Part of what has been occupying my time lately....

This is my new aquaponics system at school in my new science centre. This photo was taken about two weeks ago and it is now all up and running with, media and a fence around it. The large tub up the end is the fish pond where we will have rainbow trout. The four beds in front are grow-beds where we will grow vegetables in a hydroponic fashion. The idea is that waste water from the fish pond will fill the grow-beds and fertilise the vegies and at the same time the gravel/clay media in the beds (not shown) and the plants will purify the water and send it back clean to the fish pond. Then we harvest both fish and vegies. It's all set up now and cycling before we put fish and vegies in. The big pond is 2300L and each of the beds is about 500L. There are two return sumps underneath the four grow beds to collect siphoned water from the top beds and return it to the fish pond. It's located outside under clear alsynite sheets in one of my outdoor classroom areas. I'll try and get an updated photo through the week.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

How great is that!! Now all you need is to power the generator via solar and your have a totally sustainable food chain happening. Your vegies should power ahead on fish fuel - well done!

Well... funny you should say that... just to the right a bit we have installed a 4kW wind turbine and on the roof above the the aquaponics system we have 4 x 1kW solar panels. These all feed into the grid to offset our electricity bill and is expected to generate more than $100, 000 dollars worth of electricity every year. The turbine cost about 80K and I forget the cost of the solar panels but the whole lot should pay for itself in just a few years. Further around to the left we have more vegie/herb beds and to the right we have a water catchment dam to hold water collected off the roof of our other outdoor classroom and the alsynite over the aquaponics system. This is connected to ap ump that is hooked up to our irrigation system so we can irrigate our gardens with this collected water. Behind the screen you can see above is 2 x 5000L water tanks so we can catch more rain water to serve as water for the toilets and the aquaponics system. There is a chook cage to recycle vegie scraps and scraps from the canteen and we can in turn supply the canteen with fresh eggs and salad vegies. The wind turbine is pretty flash looking and is completely silent for use in an urban area. It stands some 15m tall with a 7-8m sail area. I had to design a mug as a gift to our keynote speakers at the recent conference and photographed the turbine. This is the desgn with the turbine on it:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Again - WOW!!! That is so impressive. I hope your efforts are showcased around other Tasmanian schools and those on the 'mainland'. Hopefully, yours isn't the only school this big on sustainability. Who maintains it all? Do you experience vandalism at all? I sure hope not, it would be so disheartening. There are days when I want to give the whole sustainabiliity thing away, but when I read of efforts such as your, it's like getting a second wind.

We have been installing photovoltaic panels on the roofs of some of our hospitals, however, even if we covered all our roof space, we would never be in a position to generate any income from it, but it will instead, put a small dint in otherwise $8m/pa energy bill.

Um.... not sure about the other schools around... not to the same extent we are I don't think but definately it is a big priority everywhere... some schools would be even further ahead than we are... especially some of the primary schools. That was part of our initial vision, to inspire other schools and community groups to also do what they can about being more sustainable. When all the arguing about whether climate change and global warming is said and done I don't really care whether it is real or not... living more sustainably can't hurt which ever way it goes! We made it to Tasmanian news for our efforts and we hold a youth summit we call The LESS Summit (LESS = Lower Emissions Schools Summit). You can see all the things we do for sustainability here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] I even got me ugly mug in it on slide 48 when a bunch of us went away to do a whale rescue course... That's me in the full length wetsuit leaning over our fake whale LOL Happy to say I've lost all that tummy of mine since that photo was taken too :LOL: All of our science teachers maintain the science centre with the assistance or kids who are doing science with us in the new centre. Vandalism hasn't been an issue YET (taps head) but I'm sure at some stage some mindless git will probably do something to our new greenhouse or something... we have a new greenhouse to grow vegie seedlings, to grow local native plants for coastal revegetation, and to go with our new laminar flow cabinet where we will be doing plant tissue culture.

Don't give up, Rita!!! Every little bit helps and attitudes are changing all around us. Just think of yourself as the nucleus to a snowball that will gain momentum and size as time goes on. You have to start somewhere

Simon, I'm with you re the climate change debate. I leave that to the pollies and scientists, but I grew up as one of 10 kids in a sustainable environment and believe me, we have gone backwards, not forwards.

I would love it if more people cared and looked at their life on this planet as a mere tenant who should be a steward, and not as a greedy landlord wanting to gauge the last cent out of it. (No offence to landlords meant - I was one till just recently).

I was privilege to be invited to the launch of "Waste Not", an environmental film about our incestant love affair with possessions and having the latest of the latest. It took place last Thursday at the NSW Parliament House. The film was set in Sydney, much of the story line centred around the staff at a materials recovery plant just a few kms from me and a plant which my local health network sends it recycling to. For a film about garbage, it was quite emotional and received quite an ovation. I hope to buy a licence to be able to show it to all our staff (circa 17k) to encourage them to segregate waste and adopt the reduce, reuse and recycle principle both in their work place and their home life.

Thanks for the encouragement Simon, sometimes its a very lonely road as I'm sure you've experienced. But, there is hope knowing that teachers like you are educating the adults of tomorrow

Now why didnt i get to go to a school like yours Simon! all we got were angora goats

Yes things have changed a lot over time and all for the good

It will be interesting to see how well the fish cope with the system.
You have yet to work out how many fish can be sustained in that system.
There is a delicate balance keeping the right amount of oxygen brought about by running water or water falls. Also filtration through gravel, sand etc.

The commercial Koi breeders in small area's use a large filter about 6' x 6' that has a quick flow rate and cleans the water very fast. The tank that holds the fish just about boils with fish activity. Tank size is around 20' just filled with fish. This amazed me for I used to breed and grow fish outdoors for the aquarium shops.

There are a few Trout farms around Cooma NSW that are worth a visit.

Great work Simon, your students are lucky to be exposed to and study this project.

Hi Bruce,

This is our second attempt at aquaculture. Last year we kept 40 x 30cm rainbow trout in a 1000L pond with a gravel bed for filtration. This was ok but too many fish, I feel, for the volume of water and species. Trout like super aerated cold water and at times I felt the oygen exchange rate was just too low. This system is much bigger. The fish pond is 2300L with 4 x 500L beds of gravel for filtration. There is two 10000L/hr pumps pushing water back up to the fish pond and up into the grow beds. With 20,000L/hr turnover I think this will help get things moving a bit better. We also have a large aerator to put in the pond to help increase the rate of oxgen diffusion. They say the system will easily support 100 silver perch but we can't get silver perch down here and can only choose rainbow trout. Stocking rates will be much lower. Trout are super slimey too and quickly foul the water. I was thinking I might with just 20 of so fish to start with. The big challenge, I think, will be what happens during winter. Water will be nice and cold for the trout but won't support much in the way of winter vegies and biological action will be low. I hope the whole thing has enough bed area to adequately cleanse the water without the plants pulling out all the nitrogenous waste. I think 2000L of bed volume will be sufficient but you just never know. The small tank on the top of the larger one is for small fingerlings. The idea is that when the big fish are approaching harvest size we get that many fingerlings again and put therm in the fingerling tank so we can just replace the mature ones with already acclimated fish. Sounds like a good plan but not sure how we are going to manage this yet. The school of Aquaculture at UTAS in Launceston is assisting us so with any luck it won't be too difficult. It's a lot of fun though and I plan to hold community workshops to show people that they can maximise the space in their own back yards and produce a lot of their own food organically. The grand opening is on Friday. Will take photos then

This is the kit we bought: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

All looks good, should have known you would have most everything sorted well. Shouldn't have any problems though would suggest starting with half the recomended quantity of fish and build up slowly.

Wonderful way to start with a kit like that.

Simon

So when can I come down and you can teach me how to fly fish?

(Just joking as this is probably the only way I'd be able to catch a trout)

Gary

I have fly gear Gary but I usually spin for them with little lures

Simon
Shows how much I know about fishing for trout. I don't mind surf fishing but I not that crash at it. I do it mainly to relax.

Gary

Every hour you spend fishing... is another hour you live

Photos as promised:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The 6x2x2 marine aquarium, built into the wall. Still cycling. No fish yet. Just clean-up crew (aka marine snails).

---

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Inside the new lab. You can see our new laminar flow cabinet against the wall for plant tissue culture.

---

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The greenhouse

---

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The aquaponics setup up and running and ready to stock.

---

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The outdoor classroom.

---

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The 4kW wind turbine

---

It was officially declared open today.. at last after two years in the planning/building and we can finally get in and start doing things

Fantastic effort Simon and a credit to you and your school I guess, plenty of thought gone into the entire planning.

Wow ! I'll go back to finish highschool if I can go to your school.

Me too. I would never have failed science!

Wish they had that when I went to school! What a fantastic effort.

All I had at school was a desk with inkwell, ballpoint pens were banned, canes were allowed to be used by the teacher. Punishment was 2, 4 or 6 cuts with the cane. Subjects were Maths, English, Geography,History, Chemistry, Physics,Physical Training and various sports.
Classroom fun was shooting the nerdy girls in the front desks with green peas blown through a glass tube. There were 3 classes totalling 102 students (1/3 Girls & 2/3 Boys) My best result was 9th and worst was 15th out of 102, surprising really considering all my hobbies that took most of the time.

Simon, I have gone to all this trouble to find out if I was a problem student and how much better or worse I would have been attending your current school. I know I would have loved the fish project.

I have 3 Grandchildren and marvel at the learning tools and facilities they have today.
Schools have definately changed for the better.

It's like comparing apples to oranges, Bruce. You (and me) are from different times with different influences. I'm sure if you were a child today you would think and act very differently. This generation are the most switched on and plugged in generation ever. They can look at whatever they want whenever they want and if they don't like what they see they will go look at something else. Things are changing drastically in response to a changing society and the problem child of today is nothing like the problem child of yesterday. In fact many of the problems encountered in children today stem from a reluctance of the teachers to change or at least acknowledge the change. Kids are learning faster than ever before because of the sheer volume of information they have at their finger tips. Teaching needs to go with it. making fancy buildings is one way we can do it but you can dress something up as much as you want and if it doesn't have substance it means nothing. So now the trick is to put substance into it It's a brave new world

Simon

I will ertainly not include your name in the list of wasted space teachers that I have encountered over the last 14 years with my kids education.

Gary

I second Gary's remarks.