So, since I got everything together, I’ve gone through about 3 distinct set-ups. It has evolved into a stable setup, but I will get to that in due course.

It all started with Ze Plans…

I changed a few design elements, but I’ll get to that.

First, I drilled a hole large enough to fit the tubing in the growbeds. Then I drilled holes every 2 inches along my water input tube, and fastened off the end with black electrical tape.

Next, I took the washed hydroton and spread a 1 inch layer in the bottom (I used a black plastic cup to keep the hydroton from falling out of the hole).

In my other bed, I did this, and placed the net pots on top of the tube and filled in around with more hydroton.

What I should have done at this point was pull the input through the hole and then put more hydroton on top. Instead, I had thought it would be sufficient to go over the lip and use the hole as an output. (Keep reading)

I hooked up my awesome water pump to the tubing and a T-valve that brought the water to the growbeds.

That output hole? Leaked even with silicone sealant and allowed too much water to build up in the beds. This needed to be fixed.

I let this drain, then poked holes every 2 inches underneath the bed (should have done this at beginning), careful to not get water on my electrical dremmel. This took the help of a friend and a towel. Growbed 2 went down nice, but I had forgotten about the bubblers in my tank. I had to take them out of the undergravel filter and let them loose in the tank while I solved that problem.. And placed shims down so the fish wouldn’t jump out.

Quick look at the tubing in the back.

At some point, I decided to remove the netpots (except one) because things like the strawberries weren’t getting enough water. I only left the one for the snap peas b/c it has finer aquarium gravel in the bottom that I figured they would need for stability.

After a brilliant conversation with a friend, I fashioned a window screen to fit tightly where the half hood used to be, cut a hole for the bubblers, tubing, and water pump’s power cord.

I propped the growbed up on two stacks of two 2x4s wrapped in saran wrap. I also wrapped some saran wrap so that the splashing wouldn’t get on the carpet, but now I didn’t have to worry about my fish jumping out. Hooray! One problem.. It was ugly.

I ended up shortening the bubbler tube, and propping up the back on 2 shims wrapped in saran wrap (I may only have the 2×4 pictured), placed under the end in the back. The medusa lamp holds 5 CFLs mixed full and daylight spectrums.

I didn’t include all the pictures above, but you can find them here:

Sylvia Bernstein has started an online Ning community for Aquaponics, where I’ve met and seen pictures of lots of people’s systems, at many different scales, and lots of people who have done this for much longer than I. It’s been awesome reading up on their ideas and notes, and it’s certainly helped me a bunch. If you’re interested in building your own, I highly suggest joining the community.

Ok, on to my stuff. As you read previously, I created my mini system as a model for my big system. I’m just waiting for my aquarium silicone to ship, and then I can show all the pieces together. Last Saturday, I picked up my new 55 gallon fully stocked fish tank. It comes complete with a ninja clown loach (Hattori Hanzou, or Hanz for short), a Kissing Gourami (Mick Jagger), a Leopard ctenopoma/African leaf fish (Edgar), a panda corydora (Edison), an albino corydora (Tesla), a bronze corydora (Marconi), a spotted corydora (Einstein), a panda barb (Confucius), and four silver dollars (Loony, Toony, Quarter, and Half Dollar). I was going to put my black neon tetras and otocincluses in there, but then Edgar yawned, and I decided that was a bad idea (Could swallow a shooting marble WHOLE). Hanz was a ninja and managed to survive stuck in a rock for the entire drive here, even though I had never seen him until this morning (and frankly, thought him dead).

I’ve been letting the tank cycle and get back up to strength for a week, now. Today, I added some plants into the tank and some charcoal bags in the filter to help keep the water breathable while the bacteria culture builds back up. I’ve also moved over the log with its attached java moss. On a side note, my 20 gallon looks really sad without it. Also for the 55 gallon, I’ve added the water heater set on low, and removed some of the “frocks” (fake rocks) that came with the tank, mainly so the loach would stop hiding in them.

On my to-do list is to attach my new air pump that’s coming in the same shipment as the aquarium silicone.

My seedlings are doing fantastically. I germinated the tomato, pepper, and lettuce seedlings using the paper towel method, extracted their little roots from the paper towel, and scattered them in the clay pellets.

I’ve discovered that there is a local hydroponics shop, called Sea of Green, that is branching into aquaponics and has some good information to share in person as well as on their website. I picked up a 50 L bag of hydroton, a fountain pump, a mesh filtration bag to go around the fountain pump, and some net pots from them. They also have fittings that can be bought from them, and they’ve even hinted that they’d let me use their tools to drill my own holes for said fittings should I not use one of their expensive containers.

I’ll post more in a couple days when I get the silicone caulk.

So I turned to waterscaping with lots of little fish, delighting in my ability to create a mini ecosystem that wouldn’t die a horrible death should I forget it for a day or two. All was good in the world.

What you don't see is me behind the camera making fishie faces at the fishies.

Again, I turned to the internet to research methods of container gardening. I like raised beds, but, as I am now living in an apartment with no nearby access to a hose, those didn’t seem practical. Hydroponics seemed a bit more feasible, but I am not a chemist and felt that monitoring the nutrient levels would be too much for this scientist-by-hobby-only type of gal. After all, if I was going to have that much space taken up, I might as well get a larger fish tank.

That last thought sparked an idea, so I went digging. I started where every internet-savvy person would: Wikipedia. Let’s just say that Wikipedia has a phenomenal hydroponics article (Dalek aeroponics tripod!). Aeroponics was more my style, but I didn’t want to pay $150 for a table-top system that would only get me a square foot of growing space. I’d build my own, first!

I scrolled down to the related articles and accidentally clicked on “Aquaponics.” I was quite excited to find that I could put my fish hobby to use and get something for myself out of it. The idea is that the fish fertilize the water, which you pump into your growing bed, where the plants filter the usable nutrients (which are actually toxic to the fish) out of the water, returning the cleaned water back to the fish.

Now, there are a bajillion different designs, improvements, and substitutions that you can make to an aquaponic system. I found GardenGirlTV’s version to be the best design for someone like me with limited growing space.

Now, I know I’ve mentioned that my parents are all scientists, but my grandfather is an engineer-turned-geophysicist, and from him I learned to start things on a small scale. I just so happened to have kept my first 5 gallon fish tank (to use as a hospital tank), which I thought would do nicely to help me figure out a good small-scale design that I liked – that may even keep my water from evaporating. I do live in the desert, afterall.

Aquaponics Supplies

Day 1: I first rinsed the gravel. This is très importante as most of the rocks you’ll find produce a dust that will kill your fish. I don’t suggest using marble as I found that as soon as I shake it, more dust is created. Stick to aquarium-grade rocks.

I flipped the bin around and fed the tube thru the hole where the red arrow points to

I then rinsed the Perlite (do NOT use the Miracle Grow kind! It’s slimy with LOTS of residue which contains ammonia nitrate and ammonia phosphates that would kill your fish), added it to top off the plastic bin.

I then popped out the other hole in the lid, since all the tubing wouldn’t fit on top of the filter.

The assembly of the fountain pump was the easiest part. Pop on the adapter, then pop on the tube. Very simple. The harder part was adjusting the pump so that the water would actually go all the way up the tubing and into the bin. I think I ended up putting it on the full strength just to keep it moving. I also timed the water flow, adjusted the tilt height, and got it so the water filled in, ran across, and dropped back down without the water raising higher than the gravel layer. A broken hair clip was used to keep the tube in place.

Close-up of the tubing arrangement.

All done!

“TS” took the HD to a local disk repair shop, who (after some confusion) opened up the case to discover that when the drive landed, it grounded out in 3 places. This means that there were rings of death burn marks in three areas on the drive board itself. This also means that whenever my computer attempted to read anything past the burn marks, it got stopped and couldn’t go any further.

In our attempt to recover my data, we managed to melt the connectors inside the drive. It would have taken three connectors to get past the burn marks, not to mention the hours of recovery, so, it has received the “Lost Cause” stamp.

Moral of the story: Organization can come second to reliability. Back up the new stuff before you start downloading the old to organize archives.

Before you start telling me how I’m suppressing your rights, and how I must be afraid to face you and your comments, I suggest you take a look at this article by Greg Finn of Search Engine Land: Beware These Comment Saboteurs In Social Media

This article outlines 11 types of commenters that have little to no social benefit. I would like to point out the “troll.”

The troll

…These users seriously dislike you and want you to know it—publicly. Maybe you created better content than they did, or you downvoted one of their articles and they found out. The fact of the matter is that they are pissed. And they are going to follow you around to pester you.

I have no tolerance for trolling. Period and end of story.

Dislike of someone can be expressed via e-mail outside the public eye.

If you don’t like the content (see “the hater”), then that has plenty of room to be addressed in the comments, but please maintain a certain respect for the author. There is no law stating that you have to agree with every opinion I, or anyone else for that matter, may have. Offering opposing views ensures that the media is not skewed in any particular direction and ensures a good balance of opinions. However, if your hatred for me gets in the way of contributing to society and only proliferates hate, destruction, and negativity, then I’m simply not going to display it.

It’s so easy for people to hide behind their computer monitors and spout hateful and hurtful garbage pretending that everyone wants to hear their noise. Please try to remember that there is a human face behind everything and perhaps then there will be much less discord in the virtual world.

Here’s the scope: I bought my MyBook back in July off eBay. The “one year” warranty expired in October. But I haven’t gotten there yet…

January 17th, while moving my computer to RugDoctor underneath it, my poor little MyBook takes a tiny little spill from the top of my computer to the carpeted floor. Two foot drop at most, honest.

January 18th at 02:00 (wee hours in the morning on my BIRTHDAY), I decide I should do a quick birthday comic to let everyone know I am well and give them something to read. Lo and behold, my little MyBook tries to tell me that my MyArt folder doesn’t exist. (“WTFBBQsauce? I just double clicked on it, of COURSE it exists!“)

I then proceed as any person who has spent endless hours on the telephone with Tech Support; I unplug the drive, restart my computer, and plug it back in. Windows recognized that there is a USB drive plugged in, but no way to access it. (“oRLY?“)

Restart again, leaving the drive plugged in. My computer nearly dies. In a panic (again, wee hours of my BIRTHDAY), I call a more technical savvy friend of mine that I knew would be awake at the time, we determine that it is in fact the drive that is the problem and my computer is not dead.

Relief washes over me, and then I realize… That I hadn’t done my annual disc back-up, and I have photos of my artwork on there that was recently destroyed in the flooding of my mother’s basement. Panic sets back in, TS (for Tech-Savvy) assures me that he will look at it in the morning.

Hours later, amid chores and preparing for birthday celebration, I hand over my drive, and we discover the warranty is up… And attempt to access the data. After a few days of scanning, TS found font files (in the wrong folder) before the hard drive nearly melted itself.

Conclusion: Externals are not a fail-safe. Western Digital makes crap fragile drives that could easily destroy everything you hold dear. Oh, and their warranty policy for a year is just lame.

What?  Why?  How could a measly 16 pixel x 16 pixel image have such an impact to be thanked on behalf of all SysAdmins?  So I did what any normal girl would do – I asked (and then Googled it so I could translate SysAdmin speak).

Here’s the lowdown:  Apparently, if a web host is managed in Apache (which most are), and a SysAdmin has to do some sort of work or other on it, Apache has a tendency to break or ignore a website if it is lacking a FavIcon.  This can be annoying and somewhat hazardous to their health.

So show your SysAdmin some love: Add a FavIcon to your webpage today!

FavIcon generators can be found here:
http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/favicon/
http://www.favicongenerator.com/

Smashing Magazine has also ran a few articles with FavIcon examples/inspirations. Here is the latest:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/11/20/favicons-episode-8/

Here are a few of my comments about this most recent election:

1. I like Mr. Obama; I see a lot of potential in him.  I was in awe watching the United States of America make history voting in a man who is of the top two races here.  I think he might be the one to bridge the gaps in Congress – that of the parties, of race, of social status, and more.  For the first time since I was a child, I have hope for America, and am proud of my half-American roots.
2. However, we simultaneously voted in discrimination and a bi-racial president.  Go us.
3. It is not the government’s job to save my soul and keep me from going to hell.  It is also not their job to tell me (or anyone else) who I can and cannot marry, nor what I can and cannot do to my body.  I strongly feel that the separation of Church and State has been breached.
4. For Joe Arpaio, sheriff of Maricopa County: I want you to take a loooong look at the results of the state.  Yes, you were voted back into office (this is a Republican state.  It was bound to happen).  But Proposition 202 – Stopping Illegal Hiring failed.  Your job is to uphold the law, not create new ones, and not to target.  This does not mean you should “do it more.”  I ask you to target CRIMINALS, not people (read HUMAN BEINGS) that do not have the proper paperwork to be in the country.  Lack of paperwork does not a criminal make.
5. To Arkansas: Yes, you were targeting “gay and lesbian couples,” but you also made it so that a single man or woman in the nesting mode who has not found a life partner to marry cannot adopt or foster a child, either.  That means that if I lived in Arkansas and (heaven-forbid) something happened to my father or step-mother, I could not adopt or foster my much younger siblings – simply because I am unmarried.  Do you recognize heterosexual domestic partnership?  They can’t adopt or foster, either.
6. To Colorado and Nebraska: Thank you.  I am tired of being discriminated against (and punished) because I am a single white female who has not given birth to a child.  It becomes most obvious of this when I try to attend college and cannot file for my own FAFSA despite that I have supported myself since I was 14 years old just because I still talk to my parents.

I look forward to the changes to come.  Maybe I’ll even stick around to see them unfold.

So, James, tell me…  Do you like coffee?

I have silly dreams.  I call them silly, but they’re really exciting and generally remind me that I have an overactive imagination.

Take last night’s dream for example.  Studying under a “master,” I fell in love with a fellow apprentice assassin (James) whose master kills my master because she was jealous of my “date” with her apprentice.  According to the rules, my date and myself are now required to fight to the death so that I may defend my master’s honour or die because my master wasn’t a fit assassin (because she died).  Little did the opposing master know that my master was my birth mother, which made the assassination a personal vendetta, so I could bypass the apprentice and challenge the jealous wench directly.  I figured out that the jealous wench had fought my master once she figured out that I was my master’s daughter begotten from my mother and her master who mastered both of the women.  The JW was “cast aside” for my mother and so she killed him, leaving my mother to fend for herself… Etc., etc.

Might as well make it a book, right?

On January 11, 2006, NASA released their new high-res images of the Orion Nebula to the public. The above image (available in a zoom-able format here) is the sharpest image of the nebula taken by the Hubble Telescope. Cool, yeah?

Well, now look at the image as a whole. Follow from the belt to the right and up a bit and… Hey, isn’t that a face? Holy crap, the gases of previously exploded stars have created what looks like a man looking at the Hubble Telescope as it snaps the image.

Ok, it’s not really new news to me. I just remembered to mention it since I was talking about Orion in the last blog post. Have I mentioned that I like astronomy?