2012 Aquaponics Technology, Aquaponic Solar Greenhouse, and Commercial Aquaponics Trainings

To meet everyone’s needs for different levels of aquaponic training, we’ve separated our former four-day commercial course into two courses. The first is a three-day “Aquaponics Technology Training”, that includes the best aquaponic information, plans and operating instructions available anywhere. The second is a two-day “Commercial Aquaponics Training” that covers the commercial aspects of aquaponics completely, with knowledge no one else offers, such as how to get USDA Organically Certified and Food Safety Certified, and how to build a tilapia egg hatchery that has 95% fry survival rates for $200.

Then, we met Franz Schreier and added the Aquaponic Solar Greenhouse Training to our lexicon. Now, you can take just the courses you need. Descriptions of the Aquaponics Technology Training, the Aquaponic Solar Greenhouse Training, and the Commercial Aquaponics Training follow. They are available next in Hawaii in February 2012, and in other locations (dates and locations to be announced). For 2012 we’ve decided to offer the February courses at half their usual price, to make it as affordable as possible for everyone to attend these courses.

The three-day Aquaponics Technology Training:

This training gives you all the aquaponic technology we’ve developed over the last four years. It includes comprehensive information on: vegetable varieties that grow well in aquaponic systems; planting, germinating, sprouting, and nursery techniques for vegetables; low-cost and efficient tilapia breeding, egg hatchery, fry care, and fish nursery techniques; aquaponics system design and construction from 2 square feet up to 100,000 square feet; site design and greenhouse design and construction; AND our new “Plywood Tank Construction Manual” with full-color pictures and procedures for building your own 30-year fiberglass/epoxy/plywood fish and breeding tanks. The course materials consist of: complete materials lists and suppliers contact information that makes it easy for anyone to build any size system; an accompanying set of detailed CAD plans including site plans and piping schematics; an “Aquaponics Course Manual” covering all aspects of aquaponics, and an operations manual with checklist covering the day-to-day operations of a commercial aquaponics system.

You’ll also learn everything we learned this past four years building and operating five USDA organically certified aquaponics systems, a tilapia fry and egg hatchery and nursery, a State of Hawaii Health Department Certified vegetable processing facility, and most recently, improved water circulation and aeration designs that use as little as one-tenth the electricity for pumping water and aerating fish and plants that our original UVI designs did. This translates into about $8,810 per year savings on electrical costs for our three commercial aquaponics systems, two greenwater breeding tanks, two Family systems and two Micro Systems than if they were built with the original designs we started with. The technology training includes three full days of classroom instruction with additional hands-on instruction at our farm or our affiliate’s farm each day.

We have been continually improving construction economy in our systems for the last four years so that now you can build a 1,024 square foot “small” commercial aquaponics system for $15,000 in materials (in Hawaii), or about $11,000 in materials on the mainland. This type of system construction will save you tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in expense as compared to buying commercial “kit” systems, while giving you the only aquaponics systems in the world that are organically certifiable, something the “kit” systems can’t do. Organic vegetables bring from 40% to 100% more than non-certified vegetables, and this simple fact means that much more income for your farm. We also developed a “sloped grading” technology for aquaponic farm locations that are hilly, which saves up to 80% of the grading costs of making flat “pads” to put your troughs and fish tanks on, and that is included with these plans.

We will show you how to build your own tilapia egg hatchery for under $300 in materials, not including the cost of whatever tanks you use. Having your own tilapia hatchery means you save money you would have spent purchasing fingerlings, AND gives you an additional income stream on the farm with the extra fingerlings and young fish you have to sell to others. We spent over $25,000 on our own hatchery before discovering how to build this simple, elegant, and effective tilapia egg hatchery system!

In addition to showing you how to design and size equipment for your own custom aquaponics systems from 10 to 100,000 square feet in size, we include a step-by-step “Construction Manual” complete plans and materials lists for three different sizes of outdoors aquaponics systems: a 1,024 square foot system expandable to 4,096 square feet; a 256 square foot system expandable to 512 square feet; and a 64 square foot system expandable to 128 square feet. In addition, plans and instructions are included for four indoor/outdoor systems from 2 square feet in size up to 32 square feet. These small systems can be operated outdoors under natural light or indoors under flourescent lights, so you can easily build a small, inexpensive system to gain experience and confidence with aquaponics whether or not you have an outdoor space to grow in. It’s easy to graduate to the larger systems after building and operating a smaller one.

You will learn everything you need to know to build and operate aquaponics systems of any size. You will have all your aquaponics technology questions answered, and the trainers will make sure you understand every detail completely. Please note: information on the specifics of commercial aquaponics is not included in this course, but is the main focus of the two-day Aquaponics Commercial Training. We’re offering this training at half its usual cost: the three-day Aquaponics Technology Training is $495, additional persons from the same project are $245 each.. After doing trainings with as many as 82 persons in them,  we now limit our trainings to 60 persons in the room to ensure a quality training for all participants, so sign up early if you wish to ensure yourself a space.

The two-day Aquaponic Solar Greenhouse Training:

We’ve come up with an awesome vertical growing system (that can be used with EITHER aquaponic or hydroponic nutrient solutions) that puts ten to twelve times as many plants per square foot into the solar greenhouse as the best current vertical growing systems can, and almost 50 times as many plants per square foot as our raft-based aquaponics systems do. The Solar Greenhouse is NOT the same as conventional oil-guzzling “Controlled Environment Agriculture”, it is a completely new, sustainable, affordable, and energy-efficient combination of technologies.

As a result, the solar greenhouse has a cost per plant to build and operate that is one-tenth the cost of ANY current technology, or LESS. Also, you are NOT limited to aquaponic growing, because this greenhouse will work with standard hydroponic growing solutions or our organically approved hydroponic growing technology if you want organic certification.

Although we’d make a lot more money by licensing this technology to manufacturers, we feel the world doesn’t need more of that. We know it would only delay the arrival of a beneficial technology on the market, as well as make it cost far more. What the world needs is economical ways for people to feed other people, no matter what their climate or weather. We’re here to help with that.

This greenhouse may look expensive at first glance, but it is inexpensive on a per plant basis, which is all that matters. Click on this link for a slideshow that will show and tell you more about the Aquaponic Solar Greenhouse works. To register for the FIRST Aquaponic Solar Greenhouse Training in February 2012, being held in Honokaa, Hawaii, at a 50% “early bird” discount which applies until December 15th, click here.

We’re offering this training at half its usual cost: the two-day Aquaponics Solar Greenhouse Training is $995, additional persons from the same project are $495 each

The two-day Aquaponics Commercial Training:

This training includes the additional information you need if you want to make money feeding other people, and you have already mastered aquaponic technology on your own or through taking our Aquaponics Technology Training. We will show you how we got our aquaponics farm USDA Organic Certified AND Food Safety Certified (no small feats! We have gotten certified both through Oregon Tilth of Oregon, AND through Organic Certifiers of California. They have said “As long as people build their systems exactly as Friendly Aquaponics has done, then their certification process will be a slam dunk.”). Seven additional Friendly students have gotten their systems USDA organically certified as of June 2011.

Specifics covered are: how to get USDA organic certification for your aquaponics system; food safety certification and how to achieve it; how to do crop variety and market research; the different ways to sell produce to wholesalers, brokers, and distributors, farmer’s markets, retail stores, to restaurants and hotels, through CSA’s, and how to build awareness of you and your products through farm tours of your farm. Also, we cover the ins and outs of statutory regulations, County Building Department regulations, permits required for operation, National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) cost-sharing grants, State Health Department requirements for waste water discharge, State Agriculture Department Plant Quarantine Branch regulations, processing requirements for vegetables (for value-added processing), processing requirements for fish and how to sell fish, business information and help available for the aquaponics operator, general business advice, how to find and use State Extension Agents as a resource: Agriculture, Aquaculture, State Fish Vets; and how to apply for loans and grants.

We cover a lot of ground in this information-packed two days, and these commercial aquaponics systems grow a lot of food in a small space with high energy efficiency. However, our commercial aquaponics training will not magically turn you into a success (as we say “Don’t quit your day job just yet!”), so please make sure you get business training from local sources in addition if you do not already have experience running a successful business. Please note: information on aquaponic system construction and operation is not part of this course, but is covered in the three-day Aquaponics Technology Training. We’re offering this training at half its usual cost: the two-day Aquaponics Commercial Training is $995, additional persons from the same project are $495 each. After doing trainings with as many as 82 persons in them,  we now limit our trainings to 60 persons in the room to ensure a quality training for all participants, so sign up early if you wish to ensure yourself a space.

2012 Hawaii Aquaponics Trainings

The next 2012 Hawaii Aquaponics Trainings will be held February 13-19th, 2012, with the three-day Aquaponics Technology Training on the 13th, 14th, and 15th, the two-day Aquaponic Solar Greenhouse Training on the 16th and 17th, and the two-day Aquaponics Commercial Training on the 18th and 19th, at the North Hawaii Education and Research Center (NHERC), a satellite facility of the University of Hawaii at Hilo, Hawaii, which is physically located in the town of Honokaa, Hawaii, where the Friendly Aquaponics Farm is located. Susanne Friend and Tim Mann will be teaching this course.

Enroll now for February 13-15th, 2012 Hawaii Aquaponics Technology Training to reserve your space, only $495! (If you want to do two or more trainings, click here to enroll in the Aquaponics Technology Training, and you will get a button to add the Aquaponics Solar Greenhouse Training and/or the Commercial Training during your check-out process)

Enroll now for February 16-17th,  2012 Hawaii Aquaponics Solar Greenhouse Training to reserve your space, only $995! (Click here if you ONLY want to enroll in the Aquaponics Solar Greenhouse Training)

Enroll now for February 18-19th,  2012 Hawaii Aquaponics Commercial Training to reserve your space, only $995! (Click here if you ONLY want to enroll in the Aquaponics Commercial Training)

Click here for complete training outline for the Aquaponic Technology Training.

Click here for complete training outline for the Aquaponic Solar Greenhouse Training.

Click here for complete training outline for the Commercial Aquaponic Training.

Click here for training testimonials.

Your Personal Trainers for the Commercial Aquaponics Training:
Susanne Friend, the owner of the company (with degrees in biology and chemistry) is your personal trainer for questions and issues regarding organic certification, plant and fish diseases, sales and marketing, value-added processing, fish hatchery and nursery design and operation, water and aeration questions, and water quality questions.

Tim Mann (technical staff) has been doing architectural and civil engineering design and drafting since 1990, and was an authorized AutoCAD dealer for 7 years during that period. Tim handles comprehensive system design and site-specific aquaponics questions as well as technical issues having to do with tank, piping, aeration, pumping, and electrical design. Tim also supplies civil, structural, electrical, and mechanical engineering services for those projects needing code-compliant plans and certifications for their local building departments.

Sign Up Now: Space may be limited
After doing trainings with as many as 82 persons in them, we now limit our trainings to 60 persons in the room (both for affiliate and Hawaii trainings) to ensure a quality training for all participants, so sign up early if you wish to ensure yourself a space.

Taking either the group Aquaponics Technology and Commercial Trainings or the Personal Intensive training is the first step in becoming a Friendly Aquaponics Affiliate (click here for more details on our Affiliate Program)