It’s been quite
a while since my last update, and I’ve had a lot of developments, so here we
go!
The
AquaFarm from Back to the Roots had been making a decent amount of noise as the
air pump rattles against the plastic container. I tried to adjust the foam insulation pad, but
it was difficult to keep the thing quiet. I was away from my apartment during my trip to
Burning Man, so I moved the betta into a different tank and had a friend take
care of him for me. The wheatgrass grew
well, but the basil and other herb didn’t grow very well. Right now the system is empty, and I’m planning
on starting it up again in the next few weeks.
The 105
gallon system at my friend’s apartment is still slowly moving forward. My friend is taking a trip to Nepal, so his
room got a new owner. My buddy Saqib is
going to look after the aquaponics system from now on, and I’m glad that he’s
excited about it. The seed plugs (coco
coir, I think) started developing a white mold, so I broke off the plugs and
planted the seedlings directly into my grow media. I also installed a drain plug into my bell
siphon to keep rocks from messing up the drainage cycle. Pogo had bought 6 full grown tilapia for the
fish tank before I left for Burning Man, but only one is still living. I would have preferred to start with
fingerlings, but one large tilapia will do fine for now. His name is Hercules. I think Saqib and I are on the same page, and
want to eat Hercules and fill the tank with smaller, decorative fish. I also want to cover the sides of the system’s
frame with cloth to keep sunlight out of the filter and fish tank. Some algae grew inside the filter, that I need
to clean out, so hopefully the lack of sunlight will fix that in the future. The pH seems to be slowly, but consistently
dropping, so I’ve had to add pH up a few times.
I’m not sure what’s causing the pH drop, yet. We’re working out the little kinks in the
system, so I’m excited to see how it works out. I’ll update when we have some new
developments!
