A Classroom aquaponics set up

[Troy Mayfield]

I have a small set-up in my classroom.  This system is a 20 gallon aquarium with 5 goldfish.

3 of my students washing off the hydroton that was donated by our local Cooperative Extension Horticulture Agent!

 

This is the drain off of our bell siphon, which is working like a charm!

 

Here is a quick view of our growing bed and some sacrificial seedlings!  These came from some old seed packets we found so we are not really out anything if it doesn't work!

 

 

[Troy Mayfield]

I have one more short video showing the time that our fill and drain cycle takes.  I apologize for the quality of the video.  I was stalling for things to say and show. ;)

[Troy Mayfield]

Oh yeah, I might add that I am a high school agriculture teacher in Northeastern Colorado.  I have studied Aquaponics for close to 10 years now and finally have the systems coming together to put this in place.  We are in the process of moving an 8'X24' greenhouse from a shady northeast location of our building to a nice sunny southern exposed area right outside of my ag shop.  I have a great advisory committee that is out finding money to pull this off and to help us set up 3 - 200 gallon tanks with the associated growing beds.  We hope to geothermally heat and/or cool the greenhouse with a low tech buried line and fan system and have the tanks buried about 3' into the ground.

[Aaron]

Hi Troy,

my name is Aaron fiordimondo. I'm a h.s. Science teacher in Nj and have been studying ap for just over a year now. I'm very glad that your doing ap in your classroom! The decision makers/voters of tomorrow need to know where we get food, how it's made, and the time it takes. Good work and keep us all posted!

Troy Mayfield said:

Oh yeah, I might add that I am a high school agriculture teacher in Northeastern Colorado.  I have studied Aquaponics for close to 10 years now and finally have the systems coming together to put this in place.  We are in the process of moving an 8'X24' greenhouse from a shady northeast location of our building to a nice sunny southern exposed area right outside of my ag shop.  I have a great advisory committee that is out finding money to pull this off and to help us set up 3 - 200 gallon tanks with the associated growing beds.  We hope to geothermally heat and/or cool the greenhouse with a low tech buried line and fan system and have the tanks buried about 3' into the ground.

[Chi Ma]

Sweet!

[JD Sawyer]

Hi Troy,

 The system looks great. there's nothing more exciting than getting your first bell siphon working. Congrats!

 

JD

[Troy Mayfield]

I have moved this system to a small greenhouse attached to the science lab next door to my room.  Sorry, no new pictures, because I dropped my camera!, but the plants are much happier.  They are not leaning as much to try and get the artificial light.  In moving the system, the grow bed and bell siphon became messed up, so I had to pull all the plants, empty the hydroton, re-plumb, reload and replant.  I can tell you that the root development on the plants is amazing!

 

We thought the greenhouse was warm enough we might not have to run the small tank heater, but after 4 days, the water temp dropped to 64 F and the fish just huddled at the bottom, so we put the heater back in this morning.  The tank had been running right at 73 in my classroom. 

[Jonathan Farrand]

I agree!! I made about seven different varieties until I got it 100% right. Great work, Troy!!

JD Sawyer said:

Hi Troy,

 The system looks great. there's nothing more exciting than getting your first bell siphon working. Congrats!

 

JD