Aquaponics 101 by Aquawoman

I know, aquaponics is confusing. I've been there; some days I'm still there. But today, I'm feeling lucky; let me break it down for you and describe how the system works. They call me Aquawoman down here in Haiti, and you're about to find out why.

SUMP TANK

This is the most magical tank of them all! The head honcho; the boss; the big cheese; the top dog; the high man on the totem pole; the fat cat; the tank of all tanks! In layman's terms, it's referred to as the sump tank and as you can see it's full of water! Be prepared, because every picture I'm going to show you on this magical journey is actually full of water. That's how aquaponics works. Aqua means water. Think about it. 

Okay, so in the sump tank there are two pumps which pull water into the fish tanks. Where does this sump get its water, you ask? Well, the system actually circulates water from tank to tank...it's a magical journey, as I may have mentioned. The water from the sump is actually coming from the troughs which hold the plants. Due to evaporation and cleaning of the system however, we do lose water and it is replenished from the well. 

You'll also notice a snazzy dosing chamber. The dosing chamber is where we add nutrients like calcium, potassium, or iron. These nutrients are mixed with water and slowly released into the sump tank. This keeps the plants happy! 

Since the sump hold the cleanest water in the entire system, in addition to its convenient size and location, in the hot summer months, it will also be my lounging pool. Pool lap times will be between 2 and 4.

FISH TANKS

So from the sump, into the pump, next stop: fish tanks. Oh hey, look at those fabulous fish tanks. The fearsome foursome! Each tank holds about 300 tilapia which we purchase from Operation Blessing, a mission down in Port-au-Prince. We purchase the fish when they are babes (or fingerlings, as they say in the fish world); roughly 4 grams. It takes 8 months before these bad boys are roughly 1 - 1.5 lbs, in which they make good eats. To fatten these guys up, we feed them high protein pellets twice a day. So each tank holds fish of a different age, spreading out our harvests throughout the year. Booya.

So fierce, that foursome.

What up, fishes? Googly eyes, they get me every time.

STANDPIPES
What goes in must come out. Then it gets sucked into the standpipe located in the center of each fish tank. The standpipe has holes drilled near the top and bottom of the pipe. The bottom holes pull out the solid waste along with water, the top holes insure the tank doesn't overflow. Just as water is continuously getting pumped into the fish tanks, it's also getting pulled out via the standpipe. Magical.

One time I saw a fish poop and then another fish swam up to eat it. I reminded myself not to eat that fish come harvest. Drat, if only I could remember which fish it was!

CLARIFIERrrrr

From the fish tank, the water, along with that wonderful solid waste, move into the clarifiers. See those two black tanks keeping the sump tank company? Yeah, those clarifiers mean business. It's a gross job those tanks have, but hey, someone's gotta do it. So the fish poop settles at the bottom of the clarifiers which get emptied three times a week. A valve opens and the poop exits Grace Village on the other side of the school wall. Good riddance! 

One time we emptied the clarifiers while school was in session. Classes got canceled for the rest of the day due to the bad smell. Oops! ...I should set up a side business where kids pay me to empty those things right as school starts.

MINERALIZATION TANK
Okay onward and upward! From the clarifier, the water moves onto the mineralization tanks. These two tanks are seriously where the magic happens. I'm not lying. At this point the water is full of nutrients from the fish. Although the solid waste is left behind in the clarifiers, the dissolved solids have advanced to the next round. In the mineralization tanks there are large nets where the nutrients can hang out, socialize, and relax as the nitrification process takes place. Nerd alert! Bacteria convert ammonia to nitrite then more bacteria convert nitrite to nitrate. See, it's magic! Plants just eat that nitrate up! So, without the ambiance of the mineralization tank and its nets, this would not happen. 

So every week those nets have to be cleaned. With so many fish eatin' and poopin' there's a lot of nutrients. When they hang out on those nets too long they start to take the oxygen out of the water and it starts to smell...like poop. It's the most disgusting part of the job, shoveling out poopy bacteria on the bottom of those tanks. Whoot whoot. 

DEGASSER
Okay, the gross part is over; onto the degasser. Water in this tank is distributed to the troughs. 

This tank is boring awesome (but kind of boring...not to mention a chore to clean algae off of).

TROUGHS
So the water enters the trough and continues its magical journey 88 feet to the other side. By the time it exits the trough, however, it's a lot cleaner. All those freeloading nitrates the water has been hauling around get absorbed by the hungry plant roots. "Ahhh" says the water as it leaves the troughs feeling refreshed.

Kale is such a show boat.

The farm.

And from the troughs, the filtered water happily flows goes back into my swimming pool, er, I mean sump tank. For the cycle to continue. Cue The Lion King's Circle of Life.

"So, do you come here often?"

 Ohhh did you get all that? If not, you can look at what I get to study: 

Whoa whoa wee whaaa?