Hydroponics Strike Again!

I'm back in the classroom {greenhouse}!

I've finally graduate middle school...and in my retirement time am volunteering at our local high school ag department. I'm working with the agriculture teacher to start up aquaponics and hydroponics systems in the high school greenhouse.

I have ten students who have volunteered their free periods to work with me on getting these systems up and running.

Here Tyler is preparing the growing bed for the nutrient solution from the tilapia fish.

Our first steps were to obtain industrial bulk containers and cut the tops off to form the bottom tank and the top growing area. We had two of these tanks donated from Honey Acres in Ashippun, Wisconsin. Both will be used for aquaponics where we will grow about 100 tilapia over the next nine months.

I'll have more updates coming! In the meantime, if you want to try hydroponics on a small scale, check out these directions for a simple Windowsill Hydroponics system!

Aquaponics in Makers Lab - We've Got FISH!

We started lettuce and spinach just over two weeks ago. We have micro-greens ordered. When we see some growth, I'll get some photos posted!

Our other big news is that last Tuesday we picked up our tilapia fish for our aquaponics set up. We started with 44 fish this year. At the moment, we've only lost one!

Last year a week into our introduction, we had lost about 10 fish. We've made improvements this time around to prevent the losses we initially had last year.

Once of the changes is that we cycled the water longer with ammonia this year. I also think the clay pellets had old bacteria still embedded. When we brought the system up, I believe that the bacteria rejuvenated and is managing to break down the ammonia better.

We also had an great Makers Lab moment, which you can see in this photo (the fish are too tiny to capture a good photo right now, but this is the day we put them in!). We were having an evaporation issue and we need to add water every day. Our aquaponics system is on the opposite side of the classroom from our sink. We were running a hose across the floor (tripping hazard), rolling and unrolling hose each day (time consuming), and when we rolled hose there almost always was water spilled across the floor.

With a little finagling, we ran the hose up through the drop tiled ceiling and across the room. Now the hose stays in place, we save time, and have a safer and cleaner Makers Lab! 

2014 Aquaponics in the Makers Lab

The Makers Lab is running full speed! I stopped in to photograph a few of the projects and I was so excited to see all the happenings. I was blown away by the focus and dedication of the students as they spend 45 minutes buzzing around the Makers Lab. The upcoming posts will highlight each of the projects.

More compact than last year!

One of the first things I noticed when I walked in the Makers Lab was the the aquaponics lab is built! It is significantly more compact than last year's model. At the top, the plants will grow. The water in the tank is pumping and you can see how it is aerated using the PVC piping with holes drilled in it. Adding the tilapia fish will is the next step!

Aerating the water.

The grow bed where our plants will be placed.

Aquaponics in the Classroom

One of our biggest challenges was starting our aquaponics program in the Makers Lab. Our tilapia have stabilized and are growing well. We are growing broccoli, but unfortunately, it is not growing as well as we had hoped at this point.

We will continue to tweak our methods to see if we can get some fresh school-grown veggies!