Polyponic is a solar powered aquaponics garden for balconies and apartments. A calm aquatic world below, fresh herbs and microgreens above, connected by nature’s own filter and never plugged into a wall.
A 30 watt panel and a small battery run the pump day and night. No outlet, no wiring, no electrician.
A whisper quiet 4 watt pump lifts water from the tank to two grow trays a few times an hour.
Beneficial bacteria living on the clay pebbles turn waste from shrimp and snails into plant food, the same nitrogen cycle that runs every river on Earth.
Basil, mint and microgreens drink the nutrients, and clean water falls quietly back to the tank. Nothing is wasted.
02 Honest by design
Most tabletop aquaponics products put fish in tanks that are too small for them, and their reviews show it. We did the research first: the UN’s aquaculture guidance recommends no food fish in tanks under 500 litres, so Polyponic doesn’t pretend otherwise. Our 20 litre ecosystem is designed for the creatures that actually thrive at this size: cherry shrimp and freshwater snails, with an optional tier of hardy white cloud minnows in the larger configuration. The grow bed is a living filter first and an herb garden second, so expect fresh garnishes and weekly microgreen harvests, not grocery store volumes. That is the honest promise, and it is still a small daily miracle on your balcony.
Polyponic V1 came out of a gated engineering program: a 182 source research review, quantitative models, parametric CAD, failure analysis and a simulated century of weather, all before the first part is printed.
182
peer reviewed papers, FAO manuals and datasheets behind the design
6.8 to 18x
biofilter capacity margin over worst case feeding (calculated)
12 / 12
months of full solar operation in Los Angeles weather (modeled, 30 Wp panel)
300 years
of simulated LA weather survived in our digital twin (modeled)
9
failure scenarios analyzed; none puts water on your floor (calculated)
40 dB
quieter than a library noise target (to be verified in testing)
10 min / wk
the honest maintenance budget
28
failure modes analyzed and designed against
Figures marked calculated or modeled are engineering results pending physical validation of the first prototype. We publish our test plan and we will publish the measurements. Section 04 sets out how each figure was derived.
Every figure on this page carries one of three labels. Calculated means it comes from a first principles engineering model. Modeled means a simulation produced it against reference data. Target means it is design intent that has not been measured yet.
Calculated
Nitrification capacity of the clay pebble bed compared with the ammonia load of worst case feeding, using published surface area conversion rates from FAO manuals and peer reviewed aquaculture literature. The range covers the span between conservative and typical rate assumptions.
PendingAn eight week cycling trial with water chemistry logged on the first prototype.
Modeled
Hourly energy balance of a 30 Wp panel against pump duty cycle and controller draw, run against a Los Angeles typical meteorological year with panel derating for temperature, soiling and conversion losses.
PendingAn instrumented outdoor run recording panel yield, battery state and pump runtime.
Modeled
The same energy model driven by resampled sequences of the reference weather record, checking every simulated year for a battery depletion event rather than only average conditions.
PendingNothing beyond the outdoor solar run above; the model is validated by that test.
Modeled
Usable battery energy divided by daily pump and controller consumption with no solar input. The range spans the normal duty cycle and the reduced duty cycle the controller falls back to.
PendingA bench discharge test at both duty cycles, measured to the low voltage cutoff.
Calculated
Static water level analysis of each identified failure path, comparing the volume that can move under that failure with tank freeboard and tray retention capacity.
PendingPhysical leak, overflow and tube disconnection tests on a filled prototype.
Target
Design intent taken from the pump datasheet, the decoupled pump mount and a return outlet kept below the water surface to avoid splash noise.
PendingA measured sound pressure level at one metre, published whatever it reads.
Target
Estimated from the feeding, test strip and top up routines written into the assembly and care manual, plus a monthly partial water change.
PendingA logged maintenance record kept over the full prototype trial.
Calculated
A failure mode and effects analysis across structure, hydraulics, energy and biology, each mode scored and given a designed mitigation in the CAD and firmware.
PendingA review pass after physical testing, adding any mode the prototype reveals.
The same table, the specification sheet and both system diagrams are available as a two page PDF.
Download the one pager (PDF)
Every Polyponic water module is a self contained ecosystem with its own tank, its own pump and its own little world. One solar power module quietly runs up to four of them through simple plug in connectors. Modules clip side by side, and because no water flows between them, a problem in one can never spread to its neighbors. Expansion is: place, clip, plug.
From parametric CAD to ray traced reality. Every image is the real geometry we are building.
182 source scientific review
biology, hydraulics, energy and structural models
parametric design, 37 of 37 automated checks passed
print files, BOM, assembly manual, test plan
first unit being fabricated now
leak, flow, solar and 8 week biology trials
first units to early testers
We publish the plan before the results, and the results whether they flatter us or not.
10 Waitlist
Join the waitlist for build updates, test results and first access to the pilot batch.
No spam. Just the build, honestly told.