This week in our class we were given the go ahead as a team to start working on our prototype aquaponics. For this, we went downstairs into the BIF atrium and started drafting. Our biggest challenge would be how to 3D print the actual water funnel part of the aquaponics. As we started drafting we came up with a couple of ideas but ended up settling on one concept actually inspired by how staircases are formed.

The idea behind the staircases would be so that the water coming from in the middle with a hose would trickle down the staircase and then back into the fish tank. Each water stair would have three small holes that the water would seep through and go into the next row. The purpose of doing this is so that each plant gets an ample amount of water to keep growing and as the water goes through each plant it gets filtered, meaning that no filter is needed for the fish tank at all.

Making the pieces into stairs for a full staircase also allowed the structure to be modular. Meaning someone could as many or as little pieces as they wanted to, depending on how high they wanted it to go. At the end of the class, we were actually able to piece together a prototype of what it would look like out of paper, pictured below.

We were overall quite happy with how it turned out and look forward to 3D printing the staircase design. We’re also currently thinking about making a card stock prototype of the object that would be more sturdy and easier to work off of than the paper model. We’ll also need to figure out how we’re going to have each triangle piece attach to each other and the hose in the middle. Those problems, however, should be resolved soon!