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Principles of Engineering
BY Anthony Aguirre
Teacher- Mr. Cepeda
2020-2021
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Aquaponics
Problem
The class was asked to make an aquaponics project.It is basically a cycle where plants feed the fish and the fish feed the plants.There was a time constraint,We had 1 full semester to do the project.There was no real size constraint it could be as big as you wanted or as small, but it had to work.For the fish it didn't really have to be a fish it could be a shrimp or a lobster,but there had to be a living organism.
We also needed take notes of our observations in our journals.There was also a website were we had to put information about the projects like our notes and our solutions to out problem.No materials were given to us so we also had to get our own materials.
Solution
I stated of by doing my research. I had an idea on how things worked, but wanted to be sure that I do everything right so I began to look in the internet. I wanted my project to be almost perfect .I already had a tank and air pump so all I needed to research was the type of fish that I needed, the plant, and the water pump. Once I had an idea on what the aquaponic was I got my tank cleaned it and put water with the drops that took away the chlorine and let it set for 2 days. Once the water was done I bought my fish and placed them their.
I had the basic done. I went to the store and bought my pump with tubing. While my fish were getting used to the new environment I began to grow my beans. I also bought my pellets online. When my pellets arrived I put them in a container and place my plants. I set the container on top and stated the water pump .I used a fountain pump and made holes I n the tubing. Once the hole were made i place the tube on top of the plants to simulate rainfall and my aquaponics was all set up.
Evidence
Sources
Feedback
I really enjoyed this project because it had to do with a lot of building. I liked that living things were involved in this .It was a bit expensive because the pump and the fish were a lot. luckily I did have a tank an air pump so the saved me money. In my opinion it was a fast project because it was simple and the only thing that took time was to get the parts. The hardest part to find was the pellets because people don't really look for this types of things so I had to order them online.
When it came to assembling the projects, it was easy, but I made it difficult for me because I wanted it to be as neat as possible. My tubing was on top of the plants because I wanted it to be like rainfall. Making hole on the tube was also hard. I used a drill bit, but it did nothing. To solve that I heated the bit and punctured the tube.
Once this project is done I will take it all apart and just leave the tank because it makes too much noise and not filtering the water makes it smell bad and the fish might not like it so I'm going to put m\back the filter tablets back in.
Update week 1
I chose bean plants because I had already spent too many and we had beans in my house. I grabbed a bean and started growing it without spending money. It took more than a week to get a sprout, but after sometime it stated to grow in soil. Once it grew more I would move it to my pellets.
Update week 2
I placed my young plant in the pellets and turned the pump on. I turned on my LED lights during lunch until the of school to allow the plants to grab a light. I also fed my fish every night.My plants were at least 5 inches
Update week 3
My plants at the beginning were getting light from the lamp, but I changed it and put LED lights. It was one of the biggest mistakes because my plants started to die. Because of my mistake, the plant barely grew for 2 days and it then started to die. It was also because it was getting cold in the house.
Update week 4
I didn't put the lamp back because the placement was too dangerous. Instead, I took out the red container every day for 5 hrs in the window to allow it to get some actual sunlight. It did grow around 2.5 inches but since it was too cold outside it looked that it wanted to die.
Update week 5
My plants were doing good in the sunlight, but then the daylight was minimizing and was getting cold. I tried to go back to LED lights and didn't work. They started to go brown and they slowly died. I don't have a pic because I always take it Friday and didn't have time because I wanted to find a solution.
Update week 6
I had to find a solution to my problem and I thought that my plants were too young to survive. I was thinking of buying mature plants that are able to survive in the cold. In my theory, I think that a more mature plant wont need as much care and would thrive.
Update week 7
The thing that messed my whole project up was that my plant was not made for the cold weather, but were for the warm season like spring. Carrots were grown in winter so I decided to look for mature carrots but had no luck.
Update week 8
When I garbed my fish that were specifically for producing waste the people told me to barely feed them since they produced a lot of waste. I thought that they got barely any food so I gave them a little more food and that was a mistake. They produced too much food that they clogged up my pump.
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