Aquaponics is the combination of hydroponics (the cultivation of plants in water) and aquaculture (raising fish in tanks). In ESW's Aquaponics greenhouse, nutrient-rich water is pumped from the fish tank to a grow bed, where bacteria converts nitrite to nitrate, which plants can consume in a self-sustaining cycle.

Future goals of this project: 

• Design and build systems in the new greenhouse.
• Install sensors into the systems to send live data updates to our website and to help with automation.
• Recognize trends in our data to help find the optimal nutrient/temperature/pH ratios for plant growth.
• Install a solar panel outside the greenhouses to enable the pumps and sensors to run off-the-grid.

Visit the aquaponics website to learn more about the project! 
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Website: http://sites.utexas.edu/ut-aquaponics/
Project Leads: Mitchell Sommer
Email: utaquaponics@gmail.com