Hydroponics things to think about

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Joe Cyber (Cyber-Hydroponics)

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Sep 19, 2012, 6:10:33 PM9/19/12
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Hi All,
water is the most important part of hydroponics farming. if it is class 1 never seems to be much of a issue.
most people think RO (reverse osmosis) is the answer however looking at the cost of over $1 per litre required ie (over $10000 for 10000L/day)
not to include the pre-treatment costs. then the next issue is what to do with the salt water that the RO unit makes while making all this good water.

system design, how many systems have i seen in the 18 years or so of farm consulting. from the round pipe, to rectangle down pipe, to round squashed, ones with lids, ones with sloping sides, black inside, white inside, round cut in half with plastic taped on. tanks with floating foam where the plants grow. ones that spin around so each plant gets a feed every 15 min. and you know what i have found the most interesting is they all work. so what is the most important part what do you think about if the system will work no problem. my answer is how do i make it easy and fast to harvest with the leased amount of labor. keeping in mind that you must use the space so you have most amount of product growing. more plants means more problems, the hydroponic growing is fast when it is working right. so when something happens it happens just as fast.
alive to dead in 30 min, keep that in mind with your design, look at any way you can have a backup then look for a backup on that backup. automation is the way i have given the farmer the most time to fix it. however it in its self can be a problem false alarms if set to fine and no alarm if set to course. hydroponic farming is alive (we laugh how the farm knows when the farmer is on a holiday)

OK we can grow it now is it worth selling. it is a catch 22 issue, first you need to have a market. however what do you show the customer?
it is hard for the customer to see the plants in your dreams. so you need a system to grow samples to show. also you need to work out the cost to grow the product.
it is not worth selling them if they cost more to grow then you can sell them. so system design becomes important need to keep costs down till you have a product to sell.
however room to make the changes as you size up the farm to keep up with production. more plants the harder it is to keep a eye on them all.

just starting up a thread in a group that has not moved in a while.
Joe Cyber-Hydroponics 


Bob

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Sep 19, 2012, 9:57:35 PM9/19/12
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$4 a gallon RO water?

Ive grown in one of the highest water cost areas in the USA and my water costs
were about 1 / 100 th of that.

Commencing a discussion with a point that far off the mark makes the balance
of your statements be viewed from a very suspect point.

Joe Cyber-Hydroponics 


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Joe Crane

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Sep 19, 2012, 10:18:18 PM9/19/12
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That's the setup cost Bob to buy the RO unit only. I haven't included running costs as it is different with the water source used ie (bore pumping, dam etc)

Joe

Bob

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Sep 19, 2012, 10:51:21 PM9/19/12
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Your numbers are not supportable and Im sure not going to argue the point.

You know they are bullshit and so do I.

Joe Cyber (Cyber-Hydroponics)

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Sep 20, 2012, 2:44:49 AM9/20/12
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yep your right,
it is more expensive.
just got a quote for $12240.80 AU from vertex hydropore.
for a unit to do 500L/hour
so i was pretty close on the costing.
bring some of your own information from US suppliers
would be interesting to see what the difference would be.

From the quote:
Brackish Water Reverse Osmosis Unit - Vertex Hydropore
Reverse Osmosis System that includes 2 x 4040 TFC
membranes; 2 x 316SS membrane housing; 316SS pump;
concentrate pressure gauge; membrane pressure control
valve; permeate & concentrate flow meters; S100
microprocessor controller with permeate conductivity monitor;
low feed pressure pump protection, inlet shut-off valve &
pretreatment lockout. 240VAC, 50Hz.
Design duty:
Product water flow rate is 500 litres per hour @ 50kPa.
Feedwater duty requirement is 750 litres per hour @ 350kPa
and 20 to 40 degrees Celcius. Water softeneing or
antiscalant injection is required. We recommend that the
customer  provides a comprehensive water analysis to
determine if additional pretreatment is required.
:end quote
so bob
what i am saying is the setup costs before you sell produce is something that you have to take into account.
cost of the water reading back on my post i can see how it looks like $ for the water manufacturing. i am sorry about that.
was just off typing thoughts to start a discussion, 
Joe

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