Desktop Aquaponics & Airfiltration System

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The Desktop Aquaponics System is part of a Aquaponics Lab project of the iForesee (i4C) at the Centre for Innovation (C4i) of Leiden University at Campus the Hague (the Netherlands).The aim of this project is to develop a Aquaponic system that anyone could put together themselves and through this promote the 'social-education' and awareness of aquaponic practices and techniques.Aquaponics is a process of combing Aquaculture (fancy word for fish farming) with Hydroponics (soil-less agriculture usually requiring a petroleum based nutrient solution for the plants). The idea of Aquaponics is to utilize the waste of fish (fish poop) to fertilize and nourish the plants within the system. As such, Aquaponics is a farming process that attempts to mimic natural ecosystems and can therefore be more than just a mechanism for producing food. This process shares many of the benefits hydroponic farmers experience with the added benefit of producing a double yield (fish and plants) in the same floor space (if vertically stacked).We feel that this way of producing food has a huge untapped potential and want to encourage innovation and social awareness in this field. The maker community is an ideal breading ground for new ideas and innovations and this is why we are sharing our designs and results. After testing our initial prototype, we quickly realized of the potential of incorporating an air-filtration system into the unit. As such, this system not only serves aesthetic value (enhancing the Feng-shui of your room), but also keeps your plants watered (herbs, flowers, etc.) and filters the air from VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds). We would love to see other people build these systems for educational purposes (or just for fun) and share their experience, design improvements and suggestions with us.Here some videos:Version 1: Version 2: More info here: http://www.iforesee.nl/aquaponic-designs.html