Building the system

From October until February, the AquaPals were hard at work trying to figure out how to assemble this system. We faced countless struggles trying to figure out the correct orientation, how everything fit together, and even how to find enough space. Finding the room for a 16 foot by 4 foot system can be tricky, and we experienced that first hand. After assembling this system for four months during the stress of junior year (SATs, ACTs, APs, etc etc…) we finally completed constructing a system that would prove to be more than we could have ever hoped for. Here’s a picture of our system all put together. We put it together dry, without glue, and then proceeded to glue everything together to prevent leaking. We faced plenty of challenges along the way, such as 7 leaks, but we were able to do it after a lot of time and effort was put into the project. Hundreds of dollars later… with lots of silicon and epoxy, we managed to fix these leaks and on May 15th we finally had our first successful fill. We added roughly 350 gallons to the system and tears of joy were shed as we watched our creation work for the very first time. It was an incredible day and from there we conducted tremendous research trying to figure out where to go next and how to successfully add fish. Stay tuned for our next entry explaining the first entry of our fish.Our F-5 system from Nelson and Pade is perfect for our space and provides us with a perfect tool for education and an alternative to the PCB contaminated fish of the Hudson River. Check out our Issue page to read more about why we are doing this project.