Sheepscot Aquaponic Farm

"FROM GOLD FISHES TO GREEN DISHES"

3/22/19
This week Hailey and Tucker tried out our new schedule for keeping the fish, tanks, and grow beds happy.  We decided if we had a daily routine, things would go smoother and it would be easier to remember what needs to be done.

We were able to do a nice harvest of kale and Swiss chard.  Mrs. Maloney and Mrs. Curtis were the lucky customers.  There are a few people who are really fast at finding out if we have produce available.  They keep watch of what is going on with the balcony and can see when the leaves are getting big enough!

3/15/19
We were able to get new foam board insulation to use in the grow beds.  Two large sheets were cut to size.  Each sheet has 72 holes in it for net pots.  It looks like we are going to play a big game of beanbag toss!

Swiss chard and kale

Lettuce

3/1/19
Michael and Mr. Hawley had to drop another filter into the new fish tank.  The water is getting cloudy and they decided to try another filter to help clear up the water.  They took a couple of pictures to see if the water would get less cloudy over a couple of days.

Tucker wrote a letter to our facilities director, Mr. Shaw, to make sure we could actually put the new fish tank on the balcony.  Tucker got a response back saying everything was great and we could go ahead and put the new tank on the balcony.

The new tank was taken downstairs to check for leaks.  We had to take it to a room that had a drain in case we had leaks.  Luckily, we didn't!  The tank can hold 150 gallons of water.  That adds up to 1,245 pounds of water!  On top of that, the tank weighs around 300 pounds empty.  A wheeling stand was built so the tank can be moved empty or full.  It has locking wheels so it can't get away.

We moved the small fish into the big tank to see if the small fish would survive in the new tank.  We wanted to make sure the tank was good for the big fish and decided the small fish were a good choice to help with that.

All of Sheepscot was involved with aquaponics this week because of the tour we did for Ms. Feise's classes.


2/15/19
Noah and Blake were in charge of the tanks this week.  Weekly water tests were done.  They completed an assignment on fish digestion and did another assignment on algae.  We have an algae problem in one of the tanks, so the boys started working on how to solve the problem by reading about it.

One of the fish has been turning color.  It's an orange goldfish but it has been getting black spots.  We aren't sure why that is happening so we quarantined the fish into a smaller tank by itself.  One thought was that maybe the fish is getting older and just getting black scales the way people get gray hair.

We need to order some net pots for the grow bed.  To find out how many grow pots will fit, everyone had to figure out the area of one net pot and determine how many would fit.  We figured out that about 150 net pots would fit.  Yes, we have a HUGE grow bed!  It is 3' x 6'.

A harvest happened, too.  Kale and Swiss chard were ready for sale.  The grow lights we hung over the bed have worked wonders.  The plants are warmer and growing well.

2/8/19
Mikey and Payton ran the farm this week.  They had to feed the fish.  One of the grow beds was emptied out.  The plants that were good moved into the big grow bed.  The others were tossed.  They harvested and sold kale, lettuce, and Swiss chard.  The boys had to take the plants from the hydrocorn in the big bed and put them in net pots.  They were potted up because we thought they might be drowning just being in the water.  They seem to be doing better already.  Payton and MIkey also had to time how quickly the fish ate their food each morning.  This was done to see if the fish were being overfed.


2/1/19
Tucker and Michael started to create a book this week to explain how aquaponics works.  This book will be put in the lobby for parents and other guests to look at when they come pick up kids or visit.  Tucker brought up the possibility of making pamphlets.  The boys started with an experiment with our classroom fish tank.  They are doing this because the fish have died and we need to find out what is causing it.  The hypothesis is that the rocks are causing the problems.

One of the grow beds on the balcony wasn't being used so Tucker and Michael moved  that Hydrocorn into our new large grow bed.  This took quite a bit of careful work so the plants wouldn't get flooded.  Any plants that went under the water were raised up and reset on top of the Hydrocorn.  That worked well!



1/25/19

Hailey and Abby were in charge of the balcony and gardens this week.  Of course, the fish had to be fed every day.  Hailey had to refill the fish food containers and she spilled some of the baby fish food.  FIlters had to be cleaned and water had to be tested.  They moved plants from one tank to another.  Fish were also moved to give the white fish a larger home.  He seems happier in the new tank.  Abby and Hailey had to fix a filter that wasn't working.  It is now working okay.

Mardens is donating a huge fish tank to Sheepscot Aquaponic Farm.  Mr. Hawley and Mr. Beede are going to pick it up this weekend.  Hopefully, we will get the new tank up and running next week.

Urban Garden has donated a tank chiller to our program.  We purchased one and they are having a raffle to have people help support paying for the second one.


1/18/19
Noah and Blake fed the fish every day.  We set up the big grow bed that was donated by Urban Garden in Topsham.  Blake had to install bulkhead valves in the holes of the grow bed.  One valve is connected to a hose that puts the water into the bed and the other valve lets the water out.  The water has to come out so the bed doesn't overflow.  Payton, Abby, and Blake had to do a lot work to get the level of the water right.  The water intake and output had to be adjusted for a couple of days.  We had to soak the Hydrocorn to get all the dust off so it doesn't turn the water all muddy.  On Thursday, we finally got to put the Hydrocorn in the bed.  We also created a video for the grant we got from Trust for our Future.  Abby got a really cool underwater shot of the fish swimming by her waterproof phone.  On Friday morning, Noah and Blake got the plants set up in the new grow bed.  For fun, we added a plastic shark to the grow bed.




December 7
It's all Mr. Hawley's fault!  Mr. Hawley was complaining about the noise that the filter was making.  "It's a terrible noise and it's driving me insane!" he said.  He asked us to fix it so we switched the hoses and somehow we started a siphon and almost overflowed a fish tank.  But we didn't, because Hailey noticed that the tank was centimeters from flooding the school.  We unplugged the filters and pulled them out of the tank, then emptied the tank back down to the correct level.

In addition to saving the school from flooding, we harvested fresh lettuce, bok choy and Swiss chard.  Mrs. Aronson bought Swiss chard and made an omelet with it.  Ms. Singleton bought lettuce and Ms. Hight bought bok choy.

  Swiss chard

Baby bok choy

Lettuce

  Ms. Aronson's omelet

November 28

We have had our first harvest!  All greens were bought immediately by one person.  From top to bottom there is baby bok choy, lettuce, and Swiss chard on the bottom.  Our buyer, Ms. Maloney, made a huge, fresh salad for Thanksgiving.  She said her family at the whole salad and loved it!

How It All Began

Back in September, we started out with a few tubs of fish and goal of raising vegetables with aquaponic gardening.  Getting seeds started was our first priority.  Once those sprouted we were on our way to success!  Our "nursery" keeps us stocked with new starts for planting.  We are growing lettuce, kale, bok choy, Swiss chard, spinach, mint, basil, cilantro, and parsley.  

   New seedlings in the nursery

   Lots of lettuce!

  An experimental grow bed

In October, we got lucky and became the new owners of a 110 - gallon fish tank!  Along with the other tanks we have, we are now running four tanks of goldfish.  

We have had a few mishaps with leaks, but nothing that a clean-up rag can't handle.  Lots of teamwork has gone into making our farm successful.