New Aqua Demo System

And this is a smaller version of what we have out in the green house. There are two of these systems on mobile islands (wheels) so that they can be moved around the front room depending on what is going on that day. Since the system is completely self contained the only thing that we have to plug in is a small extension cord. As you can see these tanks are much smaller than the other's out back. This small system is where everything begins. Out back is where everything ends. So both our fish and our plants get their starts out front here, once they have aged or grown to a certain determined size they are transported out back to either the tanks if its the fish, or into the large raft's if it is vegetation. There they will live until they are harvested. One quick note, all these starts grow in shredded coconut husk as opposed to soil or other more common growing mediums. This is the first time I have ever seen this, but the husk's work very well, they do not cloud or contaminate the water in any way as opposed to compost which would cloud the entire system and continuously block the filters. The husk is also re usable once it has been used, it can be laid out and dried with limited breakdown. These systems are really quite simple once you become familiar with them, with four main components in each. 1st is a tank where fresh water and recycled water from the system is stored, which is pumped into the 2nd, the tanks where the fish live. From there the water flows into 3, the beds or "rafts" where the plants live and grow. Finally, 4th, the water from the rafts flows into 2 small tanks where the water is filtered "naturally" by gravity. Once finished here, the water flows back into the 1st tank and everything starts all over. This makes a close system, that functions completely on its own. The fish naturally fertilize the water that we use to grow the vegetables so there is no need for any foreign chemicals or fertilizers. And since the water is continually cycled through the system there is very little water used except for what the plants use. It is a very efficient system with everything relying on one another and once it is up and running there is very little human interaction, of course the fish have to be fed everyday....