Saturday, January 15, 2011

Reset Day!

Every so often I like to have what I call a "reset day." Basically this means I set aside a day to concentrate on nothing but annoying errands and chores. First I tended to my non farm chores; bills were paid, the check book came as closed to balanced as it ever does, etc. Secondly I started on the farm chores. This began by attempting to reset the stupid digital timer for the potatoes which I still have no idea if I got it working this time but fingers crossed, then onto a little research on my container garden and what the next steps are now that the plants are sprouting, and I saved the hardest for last- cleaning the fish tank. Now the theory of the aquaponic systems was that the plant roots would naturally keep the water clear. One thing Jeff and I have discovered about all things relating to gardening, chicken care, food preservation and many of our other hobbies is that the more you read and research a given topic the more contradictory advice you find. Well aquaponics has proved the same. By absoluty no means do the plants keep the water even vaguely clean. The water is so green that I can no longer see the fish. So I took the plants out of the system, pulled the top off and bucket by bucket began to empty the water. An hour and a half later I am covered in water but there is only about two inches of water on the bottom so I figure that I have emptied enough and begin putting in fresh water again bucket by bucket. Now once the entire thing is full again and I am exhausted and covered in nasty fish water, I notice that I can barely tell any difference. Argh...I think I am going to just buy a stupid filter like I should have in the first place!

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