Up and running!

Yesterday made the trip to Durango to purchase the final necessary components to the system, fish and a grow medium. I had called the Hydroponic store in Durango to inquire about what they sell for a growing medium. They only have expanded clay pellets, 50L for $35. Quite pricey considering I was going to need about 100L! I then called Home Depot to see what kind of gravel they had, and they sell 50lb bags of generally 1/4-1/2" gravel for $4.50 a piece. Much more of a reasonable price. I bought 250lbs worth, which I was pretty sure was going to be excessive, but I would rather have a bit more than not enough.

Fish connection was the next stop in Durango. I bought 8 gold fish, 1-2" in length (the guy threw a 9th in for free), and one Plecostomus (for algae cleaning). I also bought gravel for the fish tank, fish food and a plant (Egeria).

Once home, I put the fish (still in their bags) into the tank which has been sitting out for 24 hrs to de-chlorinate in order to acclimate them to the water temperature. I washed the aquarium gravel prior to putting it in the tank to get rid of dust and rock particles.

Next was the task of cleaning the gravel for the grow bed. After debating as to the best way to do this I settled on putting 200lbs of gravel into the grow bed burying a piece of vinyl tubing at the low end of the bed. I corked the drain pipe and saturated the gravel with ~4 gallons of water. The tube to was then used siphon out the dirty water. And my was it dirty. It looked the the San Juan river at flood stage! I repeated this process of saturation and siphoning until the water was pretty much clear. It took about 5 or 6 washes to achieve this. I am really glad I decided to wash it otherwise my fish would already be dead from the debris draining off of the gravel!

Below is a photo of my system up and running!


When I first put the fish in the tank, they were quite shell shocked. But after a while they began to explore around a bit, and eat some when I fed them. Today they are still a bit hesitant and like to hide around the pump, and behind the curtain of air bubbles from the aerator.


Before starting the pump I planted my vegetables in rows in the grow bed. I purchased Seed Savers Seeds from Let It Grow in Cortez. Seed Savers is a great company to buy seeds from as they preserve and sell thousands of heirloom seeds that have not been effected by industrial seed production and the corresponding mutations that occur with that process that is causing genetic erosion of crop species. I decided on planting 5 different vegetables: Stupice Tomatoes (a quick fruiting variety of tomatoes), Sweet Basil, Cilantro, Arugula, and a red and green lettuce mix.

Once planted I plugged the pump into the timer and turned on the power strip. I am a bit disappointed with the analog timer that I bought for the pump. It is set to run the pump for 15 mins every hour, yet it seems to not grasp the concept of a minute and runs for about 25 on and 35 off. Going to have to mess around with that a bit.

Once I get the timing and discharge of the water pump calibrated properly, I will be in good shape! Hopefully the bacteria in the gravel are starting to form, and that the seeds are happy and will germinate within the next week or so!