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[Levi]

Okay, an update.  I finally got everything I needed together and (mostly) working.  My plastic table sagged underneath the weight of my grow beds, so I put a sheet of plywood over it to help spread out the weight.  The hydroton clay pellets were cleaned and added(I may have plugged up my bathroom drain with dusty and tiny pebbles though).  I adjusted the plumbing a bit so it works better and raised my growlight up higher.

I've also added two sacrificial goldfish to help start the cycling process.  The idea is to get enough ammonia to start the growth of bacteria that turns ammonia to Nitrites, and then get enough Nitrites to get ANOTHER bacteria growing that turns Nitrites into Nitrates.  The Nitrates are good plant food and not very toxic for the fish.  Since this takes a while to happen though, those first two fishies may end up choking to death on their own poisoned water. (Sorry fishies!).

The main problem I've found is that the draining water is way to loud, and since this is in my bedroom I have to turn off the pumps at night.  I've heard that other people have done the same and it works out okay, but we'll see how it goes.  I also put some seeds (Kale, Bell Peppers and Tomatos) in because I've heard you can do that right away. 

Anyway, here are some more pictures of my updated system and running system.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The whole system under a grow light:


The whole system with the grow light off:


My growlight:


My grow bed:


The water draining:

[Hubris Incalculable]

you could submerge the drainpipe so that the water is flowing directly into the fishtank, thereby quieting the system.

[Levi]

you could submerge the drainpipe so that the water is flowing directly into the fishtank, thereby quieting the system.

Maybe.  The drainpipe is supposed to be splashy a bit to help aerate the water.  Also I'm not sure the siphon effect would happen if the drain is submerged?  Might be worth a try though.

Edit:  Hmm, actually it sounds like you can submerge it, but it might take longer to start up properly, so the water level will go higher.  This might be worth some tinkering, I'll probably play around with it on the weekend if I can.

Edit 2:  Actually I decided to tinker now.  And it worked perfectly.  THANK YOU HUBRIS.        The water level in the grow beds seems to get a little higher than I'd like now, but its probably fine.

[Sheb]

It's funny, because plants actually need to metabolize nitrate into ammonia to use it. :p

[Levi]

It's funny, because plants actually need to metabolize nitrate into ammonia to use it. :p

Lazy ass plants.  They should just absorb the ammonia directly!   

[Sheb]

They do actually. Ideally, they need a mixture of both not to fuck up their internal pH.

[Levi]

A quick update.  The system currently has 4 sacrificial goldfish in it, but they all seem to be doing fine.  Plants have sprouted, and I'm starting to think my "sprinkle seeds all over the place" method may not be the best of ideas.  I've pulled probably 75% of the sproutlings as there are too many.  There probably still is too many, I think the kale will probably need more room than that. 

I've been leaving the pumps off at night and turning them on in the mornings.  Probably not ideal, but it seems to be working okay so far.  I feed the fishes a little bit in the mornings, but they don't seem overly excited about eating.  Maybe they only eat when I'm not looking?  They seem to be swimming around lots, so I'm not too worried at this point.  I did once peal and chop up a pea and dropped it in though, and they went nuts over it. 

Pictures:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Fishes and a little cave I bought for them to have fish parties in:


This is the reworked plumbing.  I had a hell of a time getting the right-side bell siphon working right, until eventually it ended up like this.  No idea why:


Plants are sprouting!


Close up of my future triffids Kale and Tomatoes.

[Levi]

My system is finally showing Nitrites and Nitrates.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This means the cycling process is actually working and my plants are actually getting tasty nitrates to eat now.  Ideally the water test will eventually show no Nitrites and lots of Nitrates.  Fish are still alive and my tomato plants are looking healthy(as far as I can tell). 

My kale doesn't look quite as good.  I think the weather has been too hot for it, and I accidentally poked one in the wrong way and snapped its stem.   

My peppers might be okay?   Nothing looks wrong with them, but they are still pretty small.  Maybe they take longer to grow in general.

[Arx]

In my experience, tomatoes grow large quickly and peppers tend to stay smallish and grow slowly. Never grown kale, and this wasn't in a whole fancy aquaponics rig, but it's held true for two different climates (rainfall season, temperature, etc.) and several soil types.

[Levi]

Good to know.  Somebody else commented on my pictures saying the tomatos look "leggy" and they might not be getting enough light from the growlights, so I've moved the growlights down a foot closer.  Hopefully that helps.

[Levi]

I figured it was time for an update.   

Things are still going!  None of my goldfish have died, and I added two new ones the other day for a total of 6.  They seem cheerful enough, although one of the two new ones seems shy and hides in the cave a lot. 

The plants are growing, although nothing edible has appeared yet.  The tomatoes plants are all over the place, I hope they don't get any bigger.  The bell pepper plants look the nicest, but I'm not really sure what they are supposed to look like, haha.  The kale died during a heatwave, and I replaced it with the bottom chunk of some grocery store celery.  The celery was going good until I was trying to debug a problem with the bell siphon and I think I snapped apart all of its roots.   I also planted some more kale recently, but its still pretty small.

My cheap paper water test strips keep coming out okay, PH 6.5, and no ammonia, nitrates or nitrites any more, so I guess the plants are doing a good job keeping the water clean. 

I got my mom to bring me some worms from her garden the last time she came to visit.  She accidentally left them out in the sun before coming over so half of them were dead or almost dead.  I put the remaining ones into my grow beds and hoped for the best.  I kind of figured they would have died off, but the other day I actually saw one crammed up against the side of the growbed!  Kind of neat. 

Anyway, I'm thinking of building a second growlight(I think I might have enough LED's left over), and getting some proper reflective-stuff to cover the sides and back of the system.  Hopefully that will help things grow more.   Here are some pictures.   

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Edit:  I spoke too soon.  One of my new fish I got died.  Probably wasn't that healthy when I bought it, as the other one seems fine.

[Levi]

Made some adjustments to the system.    I built a second growlight, doubling the light going into the system.  I also replaced my lousy sheets of tin foil with some slightly less lousy mylar thermal blankets.  They do a great job of making my room less pink and glowy.

Also, my tomato plants have started to flower!  This is a good sign, hopefully it means I'll actually get something edible out of them.   

Not much else new.  I had a bit of a scare when my biggest oldest goldfish didn't come out to eat one day.  I saw him tucked over by my cave, I figured he was just being weird.  Came back later in the day to feed them again, and saw he was still there, and his ass was pointing up and he wasn't moving.  I figured he was dead!     I moved the cave over so I could fish out his corpse, and he swam around like crazy.  It turns out he was too fat and got himself wedged between the cave and the wall looking for food and got stuck.   

Some more pictures!  (The mylar seems to make it hard to take close up photographs, so the flowers aren't really very visible.)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Lights off:


Lights on:


Flowers!  (That you can't really see)


Shockwave defends!

[acetech09]

You let your plants have raves at night? You're a very liberal caretaker. :p

[Levi]

I'm still looking to score some glowsticks and ecstasy for my goldfish.

[symonthewise]

This is ingenious. A man after my own heart, growing plants in an apartment with inadequate lighting uncomfortably close to your sleeping quarters.

Ever hear about the walstad method? Not as useful as yours for growing veggies, I would think, but a hobby in the same realm and possibly interesting. http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/Walstad_method

Edit: ahh fuck now im reading old aquarium bookmarks instead of sleeping.