November 16th 2010

Plant Type= Basil

Growth Status= 3 sprouts, one dead plant, strange black (possibly fungal) growth on plants.  New seeds planted in dormant pods.

Water Temp= +/- 72 F

Water Ph= 7.3 (will be lowered today)

Fish Count= 25

Light Cycle= 15 on/ 9 off

News: We almost had two casualties today. There were two fish being sucked into the filter until I came in to view our progress and saved them.  On a lighter note a 3 new plants are  in the beginning stages of sprouting hopefully to maintain  growth. We removed the media from the filter to hopefully gain more waste and nutrients provided by the fish to help our plants grow. The fungus is still continuing to grow on one plant and has killed off two plants. The 3 new plants have not yet begun to grow fungus, we are keeping our fingers crossed!

Sincerely

Jeffrey J. Woytowich

November 10th, 2010

November 11, 2010


Plant Type= Basil

Growth Status= 3 sprouts, one dead plant, strange black (possibly fungal) growth on plants.  New seeds planted in dormant pods.

Water Temp= +/- 72 F

Water Ph= 7.3 (will be lowered today)

Fish Count= 25

Light Cycle= 15 on/ 9 off

News= On Friday, our fish continue to stay alive and live a healthy life. The black spots on our basil leaves are continuing to get bigger which as previously noted in our blogs it is a type of fungus which is caused by a nutrient deficiency. We are trying to figure out a way to try and save the plant, if a solution is not met, we might have to regrow our Basil plants

Sincerely,

Jeffrey J. Woytowich

November 11, 2010

Plant Type= Basil

Growth Status= 3 sprouts, one dead plant, strange black (possibly fungal) growth on plants.  New seeds planted in dormant pods.

Water Temp= +/- 72 F

Water Ph= 7.3 (will be lowered today)

Fish Count= 25

Light Cycle= 15 on/ 9 off

News= Well, on Tuesday we added 25 new goldfish to the system.  We went with a smaller population, in order to keep our toxin levels at a more reasonable level. So far we have had great success, here we are, 2 days in and NO casualties! The water is also looking much clearer than it has in the past, perhaps this can also be attributed to the removal of our wooden plant structure.  The new watering system is working well, keeping the Rock Wool moist, and the plants fed.  I have noticed our growth is much slower than most of the other groups, this must be because we are not feeding our plants the nutrients like the other groups, and the fish aren’t producing enough waste to keep things fed.  Hopefully we will continue to have this slow, yet steady growth amongst our basil.  Well, I promised you all pictures of the new system, so I guess I will wrap this up and get to the good stuff. Happy Veterans Day.

November 4th 2010

Plant Type= Basil

Growth Status= 4 sprouts, beginning to grow taller.

Water Temp= +/- 72 F

Water Ph= 7.0

Fish Count= 0

Light Cycle= 15 on/ 9 off

News= Since  we have replaced the water our Ph still has been at all time high of 8.5. This still and continuously has been our biggest downfall in our Aquaponics system. Today again both Phil and I have lowered the Ph to 6.5 hopefully it sustains. On the lighter note the water has remained clear and the plants are continue to grow but is not flourishing with live and healthy fish.  Next tuesday there will be 50 brand new gold/feeder fish once again introduced to our system. Wish us luck

Sincerely,

Jeffrey J. Woytowich

November 2, 2010

Plant Type= Basil

Growth Status= 4 sprouts, beginning to grow taller.

Water Temp= +/- 72 F

Water Ph= 7.0

Fish Count= 0

Light Cycle= 15 on/ 9 off

News= WELL. Again we are complete aquaponic failures. The fish population is gone. While we are making progress ( the fish lasted a week longer than they did the first time.) We did some testing and our ammonia and nitrate levels were through the roof.  Our pH is also high, after holding steady for a week and a half… It’s time to do some research and find out how we can keep these levels lower.  We also did some more custom fabricating and changed the plant holding system, getting rid of the wood, in case it was releasing some of the toxins. We will have pics up soon.

October 28, 2010

Plant Type= Basil

Growth Status= 2 sprouts with reasonable growth, 2-3 possible germination’s

Water Temp= +/- 72 F

Water Ph= 7.0

Fish Count= 43

Light Cycle= 15 on/ 9 off

News= Today, we walked in to only a few casualties.  This is MAJOR progress from our disaster last time around.  With most of our fish still swimming, we only made some minor adjustments for the weekend. We swapped our intake filter for a screen, to keep our water flow up. We added some water that had been lost due to evaporation and  balanced out the Ph again.  We fed the swimmers and left them be for the weekend.. Hopefully we don’t come back to an underwater genocide.

October 26, 2010

Plant Type= Basil

Growth Status= 2 sprouts with reasonable growth, new one outpacing original sprout, 4 dormant

Water Temp= +/- 68 F  (installed heater today)

Water Ph= 7.2

Fish Count= 50

Light Cycle= 12 on/ 12 off

News=  Today we introduced 50 beautiful little fishes to our aquaponics system. We also made some alterations, including adding a tank heater and an intake filter for our pump.  we are hoping that with the water monitoring we did last week, and the warmer temperature from the heater, that we can keep our fishes swimming. Pictures coming soon!

Welcome to the show!

Hello, and welcome to the Big Heff Show Aquaponics Blog. Our team consists of myself, Phil Erdley, and my P.I.C Jeff Woytowich. We are constucting and monitoring an Aquaponics system for ITEC140, Bio-Related Technology.  Let me get you up to date on our progress.

Our set-up is a 10 gallon aquarium, with a custom fabricated rack holding our 6 basil seeds, planted in Rock Wool substrate. On October 14th, we planted our seeds and introduced 45 fish (goldfish and guppies) to the tank.  Sadly, on October 19th, all of our fish were dead, and the tank water was a terrible yellow color.

So here we are, on October 21, 2010 where we have  fabricated a water trough to keep our seeds hydrated, solving the issue we had with evaporation.  we have also swapped out our water, to make sure it is clean and has time to condition itself for next week, when we will reintroduce fish to our tank. We will make entries with some consistant information and fun updates as we go. Enjoy the blog!