Month: March 2012

Today George and I rechecked our pH levels in our water. Our water is very high with a pH of 8.5 or greater. When testing it at first, we had added more water. I figure that the tap water here is more alkaline than it is acidic. We tried using a pH down solution but that was strictly for hydroponic nutrient solutions only. We found some aquarium pH down and used that instead. The recommended dose was two drops for every gallon of water, so 10 drops. After doing so, we let the system sit for an hour and a half and the pH was still over 8.5. Even after class, we added close to 15 or 20 drops and still no change. We are worried that the pH down(which is acidic) may harm the fish.

When we checked our system today we noticed that the water level had dropped about an inch or two so we added more water to the system. It seems like every week we will need to add more water to our system to balance out the level. Some of our plants are growing better than others. The plants closest to the light seem to be doing the best at 4-5″ where the other plants are around 2-3″. We will continue to feed the fish and monitor the system. We checked the pH today and it seemed high but we tested it right after we added more water so we will check it again on Wednesday. The picture below is of our plant growth.

It is the first day back after spring break and we were not sure what condition our plants and fish would be in. The fish seem healthy as you can see in the picture above, even though there was only about three inches of water left in the tank. When we left the tank, it was filled to the bottom of the drainage pipe therefore a significant amount of water was lost. We believe this was due to evaporation so we will keep an eye on the water level and refill the tank as needed.

The plants have been growing for almost two weeks now and have grown to between an 1″ and 3″.  In the picture above you can see that the plants look green and healthy. Also you can see how much they have grown. We will continue to monitor the water levels and feed the fish over the following weeks.

Today, George and I put fish into our aquaponics system. The fish we bought are Zebra Danio fish. We chose these fish because of the amount of waste they produce. Also, we have spring break coming up next week and we needed fish that could survive without eating a lot of food over the course of about 10 days.

We also planted out mesclun seeds. Over the past few days, they have been germinating. To make our seeds germinate, we wrapped them into a damp paper towel, put them into a sealed container, and let them sit under a light for three days. This process allows for the first stems of the seed to sprout without direct sunlight.

For our class, we were instructed to create a hydroponics system. A hydroponics system is a “dirt-less” environment that allows for plant growth. This is done by taking nutrient rich water and pumping it into a grow bed.

There are many different types of hydroponics systems and after doing research Brian and I have decided to create an aquaponics system. This system uses both fish and ideas from hydroponics. The basic idea consists of using fish to create waste/nutrient rich water which is then pumped straight into our grow bed. The plants then use the nutrients from the fish waste, allowing them to grow and filter the water for the fish. From the pictures you can see our fish tank is located below our grow bed so water must be pumped to the grow bed and then drained back down through using a pipe.We started germinating our seeds today.