Aquaponics is a combination of Aquaculture, which is farming of fish and other aquatic animals, and Hydroponics which is growing plants without soil. Aquaponics is a synergy between plants and aquatic ecosystem. It uses these two in a symbiotic combination such that plants are fed the aquatic animals’ discharge or waste.

How does it work?

In Aquaponics farming, the fish are grown in a pond or a tank and are bred, reared & harvested. During the rearing period, the water containing excreta created by fish is used as a medium to grow plants as it contains all the essential nutrients for their growth. In return, the plants and the good bacteria present in their roots purifies the water. This purified water can be reused to rear the fish.

Aquaponics is a sustainable way of doing farming. Food can be organically grown without the use of any harmful chemicals to either fish or plants. It is easy to develop a backyard aquaponics system at home or can be taken as a commercial project to earn revenue.

LoRaWAN

We developed an Aquaponics system that automates pond water conditioning and maintains a favourable ecosystem for fish growth. It consists of a master-slave system. The master consists of various sensors and peripherals like pH, dissolved oxygen pumps etc. Water characteristics like pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature readings etc. are obtained using these sensors and are maintained in a threshold level by dozing required chemicals and by operating aerators. The slaves consists of aerators and other actuators.

The master also consists of LoRaWAN gateway which acts as a bridge between the slaves and the cloud. The master communicates the command to switch on/off the aerators on the slave wirelessly using LoRaWAN protocol. This system can be used for large ponds since the slaves can be kept at a distance of more than 1 km from the master.

To know more about LoRaWAN, checkout this blog:
https://www.wemakeiot.com/lorawan-a-promising-technology-for-iot/