High School Aquaponics It’s been a little over a year since students and I at Jasper Place High School assembled an aquaponics system in the school’s Culinary Arts’ classroom. The project was successful and gathered a lot of attention in the local media but all-in-all pretty small and not capable of producing as much as we want/need.

Expansion One of the great things about having had an aquaponics system at the school for over a year is knowing what you’d do differently the next time. Well, “next time” is hear and we have indeed learnt a few things:

• Ease of Access: In terms of assessing all of the plants, we wanted to try to get things as close to table-top height (36″) as possible; I think that we ended up 38″ high. In addition, each unit will be placed a foot and a half apart to increase access to the sides and back.
• Keep it Modular: In case we ever want to move or reconfigure the design, smaller connectable units was a better choice than one large system. In addition, each unit is assembled using bolts instead of nails or screws.
• Build in Versatility: Though, the tops of each unit are intended for plants, the lower tanks could be used as a simple water reservoir, to hold fish, to grow duckweed (tilapia love it) or even as another grow bed.
• Keep it Simple: The less there is the less chance there is that anything will go wrong. In our new design, we’ve combined our two (2′x3′) grow beds into a single (4′x4′) bed.

Interested in purchasing baby tilapia for your own aquaponics system?