Pictures!

This is the state of things a week or so ago - prior to me discovering that I had utility cables running only a few inches below the surface and wouldnt be able to dig down.

My mustard plant, while it was still planted inside.

The current state of the greenhouse. I made it short because the townhome covenants say structures have to be no higher than the brick wall at the end of the property. FWIW, my next door neighbor is going to have to remove the fancy storage shed you see in the pics - not a happy thing to learn after youve spent time and $$ putting something in...

The grow bed that is up and running. I used hydroton because I needed to get one bed working to host plants that were inside, since I moved my indoor growbed outside. So nice not having to deal with gravel on the planting layer!

A bed prepped with gravel in the bottom. Theory is this will help anchor plants that would tend to fall over in hydroton or shale aggregate. Besides, it displaces $$$ of the more expensive lighter stuff, and it is already pregnant with the happy bacteria that transform ammonia to nitrate.

Im waiting to get expanded shale aggregate for the final beds - having a local business special order it from Bigelow Brook Farm and TheAquaponicSource.com.

A shot of my bell siphon, showing the 45 degree bend and my new sliced drain tube. I have a small hole at the base of my standpipe so any extra water can drain out when power goes out (like at night if I turn off the pump). The good thing is I wont have plants drowning in standing water. The bad thing is I always have a small dribble. This sliced drain tube takes the trickle down to the water surface (no noise) and still lets the siphon break. It ingests air into the flow, but keeps the noise of the full siphon action pretty low.

Heres a detail of the construction. Because my townhome covenants require me to keep this thing really short, the PVC sleeves allow me to temporarily raise the roof an additional 24 inches. Its also more forgiving than EMT couplers would be. I drilled through the PVC and EMT and connected them using a toggle bolt - looks kind of spiffy, I think. I should have painted the PVC to extend the life of these legs, but it wont be too hard to replace them. Lets pretend I am leaving them unpainted on purpose, to see how long it takes for them to become so brittle they dont work anymore... Since the PVC sleeves arent load-bearing, I should be good for a long time.

I used 10 foot wide sheeting, so had to join the roof sheeting with a 5 foot wide side piece. I did this by connecting the two sheets and rolling them around EMT conduit, then screwing the conduit to the frame with 2-hole straps using self-tapping screws.

The 2-hole EMT straps can also be bent so they serve as clips - useful for fastening the plastic until I have my end walls built.

Finally, a shot of my rain barrel. We made this at a county workshop using 65 gallon pickle barrels. It would be relatively simple to update the greenhouse design to include rain gutters if the greenhouse wasnt close to another water source. I dont have solar panels (yet) but the pump and bubblers draw in the neighborhood of 120 watts. Seems it would be perfectly possible to power a system like Ive got here off solar, particularly if you shut the pump off at night.

So, those are the pics. Enjoy!

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A Reply from the Congresswoman

The children who attended Vacation Bible School at St. John XXIII Catholic Community in Albuquerque this summer wrote messages on paper plates urging Congress to end hunger and poverty in our country.  We distributed the 88 paper-plate messages as evenly as we could among Sen. Tom Udall, Sen. Martin Heinrich and Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham. They were almost all great messages, and I dont recall which plates went to which of our legislators. What we know is that the messages touched Rep. Lujan Grisham, who sent a nice reply to the VBS children of our parish. (The children of St. Andrew Presbyterian Church and All Saints Lutheran Church also sent paper-plate messages to Congress).

Here are some excerpts of Rep. Lujan Grishams reply (with the full letter below)

Children of St. John XXIII Catholic Community:

"Thank you for taking time to make such beautiful personalized messages highlighting the poverty children face in our state and country," Lujan Grisham.  I want you to know that I take this issue seriously.

"Hungry children should not have to bear the burden of balancing our nations budget."

"Thank you for writing to me -- your passion energizes my desire to eliminate poverty in our state. Together we can work to ensure that no child is left hungry." 

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Catfish yum

First Catch Fish Market

Yesterday I drove past the "tea pot house" off Route 60 near Buena Vista, VA. Its a funny looking little place, and for the longest time it seemed empty.

Now, however, it is a fish store. So on a whim we swung by. They had a variety of fish, but I decided to go for the catfish, since Im thinking of getting some catfish for my polyculture outdoor aquaponics system.

Took the fillets home, coated them with chili powder, salt, and pepper, then sauteed them in olive oil.

My daughter prefers salmon. But I cant raise salmon in my backyard...

I served up the fillets with a crisp garden salad and fresh berries. Very lovely!

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Inexpensive LED Experiment

This $40 light fixture is affordable to buy, and operate as opposed to the expensive high powered grow lights.  Its rated at 36W, 3600 Lumin LED with 724nm (4000K).  This is on the edge of the optimum 610-720 nm range, but since it appears to cast a white light its probably a fairly wide range, so I wanted to see if it would be appropriate for starting seedlings.  I hung the light about 9 inches from the top of the soil blocks.  The temperature was maintained at about 70F.

These LED light fixtures were available at Home Depot and Costco

This box is built with shinny Mylar to reflect as much light back to the plants as possible.

I used a paper shop cloth to wick moisture into the soil blocks.  This experiment turned out to be a good combination - saving the cost of plastic pots, and providing moisture without daily attention. Soil blocks also air prune the roots and avoid the problems associated with roots binding in plastic pots. Transplant shock is also minimized because the roots are not disturbed. 

After 2 weeks Im very pleased with the results.  The seedlings are dark green and full of vigor.  .

Kale and Squash both responding well to the LED light

I initially filled the trays with water and the soil blocks soaked up too much water.  They held their shape, but they were 100% saturated. This later caused some mold to grow.  I was able to control the mold by misting with 3% hydrogen peroxide.   Next time I will take care to add water as needed.  

The LED lights will last a lifetime.  Florescent bulbs are half the cost, but they loose brightness over time.  Halide and mercury vapor bulbs are hot, expensive and consume far more power. It may be that lights designed specifically for photosynthesis will work better, but Im growing a few vegetables -  not earning a living from my garden.  My conclusion is that these lights are adequate and affordable.

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Timed Flood and Drain

My pursuit of an energy efficient system continues.   Yesterday after about 6 months of flawless operation my bell siphon failed to drain.   This inspired me to find something simpler, less expensive and more dependable.  I remembered this conversation on AquacultureHub

By simply providing small drain holes at the bottom of the media bed a Hybrid Flood & Drain / Ebb & Flow can be created.   I have long been a proponent of Ebb & Flow due to the energy savings.

Heres how it works:
Its pretty simple.  Theres a stand pipe that keeps the water from exceeding a set level about 1-1/2" below the gravel, and a weep hole (about 5/16") that drains the water out.  The pump comes on just a few times per day.  While the pump is filling the grow bed the water seeps out.  But the pump fills the tank much faster than the water leaves, so it fills.  The timer need only be set on long enough for the grow bed to fill.
In the Summer you may need to run the pump more often, but I run mine 3 times per day all year long.  The gravel stays moist and the water is aerated sufficiently for the fish.
By running the pump only a few times per day you save utility costs, and there is no siphon to fail.  I inserted a capped 1" pipe at the bottom of one of my grow beds and drilled my weep hole in it so that I could see it and this makes cleaning the hole very easy.  I can remove the cap to get inside if need be.  Ive been running my timed flood and drain for several months and the hole has not clogged, but it does not hurt to inspect it once in a while. 
The timer I use is just a cheap $3.00 indoor timer with a plastic food storage container over it.  I poked a couple holes through the plastic, and plugged the timer in.  It stays nice and dry this way, and  easily accessed by removing the cover of the container.


Here are the conversations between John Burgess, aka RupertofOZ,   Glenn Martinez,  and J. Linden Rose.


System Design Considerations

Comment by J. Linden Rose on August 31, 2012 .

   Many people use gallon of fish tank to gallon of grow bed ratios. This has a minor flaw, because nutrient uptake and removal by plants is directly related solar surface area, and only indirectly related to grow bed volume assuming root development plays a large role in your particular crop. But before you can say something like 3 sq. ft. of grow bed per gallon of fish tank, you need to think about stocking density and feed conversion ratio (FCR).
   In this industry everyone is taught to sell their tilapia when they are no more than a year old. The reasoning is that when fish are small and young, the FCR is smaller, and less feed becomes more fish faster.  Thats useful thinking in the aquaculture world, but lacks a certain breadth of consideration in the AP world. You might consider an aquaculture strategy that focuses on growing larger, older fish.  Remember that AP systems produce about $4 of produce for every $1 of fish in a Rakocy style system which has been optimized around fish production.  By lengthening the grow-out period for your fish, the FCR will increase, but it will also stabilize allowing you to have better control over the nutrient stream to the much more important produce side. Additionally, higher FCR means more nutrients end up in the plants than in the fish... which is where the money is. This in turn should imply that larger fish lead to larger grow beds.
   With that in mind, its probably a good idea to see your system as one that will go thru many changes when it is new. Then as your fish mature, and your nutrient stream stabilizes, you will be able to fine tune the grow bed surface area to match.
   Gravel beds, a type of fluidized bed reactor, are the oldest and most established form of modern aquaponics, and were first used in the work of Woods Hole researcher John Todd at his New Alchemy Institute, and Dr. Mark McMurtry at NC State.
   Dr. Jim Rakocy, a RAS (Recirculating Aquaculture Systems) aquaculture specialist at the University of the Virgin Islands in St. Croix, abandoned gravel beds because he wanted to work around the issue of sludge build-up. To avoid sludge issues, he developed raft culture, which in the absence of a bed reactor, required settling and degassing tanks. This system falls short of optimal for several reasons: 1) youre spending money on nutrients your plants need that you then remove from the system wasting resources 2) his floating rafts blocks most of the air-water interface for gas exchange intensifying the need to waste electrify on compensatory aeration, and 3) this system design is fish-centric, obsessed with how many fish you can cram into a barrel, when Jims own publications showed that the aquaculture side was a minor contributor to revenues, and 4) only a very limited number of plants can tolerate having their roots immersed in water 24/7.  Typically plants with low nutrient requirements and low ability to scrub nutrients from the water.
   Tom Speraneo, is credited with the first use of tilapia in AP systems, but also is credited with cycling the water level in the gravel beds, creating enormous amounts of temporary thin water surfaces for gas exchange, and facilitating aerobic RAS waste processing. But the other interesting development was that it made the beds capable of sustaining active vermiculture, which further breaks down and decomposes the solid wastes, and restores lost nutrients instead of wastefully removing them.  This seems to have been confirmed by the systems popularized in Australia by Joel Malcolm and Murray Hullam, with Murray claiming to have systems that have run without any waste removal being necessary for over 3 years.  Similar results have occurred in Hawaii with Glenn Martinezs system.
   Using the archaic meaning of vermiculated of "worm eaten", we can call these vermiculated fluidized bed reactors, and their use should free up a great deal more nutrient from the same amount of feed input, allowing you to focus on the much more profitable produce production side of an AP system.
   With that in mind, Wilson Lennard has shown that raft cultures seem to be slightly more productive with low nutrient crops like lettuce, whereas most crops cannot be grown in rafts at all.  Since lettuce has a very fast seed to crop cycle, it can provide stead cash flow while waiting for more valuable crops to mature in the gravel beds, and with all the extra nutrients available, theres plenty of reason to have both in your system design.  This will also increase the total system volume, which is good for fish, and if you design your deep water wells with tops that are not floating on the water, youll have greatly enhanced gas exchange surfaces.
   It would probably be a good idea to avoid NFT (Nutrient Film Technique) completely if your system includes fish production, because a thin layer of water spread out over long distances is basically a heat exchanger, which will cause diurnal temperature swings in your fish tank greatly adding to their stress levels.

Comment by Glenn Martinez on September 1, 2012

   First, most of us have fallen into a trap of running our aquaponic (AP) systems 24 hours a day. Think again....perhaps it should be shut down at night, drain the bio-filter (cinder beds) and let the system rest at night. Keep pumping the AIR to the fish, but stop running the water thru the vii-filter and float beds. This saves energy. It also allows the fish water to build up ammonia that will then be sent the bio-filter beds. Very quickly the bio-filter will convert the ammonia to nitrates.

   As long as you do not let the ammonia build up in the fish tank, you are okay. It is recommended drain the bio-filter bed when it is not circulating, as leaving water stilling in the bio-filter, seems to deplete the oxygen (everything is composting) and kills the worms and oxygen loving bacteria....

   The worms in our AP systems (cinder beds) eat the fish solids, breaking them down. Most important to keep in mind that our siphon system is NOT inside the bio-filter, but removed and located in an container that will drain the vii-filter "drip dry" at each flush. All of our bio-filter beds are "double tray" or false bottom, to allow drip dry draining. The drained bio-filter bed will NOT dry out over night and the plants do not suffer.

   To drain the bio-filter beds at night, place a small hole in the stand pipe of the bell siphon or install a small drain tube to drain the bio-filter bed when the water stops coming in for any reason , like a power failure.

For balanced nutrition, add vermicast or compost tea. That will supply all the micro and macro nutrients you need to grow NUTRITIOUS food, kala etc.

Food for thought.

Glenn, Olomana Gardens, Hawaii

Comment by John Burgess on October 17, 2012

   "To drain the bio-filter beds at night, place a small hole in the stand pipe of the bell siphon or install a small drain tube to drain the bio-filter bed when the water stops coming in for any reason , like a power failure."

Just run a standard overflow standpipe... and timer... flood & drain configuration... ditch the siphons altogether...

   Part of such a configuration... is the (generally) two small (6mm) holes at the base of the standpipe.. to allow the grow bed to "drain" during the timer off period...

   And utilising a timer based F&D... means its simple as... to turn the beds off or limit/extend the F&D cycles.. during the night... or as a response to climatic variables...

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The Husband calls it Impressive

Alas, the camera is taking a break. But heres what Ive done so far:

• Purchased all required stock tanks
  
• Installed wood frame at base of greenhouse
  
• Placed cinder block bases, with 2x6s to support grow beds
  
• Plumbed the siphons (and made extras for my Mom)
  
• Moved all the gravel (~3" in base of each bed)
  
• Added hydroton to two beds
  
• Installed EMT hoops
  
• Installed 6 mil plastic sheeting roof
  

The system is up and running with one solid growbed. One down, three more to go. Pictures coming soon!

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The Darkside of Aquaponics

This is a link to a discussion I started about the reality of aquaponic gardening. 
If you are thinking you would like to design an aquaponic system, and grow and abundance of food in a perfect nutrient cycle - Then READ THIS FIRST.

What about those claims of "Lettuce in 5 weeks"?  Is it true? 

Lettuce at 52 days Utility cost $67.00

Lettuce at 58 days no supplemental light.

LOL... I guess you could have eaten these plants at 5 weeks.

The aquaponics industry is full of wild claims.  You may have heard about the balance aquaponics brings to gardening.  Supposedly the fish food will provide all the nutrients save maybe the chelated iron.  If so why is there so much discussion about balancing nutrients within the system?

The claims that vegitables will grow faster stronger more disease resistant are hype.  Aquaponics is not that simple. There areaquaponic farms that consistently produce above average crops, but be aware they do it with professional farming techniques and pay close attention to the details.  Its like anything else; it only works if you are well trained to do the job.

So you say "Ill take a class and become a professional aquaponic farmer".   Im not going to tell you all these classes are a sham, but the truth is most who teach aquapponics do so to make ends meet.  They often dont even run a profitable aquaponics farm.   This industry is so new that there are no real credentials.  Whens the last time you heard someone say they were majoring in aquaponics?  Beware of the scams.

You may be wondering why I still practice aquaponics.  Its certainly not for profit, or to lower my food bill.  I simply like doing it, but after one year I have decided to sell my fish, and convert to Bioponics.  Ive also decided to plant with the seasons and not expect much growth during the Winter.  No more heating bills. No more lighting bills. No more fish food. 

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Evaporative Cooler Design

Yesterday I installed a whole house fan in the grow room. I could purchase an evaporation cooler but Ive never been trilled with the designs. This is my design similar but better IMHO than a MasterCool. I will duct the air from this cooler into the room and let the whole house fan pull the cool air in.

Click Here for my SketchUp Files

This is the water section of an evaporation cooler. It contains three sub-sections, the Drip (Gray), Filter(Blue), and Reservoir (Yellow). A squirrel cage fan connected to the back face draws air through the filter section. The drip section contains 1/2" PVC drip tubes. This top section is removable in order to replace the paper pads The paper pads are supported front, back and bottom with 1/2" PVC in the filter section The filter section is made of fiberglass. A pump and float sit in a fiberglass reservoir section providing easy access. The filter section can be stacked with only one drip section (Gray) at the top and only one reservoir section at the bottom. This will create an even larger cooling unit I was not able to extrude the drip pipes or connect the pump as I would like.

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Automation

Comment by Iowa Aquaponics -

Weve created a series of tutorials with some of these features using the Arduino and Googles cloud infrastructure.
Online Temperature and Humidity
Real-Time Graphing Online
Online Relay Control

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Photography Photo stacking

Ive been reading a bit about photography, and discovered this thing called "photo stacking".

It helps you create super close ups that have everything in focus.


Normally in a photo, you get some bits in focus, and some out of focus.

This can be a good thing, because you dont always want, for example, the background to be sharp.

Sometimes things look better when you cant see them.

But sometimes you want to see it all.

Ill drop a series of seven photos here with each one seeing a different section in focus.

This first pic of a 300mm ruler is taken at a focal length of 10mm.

This next pic is at 20mm

You can see that the section thats in focus has moved a little further back.

This one at 50mm

 Here are three more in the series with each one seeing the focal length change through 100mm, 150mm, 200mm, and 300mm.

I would have preferred to use increments of 5mm all the way through, and take 60 photos, but this camera I have only deals with those photo lengths when used in manual focus mode. 

There is software that is free and open source, that can take the best bits of each photo, and knit them all together to make one photo. 

Apparently its possible to do this in a graphics program, but I dont have the skill set, and the software seems to work. 

There are a few different software packages, some that cost and some that are free. The one Im playing with is called, CombineZP. All you have to do is select the photos (New), then chose something that I dont understand called, "align and balance used fra..." (the title of this function is cut off because whoever made it doesnt respect my inalienable right to resize whatever window I want, and my screen size isnt the same as theirs), then click something that makes perfect sence that says GO.

After a few seconds wait, the end result is pretty good for a first attempt, and might just prove to be a very useful tool in trying to capture extreme close up shots. 

Im guessing it would be perfect if I just had a camera that could deal with letting me chose where to focus all on my own. 

Even without respecting my free will, the result is quite good. You can see in the photo below, some bands of blur where I couldnt divide the focal length and add another frame. Theres an obvious blur between the "k" and "i", and another at the "3" in 300. Another at 250, but they are all errors caused by my camera not letting me take pictures in between the ones I took. 

Tis an interesting bit of kit, and I thoroughly recommend trying it if you are taking macro shots. 

 

The result...

120 Things in 20 years - I love discovering new things like photo stacking for macro shots, and I love discovering that there are only 6 photos in my series of 7. I deleted one, and have no idea which one it was, so I moved on. 

Im also without confidence that Im using the words "focal length" properly. 

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Photography Rock melon time lapse

 thought I might do a time lapse of a rock melon developing.

Im not sure why, but I like rock melon a lot.

The might be called cantaloupe in your part of the world.

Either way, I have some growing.

The shot looks a bit like this.

 The white splodge at the bottom is the time lapse camera.

Its facing toward the extremity of the rock melon vine centre top.

The plan is to capture a rock melon forming from scratch.

Apparently I have around a month. With that time in mind, Ive set the camera to take a frame every so often.

I really dont know how often, but having set it up, Im loathe to change anything because it would mean the loss of all the pics to date.

Thats the big problem with this camera. You dont really know when its working or not. It even pretends to be working when there is no memory card installed. That means it seems to be working, and it only takes a month before you realise the thing doesnt have a card in place.

One month to take a picture of nothing.

Oh well. It hasnt happened so far, so I guess it isnt really a problem.

This is the topic up close.

Currently its a hand fertilized flower in the last stages of its flowery existence.

Hopefully, over the next few weeks, we will see a rock melon grow to harvest.

If not, there is a strawberry runner incoming from stage left that might make for a decent set of time lapse images.



Or not.

Who knows?

A month or so from now, all will be revealed.



120 Things in 20 years - Bringing you time lapse images of rock melons. Thats it really. Time lapse images of rock melons.

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Yellow Mottling on my Spinach Plants

Update 2012/12/23
In this post I examined and searched for the cause of yellow mottling on these spinach leaves.   Finally I found that the cause was an Iron deficiency.  In the months that followed I posted several more articles with good information about this and other nutrient related signs, problems, and solutions.

For a scientific explanation of the chemistry behind the bio availability of Iron go to
[Are These Rocks Nutrient Theives?]
and
 [Assimilation of Nutrients]

For a detailed yet condensed collection of charts and facts go to Nutrient Deficiencies

Below is a record of my wondering search while I learned what I needed to know. I would prefer to simply delete it, but you may relateto my learning curve and find something interesting along the way.





Update 2012/06/07
Im still having problems with yellow leaves.   I have brought my PH down from 8.2 to 6.6 and I have no salt in the system   I have also added 1/2 a bottle of Microbe Lift Chelated Iron. Ill Send an update in a few days with the results.   I have more iron on order as well as a GH/KH test kit.   Hopefully I will get this figured out.

Update 2012/04/14
"A plant injured by excessive sodium first displays mottled leaves or yellowed tissue between the veins of leaves. This is followed by leaves that are dead at their tips, at their margins, and in areas between their veins."  - WateReuse Foundation

My search for the cause continues. I had not seen any insects so I hung sticky cards to trap them.  All I got was two mosquitoes.  Several weeks ago I pushed my salt levels up to 0.35% because I had a few fish that were damaged during the transfer to the aquaponic tank.

Ive been bringing the salt level down slowly and it is now at 0.20%.  In the past when I bumped salt levels up in my pond I did not notice any damage to my ornamental plants, but Spinach and Tomatoes may have a lower tolerance.

I will begin to lower the salt level over the course of the next week and see if the new sprouts show any of the same signs.

Further information:
http://salinitymanagement.org/Salinity%20Management%20Guide/index.html


Update 2012/04/12
After receiving assistance from Zalinda Farms Inc. , I now believe the problem may be caused by Thrip.
If not this information is still a value.  Keeping a vigilant eye on the crop is always important and Thrip is just one of condition to look for.

I have yet to actually see the Thrip, so I will purchase some Sticky Cards.  If I find Thrip I will use  Monterey Garden Spray to control the pests.  The literature indicates that it is a safe bacteria. 

Natures Control also offers several solutions.  One is Predator Nematodes

but in an aquaponic system this may not be an option.  The instructions state "The important things are to use them within 2 hours of mixing, because after that they start to drown".  ... " Theyll live longest when the soil stays moist, but not saturated with water."
I suspect they might be washed away into the water each time the grow bed ebbed and flowed.

Another solution is this Pirate Bug shown above.  They too are susceptible to environmental conditions.
"Thrips Predator Mites (Amblyseius cucumeris) are most effective under conditions of 70-85% humidity, against all species of Thrips. They will also eat an occasional Spider Mite, and other small pests. However, reports have been poor in low humidity environments, so use these predators in greenhouse and other interior locations with high humidity levels only. "

Two types of sticky Traps are also offered by Natures Control.  They say "Customers report success using Sticky Blue Traps against Thrips & Leafminers. Especially recommended for use on roses."

I found further information at 
http://biocontrol.ucr.edu/wft.html
The definitions of INSV and TSWV are as follows:
Vectoring of plant diseases. Western flower thrips is a vector of many plant diseases, the most important of which for greenhouse producers are two plant viruses in the genus Tospovirus: impatiens necrotic spot virus (INSV) and tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV)
 
 





Original Post
I wonder if anyone can help me diagnose this problem Im having with my spinach.
I suspect either a lack of light, salt burn from treating my fish, or a bug, but I see no bugs.
My spinach leaves are mottled with yellow. 

The orange arrow points to a very small white area that I found behind the stem of a leaf I removed.  It looks like foam.

The underside of this leaf has very small round white spots.  This picture is through a magnify glass.

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Nitrite levels

February 13

I installed the wet/dry sump

February 20

 My nitrite levels continue to run high, but the ammonia has gone to zero.  Waiting for the second tier of bacteria is like waiting for your bangs to grow.

  UPDATE February 26 

I built the wet/dry sump on the 13th.  Nearly two weeks later I have begun to see  Nitrobacter and Nitrospira begin to bloom!

To keep my fish healthy I have done 75% or better water changes everyday.   What a relief this is.   I chose to add fish before cycling only because of the rare opportunity to get these fish locally.   I would never recommend placing fish before the tank is cycled.

Nitrite oxidoreductase

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nitrite oxidoreductase (NOR or NXR) is an enzyme involved in nitrification. It is the last step in the process of aerobic ammonia oxidation, which is carried out by two groups of nitrifying bacteria: ammonia oxidizers such as Nitrosospira, Nitrosomonas and Nitrosococcus convert ammonia to nitrite, while nitrite oxidizers such as Nitrobacter and Nitrospira oxidize nitrite to nitrate.
The enzyme is bound to the inner cytoplasmic surface of the bacterial membrane and contains multiple subunits, iron-sulfur centers and a molybdenum cofactor.^[1][2] The enzyme is relatively abundant, making up 10-30% of the total protein in these bacteria and forms densely-packed structures on the membrane surface.<sup>[3]


CLICK HERE for details of my aquaponic system cycle</sup>

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The Countdown Plan

I dont want to buy this entire aquaponics system in one go.

[Actually, I do, but other people wouldnt like it. And I love them...]

Since we get paid every two weeks, here is my plan for the weeks leading up to January, when I plan to buy the tilapia. Im including stuff I did in the past month as well (I already have a water pump, air pumps, and bubblers).

10/15 - Purchase the Murray Hallam DVDs ($65 via The Aquaponics Source)

10/29 - Purchase the fish tank and grow bed (~$150 from Southern States)

11/12 - Purchase the 2x4 heavy duty shelving (~$80 from Home Depot)

11/26 - Purchase the gravel ($50) and bell siphon bits ($10)

[Start seedlings, focusing on lettuce and herbs]

12/10 - Purchase the grow lights ($128)

12/24 - Purchase bio-activation stuff and accessories ($60)

01/07 - Obtain permits and buy tilapia ($22.50 for permits, $114 for White Brook Farms tilapia fry)

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Lights Camera Basil!

The Aquaponic Garden with Grow Lights (20,000 Lumens)

The lights have arrived!

Ive got the system set up now so the lights are on a timer, and the pump plugs into the light, so it will come on when the lights come on.

The water is crazy clear right now. Its so fun to watch the fish darting around! Plants move and grow too, but theyre not as exciting to watch. Ill be interested to see how much they grow with the lights!

The only two herbs they had at the grocery store were basil and mint. I bought a basil and transplanted four of the plantlings into my growbed. The rest will go up to the kitchen for now.

I didnt buy the mint, because mint is crazy. I might set up a "windowfarm" next to the aquaponics units and risk mint in those. Mint is very aggressive and develops roots like theres no tomorrow.

I think if the world were struck by some disaster that wiped out almost all plant life, mint would be amongst the plants that survived. However, no need to give mint a place in my garden.

In other news, I havent heard from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Theyre the folks who need to inspect my setup prior to me getting a license and purchasing tilapia.

Im tentatively planning to go with 25 male fingerlings from TilapiaFingerlings.com. That way I shouldnt have to start off dealing with the issues of breeding females, fingers crossed! 25 male fingerings will run me $102, which includes shipping.

My approximate costs to date have been:

$150 for tank and grow bed
$141 for the grow lights
$12 for gravel
$30 for the air pump
$45 for the water pump
$20 for the plumbing
$80 for the shelving unit
$15 for incidentals (e.g., metal tape, 2x4 sheets of thin luaun plywood)
$30 for vermiculite, seeds, and plants
$22 for licenses
$30 for water testing kit

So my total outlay has been $575. Add fish ($102) and food ($20) and were just under $700. With care, you might be able to knock the price down even lower than that.

If you didnt have a drill, bits (1/4", 1/2", & 1"), a door knob hole saw, and a saw, youd have to purchase (or borrow) these. Ive got a timer and am decorating to hide the industrial black plastic, but those arent necessary expenses.

Color me happy!

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Your Local Grange

Until I read this story about the [California Grange being sued by the National Grange] I never gave a second thought to the Grange.  To me it was just a big building where they held square dances, but this article  [ What is the Grange?  ]  gives a much better description.

Gwen Schantz is chief operating officer of the Brooklyn Grange rooftop commercial farm in Long Island City, Queens.

According to this article, the California Grange has begun to attract "family sustainable farming".  Im guessing we backyard gardeners might fit that description.   The California Grange has also taken a stance against GMO.
Rick Keel, a spokesman for the California State Grange recently said this “For lack of a better term, it seems to be ‘foodies’ who care about community today and see the Grange as a way to provide community service,”

"Since 1873 the California State Grange has championed the interests of farmers, ranchers, and rural Americans. The Grange stresses community service, and its Youth programs are open to all, urban and rural alike. There are over 185 chapters across the state.  For more information contact the California State Grange at (916) 454-5805. " - California Grange

With the Farm to Fork movement catching on; aquaponics and the local Grange may be a very good combination.   Id like to encourage you to look into your local Grange for services.  It may take a while to bring the National Grange around to supporting sustainable farming, but it has to start somewhere.  The aquaponic and home gardening community have become forces of significant proportion.  I think we can make a difference.

If you are already a member I hope you will vote Ed Lutrell The National Grange Master out of office in November because he strongly supports GMO.

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Gammarus shrimp AKA Scuds

This is my second bag of Gammarus shrimp AKA, Scuds.  They are good for live freshwater fish food, eat debris and multiply quickly.  

Id highly recommend psilocyborg69 on e-bay.  He does a good job of packaging, and when I had trouble with the first order he quickly sent this second bag.

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Making smoked foods Luxury Cut Ribs

I have a hot tip for making ribs.

Its very simple, but it always pleases.

I call it Luxury Cut or sometimes Lux Cut.

All thats required is just before serving, you remove every second rib bone, so that the ones on either side get double their share of meat.

Total luxury.

Ask your butcher to do it for you. Tell them to just throw the removed bare bones onto the scales as well so you still pay the correct amount. If you do, they probably wont charge you any more for the preparation time. Turn the bones into stock or whatever. Always go to your butcher during non-peak times.

I promise you will never go back (not to the butcher, youll go back to the butcher. Just not to normal ribs)

And sorry to any Vegetarians reading.

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Stirling engine Slow motion power piston video

Opps.

For some reason the video wasnt displayed on my last post.

Here is the video for those that missed it...

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Rob Bob

Rob Bob has quite a nice YouTube channel devoted to gardening.   He offers good descriptions, and smart ideas.  Above is 10 minute video about his Wicking Bed design.   Take a look at the other interesting videos.

Scarecrows Clear View Wicking Bed

 Scarecrow built this demonstration to show the water wicking up into the soil.

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Thinking meat based analogue communication

So...

We used to have this bird named "Spork".

Sometimes he was named "Pogo" because he didnt have enough legs. (he always didnt have enough legs, he just wasnt always called pogo (that sounds suspiciously like something Clevinger (Catch 22) might say)) (and whats with all the nested parenthesis?)))

Anyway...

Spork lived in a sectioned off bit of the house near my desk where I spent most of the day, so we got pretty close. As close as a human that really likes magpies can get to a magpie that almost always hates humans. I say "almost", because if you turned him on his back with his one leg in the air, he would relax so much you could push him around on the floor like a kid playing with a matchbox car. If you tried that when he was upright, hed peck your eyes out in a heartbeat. One of his fast bird heartbeats as well, not some dopey slow human heartbeat. Except Shaan when she offered Spork her (maybe smurf) keyring. Sporked liked Shaan and her keyring.

Anyway... I would whistle "Doo, du do du, and he would instantly reply "Do du do, du dooo do". It was almost as if he could help himself. He had to finish the tune. (I originally taught him the entire tune, but it took the first few notes for him to realise that it was time to sing)

We had to give him up when we had to move back to the flat lands from Cudlee Creek. We also miss all the other creatures we shared our lives with (a goat, an emu, a pig, three sheep, an owl, and various chickens) all still missed terribly.

Anyway... Some nice bird rescue people took in Spork to live with all their other magpies, a magpie loving dog that protected them all from foxes, and a parrot that nobody could understand because it spoke too fast. I suggested it was horse race calling as a result of being pre-owned by a gambler with a radio, and there was a general agreement that that might just be the case.

Really odd sulphur crested cockatoo.

But... it occurred to me that Spork now lived only 30 km away as the crow flies.

Thats only 5 magpie families or so. The other night I found myself trying to teach my local magpies the first (my) half of the tune so they might in turn teach the next groups radiating out from them. I managed to add one extra note to the current call of my local group, but interestingly I managed to get a complete (my half) call from a group further in the distance.

So, so far so good. So, so. You dont see the word "so" followed by the word "so" that much.

And... once I teach the local magpies the first half of the tune and get them to teach the next closets magpies( and so on, and so on), in 5-30 years or so, I hope to hear the second half of the tune (Sporks half) in reply.

Bam!

If so, I expect a Nobel prize for developing very slow, organic, analogue communication, and creating the first "bird meat" based communication protocol that doesnt require tying things to their feet.

120 things in 20 years - So... thats where my life is at.

Like

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Cycled in 4 days!

I just cycled a new 40 gallon aquarium with a 10 gallon wet/dry sump tank in four days by using water and media from my aquaponic system.

Day 1 Ammonia = 0.50 Nitrite = 2.0
Day 2 Ammonia = 0.25 Nitrite = 2.0   (added more urea)
Day 3 Ammonia = 0.00 Nitrite = 5.0  (this is the Nitrite spike)  (added more urea)
Day 4 Ammonia = 0.00 Nitrite = 0.0  (Wow,  Ive never had it happen so fast)
The water was kept at 75F.

Inoculating with good strong culture from an established system will greatly speed up the time it takes to cycle a new system.  This time the aquarium was filled with water from the aquaponic system, and I used a small activated carbon filter about 4" x 6" that I had been using to disperse the water with as it poured into the aquaponic grow bed to inoculate the aquarium..

I have also notice that a wet/dry sump is especially helpful compared to a letting the water flow through all of the media.  

Its not real pretty,  but this is my bio filter.  I used a couple baskets filled with new Hydroton, you can see it is still floating.   One basket is submerged while the other is above the water level  (wet/dry sump).

My aquaponic system uses ebb and flow, but Ive seen better results when I duplicate a wet/dry sump by not completely draining the grow bed.
.  

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Community Gardening

Sustainable Tucson (Arizona)

Had the chance last night to host a couple of folks from Sustainable Tucson who were visiting the DC area for a conference.

The idea behind Sustainable Tucson is to create a city system could continue to function and sustain itself, if external oil and water were to be interrupted or end.

According to Tres (pronounced like trace) and Paula, the average water use per person is something like 600,000 gallons annually (drinking, bathing, agriculture to grow food and wearables, water used in manufacturing). Rainfall in Tucson provides a mere 80,000 gallons per person per year.

Their ideas involve such things as conservation, but also community gardens. And that is where the aquaponics comes in, because aquaponics is so much less water-intensive than other gardening techniques.

I showed them around the place and they took lots of pictures of the fish and the siphons and the plumbing. Then we had a nice dinner which included a green salad fresh from the garden, home-made rolls with herb butter (garden again), and generally had a very pleasant evening.

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Paper Pot Maker and Planting

Seeds in their Paper Pots

The problem with starting an indoor garden in early winter is there are no seedlings for sale.

Frankly, its pretty hard to find seeds.

I was resigned to simply planting more of the seeds Id bought earlier this year (i.e., nasty-tasting lettuce, blech). Luckily for me, I happened to drive by Browns Hardware in Falls Church, VA - a small hardware store that has "existed longer than General Motors - without a bankruptcy." They had a nice collection of seeds still available, so I bought many of the varieties Id been ogling over at GourmetSeed.com. Less expensive and no shipping (and no wait).


In my internet searches, Id come across the idea of starting plants in recycled pots - most elegantly paper pots created from strips of newspaper using a cool turned wooden tool, a Pot Maker.

Problem was a Pot Maker runs about $20 and Id have to wait...

Instead I decided to use a bottle I already had at home. A spice bottle would have worked nicely, but I used an old pill bottle.

First I cut strips 3 1/2" by 16" (I suppose I could have gotten by with 10").


Next I rolled the strip around the bottle so that the free ends would slightly overlap one another when I folded them down. Just because it seemed a good idea, I spiraled the free edge, so that the folded edges were interleaved one ply thickness at a time. I also dipped the free edge in water, in hopes that this might help the plies mesh together.

After tamping the (slightly wet) end of the bottle on the table, I gently slid the paper pot off the bottle and put a single staple in the top edge, where the end of the newspaper tended to gap.


Filled the pot with vermiculite (organic, no added miracle grow) and added fish tank water to each pot. This was water from one of the windowfarm fish tanks, full of fishy goodness.


Rinse and repeat 11 times.

Finally, I planted a single seed in each pot and put a plastic cloche over the whole thing, to keep in moisture. If not all the seeds germinate, thatll be fine. Ill have opportunity to start additional seedlings if need be, and my tilapia fry (or fingerlings) wont get here until January.

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