5. Conclusion

5.1       Summary of Findings


Chlorine level decreased after letting the water sit for few days. Tap water has high chlorine level which is unsuitable for tilapia fishes to live in. By letting the water sit longer, more chlorine can be dissipated, thereby decreasing chlorine levels, making it more safe.  


After the first two days of putting fishes into the water, the ammonia level increased.
This is because fishes excreted waste into the water, releasing ammonia into the water, hence the occurrence of increasing ammonia levels.


When fish food was feed to the fishes, we discovered that the ammonia level increased, but the nitrate level is low. The fish food we used was mainly shrimp baked to become dry food. This type of fish food also has a high ammonia content and will release ammonia into the water when poured into the water. A medium is needed for cultivation of bacteria, which converts ammonia into nitrates. No medium was introduced into the system at that time, therefore there was no bacteria cultivation and conversion of nitrates occurred, hence nitrates level was low.


The nitrate level increased, and the level of ammonia decreased as we start to put the plants into the system. This caused a decrease in ammonia, when ammonia gets converted into nitrates, causing an increase in nitrates level.


5.2       Practical Applications


Traditional farming methods requires great usage of land. As the world population increases, more land is used to build buildings and structures for residential and commercial purposes. Aquaponics system allows farmers to grow plants and rear fishes simultaneously and only a small area of land is needed. This allows people to cultivate greater amount of vegetables fishes while using a much smaller area of land. Therefore these systems are able to develop in the urban areas.  


5.3       Areas for further study


We can investigate the effects of different types of aquaponics systems on the plant’s growth (fish is not allowed as vertebrae cannot be used in experiments). This allows us to find out which is the best system to be used for aquaponics. We can also take the best out of each system to create a new system for aquaponics.

Experimentation with different types of plants could also be an area of further study. Different plants have different characteristics that make it grow differently. By finding out the different effects the aquaponics system has on different plants, we can have a new design to plant different types of vegetation. This allows people to have a wider variety of plants.

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