Presenters: Heather Smith ; David Bean
Authors: David Bean, Jesus Gonzalez, Heather Smith
Faculty Advisor: Diana Reese
Institution: Dixie State University
Aquaponics is a method of producing plants and fish in a symbiotic relationship. Water is recycled through the system, making water-usage efficient. Fish introduce ammonia into the system, which is converted to nitrates by bacteria. The nitrates, which are essential nutrients, are then taken up by plants, and the water is cleaned for the fish. There are drawbacks to aquaponics that prevent the practice from becoming more prevalent. These factors include set-up costs, ease of use, and operational time demand. To account for some of these drawbacks, fully-automated systems that can actively detect and correct levels of nutrients and other chemicals in the water have been developed. However, such systems are prohibitively expensive, especially for small scale set ups. An automated aquaponics system can help by reducing the level of maintenance, preventing failure, thus protecting the investment of initial set-up costs, and lessening user time demands. We report on the design of an automated aquaponics system that is more affordable in comparison to existing solutions. This system will utilize affordable sensors to maintain system equilibrium.