Desk Top Aquaponics system

thingiverse

The goal of this project is to find out how small of an aquaponic system you can build, but still having it be efficient unit. An Aquaponics system is a combination of aquaculture and hydroponics that grows fish and plants together in one integrated system. The fish waste provides an organic food source for the plants, and the plants naturally filter the water for the fish. There are two main aquaponic system horizontal and vertical, both are efficient but the vertical takes up less space. A vertical aquaponic system is a system that can“grow vegetables without soil in columns above a fish tank. It is a water-efficient and space-saving way to garden and raise fish. By growing vertically, you can produce about twice the amount of plants as you can with a hydroponic system of the same area. One five-foot tower can produce more than 200 heads of lettuce per year.” (“How to Build a Vertical AquaponicSystem.”EngineeringForChange,1Dec.2016,www.engineeringforchange.org/news/how-to-build-a-vertical-aquaponic-system/.) An aquaponic system “puts fish waste to work as fertilizer for crops. A small pump draws nutrient-rich water from the fish tank to the tops of the vertical columns. The water trickles down through the roots of the plants, gathering oxygen from the air as it falls back into the tank”(“How to Build a Vertical Aquaponic System.” EngineeringForChange,1Dec.2016,www.engineeringforchange.org/news/how-to-build-a-vertical-aquaponic-system/). So a vertical system would work best for an urban area, that has insufficient amount of space for a garden.