Recycled Aquaponics System Update

Today when I checked my system, the plants grew a bit. The plant in the peat grew from 3-3.5cm and the plant in the lava cinder grew to be 3-4cm. I fed the this and they didn't seem hungry. They don't eat much anymore. My air pump is officially broken.

The troubles

Today my partner and I had some difficulties. We forgot to plug in the pump, so one of our plants died.  We got a new plant, but we looked in the fish tank, and the water was dirty, so we had to do a water change.  The fish don't seem to be under stress, so that's good.

Update on the Recycled Aquaponic System

We completely finished our system today, switching the net cups. One problem we ran into was that the batteries in the pump needed to be changed, so the air stone wouldn't work after a while.

Finishing our Aquaponics System

Yes! Our system is finally done.   We had so many problems, like our fish water kept getting dirty because of our growing medium, (soil).  We carefully took out the plant and changed the growing medium from peat to gravel.  We also had to figure out how to secure our 2 soda bottles together.  We used rubber bands, and we're hoping that our system stays stable.  The good thing is that it works!!!!

Aquaponic System

Today we finally finished a hole through a table so we were able to put our pipe that drops the water back into the tank to be pumped up. We added gravel so that the water could get through without dirtying the fish tank, and added a filter so the gravel doesn't get in the water. We could not add the water though since the watertight silicone didn't dry.

We still have to get seeds to plant in the gravel. Tomorrow we hope to be able to add the water and get the plants in the gravel to start growing, we also need to add the fish in without stressing them which would be great! Thanks for reading Bye!

Building the System

Today my partner and I built our system.  The experiment that we're testing is about the cups that hold our plants. One plant is held in a yogurt cup and the other is held in one of those egg carton pieces, where an egg is supposed to be.  We drilled holes in the cups so that the excess water from our plants can drip into the fish tank.

Recycled Aquaponic System Update

Today we checked how the fish were doing and they're still alive (which means we are on the right track). The plant was dry because we forgot to poke a hole on the bottom...

The pH water level was between 8.0-8.5, which means we need to add pH Down. The ammonia/nitrate level was around 0-0.25mg/l.

Aquaponic System

Today we started putting together our aquaponic system, we had a few problems like we we couldnt use our PVC pip because we had no PVC pipe conecters and we had a hard time cutting the pipe because we were weak at the time. Though we got a lot of the system ready, we need to drill through the bottom of the grow bed so that it can recycle the water back into the fish tub. We got quite a bit done today, we have a lot figured out.

Recycled Aquaponics System

Materials:

2 Litter bottles

2 net cups (alternates- egg carton, yogurt cups, etc.)

2 plants/peat pellets

A fish 

A water pump 

Bendable tube

1 Sharpie

1 Ruler

Procedures:

1. With a ruler and a sharpie, draw 1 line going straight down the side of the soda bottles.  

2. Witha  Dremel Drill, drill the line 

EBB & Flow System

Materials:
1. 15 Plants
2. 3 Fish
3. 1 Water pump
4. 2 Air pump
5. 1 Tub
6. 5 PVC Pipes
7. 1 Pipe cap
8. 1 Container to hold the soil and plants.
9. Gravel
10. Strong wooden planks 2x
11. 1 Hole saw
12. 1 Uni seal
13. 1 Saw
14. 1 medium pipe
15. 1 large pipe
16. 3 pipe elbows
Procedures:
First, place the two wooden planks on the tub. Second, put the container on the two planks. The planks will support the containers weight. Third, get the hole saw and drill a hole in the container on the bottom. Forth, put the uni seal in the hole. The seal should fit tightly. Fifth, squeeze the pipe into the uni seal and after the pipe is in the seal, assemble the pipe structure below using the pipe elbows. The pipe should also fit tightly. Sixth, get a larger pipe, put a cap on it, and cut teeth into the side of the pipe with no cap. Seventh, put the larger pipe with teeth on top of the pipe in the uni seal. Eighth, put the large pipe around the pipe with the teeth. Ninth, pour in the gravel until the surface of the gravel is 1 inch  above the small pipe inside the pipe with the teeth. Make sure no gravel gets into the siphon or it may clog up the pipe. Tenth, put the water pump into the tub. Eleventh, fill the tub with water. Last, put the air pump's tube into the tub, turn on the air and water pumps, put the fish in the tub, and put the plants in the container. You are done.

Aquaponic System

I am building a Aquaponic system, I am doing the ebb and flow system.

Materials:

Air Pump

Water Pump

Growing bed

Growing Medium

Tub for fish

Fish

Seeds

Stands

PVC watering pipes

fish food

water

Wire Mesh 

Procedures:

Obtain all of the materials.

Put the Fish tub under the Growing bed on stands

Fill the growing bed with growing medium.

Set up pumps, air pump watering pump.

Then set up the PVC watering pipes.

Drill a hole throw the growing bed for the water to be recycled back to the tub.

Then put a wire mesh filter so none of the growing medium falls below on the fish

Make sure everything is set up properly and you have controllers for the watering PVC pipes.

Then fish the tub with water, and put the fish in. ( make sure you have fish food ready)

Recycled Aquaponic System

Materials:
1 Small Fish Tank
1 Net Cup
1 Plant
1 Small Plastic Tray or Plastic Container Top
1 Fish
1 Pen
1 Pair of Scissors
1 Pump with Air Stone

Steps:
1. Trace the net cup in the middle of the tray.
2. Cut a hole around the tracing and put the net cup in.
3. Put the plant in the net cup.
4. Fit the tray to the top of the tank and cut off extra edges.
5. Plug the pump in and put the tube with the air stone into the tank.
6. Fill the tank with water.
7. Put your fish in.

2 Liter-Bottle Recycled Aquaponic System

Materials:
2 Liter-Bottle
1 Net Cup
1 Dremel Tool
Peat Pellet with Manoa Lettuce Starter
Chopstick
A guppy fish

Procedures:
Cut out top of bottle.
Turn it upside down and cut out a hole for the net cup
Insert net cup with peat pellet and Manoa Lettuce Starter
Drill air holes into the bottle for fish and chopstick to hold the top of the bottle into the bottom
Fill water into bottom of bottle and put fish inside
Put the top into the bottom bottle upside down and put net cup in with peat pellet and Manoa Lettuce
Leave outside for residual sunlight

Change out water when it gets dirty and feed fish food 2 - 3 times a week.