Industry Sponsor: Thomas Grimm , Makers Deport

Faculty Advisors: Dr. Vince McDonell, Dr. Farzad Ahmadkhanlou

Team Members*: Darren Zack ME, Lee Tea ME, Teresa Nguyen ME, Mark Annevelink ME, Henry Gomez ME

Project Goal

UCI Consultants

Bell Siphon

Main Fish Holding Tank Introduction to Aquaponics

Acknowledgements

Develop an Aquaponic system based on existing

systems with an optimized water circulation rate in

regards to these parameters:

Tank size and shape

Plant bed placement and configuration

Selection of optimal grow bed media

Other Optimizations

2013-2014

MAE 188: Optimization of an Aquaponics System

Design

Sloped bottom wall with incline of 2.4 degrees to facilitate

fecal sediment collection for bio-filtration

Mimics Vorticity of cylindrical tanks while simplifying

design complexity

Uses air blower and water pump to minimize power

requirements to under 200W

Objectives

Maintain optimal flow from plant bed to fish tank

Prevent root rot of plants by creating ebb-and-flow

tides

Prevent solids from plant bed from re-entering main

tank

Improvements

Inlet pipe funnel to increase back pressure and

prevent equilibrium flow

Air diffuser attached to outlet to increase oxygenation

of influent into main tank

Auxiliary air tube with cap

to maintain water level to

prescribed tube length

Figure 3: Bell Siphon Assembly

Plant Bed Configurations

Raft-Based

Less maintenance required

Greater yield of heirloom

vegetables and fruits

Vertical Growing Towers

Less required growing

space than raft designs

More pumping power

required for irrigation

Plant Bed Grow Media

Shift from gravel-based to bio-matrix

plastic to increase Biological Surface

Area (BSA) to increase Nitrification

rate

Ideal: 10 ft2/gal

Figure 4: Raft-Based

Grow Bed

Principles

Combination of Aquaculture and Hydroponic

techniques

Ammonia converted by Nitorsoma and Nitrospira

bacteria into plant-friendly Nitrates

Water and land efficient ,

Parameters

Oxygenation Rate

Ideal: Total volumetric turnover in less than

an hour

5 mg/L O2 concentration

Food Conversion Ratio (FCR)

Feed mass over body mass gain efficiency

Ideal : 0.84-1.02

Automated Control System

Figure 2: Tank with

2.4 degree incline

bottom

Figure 1 : Solidworks flow

simulation of tank

redesign