The last three weeks have seen a flurry of activity, culminating in the arrival of 250 pounds of tilapia from Friendly Aquaponics.  We are learning much about water chemistry as we nurture our system towards an equilibrium.  The plants, which at first were becoming stunted and unattractive, began to perk up and grow within about 7 days of the arrival of fish.  This coincided with a drop in ammonia and a spike in nitrites.  Now, we are using water from the first system to inoculate the second system, which will receive a similar quantity of fish this Sunday.

About some of the detail shots:  The “Button’s” were improvised to address a problem in which some of the trays would fall through the flat bar rails and into the nutrient water.  These wood blocks keep the corners of the otherwise sturdy trays from collapsing in.  The “pony” trays were created by slicing trays on the table saw, narrowing them, and re-attaching them with stainless bolts/nuts.  These were programmed so that our beds could be an ideal size for reaching into the middle from both sides, and so that the total number of beds/aisles could fit efficiently into our greenhosue structure.

We’ve been warned by every expert that baby fish are prone to finding their way out of the fish tank, through the pump, and into the garden beds where they grow to eat plant roots.  We addressed this with paint socks which surround the pipes through which water is siphoned out of the biofilters.

Because of the efficacy that the biofilters demonstrate in adding dissolved oxygen to the water, we decided to have water from two biofilters, instead of just one, return directly to the fish tanks.  This required some improvised plumbing on Ma’ayag’s part.  Later, after we have developed conclusions from our initial experimentation, these siphon pipes can be routed underground to make the aisles more easily passable.