Aquaponics (:

Today was a day filled with terracotta, plants, fish, and tomatoes. We started by heading to the Steffee and Doane Hall of Biology and Chemistry. We all crowded into the elevator and arrived on the roof! We walked down a hall and ended up in the greenhouse. The greenhouse was composed of two aquaponic systems! The first system involved terracotta beads, water, plants, and two fish tanks. Water flowed into the terracotta beads which filtered out the nutrients. The beads are made out of the same material that flower pots are, however, they are significantly lighter than they look! filtering out the nutrients allows plants to grow in the beads. After the water was filtered through the beads it went through a pipe which led to the first fish tank. The water was then taken from that fish tank, and filtered into the next fish tank. The water continues to go through this cycle continually. The second system was composed of fish, tomato and basil plants, water, and plastic bacteria collectors. Water was placed in the fish tank which contains trout. The water is then filtered through plastic bacteria collectors that look like noodles. After this the water circulates to the basil and tomato plants. We were allowed to taste the tomatoes and they were AMAZING! They didn't taste like what you expect a tomato to taste like. It was sweet, crispy, and not artificially red!!! (: (: