The Aquaponics System is my first system in the lab. This system use to be a hydroponics system and was then converted to be an aquaponics system. The difference between Hydroponics and Aquaponics is that Hydroponics sticks mainly for growing plants while aquaponics uses fish or other types of fresh aquatic water organism to grow plants. How do aquatic organisms grow terrestrial plants? Aquatic organisms release ammonia (NH3) which is really toxic to them. Nitrifying bacteria take the ammonia and convert it into Nitrates (NO3) which are still toxic to aquatic organisms, nitrates are very healthy for plants as they are a nutrient for them. Nitrates help the chlorophylls in a plant's leaves to produce photosynthesis. Nitrates are found in rich soil and plant fertilizer. In aquaponics, the fish produce their own nitrates. How this system works is it pulls water from a water pump with the nitrates and it brings the water to the valves in the back. When the valve is on, it takes the water and pushes it through the PVC pipes. The water passes through the sponges of the plants. The sponges absorb the water and give it to the plants by the roots. The plant does photosynthesis using nitrates in the water and the light that it gets from the sun, or from the light panels. By doing this the plants actually clean the water so when the water falls back into the tank it's clean with no nitrates.

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The Turtle Tanks was started up by Aaniyla Allen-Sutherland with her two female Red Eared Sliders named Valrie and Amaya who live in the top row. Later we added more turtles to the top tank with a total of seven turtles. On the bottom tank we have two Russian Tortoises, soon that'll be sharing the middle row with a bearded dragon. The bottom tank holds baby turtles.