It has now been 3 months that the ponic system has been build. In these first 3 months I have lost a few plants, but also harvested a few parsley leaves. This all time the system has run on compost tea and ammonia. The plants seem fine, but a few are not as green as one would expect, but it is indoor, in the middle of the winter, with some artificial lighting that may not be sufficient.
During the start up of the system, the pH decreased once nitrification was efficient, but the pH increased after that, since there was no source of additional ammonia. I therefore started to add some ammonia, which keeps the pH around 7 as it is alkaline. A few weeks ago I increase the amount of ammonia I add so in the last week, I didnt add any as ammonia was building up in the water. In consequence, the pH has dropped a bit.
I have started to measure leaf length and leaf number, and overall, leaf number has increased in each plant, leaf length has increased a bit, but has stopped for some. I suppose it reached its optimal length.
I guess things are "growing forward" and the 2 collard greens are getting quite sizable (at least bigger than I expected).
Things seem to be going well in the vertical farm, expept the parlsey, I made the mistake of plugging the extra light for the all day on friday, and when i came back in the evening, a couple of the leaves looked dried up ... Also, It overall seem to not be as green anymore- I though maybe not enough light- but it could be also anot enough nitrate. But today there is a new leaf growing on it, so it probably will be good.
The green onions are growing nicely and this growth has attracted the lovely kitty who palyed with it. have transferred poted plants on the window seal so the cat does not have acess to it anymore.
Given the nice growth of the collard greens (and green onions) I decided to count the number of leaves and the size of the biggest leaf just for the heck of it. The longest green onion leaf is just below 11 inches (30 cm) long, the longest collard greens is 2 inches (6 cm), and the parsley is 7 inches (17.7cm). Each of the 4 green onion has 3 leaves, the parsley has 9 leaves, and the biggest collard green has 9 leaves. I took a few pictures of the plants to get an idea of the progression.
The small collard greens - pulled out to show the small roots growing out of the stem.
The bigger collard greens, with plenty of leaves growing from it.
A view of the whole teaponic system.
On the tea" side of the things, this week using 1.5 cups of worm compost for 2 cups of water, it seems that I got some traces of nitrates. Given the color of the tea, I really have to give a try at the stips style tests. But see the picture below, it when from a dark brown to a "redder" dark brown after the incubation. I think it could be the apparition of some of the red of the API kit that changed the color this way, indicating that therre is some sufficient nitrate to change the color. I will get a set of test strips for next weeks tea and update.
The systems ammonia keeps showing traces (what i add) but it does not accumulate - showing that is really is cycle. Also Nitrate do not seem to accumulate either, they have been indetectable since thier "diseaperance "from the water a few weeks back, after the system had fully cycled.
Thats it! The system at the Bronx Writing Academy is completed!
In the past 3 weeks we have been building 2 hydroponic system using mainly re-purposed material with a group of student at the Bronx Writing Academy. We had a slow start the first week with 6 students in the classroom, but the students are enjoying it, so each week there was a couple more students joining the class. This week, we had 10 out of the 12 students who signed up in the apprenticeship!
In the past 4 weeks, we have learned how to use some tools (hand drill, screw diver, woodworking square, ect ...), we also learned the basic ideas that explains how an hydro/aquaponic system works, and how plants use water, CO2 and sunlight to produce sugars. We also learned about Ron Findley, a Los Angelino who started to grow food on sidewalks and explain his story in a TED talk.
The students have build these system (with guidance of course) and today they where pretty exited to see that we were going to be done by the end of the day. We installed hooks to hold the grow towers, we unpacked and cut tubing for the pump, installed the pump, and planted lettuce, cilantro and parsley seedlings. We finally tested the system and adjusted the pipes to make sure water was going into both towers. Some of the student took their cellphones out and started filming the system! We then added the fertilizers to the systems! By the end, we were ready to get the systems to the roof. there it went !
Only one thing is not 100% great, the school decided to not allow the system to be on the roof, after we set it there, I will have to go and remove it on Friday. Instead, the system will be put in a classroom used for small meetings, as close to the window as possible. The window is oriented to the west. I am yet to know whether we will be allowed to have supplemental lighting for It.
We will see how many of the seedlings need to be replaced ! (on Saturday it was snowing in NYC so I am not sure the seedlings had liked that.
*** I will add some pics of the students working as soon as I processed the video to extract a few snapshots.
Yesterday was the first session with the students at the Bronx writing Academy! A small group of student joined the apprenticeship that we offer about hydroponics. The overall goal of the apprenticeship its to have the student understand what local food can be, and why it is sustainable compared to foods coming from 1000s of miles away. Other goals are for the student to
the build of the day
learn how plants grow, what do they need to grow, how one can grow plants without soil. After introducing a bit more about what aquaponics is and showing a couple of videos showing important points on how an hydroponic/aquaponic system works. Then I pulled out the tools and the material and we all go building! This sessions there was 6 students, 4 worked with the school teacher that accompanies us, and 2 worked with me. Our objective for the day was to build the frame that will support the grow beds, and put it on legs. It didnt exactly work that way, we got to build the frames though! First I showed them how to mark the center of a piece of wood, how to bore a hole with a mechanical hand drill, and how to use auto-piercing screws. The group working with the teacher build on of the frames, the other students and I build a second one.
Since got a slow start, it was a bit too much to put the frame on legs, so we stopped there to do the weekly creative/journaling activity. Every week we will have 1 or 2 activities that the students can keep track of Yesterdays task was to draw or write something that the words "farm", "city", "food" and, "hydroponics" inspired them. The programs organized by Citizen Schools are called apprenticeship, and they are organized around a 10 -12 week period of time: 9-10 weeks are dedicated to the apprenticeship and the preparation of the last week (week 10, 11 or 12). The last week is when the WOW! is "done" the WOW! can be pretty much anything: some apprenticeship lead to the making of a public announcement clip, other lead to the making of a product, other can be an event hosted by the school or my the volunteers with the community. We plant to have the WOW! just outside the school, quite literally in the street, and present the work they have done : building the system, and explaining how it works. I hope that we will be able to bring people from surrounding community garden/urban farms and people form the neighborhood at large.
A fair few months ago I was asked to put on an Aquaponic Workshop by Michael from Savour Soil Permaculture at Laidley in SE Queensland. Was a bit hesitant at excepting the offer as I havent had much experience at teaching but must say Im pleased I did.
The workshop was held last weekend (21st Nov 2005) & covered the basics of setting up an aquaponic system for folks interested in expanding their food production in their backyards or small holdings.
A basic split flow aquaponic system was assembled from recycled components on site for Michael & his family. It made a great teaching aid on the day to help explain some of the basic construction methods & parts of a working aquaponic system.
Heres a bit of a look at the system as it stands today.
Must say that I was very pleased with how the system went together. Its also fantastic to see Michaels familys enthusiasm in learning about the system as well as their eagerness in wanting to stock it with fish & plant it out.
In the clip above I mentioned a suppliers list of sorts provided to the attendees & have also included it here below for those that might be interested.
Hope you enjoyed the clip & find the info useful. Rob.
Suppliers information for SE Queensland & Australia.
Fish Hatcheries & Feed Suppliers.
I have bought from the first 2 and had no problems whatsoever. Ace Aquaculture has been recommended to me by a few folks that have used them.
http://www.seqfish.com.au/2.html
http://www.ausnativefish.com.au/
http://aceaquaculture.com.au/
When ordering your fingerlings it is a good idea to ask if they sell small amounts of feed for your new swimmers. They grow so fast that it doesn’t pay to buy too much at once.
https://www.primo.net.au/shop/Ridley-AquaFeed
These folks supply Australian made Ridley aquaculture feed.
http://www.bignutrition.com.au/shop/
Stock smaller 4kg buckets of fish feed.
Farm supply store will also often stock some aquaculture feed as well. It isnt always out on display so it pays to ask the sales folks.
Pumps & Plumbing.
Ive bought a few air & water pumps from Guppys Aquarium & found them to have great prices.
Ive bought other pumps like the Jebao (the one used in Michaels system) from a few reputable Ebay stores that deal in aquarium goods. Its always an idea to check out their rating before buying from them though.
The "Irrigation Store" is an online based site I buy my bulk PVC, barbed irrigation & bulkhead fittings from. They have a fixed $20 delivery fee on all orders. Works out a lot cheaper than the 2 big box hardware stores,
Valves with removable blue handles are purchased at Trade Link Plumbing supplies for those that are concerned with little (or big) fingers fiddling with the system ;-)
I sell Uniseals, venturis & Root Pouches Australia wide through our small "Bits Out the Back" blog store.
Remind me you’re from the workshop & I’ll work out a bit of a discount for you ;-)
Best place Ive found for IBCs is on Gumtree & have picked up a few really cheap ones through there.
Barrels can be found at markets, farm supply stores like Sprengers (www.sprengersproduce.com.au), Gumtree & also recycle stores/centres like Reverse garbage (http://www.reversegarbageqld.com.au/).
My preference is for IBCs & barrels that have had food stuffs in them as they are normally easier to clean out.
Growing Media.
If youre in the Ipswich area H2Gro are a local hydroponic store that sell the clay based media & will offer a discount depending on how many bags youre buying,
http://h2grohydroponics.com.au/
Last time I checked they were selling 45L bags for $25 each with is almost half the price at other retailers.
If youre after growing medium other than clay many folks recommend road base AKA blue metal here in SE QLD as mentioned in the workshop. Please keep an eye out for contamination like concrete that both Michael & I found in the blue metal at our suppliers.
Its a good idea to do a vinegar test on any rock you want to buy to see if it will raise the pH in your system. You can do this on site at the landscape suppliers with a jar full of white vinegar. Pop a handful of rocks into the vinegar & if it starts to bubble its best to discard it as it may keep the pH constantly high in the system.
Backup Air System.
I did mention that Ive made up my own 12V Backup air system in case of blackout. I followed the plans on the link below.
PLEASE NOTE, any work on 240V electrical circuitry HAS TO BE carried out by a licensed electrician.
Useful Sites, Forums & YouTube Channels.
I have a playlist on our YouTube channel with some of the projects/builds that have gone into our aquaponic & aquaculture systems which may help you out with a few ideas,
I also have other playlists covering different aspects of our urban farm if you’re interested in a look.
Nate Story from Bright Agrotech has some great info on some of the finer points of aquaponics,
https://www.youtube.com/user/BrightAgrotechLLC
https://www.brightagrotech.com/blog/aquaponics/
Backyard Aquaponics forum is one of the oldest aquaponic forums & has a load of enthusiastic members posting about their own systems & helping others.
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/
Paul Van der Werf from Earthan Edge is one of the world leaders in integrated aquaculture & is a local to boot. Have found his site to be jam packed with ideas on DIY backyard builds, commercial systems & technical help. He has made it a subscription site but is well worth checking out if youre interested in building a small commercial aquaponic system.
http://articles.earthanedge.com/
His Facebook page has some useful posts as well & is well worth checking out.
This document was brought to my attention by a good friend (thank you Stella)- one that I would have missed in the madness that this past two weeks has been chaotically lost in, lol.
This, my friends, is NOTICE. Lloyds of London is putting it all out in black and white, as notice. The insurance industry is the biggest scam ever created- even bigger than the idea of "derivatives" and "leveraging" and its impact is directly related to both. When the Insurance companies are running out of things to insure, they have to create a "need" else where so that they can continue to perpetuate their fraud. This is clearly seen in Zerohedges article:
Wall Streets Next Bonanza: Subprime Marriage-Backed Securities
The last crash was caused by reckless investments in subprime mortgage-backed securities, an ingenious way to repackage and redistribute staggering amounts of credit risk to unsuspecting investors. After losing their house and their money, some investors may take comfort in their enduring marital relationships.Unfortunately, marriage is one of the riskiest bets of all, which makes it a prime, or should I say "subprime" target for Wall Streets masters of innovation.....If marriage insurance sales take off, its only a matter of time before Wall Street repackages it and sells it to investors via subprime marriage-backed securities. A boom in marriage speculation would ensue. Did you see your neighbor with his mistress last night? Buy some MBS credit default swaps on him and tell his wife what you saw. Is your other neighbor away from home a lot? Buy some MBS insurance on his wife, seduce her, and when they get divorced, you can cash in. Consider it "inside her" trading. Does it sound preposterous? Its not any crazier than buying credit default swaps on poor peoples mortgages and making $15 billion when they become homeless. Remember, everything is fair in the "free market."
I have posted the entire PDF of Lloyds Emerging Risk Report – 2015: Food System Shock Below. please share this information around as it is more important than most of the crap the MSM is putting out there- this is the NOTICE that is being handed to us.
"There is a pressing need to reduce the uncertainty surrounding the impacts of an extreme shock to the food supply. Sudden disruptions to the supply chain could reduce the global food supply and trigger a spike in food prices, leading to substantial knock-on effects for businesses and societies. The food system’s existing vulnerability to systemic shocks is being exacerbated by factors such as climate change, water stress, ongoing globalisation, and heightening political instability Lloyd’s commissioned the development of a scenario of extreme shock to global food production in order to explore the implications for insurance and risk.Experts in the field of food security and the economics of sustainable development were asked to develop a scenario describing a plausible, relatively severe production shock affecting multiple agricultural commodities and regions, and to describe the cascade of events that could result. .... A shock to the global food supply could trigger significant claims across multiple classes of insurance, including (but not limited to) terrorism and political violence, political risk, business interruption, marine and aviation, agriculture, environmental liability, and product liability and recall. These losses could be compounded by the potential for a food system shock to last for many years; and the ability of insurers to pay claims quickly is expected to be an important factor in post-shock recovery. More broadly, the insurance industry may also be affected by impacts on investment income and the global regulatory and business environment. The insurance industry is in a position to make an important contribution to improving the resilience and sustainability of the global food system. As businesses become increasingly aware of the threat posed by food system disruption, they may invest more heavily in comprehensive risk transfer structures, and a severe shock could motivate individuals and businesses to address gaps in their risk management. As such, global food supply shock could also represent a substantial opportunity for insurers, who will have a key role in assisting clients to understand their risk exposure and to tailor appropriate risk transfer solutions. Scenarios are an important method of exploring emerging risks; they are not predictions or forecasts. The following scenario is simply one of a multitude of events that could occur. When the scenario considers actions or events by individual governments or individuals within specific countries, it is not stating that Lloyd’s is predicting that the events will occur. Many of the comments are based on events that have occurred in the past – either in the countries mentioned or extrapolated from other regions. However, individual countries are only named specifically to give realism to the event and allow appropriately detailed calculations to be made – events could occur in different countries or not at all, and to illustrate this some alternative scenarios are provided. Lloyd’s firmly believes that the insurance industry will be stronger by considering a variety of scenarios around mega-risks, and the only way to do this consistently is to give sufficient detail. This has long been the approach within the Lloyd’s Realistic Disaster Scenario process. Lloyd’s has chosen to share this work openly because it believes that a debate within the insurance industry, and beyond, will strengthen the global community
LLoyd's Emerging Risk Report – 2015: Food System Shock
Demonstrating CPR at the Bronx Writing Accademy for students A preview of the engagement of the students next semester
This is exiting ! Citizen Schools, a non profit dedicated to extend learning hours in low income schools, will allow me to create a 11 week apprenticeship centred on hydro-ponics! Even better, we were able to get a 500$ grant from Green Thumb for the apprenticeship!
I am looking for a couple of volunteers to help out. If anyone is interested in volunteering, please contact me though my google+ account or through the comment section.
The idea of the apprenticeship came up because of one of the students during this semesters apprenticeship at the Bronx Writing Academy ( the apprenticeship is called "Future Physicians" and we are preparing the students to present clinical cases for several cardiac diseases as if they would be MDs). The day the idea was born, we were talking about how food and environment can influence cardiac diseases using the NYC community survey maps. One of these maps shows that some places in NYC, including the Bronx, have much lower access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Since we were talking about food, we also pointed out how a lot of fruit and veggies are not "as good" as we think, because they were coming from sometimes very far like Florida, California or Mexico. I also mentioned that in NYC there are people who are trying to grow food in the city. One of the students said "Ho! we should do that!". Thats how the idea was born. We then visited Taqwa Community Gardens in Bronx, where one of the person there told us bout the Earth Savers Club and Green Thumb.
Because of the grant we will be able to build 2 " "ponics, compare the growth, and present the system and results to the community at the end of the 11 weeks. On system will be an hydroponic system, the second will be a "teaponics" system - hence my experimenting at home. We will build the system out of 5 gallons pails collected from a local restaurant that will be used as grow beds and water reservoir. This pails will only be food safe pails (soy sauce, pickles and other). We plan on using shredded water bottles (PE - not polycarbonate) and milk bottles (as they also are food safe) for grow-media. Since the pieces of bottles will float, we plan on using another re-purposed material : pillow/comforter polyester fluff as a netting to keep the media in place. Additionally, since we got the 500$ grant, we may get a couple of commercially available grow towers, for comparison.
We will try to understand the basic physics, chemistry and biology behind a " "ponic system. We will also introduce the notions of sustainability - in the particular case of food- and try to understand the balance between the cost of growing food locally and far away (in my neighborhood groceries store the very large majority of the fruits and veggies are coming from Mexico all year round). For the students who are more inclined to arts I want to encourage them to write poem, short stories or songs, or drawing painting to show at the WOW!
The program will culminate with the presentation of the system to the community around the school to show as many people in the neighborhood as possible what hydroponics look like and explain how it can be started for a low cost. We hope to get the authorization from the school to do that in front of the school in the little lawn with the flag-post so passer buy can be engaged.
""By the 6th grade, students from underserved communities still average 6,000 fewer hours of learning time than their middle-income peers. You can level the playing field by teaching an apprenticeship this spring. Teach a new and improved version of your last apprenticeship or try something entirely different. Sign up here."" From a citizen school communication
Cant wait to start building it and see how it grows!
Last week I had the pleasure of participating in this wonderful event hosted by MESA, the Multinational Exchange for Sustainable Agriculture. What a privilege to be part of a panel of such amazing women working diligently to build more resilient food systems around the world. The panelists were all so different and accomplished including the fiery Joelci Dannacene, a militant organizer with The Landless Rural Workers Movement of Brazil and Myriam Kaplan-Pasternak, owner of Devils Gulch Ranch in Marin, founder and director of HaitiCoffee.com, Inc and a USAID Farmer to Farmer volunteer in Haiti and El Salvador with Partners of the Americas, Winrock International and HaitiCoffee. The panel also included Clara Nicholls, a lecturer in the Latin American Studies Program at UC Berkeley, teaching "Perspectives for Sustainable Rural Development in Latin America" and president of the Latin American Scientific Society of Agroecology, as well as, Shu-Chen Cheng, a beginning small-scale farmer from Taiwan who hopes to educate farmers in sustainable methods, and share with her community the importance of supporting local farmers. Not only was the conversation inspiring and stimulating, the homemade Puerto Rican tapas were off the hook! Thank you MESA for including me in this uplifting evening, I am honored and excited to collaborate further in the future!
This weeks update is not as joyfull as the previous ones, the green onions are dying....
Only one is surviving, the other ones are very (very) soft at the base. Yesterday I pulled the dying ones out, and besides the stem being very soft, some had surprisingly long roots. I am not sure what is going on. I am wondering if the now high nitrates could be responsible for it, or the high nitrite ( when diluted 1/100 it gives me a color so where in the 0.25 - 1 ppm range). The pepper seedling look good though and I can see 1 new leave on each plant at this point. Also, there are 3 new seedlings next to the parsley, I guess seeds that did not germinate before, so it seem that the "softening of the stem" is touching only the onions. The basil that died before was transplanted from dirt, and I suspect it didnt make it because I did not clean enought the dirt off the roots (the roots were black and rather hard).
I keep checking the water every day, and so far, ammonia is at 0, nitrite at least 25ppm, and nitrate at least 100 ppm. More on this next week. Next post will be about a documentary I saw last week end.
Made up a bit of a clip on Sunday just showing how the aquaponic system is configured for now.. I think it will always be a work in progress as there will always be something to play or experiment with.. Have already got a few ideas on how the new beds will be made, arranged 7 plumbed up.. Just need to wait for some plants to wind down before I can start moving the bed to make some room :)»
For more regular updates & pictures from the patch come visit us on our "Bits Out the Back" Facebook page.. Have a great one All...
If youre a fan of the official Italian Arduino components, their blog just announced two new items -- a USB host shield and an In-System Programmer (ISP).
The Arduino Uno comes with a USB B port, and you use a USB A-to-B cable to connect the Uno to your computer for uploading sketches to the Uno. However, to make your Arduino a USB host, you need to add a shield. There are other USB host shields for the Arduino, such as the SparkFun one for $24.95 or the Circuits@Home one for $25 (a mini one is also available for $20). The official Arduino USB host shield is available from arduino.cc for 24 euros, which is about $33 right now. I couldnt
SparkFun USB host shield
find the official shield at any of the distributors I looked at tonight, probably because its just been released.
So why might you want to get a USB host shield? Well, the Arduino announcement has a long list of uses:
HID devices: keyboards, mice, joysticks, etc.
Game controllers: Sony PS3, Nintendo Wii, Xbox360.
USB to serial converters: FTDI, PL-2303, ACM, as well as certain cell phones and GPS receivers.
ADK-capable Android phones and tables.
Digital cameras: Canon EOS, Powershot, Nikon DSLRs and P&S, as well as generic PTP.
Mass storage devices: USB sticks, memory card readers, external hard drives, etc.
Bluetooth dongles.
If any of those particular use cases are of interest to you, but you still arent totally clear on what is meant by a USB host, or why and how you want to use a USB host shield, Hardware Fun has a good post going into depth about USB host shields for Arduino. Their post explains USB host like this:
"...let’s first understand what is an USB Host Shield. It is a shield which provides USB Host support for Arduino...The USB protocol defines two types of devices. One is called the host (or server) and the other one is called peripheral (client). The Host device controls the peripheral device and also provides power to it. When you connect any USB device like a mouse or a keyboard to your computer, your computer acts as the host and controls (or polls) the client device (keyboard or mouse or even an Arduino). For a successful communication to happen using USB protocol, you need at least one of the device to be the host, which means that you cannot connect two keyboards together and expect them to communicate with each other...Once you have this shield, your Arduino board can act as USB Host and you can connect other USB devices like keyboard, mouse or even an Android phone..."
For lots of technical details and to gain a better understanding of the USB host shield hardware, click on over to the Circuits@Home hardware manual for their USB host shield. The Arduino blog announcement for the official shield says "it can be used with the “USB Host Library for Arduino” hosted by Oleg Mazurov and Alexei Glushchenko from circuits@home" so a lot of the info in the hardware manual will likely also be applicable to, or helpful in understanding, the official Arduino shield. Theres also a reference page for the shield on the arduino.cc site.
The other official Arduino hardware release was an Arduino AVR In-System Programmer. I might do a future post with more about the ISP and programming AVR microcontrollers, but heres what the Arduino blog says about this new hardware:
"It’s a tiny AVR-ISP...useful to anyone needing more space on the Arduino board. Uploading a sketch with an external programmer can be used for three main reasons:
remove the bootloader and use the extra space for your sketch
burn the bootloader on your Arduino, so you can recover it if you accidentally corrupt the bootloader.
when you use a new ATmega microcontroller in your Arduino, and you need the bootloader in order to upload a sketch in the usual way."
If either of these items sound useful for your microcontroller projects, you might want to read a bit more about them or place an order!
Did another backyard aquaponic system update last week.. Its all travelling along rather nicely at the moment & am happy to report there have been no dramas as of late.. **knocks on wood** Plant growth is still coming along nicely even though the temperatures have been dropping a bit.. Thinking we are still right to plant out a few more seeds though..
Should have the site for the mini fish farm all sorted by the next update hopefully..
Have taken the first 4 perch from the system to share at a bit of a family get together over the weekend.. 3 were not the largest but wasnt expecting too much.. Might pull a few more over Winter but not sure yet, shall see how we go..
Information on the iki jime method of despatching fish can be found here http://www.ikijime.com/ & is well worth the look I think.
For more regular updates & pictures from the patch come visit us on our "Bits Out the Back" Facebook page.. Have a great one All... Rob..
With the high temperatures we have been having the water in the fish tank has been slowly rising to the 30°C/86°F mark... This is outside the comfort range of the Jade perch & I was getting worried about the amount of dissolved oxygen they had available so needed a quick fix.. Found a very easy fix by doing next to nothing at all..
Might contemplate adding some frozen bottles of water into the tank to try & help reduce the water temperature tomorrow..
Been a few additions to the set up over the past week.. A new air compressor & filter were added to the system... Both are a bit of overkill for now but will come in handy when the system expands.. Had a bit of a scare with the fish the other day.. The water became murky for no apparent reason & all the fish went off the feed for 12 or so hours but they all look to be OK & are feeding well now.. Think they need a break after all the tinkering that has been going on around them..
For more regular updates about the patch come visit on the Bits Out the Back Face Book page.. Have a great one All... : )»
Have had a bit of fun trying to get some fluctuating nitrite levels in the system under control over the past few weeks but think I have it sorted now.. Made up a clip explaining how I think it happened & the steps taken to keep the fish safe..
Will be keeping what happened with this system in mind as I start to plan for the new tanks & beds that will be going onto the system.. Have already thought about altering the way the filter is set up to try & remove as much solids as I can before they make it to the grow beds.. I found both the folks on the Backyard Aquaponics Forum & Paul from Earthan group very helpful with the advice that gave .. Pauls site also has a great salt treatment calculator that might come in handy to some..
Thought I would post a bit of a look at how we managed to clean out the grow bed that was loaded with fish solids.. I think this is part of the reason there was a nitrite spike in the system in the first place..
Held off posting on the bed cleaning just so I could see the levels drop & stay stable for a week or 2.. I think this shows that the cleaning was successful in reducing the solids that caused the nutrient "spike".. Making the air spear was really easy & came in handy cleaning out the beds..
Thanks to Paul from Earthan group again for giving me the heads up on the design of the DIY spear..
For more regular updates & pictures from the patch come visit us on our Bits Out the Back Facebook page.. Have a great one All... :)»
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The bigger collard greens, with plenty of leaves growing from it.
Thats it! The system at the Bronx Writing Academy is completed! 
