Leisure services parks staff builds better aquaponics system at the Environmental Discovery Center.

Waste from the coy fish tanks helps grow lettuce that feeds the neighboring turtles.

  • By Emily Blackwood
  • | 10:17 a.m. April 25, 2017
The new and improved aquaponics system at the Environmental Discovery Center (Photo courtesy of the City of Ormond Beach).
The new and improved aquaponics system at the Environmental Discovery Center (Photo courtesy of the City of Ormond Beach).
  • Ormond Beach Observer
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The marine inhabitants of the Environmental Discovery Center recently got an upgrade.

After learning the aquaponics system wasn't doing its job well enough, the leisure services parks staff built a new one that not only helps filter the water of 50 coy fish but feeds their neighbors as well. 

According to EDC Leader Sharon Foehl, the system takes the water the fish have created waste in and pumps it into a tray above the tank that has lettuce seeds growing in it. The plant's root system takes the nutrients out of the waste water — essentially cleaning it — and then filters it back into the coy fish tank. 

"Rather than having a regular fish tank filter, we’re having nature do it," Foehl said. 

The EDC, located at 601 Division Ave., is free and open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Call 615-7081. 

 

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