A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Seaweed Design Project

Hi all,

I am a University Product Design student and I am currently designing a home Seaweed growing system to grow and eat Seaweed. I am at the concept stage now and have three concepts. As it isn’t a product already on the market, I wanted to ask a group of people who are the kind of people who may buy this sort of product.

I have attached a PDF of the three concepts for you to look at and I would really appreciate some feedback.

It is a product that would be placed outside for maximum sunlight and if at perfect conditions could be cultivated weekly, growing at 1cm/day (although other research suggests it could be more). The product would be started by getting fertile seaweed from the sea to then place into the system to start an ecosystem which will all be aided by an app. This would then be maintained by every 1-2 weeks emptying some water and then refilling it with new water (like how you would with a fish tank). The user would then have to maintain the correct nutrient and salinity levels when refilling the tank.

The tank will be designed to make it as easy as possible for the user to maintain the tank.

If you are curious to why the product has been designed in certain ways, the reasons are as follows.

Seaweed has specific conditions that it must be kept at for it to grow. It must be:

Aerated
Kept between 6ᵒC-16°C
In a filtered system involving UV sterilisation (to stop other organisms taking over the tank)
Have correct salinity and nutrient levels

When reproducing, there are other conditions needed during this process. It must be:

Aerated at different rates
Have access to blue and red light at different times during the growth period and at controlled amounts (which is why all the designs have tanks which can be made dark)
Kept around 10°C
Have the correct nutrient levels

I want the reproduction process to be aided through an app on your phone so it can run as smooth as possible.

What I want to ask is about the user’s commitment to the product as well as which concept you prefer. I have numbered the questions to make it easier to answer them.