Back in 2008 I visited an aquaponics system down in Tucson, University of Arizona. This concept really captured my thinking as a new approach to growing food. The concept that you could raise fish in a large tank, pump water through flat troughs, grow food that would clean the water to recirculate back into the fish tank, was amazing. For me the thinking was two harvests off the same gallon of water, one from the plants and then from the fish that you were raising. A wonderful solution for our desert environment. At that time there were only two schools for this type of farming, one in the Virgin Islands and one in Hawaii. I chose the Hawaii class, thinking I could pick up some information and some much-needed Vitamin Sea. To my surprise the class was very extensive, it was loaded with information, and it even included building plans. Once I visited their aquaponic farm all of the pieces began to fit.
When I returned to Phoenix, I sourced a plastics company that would build these custom tanks, using the designs from the Hawaii trip. Began construction at a building I owned in Chandler, Arizona. I also built a greenhouse in the back lot of the building, and I was going to incorporate that into the new aquaponics system.
Once the tanks arrived and we completed our underground work and installed the pumps, both air and water. Tanks installed and filled; it still took several weeks to cure the tanks to accept fish. Also, the learning curve for hydrology was steep, we were flooding tanks and troughs daily. Next incorporate troughs in the greenhouse, my thinking we would do all our seeding and germination in the greenhouse. Once the plants were big enough to be transferred out to the big system. We planted 1100 seed pots a week.
Very soon our troughs were full of lettuce, and I needed to start selling this product. We really struggled, not only were we trying to grow food on a parking lot in the desert. I could never make the numbers work, with the power bills, fish feed, labor and the price of lettuce in Arizona. With all of the state licensing to raise fish and then I was not allowed to sell my fish on the open market, without them being slaughtered in a USDA fish facility. Our first Summer a monsoon hailstorm put us out of business for six weeks, I was bleeding money! At that time my business partner said I was "Bat Shit Crazy", in retrospect, he was probably right!
