Aquaponics, week 1 progress

It's been one week since we started up our system. I think both of us were expecting the fish and plants to die but to our surprise, everything is flourishing. We are tracking growth on a spreadsheet and keeping track of the levels in the water.

The first few days, the plants didn't really do much and the water was still a tiny bit cloudy. On the 3rd day, we started to notice some changes. The water started to clear up dramatically. The spinach started wilting and some of the cilantro leaves were looking a little burnt on the edges. NOT looking good folks. Day three is when I started to log progress. See below!

You can see that most things decided they liked the aquaponic lifestyle and grew quite a bit in the last 4 days. Basil, not so much, but there is a lot of new growth that I think will do quite well. Overall, the basil looks healthy. Similar with the spinach (whoops just noticed I didn't log it yet). It hasn't really grown much and the outer leaves had to be clipped off because they were turning yellow. But I will say, the new leaves starting are much darker green and crisp looking and it is giving me hope!

The tomato, mint, green onion and cilantro are doing great!

DAY 1- Planting

 DAY 3

DAY 7 - one week

Our Aquaponic Adventure has Started!

Thanks to the great DIY tutorial over at Japan-Aquaponics, we put this system together last winter. After failing at starting some seedlings, this went into a corner for about a year. Take 2, we decided to go out to home depot and buy some 4" plants that were ready to be transplanted.

We went to our local fish store to scout out the best candidates. We settled on (the only) 4 pond goldfish left. When at the register, the cashier asked us if we have the tank running. We told her no and she said "good luck" and we left.. Maybe we are a little too confident or maybe she just needs to have some faith that not all people are idiots. Jokes on you lady! Fish love their new home!

We collected 2 5-gallon buckets of "pond water" from a river close to use. We chose a spot over the dam to make sure the water had plenty of bacteria already started. Once the system was running for a bit we put the fish (in their bag) in to float around and adjust.

Carefully, we shook off excess soil from the plants and then rinsed in a bucket of water. Not 100% of the dirt was gone but it was mostly clear. The water rises almost to the surface of the Hydroton so the roots do not need to go very deep to start with. They will grow down! We placed the plants in the growing bed and crossed our fingers.

We have the plants near a window that gets quite a bit of morning light, but it's not quite enough for optimal growth so we bought a single grow light from a local store. (24w florescent)

We are going to try and post progress about once a week while the plants are developing and growing.

Until next week!