Aquaponeasy: Large scale aquaponics farm in France

Feeding the world is draining the planet

Fresh water is already running short

1 in 3 Europeans is affected by water shortages every year, on the fastest-warming continent in the world.

70% of the world's freshwater withdrawals go to agriculture, and much of that water comes back polluted or salinised,
and therefore unusable.

Sources: European Environment Agency · Copernicus · FAO

Soils are degrading

1/3 of the world's soils are degraded by pesticides, loss of organic matter and drying out.

Source: FAO

The seas are emptying

38% of fish stocks are overfished, and the farming meant to ease that pressure weighs heavily on the environment and pollutes the oceans.

Source: FAO, SOFIA 2026 report

It starts here

It is in Vic-sur-Seille, in the Moselle,
in north-eastern France,
that we are building our pilot farm.

You can still take part in the project!

Our fundraising round is still open,
and you can still invest in the company.
Construction should begin in early 2027.

Take part in the project→

At Aquaponeasy,
we are taking action!

How does aquaponics work?

1.The fish are fed

The fish are fed several times a day with feed suited to aquaponics and to closed-loop production. Their waste loads the water with ammonia. Rather than discharging this water into the natural environment or into the sewer network, we keep it and give it a second life.

2.The water is filtered

The drum filter first retains solid matter. The biofilter, home to the most valuable bacteria in the system, then takes over. These bacteria turn ammonia into nitrates, a nutrient that plant roots can feed on. An ultraviolet treatment makes the water safe before it returns to the tanks.

3.The plants purify the water

The roots take up the nitrates, the nutrients and the water that plants need to grow. At the end of the line, we recover clean water that flows back to the tanks. In this way, 95% of the fish farm's water is recycled, with no discharge into the natural environment.

The aquaponic loop in four stages, from feeding the fish to the return of clean water to the tanks

Nothing is lost, everything feeds something.

The principle is nothing new. The Aztecs already grew crops on chinampas, the floating gardens of the Mexican lakes, and the rice paddies of Asia have combined rice growing and fish farming for more than a thousand years. What our era brings is fine control of the loop and its parameters, which makes it possible to industrialise this growing technique.

Fish release nitrogen in two ways: as ammonia (NH₃) excreted continuously through the gills, and as solid waste that releases more as it breaks down. In the biofilter, two families of bacteria work in sequence. Nitrosomonas oxidise ammonia into nitrites (NO₂⁻), which are toxic, and Nitrobacter immediately convert those into nitrates (NO₃⁻), which are harmless and available to plants. This nitrification is what makes the whole thing possible. It takes three to six weeks to establish the bacterial colony before the first fish can be introduced.

The real balancing act is pH. Fish are comfortable around 7, nitrifying bacteria work best towards 7.5 and plants absorb best between 5.5 and 6.5. None of these optimums coincide, and the consensus sits around 6.8, a compromise that allows everyone to thrive. Temperature, dissolved oxygen and the ratio between the amount of feed distributed and the growing area follow the same logic of constant trade-offs.

On the plant side, the roots do not take up nitrates alone. The phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium and trace elements supplied by the feed are absorbed too. Two elements are generally missing in this kind of system, though: iron and potassium. To avoid any deficiency, they are added directly to the water in an available form, without upsetting the rest of the system.

As for the sludge captured by the filter, it can be reused. Vermifiltration turns it into an organic fertiliser that goes back to the crops, under glass and in open fields alike. The only loss in the system is therefore the water used through evapotranspiration and the maintenance purges.

9 reasons to develop aquaponics on a large scale

Aquaponics answers both the dead ends of conventional farming and what consumers are asking for today.

Year-round production

Under greenhouse and in a controlled environment, production is far less affected by weather and seasons. Harvests become regular, plannable, and adjust to demand. We have chosen to run the farm without heating or lighting, but it remains possible to use waste heat from neighbouring industrial activities to produce even more.

Growing guaranteed free of pesticides

The loop is closed and holds living fish as well as highly sensitive bacteria. No chemical treatment is possible without destroying the whole system. Aquaponics is a guarantee in itself.

Up to 95% of water recycled

The water circulates in a loop between the tanks and the crops. Where conventional farming draws continuously, we reuse almost the entire volume.

Soilless, even on degraded land

Aquaponics is soilless cultivation. It does not depend on soil quality, so a farm can be set up on a brownfield site, a degraded plot or land with no agronomic value.

No erosion, no leaching

No ploughing, no inputs polluting the groundwater. The soils and the biodiversity around the farm are preserved, and the site can even be laid out to welcome them.

Two productions, one infrastructure

Fish and plants share the same water, the same energy and the same infrastructure. Two complementary revenue streams for a single investment, and a spread risk.

Higher yields per square metre

Aquaponics allows a better growing density, continuously optimal conditions and several production cycles a year. Our output is therefore markedly higher than in traditional open-field growing, all on a smaller land footprint.

Protected crops, secured production

Greenhouse growing protects crops as far as possible from weather hazards, from certain pests and from predators. Production is therefore more secure and more stable from one year to the next. The risks of contamination and disease are also reduced.

A model that can be replicated

Aquaponics adapts to most inhabited climates and comes in many forms. Cold-water or warm-water fish, temperate or tropical crops, a single crop or a broad range, and even production in brackish water.