Aquaponics Project
Welcome to our Aquaponics project. If you have never heard of Aquaponics before. Aquaponics is a close environment system that allow plants and fish to live in a symbiotic relationship. You can find out more about general concept here. Here is our projects outline and goals.
We are attempting to build a vertical aquaponics bay that will allow for small plants and fish. We will be growing plants vertically in between two layers of coconut fiber encased in landscape fabric to help prevent coconut fiber from shedding into the water.
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Find a frame. Having heavy caster wheels on the bottom is very helpful for moving the project.
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Build fish tank. The tank has 3/4 think plywood walls and rubber liner.
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Enclose walls and top. The outer most layer of the walls are insulated with R-4 3/4" thick water resistant insulation. Then there is a thin layer of corrugated plastic as a water barrier. These two layers are connected to the metal frame with a silicon sealer. A thin sheet of painters plastic is used at the bottom of the walls between the insulation and the corrugated plastic then hangs into the fish tank to make sure water that flows down the walls will go back in the fish tank.
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Enclose the top and install lighting. On the top of the frame is a piece of plywood faced with corrugated plastic. A whole large enough to house our light was cut out of the center of the plywood. On the edges of the whole a rabbit is routed so that a piece of plexiglass could sit inside the whole. On top of the plexiglass sits the light. Right now the light has four T5 bulbs.
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Install water pump and pvc tubing. Water will be pumped from the fish tank to the tops of the walls via pvc tubing.
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Install Sensors with Arduino and Raspberry Pi. So we have installed light, water temperature, humidity, but still need to install a ph tester in the water so our fish stay alive and happy as well as a moisture sensor in the walls so we will know when the plant roots are dry. A whole for a fan is cut in the top as well as a small whole for wiring the sensors. The fan will be used to control humidity levels.