An aquaponics system, unlike anything that we've done before. Is a food production system that merges the raising of aquatic animals and the cultivation of plants in the same environment. The fish excrete in the water that then becomes nutrient-rich, providing the plants with all they need to grow.

To create such a complex system, we started off with two cut-in-half barrels that would act as the containers in which the plants would reside. We filled the barrels with rocks for the plant to grow on. We placed these barrels on an elevated platform, and below them, we placed a large water vessel that would house the fish. We placed a water pump connecting the water tank and the barrels that would contain the plants. This way, the nutrient-rich water from the fish would be pumped up to the plants, and the access water would return to the fish barrel.

Currently, in the Greenhouse, we have fish that we feed on a daily basis, and have plans for obtaining a fish that can clean the bottom of the barrel as a lot of fish food sinks to the bottom. In terms of plants, we have planted lettuce among the gravel to test out our new contraption. For future plans, we have many different ideas of what to plant and what else we could experiment with.