Metro J-Term 2026: Keeping Tilapia From Drowning
Brainstorming how to build a solar-powered, shaded, tilapia tank to make feeding and harvesting easier.
Basic materials to create a complete systrem
Water, tank, current, pumps, and fish capture system
In this class, part of the Project INCA Sustain | Ability J-Term topic we discuss aquatic ecologies and fish. What we learned is that there are different aquatic environments, and the "Upside Down" of our life below water differ as well. Tilapia do not thrive in static ponds.
All of the photos and research for this design challenge and project were provided by the students in the J-Term class. Additional design and teaching assistance was provided by my HS Intern, Marcus.
The Surprising Need and Source for Gentle Current
The list of elements we needed to work with
The current isn’t the only limitation to this design challenge. Tilapia are river fish, which means they prefer a gentle current to deliver O2. They are also a source of food at Mezzacello. This is why they can’t live with the koi; I don’t harvest koi and koi don’t like current.
The external tank needs eight important elements to be functional.
Fresh water
Waste filter pumps
Current flow pumps
O2 Aerator
Shade from direct sunlight
Solar power
Batteries and AC
A system for harvesting fish
With some clever engineering and problem solving, they managed to compress systems to five. They combined shade and solar with batteries. They replaced the need for an aerator by adjusting the current pump to pull O2 into the water with the air above.
They designed a split filter system on the water current pump to both create a current AND funnel wastes into the waste filters. It was very efficient and the water O2 levels were sufficient. We will be 3D printing this filtration current diffuser and testing it in the full scale tilapia tank in this season’s summer camps.
