AQUAPONICS: THE BIOFILTER THAT GENERATES INCOME Donald S. Bailey, James E. Rakocy, R. Charlie Shultz and Jason J.

Danaher University of the Virgin Islands Agricultural Experiment Station RR 1 Box 10,000 Kingshill, VI 00850 dbailey@uvi.edu Recirculating aquaculture systems treat wastewater from fish production tanks with biofliters which convert ammonia to nitrate before returning it to the fish tank. Vegetable crops use ammonia and nitrate for growth. Coupling hydroponic troughs with fish production systems, which is known as aquaponics, is an innovative method of biofiltration and produces a marketable crop. Other biofilters can have high capital investment costs and operating expenses but do not generate income. When aquaponics is the biofilter the vegetables produced are sold and generate income. Using aquaponics as the biofilter in a recirculating fish culture system adds unique technical operating and financial management requirements which ultimately yield positive returns to the farmers investment. The aquaponic system developed at the UVI produces 5 MT of tilapia (Oreochromis sp.) annually and can produce romaine and leaf lettuce (1,400 2,100 case/year), basil (5 mt/year), okra (2.9 mt/year) or a number of other vegetable crops. The tilapia consume an average of 19.6 kg of feed daily (PMI Aquamax, 32% protein). Total ammonia nitrogen is removed at the rate of 1.6 g NH4-N/m2/day. Stocking is staggered to moderate changes in the standing crop biomass between harvests, which minimizes fluctuations in feed input. The system uses raft hydroponics as the biofilter for wastewater treatment. The hydroponic component consists of six long rectangular tanks (30.5 m x 1.2 m x 0.4 m) made from concrete walls and LDPE (23 mil) liner. Water volume and retention time of the hydroponic component are 68 m3 and 3 hours. Polystyrene sheets with total surface area of 214 m2 float on the surface of the hydroponic tanks and are the planting area for vegetable production. A single 0.5 hp pump circulates water through the system. Separate regenerative blowers provide aeration to the fish tanks (1.5 hp) and hydroponic tanks (1 hp). Initial cost to build the aquaponic troughs is $12,537 for the concrete walls, liner, polystyrene sheets, and aeration system. Operating costs associated with aquaponics include seedlings, biological insect control, supplemental nutrients, and labor for plant management and harvest. Revenues are generated from vegetable crop sales (Table 1). Using aquaponics as a biofilter is a viable method of managing ammonia removal from a fish production system and produces marketable vegetable crops. Farmers should consider this option when evaluating systems for their production goals.
Table 1. Revenue generated by aquaponic production for various crops. Crop Revenue ($/m2/yr) Leaf lettuce (20/m2) 196 Romaine lettuce (16/m2) 157 Basil (16/m2) 515 Okra (3.7/m2) 15 Cantaloupe (0.67/m2) *
* current research data will be presented at Aquaculture America 2008