When I was 8 years old, My family visited Disneyworld. I vividly remember riding the boat through the land pavilion. It blew my mind. Today, I still remember watching the amazing displays of plants. In particular, the hydroponic demonstrations and fish farming room. It felt that like this was where all the amazing ideas from the Horizons ride were actually being made real. The magic of that scene still captivates me when I see it and it’s what I’m trying to replicate in my newest project.
The goals are simple. I want to build a basement aquaponic system and grow vegetables year-round under lights. Ideally, I’d like to raise food fish as well as plants, but we’ll see what works. In my normal, ass-backward way of doing things. I’m going to order the fish first, stock them into some old aquariums sitting around and scale up the system as I go.
Initially, I’ve ordered the following to kick start the project:
Bluegill: The classic American panfish. Edible and durable
Golden Shiners: A highly adaptible minnow
Gambusia: A livebearer, also known as mosquitofish.
Rosy Fathead Minnows: A pretty common feederfish, but durable and native (just not pink in the wild)
Crawfish: Plain old local mudbugs.
As for produce, my initial goals for the system are a bed of salad greens and a collection of fruiting vegetables.