Greenhouse Insulation

As you've seen, I used that plastic stuff you see on greenhouses for the walls of my system. I bought a bunch of 3 millimeter single layer plastic, as opposed to 6 millimeter or double layered. Why not the fancy stuff? Because the 3 mil stuff is cheaper.

They sell plastic that is two layers, which inflate so they don't touch. This creates a pocket of air between two pieces of plastic, acting as insulation. I built the poor man's version out of extra pvc pipe and pvc clips.

That's a 3" piece of pvc you see taped onto the "rib" of the greenhouse. I didn't clip the plastic directly to the rib, for fear of the two layers touching. Once they touch, insulation is lost (according to some random person on reddit).

It's hard to see, but here it is with two layers of plastic up.

I will be installing one or two 300 watt aquarium heaters next week sometime. My hope is that by heating the water, the greenhouse will stay warmer. I'll keep the thermostat set in the upper 60s to start and experiment from there. I believe that keeping the plants' roots warm via the water will make up for less than ideal air temperatures in the greenhouse, although the air should stay considerably warmer thanks to this insulation and the 300 or so gallons of heated water. Maybe I'll get crazy and make a graph, you know, for science.

Ascending Snails

Until today I worried that if the snails died, their corpses would not  float to the surface to show themselves. This guy showed up at the top of the tank this afternoon for the first time.

An hour or so later, I came out to check on things and he was joined by his snail-buddy. While this seemed exciting at first, I began to wonder if they were up near the top due to an oxygen issue...

I put this air pump in, attached to two air stones. If the snails needed more oxygen, this should do the trick.

A Fish Called Harold

It was a little underwhelming putting the fish in the system as they quickly swam to the murky depths of the 275 gallon tank. But then came snails! Not only do they look like poop in the picture (below), they sank like rocks to the bottom of the tank when I released them. We are partyin' up in here.  Said the fish and snails.

I bought the snails to see if they'd help control algae growth in the tank. In hindsight, I wish I bought four so I could put a couple in the sump tank as well.

I decided to put off growing edible fish for two reasons. The first, I am broke and forty-two gold fish and two snails cost me less than ten dollars. The second, it's already October and goldfish can handle any temperature the Seattle winter is going to throw their way. With very low risk, I'll be able to monitor the tank temperature and try cheap/energy efficient methods of controlling it as I go.  I'll report back this winter.

Apparently, there is a "free fish" section at The Fish Store. The two big ones on the right were donated when they outgrew their previous residence. I'm told they won't eat the little guys, which are the same species.

 Free fish aren't the only selling point of  "The Fish Store" on Roosevelt, just north of Ravenna. It is unmissable with its brightly blue painted facade.  If you've never been, and you don't really care about fish, it's still worth a pop in.  The interior presents a stark, and refreshing contrast to the sanitized shopping experience of a Petco. This is the classic Hardwick's hardware store of fish emporiums.  It has the character, the layout and the smell of a fish store that's occupied that spot since 1970.  A friend of mine said he went in while on psychedelic drugs during college.  This is the exact kind of store you want to wander into on psychedelic drugs during college.  It's small and dark, with a low ceiling.  All the fishtanky accoutrements are in the front- plastic skeletons to sink to the bottom of your stylish (yet fun!) aquarium, pink glass rocks, fish flakes, fish nets for those naughty fish and roll after roll of fake aquarium background stickers. There really were quite a few choices for the one glass wall of the glass box your fish would inhabit- tropical neon landscapes, dark-"what's that?! Who's there?! The Titanic!" landscapes, semi-decaying barrier reef landscapes, and plain.  They could almost be used as a border for a child's fishy themed bedroom...but I digress...

The rest of the store beckons you in to explore- tanks framed in black wood boxes and lit from within.  Coral and day glo colored fish, fancy expensive-ass fish, and what I was looking for- regulation goldfish, all swim around in a quiet cocoon of fishiness.  Prices are marked with white grease pencil on the tanks.  The staff are knowledgeable and friendly.  There are water puddles on the floor.

 Another highlight of my week was going to the hippie food Co-op in my neighborhood and describing myself as a "local farmer."  While I may have put the cart before the snail a bit with this statement, I did have a really helpful conversation with the produce manager and got my face/name in the local ring. 

My crackteam of fishheads and I have been debating how to handle this aspect of the aquaponic blogger's moral code.  We think the audience would appreciate knowing how the two large free goldfish got their names.  The large goldfish were named in honor of two other beings who poop a lot because the hope is these fish reach their full potential as poopers and create some legit doodies for the system.  One is Ollie, named for the cat that resides in the house that the aquaponics setup is attached to.  Ollie. Poops.  A lot.  And he is big and orange.  The goldfish are also orange.  This was an obvious symbiotic match.  The other we named Harold.  This is where the aquaponic blogger's moral code comes into play.  Harold was a recent student in the life of this blogger, a blogger who sees many, many, many different students.  But, Harold always left something special behind.  And this is why we want to name the second goldfish Harold.  Does this compromise Harold's identity?  Could he possibly make the connection to the fact that a fishpoop hopeful was once named for him?  Because he, at one point during his career, could be counted on as a pantspooper?  Only time and the success of this blog will tell...or Harold (the fish) will die and I'll delete all this.  Or Ollie(the fish) will die, and then Harold will die of loneliness with one of those, yicky strands of fish poop hanging out of his fish butt even though he is already dead.  Or Harold (the kid) will find out when he's twenty-five and in love with a Victoria's Secret Model who's Swedish and she'll think it's a cute and charming story because it has to do with Swedish fish (which it doesn't), but Harold will be so happy, and his pantspooping days will be so far behind him, he won't care and Harold the Fish can poop up the jam in his little aquaponics tank 'til his little pooping fish heart is content.  And it will be because Harold was always that kind of fish- content.

Ghostfish Writer: Maeve Stephenson

Cycling

I've had the system running for about two and a half weeks now, and the bacteria seem to be showing up. If you're new to aquaponics, the bacteria act as the middle-man between the fish waste and plants. Plants cannot eat the ammonia that the fish produce. They can, however, eat Nitrates.

Nitrosonomas appear and convert ammonia into nitrites. Nitrites will then attract another kind of bacteria, Nitrospira, which finally convert the nitrites into nitrates.Once cycling is done, all the bacteria continue to live in the gravel and will keep doing their job without much monitoring.

I ended up adding one big dose of ammonia (well over 8 ppm), as opposed to adding small amounts daily. This was not my intent, but there were some "user-errors" when testing how much was going in. Now that I have it figured out, testing the water for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates has been my lense for watching the cycling process. It seems to be working beautifully: Ammonia levels are finally dropping, nitrites have appeared, and nitrates are on the rise. This indicates the bacteria is present, and now just needs to reproduce. When ammonia and nitrites are down to 0 ppm, it's safe to add fish.

Most of my research comes from scouring internet forums built by thousands of other aquaponics enthusiasts around the world. I've also been reading Sylvia Bernstein's instructional book "Aquaponic Gardening," which could really walk somebody through the entire process. While I'm giving my research props, I should mention that my original inspiration for this project came from this Murray Hallam video:

Bloguaponics

I have decided to try growing all my own food. There are plenty of reasons why I'm doing this, but what follows is the documentation of how I do it (or how I almost do it... or how I completely fail to do it).

Aquaponics is a combination of aquaculture and hydroponics. Water will flow from the 275 gallon fish tank to three grow beds. The grow beds will contain plants growing in 3/4" gravel. Naturally occurring bacteria will inhabit the gravel, turning ammonia from the fish into nitrites and nitrates which are edible for the plants (ammonia is not). As the plants absorb these nutrients, they are also cleaning the water for the fish. The only input into a balanced aquaponics system is whatever you feed the fish.

It uses 90% less water than traditional farming, and you end up with organic fish and vegetables.

Below are pictures of the greenhouse and aquaponics system coming together:

Greenhouse frame going up. I used 3/4" pvc for the hoops.

Janky door frame seems stable enough.

9'x15'

I had to cut these containers up to make the grow beds. Me cutting through metal. You know, manly stuff.

And suddenly... grow beds. The tank on the ground is a sump (water hangs out here before it is pumped back to fish tank).

Painted, to prevent algae.

I'm never hauling gravel again.

Oops, didn't get enough gravel. Had to go back to the gravel store. Also, look! There's plants in there!

I bought a bunch of starts from around the corner: chard, kale, a few varieties of lettuce, broccoli, bok choi, sorrel, and lavender.

There are no fish in the system yet because I have to attract beneficial bacteria before it's safe for them by adding ammonia periodically. Fish, and pictures of the fish, coming in the next couple weeks.