aquaponics

"Aquaponics is the integration of aquaculture and hydroponics. An aquaculture is used to continuously generate a nutrient-rich solution to feed a hydroponic garden. Aquaponic systems can be used to replicate controlled wetland conditions that are useful for reclaiming potable water from typical household sewage, in addition to generating a continual supply of food with minimal fertilizer use. Aquaponics, which takes advantage of synergy between self-organizing biological systems, is a key element of permaculture. This synergy benefits both systems and allows each to help maintain the other. For example, an aquaponic system consisting of goldfish and watercress would require less human intervention into each system. The goldfish would benefit from the filtration carried out by the watercress, and the watercress would benefit from the nutrient-rich waste excreted by the goldfish." - Wikipedia

A good book about planted aquariums is "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium, A Practical Manual and Scientific Treatise for the Home Aquarist" by Diana Walstad. The book is not strictly about aquaponics, but is definetly related.

solar powered aquaponic system diagram

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Using a nozzle at the end of the tubing, supplying the water to the plant bed, increases the pressure of water and creates a more turbulent, highly aerated zone. If the high pressure flow is fed into a pool of water, the sound that is created is similar to white noise. My goal is to mimic a waterfall, where the falling water creates an area where the water is in mist form.

I threw the thermocoupling into the diagram just for fun. It would be nice to transfer the heat from the panel into the tank. The thermocoupling would work most efficiently if the water was fed directly against the panel, like a CPU cooler.

Sandstone would make a superb media for the planted bed, for it's porous structure and ability to act as a fine filter.

The pump should be arranged so as not to allow noise and vibration to contaminate the fish tank. Pumps installed within the tank are noisy in the fish environment, possibly stressing the fish. Since I am using a pump designed for PC cooling which has to be primed, I have placed it below the water table so gravity primes the pump.

To conserve energy, a timer, to control the pump, could be added. This would also create an ebb and flow system. The timer could be set to pump every other hour, for a total of 12 hours a day, rather than continuous 24 hour pumping.

A ceramic bottom maybe advantageous if it were to act as a distributed heat plate. Plus, the ceramic's porous structure would possibly benefit the growth of smaller organisms.

tank

fill out...

I would like to eventually move to a tank with a ceramic bottom. A ceramic bottom will serve two purposes. First, it will retain heat well, and second, if the ceramic is highly porous, it will allow for the growth of stuff. Maybe pumice or dead coral?

tank pump

I am using a Swiftec PC cooling pump and it is not really designed to be pumping solids. Yet, it seems to be holding up quite well and is very quiet and compact. This pump will allow me to control it if I ever decide to implement a computer controlled system.

plant bed

Flooded aggregate bed for plants.

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filter

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plants

Currently there are 4 ivies and 4 bamboo plants. All the ivy has been propagated from the mother plant on the left. The plants have been in the bed for about 1 year.

I wanted some hearty plants that could withstand some changing conditions, and these plants have seen a couple of moves and plenty of replanting. They have keep up in with the changing water conditions in the tank, and I haven't seen much leaf burn. The bamboo is now at least ten years old and has been kept indoors for the majority of it's life

This is a mockup for testing out the cylinder shape, rather than a rectangular tank.

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Some macro shots to get a good look at the type of growth going on...

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fish

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aqua log

Connecting to Basic Stamp at 9600 baud over USB through Z-Term. PBasic writes the XML, which is probably not a good way of doing this, but it works. Z-Term captures debug data to an XML file on webserver. PHP parses an XML file and prints the log file in an HTML document.

Since the Basic Stamp cannot handle non-integers, all calculations are performed by PHP.

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Currently the database is populated with false data. This is to test the functionality of the database before a full implementation.

Two tables were setup in mySQL, one being a table containing all the data being logged, and the other containing the system's specifications. The first table currently logs:

These logs will be determined with the appropriate sensors for acquiring data through a serial connection. With the high price of data acquisition tools, a dummy database will first serve to test the web interface until a cost effective solution is found.

The second table contains:

further work

thoughts

For a designer, be it lighting, graphic, or what have you, one requisite seems to be the use of filters. After pondering the optimal throughput and ease of use of this biological filter, I could not tear myself away from thinking about all the different types of filters. Lens filters, photoshop filters, spam filters, notch filters, audio filters, media filters, the filter in your Brita or your Mr. Coffee, or your kidneys...

Generally the filter is thought of as mechanism through which to remove material harmful to the system it is acting within. Yet, when one uses a photoshop filter, one primarily doesn't think of it as removing something harmful, but as a means to achieve a certain aesthetic or creative end. Could the original image be deemed as harmful? Harmful to the creative practice? Or is this mere semantics?

Biological filters are most effective when the material to be processed is passed through a hierarchy of stages, the first being a course aggregate, then less course, all the way through to a very fine aggregate such as carbon. This lead to me a wider understanding of information control structures. Many people and organizations use news aggregators and the sort to specifically taylor their information uptake, so as to remove unwanted stories, headlines, etc., basically to remove noise, to tune in.

Tuning in, in the early days of radio, meant adjusting of the radio's coil so as to obtain the optimal level for listening enjoyment. Musicians tune their instruments. Timothy Leary's famous phrase "turn on, tune in, and drop out". Or your late night talk show host reminding you to stay tuned. Now we have the all to familar iTunes. With the advent of digital technologies, the art of tuning is slowly being relegated to that of ham operators and classical musicians. With computers calculating quantization errors, the art of the tune is lost. The true sine is thus a blocky interpretation. The digital / analog divide.

Is tuning synonymous with filtering? Filtering removes substance, tuning changes the characteristics of the substance?

plants in space

Aquaponics always gets my mind thinking about plant life on space ships. This eventually leads me to thinking of the water weight and how this water is stored on orbitting vessels. Is the water stored as a skin layer around the space ship? Is the space shuttle a vacuum sealed thermos?

All media, unless noted, © 2010 Mike Low.