Howdy, welcome to our Cornerstone project Instructable! This is a mobile, indoor aquaponic system that automatically waters itself with the help of Arduino, which is a programming software.

Note that this project has NOTHING to do with peaches. Sorry about that.

Problem Statement: Hunger and homelessness are both described as the top 10 issues in our global community. Families and individuals who are less fortunate and do not have homes or food, have to face the challenges of not knowing when they will have their next meal. With the technology of aquaponics, people are allowed to interact with their food sources and gain agricultural experience. Aquaponics is the biological system of growing plants while also growing fish to eat. [ Click here to learn more about Aquaponics.] With the technology of Arduino, aquaponics can become a simple and easy system to navigate and understand.

Aquaponics is still easy to use regardless of whether technology is connected to it. Aquaponics also gives the opportunity to educate the public about where their food source comes from. It also gives people the chance to interact with a gardening system and eat fresh and healthy foods. Our project, Producing Everlasting Aquaponic Culinary Help, or P.E.A.C.H for short, is different from the stationary aquaponics systems because it can be mobile and flexible to handle in an indoor environment. P.E.A.C.H can easily feed people of small communities and help contribute to solving world hunger.

This project was inspired by the following:

- Makezine's Build an Aquaponic Garden With Arduino

- A youtube tutorial on how to make an automatic plant waterer

- Spark Fun Arduino kit provided by our school

Brainstorming Process

From January 2018 to May 2018, we, TEM, have spent all of our engineering class time working on this project, and we have plenty of evidence to prove it. We were inspired by the Aquaponics with Arduino project from Makezine, but we often faced the challenges of not having the right materials and questioning our expertise on programming. We persevered and came up with a lovely final project, which we hope those around the world can also be inspired.

We chose to build an aquaponics system because it is interactive, interesting, and feeds the public while teaching them about the aquaponics system.

Keep scrolling to find out how to build our project!

Step 1: MATERIALS AND TOOLS

Base

4-5 2'' x 6" wood pieces (2 angle cut ##in, 2 angle cut ##in, 2 ##in pieces, 2 ##in pieces, and 8 ##in pieces.)
5" Caster Wheels with brakes - $11.97 each
Plywood
Screws (Star)

Growbed:

27-gallon sturdy storage tote - $11.98
Clay grow bed media - $33.07
5' x 1-1/2" PVC pipe - $4.90
2' x 3" PVC pipe - $6.76
Plants (3-4 small plants, not seeds)

Fish Tank:

55-gallon fish tank aquarium - $179.00 (we got one left over from a classroom. I suggest that you start with a smaller aquarium to save money)
Water pump - $16.99
Foam boards (optional if you want a cushion for your tank)
Local tilapia (If you have a license, you can get any other suggested fish.)
10 feet of 5/16" black vinyl tubing and 20 feet of 3/4" black vinyl tubing (About 20 feet)
2-3 small aquarium air pumps or One 100-gallon air pump - $15.98

Electronics:

Arduino Uno R3 - $24.95 (We used a SparkFun board)
Breadboard - $4.95
1-2 USB cables - $3.95
Wires (2 pack optional, but you'll need at least 10) - $5.99
Soil Moisture sensor - $6.99
LCD screen (optional)
POT (potentiometer) - $0.95
Relay
LED plant grow lights
Arduino Software
RTC module

Tools used:

Lexel Glue - $9.08
Drill and Divers (Star head for the base)
Youtube Tutorials
- Automatic water pump
- Fish tank set up
Paint (when you get the chance to do so)
Hand saw
Jig Saw
Sugru clay (cheaper alternatives are available)

Step 2: Instructions Part 1

Step 1: Gather Materials and Plan

Before you begin building, here's a quick run through of the building process from start to finish:

Cut the wood into the appropriate lengths
Assemble the bottom of the base (bottom wood, wall, legs (L-pieces), and wheels) with screws.
Insert the fish tank
Cut the plywood and attach the hinges to the outside of the legs and the plywood. Then use the leftover plywood to make a box to glue on top of the plywood for the grow bed.
Drill holes into the grow bed
Cut the two 1.5in PVC and the two 1.75in PVC as directed, then glue the smaller PVC through the grow bed.
Build your water pump sensors and connect the water pump to the waterer (not the drain).
Dump the washed clay material into the grow bed
Wash and set up the fish tank for the tilapia (with filters, air pumps, etc)
Attach a power strip to plug in the filters, pumps, sensors and grow lights
Add any final design touches such as paint or a chalkboard to write notes(which plants are growing in the grow bed, etc.)
And........You're done! Now, let's actually do it!

Step 2: Build bottom of the base with wheels

-Make sure you remeasure everything!

-Leg pieces are part of the bottom of the base. To attach those, drill long screws and into the side.

Step 3: Instructions Part 2

Step 3: Insert fish tank into the base to see if it fits

We used a square triangle to help us make exact dimensions.

Step 4: Attach wheels

Step 5: Complete the top of the base but hinge the plywood to the legs and glue the top box fitting for the grow bed.

Step 4: Instructions Part 3

Step 6: Build grow bed parts To build both of the drains, cut 2 15"x1.5" pieces of PVC pipe. Then add slits to BOTH PVC pieces using the hand saw

Drill 1-1/8" holes that are 5 inches from the short edge and 10 inches from the long side of the grow bed. After the holes, make sure your drains can smoothly fit through holes. You need to add Lexel glue to the edged to prevent leakage

Step 7: Attach fish tank filter and plumbing supplies as suggested on the package.

Step 5: Instructions Part 4

Step 8: Insert all non-sensor materials Plug in Grow lights and Timer and attach them to the far right short end of the grow bed.

Step 9: Sensors and Arduino fun

Step 10: Testing testing 1, 2, 3 Step 11: Finished! We probably won't have enough time to add fish and more plants, but now that you have cool gadget around the house, you should go ahead and get to getting that.