Prototype Aquaponics Project (Charity Chapel) Update

We are closing in on 60 days of continuous operation and the system is holding its own. There have been a couple of challenges, mostly with the young neighborhood kids, but overall the system has been resilient.

Are largest challenge, currently seems to be that of plant nutrition. Many of the plant species are exhibiting light green foliage, and some seem stunted- like the tomatoes. I have noticed, however, a lack of consistency in this. For instance the the zucchini squash seems to be slightly stunted but much greener and producing fruit than its sister Yellow squash in another grow bin. Too, the hybrid tomatoes are slightly greener than the heirloom though both are about the same mall size. The peppers to are not consistent with the Bell peppers being dark green and beginning to bloom, but their brother Jalapenos are tall, light green and bearing fruit.

The cucumbers and green beans seem to be preforming the best of all. We have harvested about 100 green beans from 14 plants (not quite half a grow bin) and the plants are still producing well. We also harvested 4- 10" cucumbers from one plant. Interestingly enough the second plant in the same bin is producing an abundance of flowers but no fruit.

Our theory concerning the plant health is that they lack nitrogen due to small amount of fish in the system. We suspect that when we remove the large fish and add the 100+ fingerlings the nitrogen will increase

There has been a slight buildup of solids in the left side grow bins. We have countered this by adding a few worms to the bins. We should add a significant amount to see any real change. Speaking of... we had a bit of trouble with our worm bin in that fire ants found it and began nesting in it. We cleaned out the bin, replaced all the bedding and reinstalled the worms. We treated the area beneath the grow bin where we located the worm bed with ant killer, then set the worm bed container on an overturned container lid, then filled the lid with water to act as a moat. The worms have not returned. As an added bonus the "moat" lid is catching a drip from the grow bin that is keeping water in it!

The five fish seem to be healthy, in fact they were inspected today and much of the white spots seems to have disappeared so perhaps it was not Ick. There are still several small white marks but these could be attributed to fighting or tank scrapes. I am providing a microscope so that we can eventually look at skin and water samples to see if we can make a better determination. As of today they are active and ate well when they were fed. I increased their food today from about 3 cups to about 6 cups after waiting to see their consumption of the first 3 cups. We will soon be replacing them with the fingerling's.

The system is working as designed. Grow bin R-1 was not cycling when I stopped this week. I found a plug in the siphon tube, cleared and reinserted the bell. It worked fine afterwords.

The system should be monitored at least every other day6 to ensure the bins are cycling and to correct these types of situations. We must remember that the bin is not operating outside a system but it affects the results of the whole. If a grow gin is not cycling, or cycling correctly that means that the plants in the bin may not be getting their nutritional needs met but it also means that full colony of bacteria are not being utilized, which means that the water is not being cleaned, nor aerated which means that the fish are not getting their basic needs met.

We will begin on some of our additional projects soon.

Blessings- Tony