Oasis

The Oasis Aquaponic Food Production System

Concept drawing.

The Oasis Aquaponic Food Production System is a recirculating system with a gravel biofilter. The Oasis is an ultra-low cost aquaponics system and requires minimal assembly prior to use. While the Oasis was designed with developing world farmers in mind, it is useful to anyone wishing to grow their own food with a low impact on the environment.

The Oasis finished second in the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge (Read more here) and is a winner of the Blue Economy Challenge (details).

Check out the history of the Oasis below.

Latest concept drawing.

Functional prototype.

Version 3 - Flexible Plastic Prototype

We currently have a functional prototype. We are using a 16mil polyethylene food grade liner material. Two float switches control a 12VDC bilge pump which returns the water from the gravel beds to the fish tank. The system can be plugged into the grid or connected to a solar panel and battery. More images of the prototyping process are below.

Version 2 - Brick Tank Prototype

Our second prototype increased capacity significantly. This model has a 500 gallon brick tank and 12 square feet of growing space. These systems can produce 100 Tilapia per crop cycle. We obtained a grant to build 31 of these systems from The University of Michigan Dow Sustainability Fellows Distinguished Awards Program. News article about the grant here.

Version 1 - Barrel Prototype

Our first prototype was a simple 3-barrel set up that held approximately 100 gallons of water. This system could raise 20 Tilapia at a time and provided 8 square feet of vegetable growing space. Garlic chives produced in this system had a 50% increase in dry weight compared to those grown in a finished compost control bed.

This system was piloted in El Salvador. The main feedback we received was that the operators wanted to grow more fish at once. This led to the construction of our second prototype.

Current Team Members

Jacqueline Hernandez Ortiz, Michelle Leach, Teresa Viola and Yasmin Giron.

Past Team Members