I’m happy to see that someone (“Chris,” I’m told) put shelves with aquaponics and plants into the Bio area. I knew we were talking about putting in shelves, but I hadn’t heard how that idea was progressing.
I notice that the shelves appear to be made of raw wood. I’m wondering how they will handle getting wet? Should we put plastic over them, to protect them? Who supplied the plants, and what happens when the plants are harvested?
I’m curious too, this was the first I heard as well. I didn’t even think we were done cleaning out the old junk from the bio area.
We finished moving and setting up that aquaponics system yesterday. The short story behind it, the system is part of the Valhalla Research and Development aquaponics education program. It is our testbed/learning system. My plan is to make the system available to Makerspace as a teaching tool and a testbed for automation and sensing technology, with the intent to get the system autonomous at some point. If you are interested in helping out in any way or are interested in learning about the system or aquaponics in general, I’d be more than happy to talk to you about it.
As far as the construction, we had to ditch our old fish tank because it had sprung a leak, so we are sharing the tank with the old aquaponics system until we can acquire a new tank. The frame, I’m not worried about. We have not had any leaks from the grow beds and there shouldn’t be any standing water, so I don’t see any reason we should worry about water damage. Before we moved it, it had been in a moist atrium that didn’t drain well, but I didn’t see any significant damage to the frame’s legs after about 6 months of operation. I’ve replaced the new legs, so I don’t think there will be a problem.
Lastly, I’m going to work with local food banks or other charitable organizations to donate the food to. Our intent with the system is to use it to solve the inner city food access problem, also called “food deserts”. If you have a favorite organization you would like us to keep in mind come harvest time, let me know.
I remember that you brought up the idea a week ago. Here’s the thread:
I think it’s a great idea, I love the shelving and you guys did good work, fast. I am surprised that we didn’t have more discussion about this before it happened, though. In particular, what coordination was done to arrange for the shelves to be where they are?
I’ve been working closely with David Ratcliff and Andrew Floyd. I think all three of us wanted to expedite the program to build some momentum for the Bio Committee. Also, David was pretty busy last week cleaning and organizing the space to get it ready for the Brewers and the new aquaponics.
It looks nice.
Will other people be able to use it? How would that work?
The short answers are: yes and talk to me. Let me know what you want to do.
Once I have a better idea of how many people want to be involved/use the system and what they want to do, I can come up with a more formal operating procedures. Until then, lets chat.