Plant Growth in Aquaponic System through Comparison of Different ...

into the water, providing the plant with a water supply without becoming overly saturated. The
part of the pot that was above the water line was able to drain allowing air to also reach the roots.
Fiber still did not perform well for the radishes because it was still over saturated for the plants
(Figure 6). The lettuce plants in the fiber showed better results, but still had the least growth
(Figure 8). The coconut fiber again became over saturated and it became anaerobic.
Soil is a viable media option to use in an aquaponic system because it is abundant and easily
purchased or even made by compose. Soil naturally contains nutrients that can be utilized by the
plants.
Plants grown in soil in both the NFT and floating raft showed considerable growth, but
when comparing both systems at the 5 week mark, the NFT had greater average growth up to
that point for both the lettuce and radishes. The height at 5 weeks for lettuce in NFT was 15.82
cm while it was only 7.34 cm in the floating raft. Radishes had an average height of 17.37 cm in
the NFT, and 11.77 cm in the floating raft. The NFT is the more a practical system to use to
grow the crops. There are already two structures at Lynchburg Grows that have large areas to
grow abundant amount of plants. If all the space is utilized, a large quality of plants can be
grown and eventually sold for profit.
The catfish were introduced to the system 4 weeks after the first set of plants were
planted. This means the fish provided no additional nutrients for the first month for the NFT, and
first week for the floating raft system. This could be an explanation for why plants grown in soil
performed the best. The soil already contained nutrients, so the plants used those nutrients for
growth. The total phosphorus levels were lower in the outflow because the media absorbed some