Strawberries need some encouragement and a catfish CPR

    We have had GREAT success with cherry tomatoes so far. Friendly Bear harvests a few each morning when he goes out to feed the fish. He always sets them next to our larger store bought tomatoes and says something cheeky like "This is what you should strive for little tomatoes!" I keep reminding him of the different varieties of tomato. He will learn genus and species soon.

   He also brought in the small harvest from our strawberry plant. I am mostly happy the strawberry plant, which I have had for years, is still alive. I am overjoyed it is producing. I would love to say we produced the lovelies on either side of the trio below. But alas...it is the little in the middle. I felt bad eating but I DID!
Oh well something to strive for.

The rock star, hubs, took the kids to a friend lake house for some lake fun (seadoos, swimming, and general horsing around). He brought back a fishy friend (sigh---I should be used to this). He brought back a catfish. Now I am not sure if the catfish was originally intended for dinner or the aquaponics. Although catfish seem to be the hardiest of fish this one did not do well after being caught or in the cooler for the 40 minute drive home. The cat was, well, horizontal in the water...not good for a fish. The hubs did some general lifesaving (not CPR...whew!) but a quick change to the environment of our fishy friend. Erik took the pump from the aquaponics and pumped in oxygen and slowly heated the water to closer to the temp in the aquaponics. Mr. Cat seems to be doing fine now and is enjoying the aquaponics. I think Erik may have whispered something encouraging like "Get better quick buddy or you're fillets!"

Below is the catfish "triage" --cooler with bubbler and heated water.

A side note. We have had some issues with our pump and the water cycle. Erik thinks it just needs more frequent filter cleaning. We are watching it though. The rain has been very beneficial but if our pump isn't cycling the water properly...the whole system is down.

Lesson Learned:
1. Pay attention
2. Prepare for failure but don't be afraid of it
3. Save the catfish :)

Fish are our Friends! And tasty with ketchup.

The results--so far--and a Silly Bear

I have never grown this much ...EVER. Even my anemic strawberry plant that I transplanted has produced strawberries. They were small but produced! But the cherry tomatoes and herbs have grown like wild.

Below is an image of my middle child, Friendly Bear, who will soon be a student at GCISD's first STEM school Cannon elementary http://www.gcisd-k12.org/Domain/1428 .

One of his jobs is to feed the fish every morning. We found fish food at a local feed store relatively cheap.

Here we are picking some tomatoes (and being a silly bear).

YUMMY

Tomatoes and Spearmint Tea (both from the aquaponics).

How does it work?

I need to backtrack a little. Again I am going to refer you to the MYRIAD of internet resources. This site has a downloadable PDF
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/

Basically, as I understand it,

1. The fish eat and poop in the bottom chamber (very scientific I know!)
2. The water is pumped up to the upper growing chamber using a pump from a fish tank (very negligible energy use). Ours is set up to pump a cycle 15 min on 45 min off
3. The (nitrogen and nutrient rich) poop water  drains through the growing media and plants to a center drain protected by a "bell syphon" system
4. The syphon the drains the water ( now filtered by plants and media) back to the fish below.
Happy plants, happy fish

Here is a pic of some of the syphon parts the awesome hubster used

As I am typing this I can hear the system cycle. Like a waterfall ...very ZEN

Back to our aquaponics journey. My husband, maker of awesomeness,  found a tilapia supplier in the Austin area https://www.facebook.com/thirdcoastsupplies. 40$ worth of cute little tilapia in a cooler and we were back in Grapevine.  Tilapia looked great initially. We did not account for the late April cold snap. Tilapia did not like the dip that much below 50 degrees. So we found one after another of the little guys floating each morning. Sad. :(

But engineering is all about failing well, so off to the next choice. Local blue gill and catfish.  Cat fish...did not travel will from the lake and ended up dinner. Blue gill from lake Grapevine are humming along like champs. I guess this says something about going local.

"But what are you growing, Lilly?" you ask.
NEXT Post friends...I will introduce a silly bear and Tomaters...TOE-MA-TERS!

Turtles are stinky and don't play well with others-- or what not to put in the set up

Back again to what to put in the bottom of the set up. Again your best resource will be the internet and then finding local gardeners actually doing these set ups. The Austin area has great resources.

I was just introduced to another resource (well two). I will be the STEM ELA (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) English teacher for the Grapevine Middle School STEM Academy next fall. We will work collaboratively (Science, Math, ELA, Social Studies) to create problem based learning experiences for our 6th grade students driven by Science based questions but incorporating all of our core TEKS to create rich authentic learning outcomes. GOOD GRAVY that was a mouthful.

In a nutshell...because of this new position I have been able to participate in some incredible professional development with my amazing STEM team and director (thanks Jamie, Mickie, Bryan, Julie, and TONY). This week I am at the Green Revolution Environmental Project Based Boot Camp at BRIT (Botanical Research Institute of Texas http://www.brit.org/ ). As an entry event to project based learning we were enlightened by a panel of various experts in fields connected to the environment and environmental impact.

Back to aquaponics---one of the panel experts was David Cohen from Green Phoenix Farms http://greenphoenixfarms.com/. This company not only provides service of setting up various size systems but (more importantly) the education piece.

Back to turtles and our own "learning curve". The superstar, I mean husband, decided against goldfish as the "fish" as they are not good "bait" or eating. His reasoning being everything we do with this should be useable. So to get the system started we ---I mean he and the kids (Rocking Raccoon and Friendly Bear) brought home a turtle friend and some blue gill from a local lake. We thought to start this part before adding plants as a "proof of concept". Also we were only about 60 bucks (cost of IBC) into the set up.

Turtle Friend dirty up the water in a bad bad way. I am sure there were some scientific measurements we could have made at that point to test ph and nitrogen levels but the other fish were dieing and I didn't like how the turtle eyed me.

So next iteration was tilapia. We had chosen some plants at this point... herbs, tomatoes, and some squash. just basic things I know we would eat.  Where to get the tilapia and what happened.

"But Lilly", you ask, "How does it work?" -- next post my friends!

This should have "shipped" in April -

We really aren't teaching fish to read. We will, at some point, eat the fish in our set up ( have eaten some already, buried others, and released one turtle back to the wild). Being an English teacher, I am never one to give up a chance at word play or puns.

Our family's adventure in aquaponics actually started in March of this year but I have just now gotten to the blogging. A little background initially. I love the idea of gardening and growing my own food. I love the idea of it. The actually watering, weeding, harvesting or even the initial setting up of a bed and deciding on what plants is well past my skill set. Many a plant has met its demise at my hands.

My husband, however, is a doer and a maker. If there is a project that intrigues him he is on it and willing to make it himself. One of his great abilities and blessings for me. I am a lucky wife. :)

So back in March when he was diligently doing some kind of paper work( I think the taxes on turbo tax) on the computer he had various netflix shows and youtube videos on cycle as background distraction. One of the shows he told me had to do with hydroponics and the growing aquaponics culture. Being an AVID angler he was intrigued by the idea of home grown bait fish plus veg at the same time. This led him to many design ideas and some great websites...

This site in particular has very detailed information and downloadable youtube videos on how to make a set up, materials, etc
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/

So materials purchased initially... an IBC (intermediate bulk container-- used to ship various liquids, not too difficult to find if you look to craigslist)

There are other containers that can be used for a simple back yard set up that can be DIY or ready purchased ---just google it.

Here is how the rockstar, I mean the hubs, made it into the aquaponics container

He cut through the metal framing and plastic top. Flipped it over and set on top. this allowed us to keep the "drain"
We then filled in the bottom with water and went in search of "media" for the plants
Many types of media are available... expanded clay, rock, gravel. We went with gravel mostly because of the cost factor. Dirt cheap (pardon the pun).
Next post --- turtles are stinky and they don't play well with others--- or what not to put in a set up