Aquaponics is a popular aquaculture system in which waste produced by the fish in an aquarium are used to supply nutrients to a garden which in turn purifies the water returning to the aquarium. Our community partner, The Tech Interactive, has an aquaponics system consisting of a 50 gallon aquarium housing various freshwater fish connected to a vegetable garden growing various produce.
There is a very delicate balance between the aquarium system and the garden system. In order to make sure that the closed-loop system is healthy, we must regularly monitor of the delicate bio-chemical processes; Variances in the levels of ammonia (NH3), phosphate (PO43−), nitrites (NO−2), nitrates (NO−3), pH, and temperature are significant as it has an effect on the overall health of the aquarium and garden.
Our aim is to provide an affordable and easy to use solution to measure water quality levels inside of an aquaponic system. Our automatic water quality testing device consisting of an Arduino Mega and color sensors will periodically sample circulating water, mechanically mix several testing solutions, and provide the results using color identification. The resulting color change will be displayed on a monitor as well as being logged into a database. It will alert the user if any of the parameters enter an unsafe range. Our device will help simplify the urban gardener's overall maintenance process and increase the longevity of their aquaponics system.
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Students at EPICS at SJSU are working to design an Arduino based water sampling and testing system for the aquaponics system on display at The Tech Interactive, a popular museum for children in downtown San Jose.
Aquaponics is a popular aquaculture system in which waste produced by the fish in an aquarium are used to supply nutrients to a garden which in turn purifies the water returning to the aquarium. Our community partner, The Tech Interactive, has an aquaponics system consisting of a 80 gallon aquarium housing various freshwater fish connected to a vegetable garden growing various produce.
There is a very delicate balance between the aquarium system and the garden system. In order to make sure that the closed-loop system is healthy, we must regularly monitor of the bio-chemical processes; Variances in the levels of ammonia (NH3), phosphate (PO43−), nitrites (NO−2), nitrates (NO−3), pH, and temperature are significant as it has an effect on the overall health of the aquarium and garden.
Our aim is to provide an affordable and easy to use solution to measure water quality levels inside of an aquaponic system. Our automatic water quality testing device consisting of an Arduino Mega and color sensors will periodically sample circulating water, mechanically mix several testing solutions, and provide the results using color identification. The resulting color change will be displayed on a monitor as well as being logged into a database. It will alert the user if any of the parameters enter an unsafe range. Our device will help simplify the urban gardener's overall maintenance process and increase the longevity of their aquaponics system.