Intensive Aquaponics with Liquid Oxygen

Green Sky Growers futuristic plants

The first thing they tell you at Green Sky Growers when you enter their greenhouse is “Don’t try this at home!”
And you wouldn’t want to try it at home if you saw how intensively they grow their fish.

Growing fish intensively at great volume is fraught with difficulties even for the experts – especially if any of the machinery breaks down and the dissolved oxygen in the system drops sharply – the fish will die very quickly.

So what do the big boys with all the toys do?

Especially if they also happen to own a lot of futuristic whirligig type industrial conveyer belt machinery – vertical white metal cylinders that look really cool silently moving around this impressive rooftop garden?

They have all the cool stuff of course because they are also owned by Aquatic Eco-Systems the supplier of tanks and hi-tech fish machinery to the US aquaculture industry so they can afford to experiment and push the envelope a little as well as experimenting in futuristic aquaponics scenarios.

 

 

We shot this video last September while touring the facility with the newly formed Aquaponics Association. Sylvia Bernstein and her team did a great job organizing this event and showing a variety of different aquaponic systems. So the tour was very brief but there are some benefits in getting a brief interview on how Green Sky Growers work their system.

Here are the basics:

  • Stocking ratio: 1lb of fish per gallon of water
  • 38 – 42% fish high protein fish feed dispensed through auto feeders
  • Fish are graded through 3 x large tanks to maturity
  • Fish are purged in salt water to improve taste over a week.
  • Beneficial Insects are encouraged to control pests
  • Liquid Oxygen used at a rate of DO 7-8 in intensive fish tanks
  • Mixed plants are grown based on seasonal variability and conditions.
  • Introduction of different fish species suitable for aquaponics, Tilapia, Barramundi, Sturgeon, Ornamentals, Trout, Alligator gar and even Jade Perch are to be introduced to their system.
  • Highly efficient commercial drum filters used for water quality.

Alligator gar as an aquaponics fish? If you’re wondering what an alligator gar looks like then consider a fish that looks like it was crossed with a crocodile. Just don’t put your hand in the tank.

Yep, there’s always something new to learn about Aquaponics.

If anyone knows the name of the guy explaining their setup in the YouTube video above – let us know and we’ll credit him.