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Arduino-based, urban aquaponics in Oakland

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Re: Arduino-based, urban aquaponics in Oakland

#41

Post by jivatmanx »

jlgreco wrote: post #36
jivatmanx wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, the economics of hydroponics would suggest that it should already dominate commercial vegetable production. The main reason they're not, is because municipalities greatly undervalue water, and because agriculture is so highly subsidized and so it's hard for hydroponics to compete. 1. Underselling water Municipal water prices set by local government greatly undervalue the actual rarity of water. With so many a…

Is water used by hydroponics really "used"? As far as I can tell, aside from "loss" to evaporation and water used in part of the mass that makes up the fruit you send out, nothing should really be wasting water. It seems likely that lost water due to evaporation with this type of setup should be a great deal less than water lost with traditional farming (spraying water with things like center-pivot irrigation machine…

Yes, my point is that Hydroponics use very little water while traditional agriculture uses a large amount. If water were actually as expensive as it's scarcity, Hydroponics would be more competitive.

Re: Arduino-based, urban aquaponics in Oakland

#42

Post by sv123 »

blhack wrote: post #38

This might be a controversial thing to say here, but I think that clandestine marijuana farmers are really heavily pushing the limits of urban agriculture. The things you're working for when growing pot: 1) A minimal energy footprint. A giant power bill is a dead giveaway that you're running grow lamps 2) Maximum plant density -- lots of plants close together is good for both absorbing light and using space. More pla…

Hydroponics is a great space for hackers, never realized how much I would enjoy growing veggies, legal or otherwise.

Re: Arduino-based, urban aquaponics in Oakland

#43

Post by jlgreco »

jivatmanx wrote: post #41
jlgreco wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is water used by hydroponics really "used"? As far as I can tell, aside from "loss" to evaporation and water used in part of the mass that makes up the fruit you send out, nothing should really be wasting water. It seems likely that lost water due to evaporation with this type of setup should be a great deal less than water lost with traditional farming (spraying water with things like center-pivot irrigation machine…

Yes, my point is that Hydroponics use very little water while traditional agriculture uses a large amount. If water were actually as expensive as it's scarcity, Hydroponics would be more competitive.

Ah yes, I see. That is a good point.

Re: Arduino-based, urban aquaponics in Oakland

#44

Post by cs702 »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #39
cs702 wrote: post #16

If I understand correctly, this 'aquaponics' solution: * does not require arable land, because the plants grow on containers filled with stones through which water constantly circulates; * uses an order of magnitude less water than traditional agriculture, because the water is constantly recycled back from a nearby fish tank, and because the rock layer prevents water from evaporating; * allows plant density (i.e., nu…

I've attended a class with Eric Mandu as part of Workshop Weekend a year ago. He's awesome. For the semi-amateur, aquaponics is actually pretty tough to start up. Of course you need your initial equipment investment, but mostly getting a stable system is finicky and takes time. The longest part is getting your "live rock" fully active, i.e. nitriting and nitrating bacteria in the stones that convert the fish waste in…

AceJohnny2: thank you. Figuring out how to build standardized aquaponics systems that are self-stabilizing (e.g. by using inexpensive sensors and Raspberry-like computers to monitor and regulate all elements), and finding cost-effective ways to deal with the regulatory issues you mention, are the kinds of challenges that ambitious entrepreneurs must overcome to be successful.

The question I would ask at this early stage is really about the odds of finding product-market fit: if a startup can figure out how to make a standard, modular, legal, self-stabilizing aquaponics unit that is easy to install and maintain, is there a sizeable market for it? I suspect the answer is yes.

Re: Arduino-based, urban aquaponics in Oakland

#45

Post by etcet »

ctrlaltesc wrote: post #12
chad_oliver wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it's a closed system expect for the sunlight, which is arguably the most important component of any agricultural system.

You still have to feed the fish, so it's not really closed. But it is reasonably self-contained in combination with using vegetable waste to breed fly larvae which go on to feed the fish. The difficult thing about aquaponics is the cyclomatic complexity (to use a software term). Basically everything feeds into everything else. At first you might think that the system is in balance, but in fact it rarely is. Plants an…

I've heard that you can add another tank between the plants and the fish where you can grow algae that feeds the fish.

Re: Arduino-based, urban aquaponics in Oakland

#46

Post by mjwalshe »

jivatmanx wrote: post #26
sneak wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Right now the only pressure to reduce water use seems to be on consumers (watering policies, low-water use appliances), but they only use 11% of it. Where does the other 89% go?

Agriculture & Industrial

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