Progress

The lettuce is growing......

This all after 4 days after I put the seeds in the bed, the bush beans are also starting to grow.

One dead several injured...

Not to sure about what is going on with my setup.  One fish died overnight and two more are on the way out.  pH is at 7.0 today but was at 9.0 last night.  Ammonia is still at 1.0 and still no sign of nitrites or nitrites.  Water temp hi is 74 low is 71.4.

Cuttings look great, made mini terrariums with old soda bottles to cover the plants, also added a neck to the siphon to raise water level to reach seeds and cuttings for the time being.  Smells a bit fishy in the tank, but then I did add 10 fish to the 20gal tank.  The big comets are happy as hell the little ones I picked up at Petsmart (never doing that again) are all croaking.

Engage

Today was the day.  Cuttings were planted in the grow bed, seeds will be in a few days and we put fish in the tank.  Altogether we purchased 10 fish and I will say this, do not purchase fish from Petsmart, get them anywhere else.

I also located a Nitrate test kit and well , 0 nitrates found.  We also added a heater that is preset at 78 degrees.  I know the numbers are not that great on the water and now the pH dropped to 9 tonight, but Ammonia stayed the same.

I need to find a way to control the pH but looks like I will need to get some pH up from the Hydroponics store to get it to get to 7.0 where it should be.  I took a number of photos today so please take a look.

Shock and AWWWW

A little update for everyone:

Added Ammonia to system last night to kick start it and tested this morning and the level is about 3.0. A little high but will test Nitrites tonight. Hopefully adding cuttings and tomorrow and maybe some seeds for bunch beans.

So tonight I tested the water again, Ammonia is down to 1.0, but pH is still high at 8.  Need that down to 7, checked the nitrites and they are at 0 (yeah) then I realized I bought the wrong test kit 'cause it is missing the Nitrate test...duh!

I did pick up an air pump that should fix the pH and help get Nitrates developed for the plants plus I also picked up a bottle of Nitrate Bacteria to dissolve the ammonia and get the bacteria into the bed.

Water Temp is 71.3 - great for Talapia and for Goldfish, Koi

I never liked Chemistry but I am sure glad I did pay attention.

Up and testing

Today I took another day off of my bill paying job, last vacation of my anniversary year and spent a better part of the morning on the phone with them, bad timing I guess but good for the aquaponics.  I spent this morning moving the equipment in to the house and I thank my love wife and  gardening partner for giving me a space in the kitchen to set this stuff up.

Drilled out one of the shelves so that I can run the drain through the decking to where the tank will be.  Moved the bed and tank to the shelves and plumbed out the whole thing.  Here are a few photos.

Drain and hole

Drain with aeriator

Flow control valve

Water line in and grow media (Hydrocorn)

Extended Tank fill with Aerator and tank

Day of recovery and redemption

Today we got an early start, got the bed emptied and cleaned.  Did a quick diagnostic on the bell and found media wedged in between guard and bell as well as the drain was completely filled with Hydrocorn well as the elbow on the drain was plugged.  Cleared all of that out and decided to cut the drain down to 7" from the 8" it was as well as shorten the bell and redo the media guard.  Tested the old guard and the new guard and found that they are not floating, they are actually rising from the media floating and lifting the guard.

Had Conor rewash the Hydrocorn several times while I went out to locate some pvc and cpvc parts as well as maybe a comercial media guard at the pond fish store.  No luck there but we did pick up a water test kit, and got some hardware from Lowes.

We redid the tank, bed and piping.  Put the media back in the bed and started from scratch retesting the set up.  Here is a video of the drain of the bed and it is quick.  I am still concerned about the fill rate vs. the drain.  The bed fills currently in 3:53 seconds and drains in 33 seconds.

We are going to let it run for a few hours, change out the water in the tank and test again.  Should be moving bed indoors tomorrow and get plumbing done

The hydrocorn is no longer floating away, hopefully it will stay.

The new drain incorporates an aerator on the last horizontal section, getting more Oxygen into the
tank.









The grow bed is no longer floating and the water now stops about 1/2 to 1" away from the top of the grow bed.

Not so good

Today we tried to clean the Hydrocorn.  Not an easy task.  I have now done four full washes and it is still running red.  We also made the media guard but in my estimation it is an utter failure.  I was checking the flow and drain and realized the guard was rising as the water rose as well the hydrocorn floats and that may be a big problem.  Need to go back to the drawing board on the guard issue but not sure we can work with the hydrocorn.

On a better note we purchased the shelving we will be using for the tank and bed/  It was rated for 1000lbs per shelve and required no screws plus it was under $70 at Lowes.  It did require the removal of a table but that is going to a family member who needs a real dining room table.


Here are few photos of the media guard and the media that is somehow getting into the siphon and down to the tank.

Conor working on the media guard

 This guard has 3 different size holes and even though it was floating we added holes all the way up to the top of the media, but that didn't stop the floating.

Here is a completed bed with guard and media in place.  It now only takes about 1/3 the water to fill.

Here we can see media reaching back to the tank.
Not sure how it is getting into the siphon unless the siphon is rising with the water level.

Success..mostly

Today to release some stress from the toils of life in IT I swore I was going to go home and work on the grow bed and fix the issues and test.  I asked my assistant Conor if he would join me in the backyard and we began.  I had already re-sized the bulkhead adapter gasket and used silicone on the the cap to the bell on the siphon.  We also made a new down spout to increase the velocity of the downward flow and pull on the siphon.  The thought is that this will prevent a "bubble" from forming at elbow and drifting back to the bell breaking the flow.

Notice the funnel at the top this is to increase the flow volume into the drain.

The sealed bell.

I left the funnel on the tube hoping that it is not the issue.  We also had to place the tank on the ground so that we could use a longer down spout. We had to run a few test, several fills and drains, trying to determine the best rate that the bed would work at.  On our first test it filled in 3 minutes and drained in 90 seconds, but the siphon would not stop so the drain and fill were stuck at a 1/4" deep.  We decreased the fill rate a bit and it now filled in 9 minutes and drained at 2:06.  The drain hung for a bit but finally got the gurgle of air.  After a few more tweak we had the fill to 23 minutes and drain in 1:20 seconds, I thinks this probably the best we can do with this bed without increasing the size of the drain to 1".  We also tested the down spout on the slower fill fast drain rate, the be filled but would never go full drain, just a trickle to keep it from over-flowing.

I do still have to clean the hydrocorn and make the media filter but we are very close to starting the active flood and drain and add fish. Really need to locate a metal rack for the tank and bed.  I think the plastic one we have will collapse.  Hopefully we can get some type of setup running this weekend.

We will keep you all posted and thanks for reading.

Recipe of the week "Pickled jalapenos (escabeche)"

Pickled jalapenos (escabeche)
Ingredients:
1 pound of jalapenos, cut into rings
1 small head of cauliflower, cut into florets
3 carrots, peeled and cut into rings
1 small onion, cut into rings or slivers
6 cloves of garlic, minced (6 teaspoons)
1 tablespoon of canola oil
6 teaspoons of peppercorns
6 teaspoons of cumin seeds
6 sprigs of cilantro
2 cups of white vinegar
Salt
Water
Six pint jars, sterilized

Method:
1. Cook the peppers, carrots, cauliflower and onion in the oil on medium heat for ten minutes or until onion is clear.
2. In each jar, place the equivalent of 1 minced clove of garlic (1 teaspoon), 1 sprig of cilantro, 1 teaspoon each of peppercorns and cumin seeds.
3. Divide pepper mix between the six jars.
4. Add 1/2 cup of vinegar to each jar and then fill the rest of the jar with water, leaving 1/2 inch at the top. Add a dash of salt.
5. Seal and then give jar a good shake.
6. Refrigerate overnight and they should be ready within 24 hours. Will keep in the refrigerator for a month. Makes 6 pints

Trials and tribulations

We have now picked up a 45 lb bag of Hydrocorn for the growing bed.  Had a little conversation with Bob at Harvest Moon, a hydroponics dealer just down the street.  When I told him I was venturing in Aquaponics he was just amazed. He stated I was the first person to ever come in that was actually doing anything with Aquaponics, so he started asking all these questions and I told him of Zombie Jac's story.  We are attempting to grow our own raw products so that we can produce our product line and keep cost to a minimum and possibly supplementing the income with the sale of Talapia and Trout at the local farmers market.  He was so intrigued it was fun to have a discussion with someone about it who had a little knowledge on the topic.  So I in return picked his brain about grow media, lights and some other topics.  Come to find out that Hydroton, the typical media used, is in short supply due to the main plant in Germany running out of the clay from their mine.  He pointed out the Hydrocorn which is made the same way but utilizes a sterilized standard clay, hence it was cheaper than Hydroton by about $20 for the same size bag.

I am planning on testing the media and see how well it works but the prep is a little more intensive with washing it and letting it sit in the running system for about 2 weeks before adding nutrients to it via the fish, which I don't have yet so it does fit in the time schedule.  We need to work out the bell siphon issue first and there are several fixes I need to do first.

First we need to make the top bulkhead adapter gasket smaller so the siphon sits flat against the bed.  For some reason the bed only drains halfway before the seal is broken.  But I am not sure that is the real error.  When I pull the cap off the siphon and place my hand over it, it will drain all the way.  So maybe it is the cap that is leaking, we could only get a test cap for the 2" bell, I need to locate a 2" cap schedule 40, there could also be the issue of the gap above the drain.  Currently it is at about 1".  I tested a taller bell and the drain rate was terrible.  I have been told it should not be less than 1/2"

The other possibility is the diameter of the drain.  Currently it is 3/4" with 1" flair at the top, theory being that the reduction helps maintain a stable flow, with increased velocity to drain bed faster.  I may have to make the drain 1".  Not sure but it may be something to test. Then final thing is the drain, currently it only has one 90 degree but again I have been reading that I need another.  I did add aeration holes to the first straight pipe off the drain 90 but now put another 90 as a sort of down spout to increase back pressure.

The feed is great.  I fill the bed in about 5 minutes on the highest setting and drain in about 1 min.  The pump is a Tetra 450 gph statuary pump and does great on a 36" vertical.  I did add a shut off valve to the feed line so I can fine tune the feed and I have run it at a trickle to full bore.

I do need to get a hold of a test kit for the water to test pH and nutrients so if anyone knows where I can find a tester (test tube type) let us know.

On the pepper side we are ready to start production on some habanero (Zombie Jac's Original) sauce, Piri Piri Sauce and possibly some Hellapano Juice.  Keep and eye on Facebook for delivery dates for testers and remember if you want to be a tester let us know via Facebook or e-mail.  All you need to do is ues it and tell us what you think.

I will post some more pictures later.

Remeber you can always reach us at Zombiejac@nycap.rr.com
and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ZombieJacsHotStuff/

Ready...Set...Aquaponics

Ok so I had the day off of work and went out to shop for some garden supplies for my experiment.  Here is were we are so far

Got the fish tank

Testing for leaks and cleaning

Mystery items.

I will get some photos as I progress here but I am really excited.  Right now just looking for an adapter for CPVC down to 3/4 inch vinyl hose and growing media.

More to come.

PART 2

So here is what we have. Pump 450gph, filler pipe,hose, parts for bulkhead adapter, drain, silicone, cvpc cutter and pvc cutter and a 10 gallon tote for a grow bed.

Ok so not pretty. Just needed to test home made bell siphon. Thanks to Conor for the help cutting and drilling weep holes.

Glad to say bulk head adapter works, no leaks there and stand pipe works fine but a little to tall still. Gasket at bottom too big as well need to make smaller so bell sits flat on bottom.

Conor and I worked on building the bell siphon and all though the set up was not perfect we were able to find some mistakes that we need to change.  Also it tested our version of a bulkhead adapter since no one at lowes or home depot was smart enough to  know what one was, or even what a bulkhead was.

Honey Habanero Chicken Wings

We received this from one of our readers:

Submitted by: Amy Angelo
Prep time:15 minutes
Cook time:45 minutes
Serves: 8

These wings are coated in a smoked paprika spice blend, then glazed with honey and habenero sauce, and finished with cooked bacon.

Ingredients

24 chicken wings (cut into wing and drumette pieces)
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
Oil for frying
1 cup honey
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
1 habanero pepper (minced finely)
1 lb bacon (cooked and crumbled)
Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Preheat oil to 350 degrees.

Remove chicken from packaging and dry with paper towels.

In a large zip top bag, mix together: flour, salt, black pepper and smoked paprika. Shake to incorporate.

Drop the chicken wings into the flour mixture and shake to coat chicken.

Shake off excess flour and drop chicken wings into the hot oil. Fry for 10-15 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in the middle. Remove from oil and let drain on paper towels.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together: honey, apple cider vinegar, and habanero pepper.

Dip each chicken wing into sauce and then place onto a baking sheet. Bake chicken for 5 minutes, remove from oven and immediately sprinkle with crumbled bacon.