Why I won't get fish for now, and compost tea experiment.

The farm from above

Its been over a month and half now that I have set up the tower farm. In the process of cycling, I have discovered that eggshell can release ammonia (I should have guessed right ?), that pH drops quickly once the beneficial bacteria are established, and that the pH climbs back up in absence of new ammonia. I have also lost my green onion and basil.

The farm from bellow

pH has decreased then increased since no new ammonia was added

Since the system has "cycled", I have hesitated in what fish to get. I will not get fish for now. Why that ? After all the point aquaponics it to get fish to right ?
The reason is that I decided to have an apprenticeship about aquaponics with  Citizen Schools and while discussing with the Citizen Schools people, the fish seemed to be a down side for my plan, so I ruthlessly removed the fish from the picture.

Even if you don't "believe in Climate Change" I think we should wisely think about Keystone pipeline and fossil fuel consuption.

The Keystone pipeline is a pipeline projected to be built to transport petroleum from regions of Canada that are rich in sand oil {1}. This project was proposed by TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, L.P and has been the object of numerous congress bills {see info at congress.org}. Sand oil is sand that deposited millions of years ago, and that contains a form of petroleum (oil). I think keystone pipeline is bad, because it may increase the rate of exploitation of oil sands {2}, and that will be harmful in many ways.

Why extracting Sand oil is bad ? Here are some of teh reasons. If you are "not believing" in "global warming", or you think it is a good thing, read what is between *---* as these pints will affect you anyway.
-*First the vegetation and top soil is removed, as well as surface waters. Besides the obvious obliteration of ecosystems. Not only it won't look pretty, but the flow of water will be affected, and possibly increase risks of floods for example, and reduce agricultural productivity *. This will have other consequences: since the vegetation will be gone for the time of exploitation, CO2  (carbon dioxide) fixation  will occur there, also the topsoil and vegetation may be burned, or left to decay releasing CO2, CH4 (methane), nitrous oxide (by order of greenhouse effect potency) {3}.

Cycling is definitly over, No Ammonia, no nitrites And "Compost Tea"

Cycling is definitely over ammonia and nitrites are undetectable.  Nitrates have been decreasing progressively. Nitrites peaked and totally disappeared very quickly. Also, the intresting thinkg is how the pH decreased until the nitrite peak was over, and then started to increase again. I think it is because there are pieces of eggshells trapped in polyester is the tower.

Last weekend, I did the first of the monthly maintenance check up. I took the system apart to rinse the pump, I removed the profiler that was in it, there was a worm cocoon and a fat worm in it, they both were returned to the tower. The water has an interesting reddish tint, but didn't have any distinctive smell to it. Not sure where that color is from, but  could be natural coloration occurring because of the vermiwash and compost tea. It also could be that the wood I leaching out something. When I built the tower, I remember that the wood was giving away some lightly coloured water. maybe the plastic wrap I have put on the walls has gaps and some of what is in the wood is leaching out. I may need to rethink the cover of the wood, maybe using a double layer of plastic wrap would be better. 

Cycling is almost over !!!!

Left: NO3 1:50 Right NO2 1/10

NO2 1:50 and undiluted

Youhouuuuuuuuuuuuuu!

The cycling is over! Today, when I measured the different forms of nitrogen, I happily saw that the nitrites have dived down to 1ppm or less. That is great news!

Eating locally, Is it accesible only for the rich ?

Source: soscuisine.com

'This post was sparked up by the viewing of the movie "Eating Alabama". The screening was organized by the neighborhood's CSA (community supported Agriculture), and free of charge and was followed by a short discussion between the public, a person from justfood.org and another from the organizing committee.  It got me thinking.

Quick update of the system, and why are the green onion dying ?

This week's update is not as joyfull as the previous ones, the green onions are dying....

Only one is surviving, the other ones are very (very) soft at the base. Yesterday I pulled the dying ones out, and besides the stem being very soft, some had surprisingly long roots. I am not sure what is going on. I am wondering if the now high nitrates could be responsible for it, or the high nitrite ( when diluted 1/100 it gives me a color so where in the 0.25 - 1 ppm range). The pepper seedling look good though and I can see 1 new leave on each plant at this point. Also, there are 3 new seedlings next to the parsley, I guess seeds that did not germinate before, so it seem that the "softening of the stem" is touching only the onions. The basil that died before was transplanted from dirt, and I suspect it didn't make it because I did not clean enought the dirt off the roots (the roots were black and rather hard). 

I keep checking the water every day, and so far, ammonia is at 0, nitrite at least 25ppm, and nitrate at least 100 ppm. More on this next week. Next post will be about a documentary I saw last week end.