Hydroponics Design Challenge

My wife and I would like to have a hydroponics system in our apartment to help overcome these problems.

Challenge: Your challenge is to work in a team of 3-4 to design, build, and test a hydroponic system that would work for families like mine. You must produce detailed plans for your system and then build it. Not only do you have to build your system but you have to test your system to make sure that it can grow plants successfully. You must gather data on this system to help us with our decision process on which system we should have in our apartment. Ideally my wife and I would select a system that can grow the best/most for the price it takes to build and maintain.

Here are some criteria and constraints for our system:

• It must fit in a 2-foot by 2-foot square (unless alternative plans are approved).

• It must be able to hold at least 6 plants.

• The structure must hold the system and the a grow light.

• The system can hold more than 12 gallons of water so that weight is not an issue.

• It must be made out of basic materials that can be purchased at the local hardware store.

• It must be affordable.

Presenting Your Design:

• You must provide detail plans for both the system and structure.

• You will need to provide evidence of your design's effectiveness.

• You must provide recommendations for maintenance, troubleshooting, and optimization of the design.

Are you up for the challenge?

What is a Niche?

The function or position of a species within an ecological community.

A Species's niche includes the physical environment to which it becomes a producer and consumer of food resources.

niche. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Science Dictionary.

Retrieved October 07, 2015, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/niche

Basically we are looking for a hydroponic system that will be adaptable to our small "ecological community" aka an apartment.

This system will need to be a food producer for the organisms in the ecosystem.