Airing His Idea

This weekend has been dedicated to Sonny.

Wifey and I had promised to help him find all the stuff he needs for his school science project. Sonny approached me a few nights prior to discuss his ideas for his project.

He has settled for Aeroponics, a little more challenging than a Hydroponic project.

Unlike growing vegetables with its roots fully submerged in nourished water, Aeroponics is using jets of water sprays to deliver water and nutrients to the plants roots hanging off the "netty-potters."


From Sonny's sketches and items that make-up the Aeroponics planter, he had things pretty much all figured out. "A major advantage over Hydroponics is each pot is isolated from the other thus reduces cross infections of the roots." He stressed.

So this weekend's outing had us, for the first time, stepped into Pasir Ris Farmway 1 area. An interesting place we kept seeing always from the outside whenever we passed along Pasir Ris Street 12 on our cycling trips to Pasir Ris Beach Park or on the way to Downtown East by bus.


A direct bus Service 58 from our home took us right to Farmway 1 where the large Mainland Tropical Fish Farm billboard became our landmark to getting down at the right bus stop.

We were there after our lunch, so the scotching afternoon sun had all of us perspiring profusely just by walking a short distance away from the bus stop.

There were arrays of concrete fish tanks spread throughout the farm. The black net roof over the entire farm for the fishes brought little respite from the heat for the visitors. We went straight to the aquarium store to escape being "sun-dried."


Sonny and I started shopping to find and deliberate on the type of water pump and the correct size and water force or pressure that his Aeroponics should have, base on the size of the plastic container we thought of but had not search for one yet.

It took us about half an hour to finally decide and found all the items like plastic tubing and tube converters/connectors before we headed for a little detour, checking out the rest of the farm.

The pump cost us S$25.00 while the accessories were only S$4.00.


I bought a few bags of sponge filters, A bottle of blue itch-prevention solution and a bottle of water purifier to make my aquarium water tank crystal clear. The many goldfish in my 2.5 ft tank tends to get cloudy easily. I hope to clean the tank fortnightly now with this solution.

We saw a Fish Spa and Prawn Fishing pond catering to the adults. There is also a Longkang Fish area where children already were holding a fish net and a bucket each, catching their own guppies with along the shallow “drains.”


There were also ducks and goats to entertain the children and give the farm some variety. I saw children in swings sets and families sitting on clusters of sitting areas that give the farm a nostalgic Kampong feel.

The nostalgia soon faded when Sonny started doing his project once we reached home. I helped to bore 5 holes for the netty-pots. Sonny should me the video he got from the internet on how to actually to go about setting up the Aeroponic.


I had to continue helping him finish off his project today since he had to go for his religious class in the morning and Malay language tuition class in the afternoon.

By the time he came back in the afternoon, he was so happy to see the completed work I left it on his desk.

We started wet-testing the product and it went especially well as planned.

Sonny is now so excited to show it to his science teacher on Monday. After the construction assessment, he will then start to plant seeds in the planter.


The success of this project depends mainly of the the plants. and see if the project actually bear fruit in a few weeks’ time… that means, the seed can sprout, survive and flourish in that environment he had created.

All the best to Sonny!