The design, construction and management of five school based aquaponic systems in tucson, az.  

Aquaponics, the integration of aquaculture and hydroponics, has gained increasing attention in the last decade, because it provides the opportunity for sustainable, localized, small-scale production of both fish and vegetables.  Aquaponics utilizes the nutrient-rich water from aquaculture production of fish as a source of nutrients for growing plants and vegetables.  In a public school setting, an operational greenhouse provides great educational opportunities as well as producing healthy and delicious food for the students.  

Five different aquaponics systems have been design and constructed over the past several years in the greater Tucson, AZ school districts.  These districts vary greatly in resources, funding and teacher participation.  All have been a resounding success so far, reflecting the idea that "if you build it, they will come!"  All but one of the schools had existing greenhouses that had either been abandon or were underutilized with limited growout abilities.  The key to the success of all the systems was to carefully match the design concept with the school expectations, (where there were any!), equipment available, funding ( almost none to significant grants) and construction limitations.  Where every possible, volunteer labor was used that ranged from high school students, undergraduates and graduates from Univ of Arizona, to senior citizens from the local aquaponics organizations.  

From the perspective of a school aquaponics system, the design concepts for each of the five systems and alternative options are presented for the engineering design needs for circulation, solids capture, biofiltration, aeration, disinfection, monitoring and backup systems.  Detailed economic costs and the designed and construction details are presented for each of the aquaponics systems and are available from the authors.  It is hoped that this presentation will help encourage the use of experienced aquaculture engineers in the design of these types of systems and provide several samples of system design, construction details and cost estimates.