health food stores so it is very unlikely that we will ever be on the Health Dept radar.

Comment by andrew namiki robert on December 1, 2011 at 6:51pm: Hi i love the way your system works, i am on Oahu and wondered what permits you had to get to sell your produce ? Department of land and natural resources aquaculture permit or Department of health inspection ect....

Comment by Joseph Alecci on July 26, 2011 at 2:16pm: All I can say is "WOW." Your setup is such a beautiful inspiration for me. I hope to one day aspire to your stage of production.

Since I am an infant in Aquaponics it will be awhile before I reach that level, lol.

Peace and blessings from the Pacific Northwest!

Comment by Michelle Silva on January 25, 2011 at 6:39am: Chris, congrats on selling out to your neighborhood!! Keeping it really local is awesome. I was just thinking this morning how I needed to focus on my immediate area more. It's all been through word of mouth through the customers for me too, but I don't think that all my surrounding neighbors even know about what I'm doing, only the ones on our street!

Just curious, what did you use to secure the plastic on your hoops? Did you use emt for the straight part and pvc for overhead..I've been considering changing mine already. I have pics of it on "passionforproduce" Facebook page..not sure if I posted here too..it's been a bit much trying to keep up with everything. I've been considering something more permanent like this where I can roll the sides up and was thinking either zip ties or a clip (pvc possibly), for now I pull the plastic on and off all the verticals and rafts when it gets too chilly here in Florida...too much work that way.

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