E
very Christmas my wife and I visit family in Florida. This year the nearby college, Saint Leo University, finished construction on their aquaponic garden. So I called them up an asked for a tour and they told me to stop by.
The garden is inside a green house. The green house is really and is setup to automatically keep the indoor temperature at 82 Fahrenheit. There is a screen door on either end of entry/exit. Next to the door on one end are a set of louvers that automatically open and close. On the opposite end, is a large fan, when the temperature gets too high the louvers open and the fan turns on to exhaust the hot air. It appears that these systems are powered off the grid instead of solar or wind powered.
Once inside, there are ten 250 gallon IBC totes in two rows of five totes. Each tote has had the top cut open and contains between twelve and eighteen tilapia depending on the size of the fish. The fish are fed three times a day, at 8a, 1p, and 5p. The totes are filled with well water (once) and are plumbed to a central drain the flows into a pair of 50 gallon plastic drums.
The drums act as a way to filter and aerate the water coming from the IBC totes. These barrels act as way to aerate and filter large particles from the water. Once these barrels are filled, they drain to the grow beds.
The grow beds consist of two 2×6 boards with a pond liner inside. There are pieces of styrofoam that floats on the water. Each piece of styrofoam has nine holes in it. Each hole will have a mesh basket added filled with coconut fibers and a plant seed.
At the far end of the grow bed there is a pump that pushes the water from the grow bed back to the IBC totes to start the whole cycle all over again.
According to Sister Miriam Cosgrove, once fully running the system will provide 1000 pounds of vegetables and 500 pounds of fish each year. Below are some other pictures a took.
