It’s a Complete Indoor System ready to PLUG-IN & GROW!

We’re so excited about this newly designed Mini Indoor Plug-In & Grow Food Forever™ Aquaponics System, the FFGS-M5, that we can’t wait to announce it even though we’re not quite ready to sell it yet. What are we waiting for? We want to do a test run on it and actually see beautiful heads of butter lettuce and other leafy greens growing in it before we put it on the market even though we know this new system is going to work like a charm because we’ve already tested the Fluorescent Grow Light we’re using. Here’s a picture of that T5 Fluorescent growing out lettuce in our Growroom.

Of course, we’ve already tested our syphon; but our standard syphon in this new system acts like a Rapid Cycle Syphon which means it siphons about every 7 minutes instead of every 15 minutes. A Rapid-Cycle Grow Bed allows for a greater amount of dissolved oxygen to be present in the grow bed without the need of extra aerators and air pumps. This added dissolved oxygen helps with processing and conversion that creates plant nutrients. Here’s a picture of the DO (Dissolved Oxygen) count in this new Mini System’s Fish Tank.

We’ve also created a whole new growing system we are calling the Hydro-Foam Hybrid Growing System; and you’re seeing it here for the first time the day after it debuted on our website last night. No one else is using this ultra efficient way to grow leafy greens. Hydro-Foam marries a Hydroton flood and drain system with a Raft system in the same Grow Bed. Traditional Raft Systems float polystyrene on top of a continuously flooded grow bed, often with plants in net pots placed in the raft. A traditional Hydroton deep media grow bed runs a flood and drain cycle through the media in which the plants are planted. The Hydro-Foam Hybrid floats a polystyrene board designed with optimally spaced holes and filled with net pots on top of the Hydroton, which is at precisely the right height to insure the water wets the roots of your plants. Hydro-Foam reduces evaporation of the water in the bed; and once your plants start growing leaves, the Hydro-Foam protects them from exposure to wicked up water that causes bottom leaves to become moldy. Here is a picture of a Hydro-Foam Hybrid Grow Bed growing lettuce in our Growroom Lab right now. We are using LED’s now in our Growroom Lab, which is why the color of the leaves appears to be purple. Absolutely everything is included in this PLUG-IN & GROW Mini Food Forever™ Aquaponics System. The Deep-Media, EZ Reach, Rapid Cycle Hybrid Grow Bed features over 5 sq. ft. of growing area and comes with it’s EZ-Clean Bell Syphon, a highly efficient Water-Delivery System, a Hydro-Foam Hybrid Growing System with Hydroton and all Bulkhead Fittings and Valves. The 30 Gallon Rectangular Translucent Covered Fish Tank is made of food grade polyethylene and is 22″ deep. It comes with pre-installed Bulkheads, a Submersible Pump and Plumbing, an Air Pump and Aerator, a Jet Back Aeration Sprayer, a digitally controlled 200 watt Heater and a Fluorescent Fish Tank Light. The included T5 Fluorescent Grow Light comes with a a Timer that can also run your Fluorescent Fish Tank Light. The Grow Bed sits above the Fish Tank and both sit on a reinforced multi-level Stand with a handy top self. The Accessories Kit that is also included has an API Fresh Water Test Kit, Starter Bacteria, Water Cleaning Solution, a Fish Net, 90 Days of Tech Support and an Assembly and System Start-up Manual.

We’ve added a Light Reflecting Shroud to the top of the system to keep the important growing light in while keeping it out of your eyes. This is a Complete Indoor Mini System, which has been designed for the interior of a home or schoolroom. The black and white neutral colors of the FFGS-M5 have been chosen to blend with other home appliances like stoves and refrigerators. To make the FFGS-M5 even more home decor friendly, we are even offering 13 different custom colors and designs for the trim around the Light Reflecting Shroud. You are seeing one of those 13 pattern and color choices below. This one is #1.

If you’ve been thinking about trying Aquaponics; this is the perfect starter system with which to do it. There is absolutely no guesswork involved. When we make our Buy Button live on our website page, this system will be fully tested and ready to go to work growing lettuce, spinach, basil, cilantro and other leafy green vegetables right in your kitchen, dining room or “edible schoolroom”.

To get in on our Introductory Sale in which we will be offering the first six FFGS-M5 Systems for less than the listed retail price of $1495,   just email us at:

urbanfarmer@aquaponicsusa.com

These six FFGS-M5 Systems will be using the T5 Fluorescent Grow Lights that we used in our Growroom Lab for about three months. Start growing your own healthy, organic leafy greens right in your own home or schoolroom with the FFGS-M5; and thank you for following our Aquaponics USA Blog.

First in a Series called: It’s An “Edible Schoolroom”

It’s happening. Schoolrooms right along with Schoolyards are becoming edible. Here are some heart-warming chronological pictures of what’s happening with Aquaponics (called AquaBioPonics) at Davis Bilingual Elementary School in Tucson, Arizona where Aquaponics USA built, installed and tested one of it’s FFGS-40 Food Forever™ Growing Systems over the Christmas break.

When we last posted about this installation, there were no Grow Lights, no Fish and no Vegetables. Look what’s happening now.

The above photo shows children gathered around Grow Beds #3 & #4 to see plants growing in the Hydroton. The Hydroton is the Grow Bed media that takes the place of dirt. It’s made from fired clay, and is produced by a German company named Okotau. It was originally designed for Hydroponics (hence the name Hydroton); but works great in Aquaponics systems. This photo also shows Florescent Grow Lights hanging over the Grow Beds. These lights are crucial to the growth of the plants. No light–no plant growth.

This next series of pictures shows the arrival of the fish that are also crucial to an Aquaponics System because the fish create the fish waste that is turned into valuable nutrients for the plants through a process known as the Nitrogen Cycle, which the Davis Bilingual Elementary school students are also learning about.

Right now Davis is using gold fish in their Aquaponics systems. The above picture shows the gold fish going into the system.

The above picture shows students watching their gold fish swim around in their 320 gallon fish tank.

The teaching of Aquaponics begins with a renowned instructor, Dr. D’Silva, Consultant and Professor. Dr. D’Silva is CEO of Moura Enterprises and a worldwide reference in Integrated Sustainable, AquaBioPonics and AquafuelPonics Systems and Humanitarian programs. Right now he is being a Humanitarian and helping the Davis Elementary School Teaching Staff and students learn all about the Nitrogen Cycle, which runs these systems and how to cycle their Food Forever™ Aquaponics Growing Systems, which he calls “AquaBioPonics”. Since Davis Elementary is a Bilingual school, you’ll notice that some of the words on the board are in Spanish. Below, Dr. D’Silva in the white shirt stands next to one of the Davis Bilingual Staff members.

As the learning continues, Dr. D’Silva instructs members of the Davis Bilingual Elementary School staff on how to use their Water Quality Kit that came with their Food Forever™ Aquaponics Growing System. Below, two of the staff members hold up tubes containing yellow-colored water indicating they have measured the Ammonia level in the system. The card with the colored rectangles on it is used to determine what that Ammonia level is. If the Ammonia goes up too high in an Aquaponics System, the system becomes toxic to both the plants and the fish. The third staff member standing next to Dr. D’Silva is the Librarian for Davis Bilingual Elementary, Cheryl Schrader-Gerken. She graciously welcomed us into her Library when we installed this system over Christmas and has taken on this amazing “Edible Schoolroom” Project (in her case it’s an Edible Library) with much joy and enthusiasm.

This final photo below shows an up-close look at how the Water Quality Kit that is included with a Food Forever™ Growing System works to help you keep your water quality at safe, healthy levels. The three tubes all contain the same water taken from the system. The fist tube tells you what your Ammonia levels are. The second tube tells you what your Nitrite levels are and the third tube tells you what your Nitrate levels are. To get lots of detailed information about Water Quality go to our Water Page and read all about it. You can also see all the fun and excitement that the students at Davis Bilingual Elementary School are having by visiting their facebook page at Gardening & AquaBioPonics at Davis Elementary.

We’ll be doing more posts on these “Edible Schoolrooms” in the near future as we return to see what’s happening at the other two schools where our Food Forever™ Growing Systems were installed. Those schools include Manzo Elementary and Drachman Montessori Elementary. So stay tuned.

And be sure to check out the two videos we recently posted to YouTube on our Aquaponics USA TV Channel where we show you the full installation of this very system at the Davis Bilingual Elementary School. It is Part 1 of a four-part series that shows these installations in the three Tucson Elementary Schools. Parts 1 & 2 are posted and Parts 3 & 4 are coming.

Until next time, GET GROWING!

The Continuing Case of the Mystery Vegetable? Actually, it’s turned into two Mystery Vegetables!

A few days ago, I wrote a post asking for help identifying a mystery vegetable that grew like a weed in one of our Greenhouse Grow Beds, tasted delicious in salads, worked great steamed and in stir fries. One thoughtful person answered our call for help; and just like I had already done, she identified this vegetable to be Turnip Greens. With that one piece of back up evidence, I felt pretty confident we had Turnip Greens in our Grow Bed; but now I’m thinking we were wrong.

Today, I went over to my local Home Depot to do a search in the seed section of their Garden Dept; and I was successful as a seed package came up with a picture on it that looks exactly like the vegetable in our Grow Bed. Now, even though Turnip Greens were quite foreign to me, I had at least heard of them before. This vegetable is a complete unknown to me; and I have never even heard its name. Our helper, Fred, said he’d planted cabbage; and it turns out he’s still right. It’s Chinese Cabbage; and it’s called Michihli. Here’s that seed package.

You can go back two posts to see Michihli growing in one of our Grow Beds. According to the package, it grows easily and loves cool weather, which explains why it grew so well in our Greenhouse when it was in winter mode and night temperatures were in the 30′s F outside sometimes while the Greenhouse stayed  around 60 degrees F. As of today, I’m feeling like Michihli is the mystery vegetable.

Now, I have to share another confession, the same thoughtful person who identified the mystery plant as Turnip Greens also told us in a comment that she didn’t think the Spinach on the other side of the same Grow Bed was actually Spinach. This vegetable was also planted by our helper, Fred, and he couldn’t remember the name of that plant either. I cooked some of that Spinach-like plant up; and I have to admit it doesn’t taste like Spinach because it’s much milder. So, now, we have another mystery plant on our hands; and the package that describes that plant didn’t come up today. Our helpful reader thought the un-Spinish side of the Grow Bed might be Broccoli before it actually grows the Broccoli stocks. But there is no sign of Broccoli stocks on this new mystery plant.

So once again we’re asking for help in identifying a plant that grew like crazy in cool temperatures and looks a lot like Spinach. The picture of that plant is one post back. I was feeling like a real dufus in regard to this Grow Bed that got away from us until I found this interesting Image.

The numbers on this Giff Image are telling you how many different species of vegetables existed in each vegetable category in 1903 (the top thicker bars) and then in 1983 (the bottom skinny bars). When you look at the green colored Cabbage Family bar in 1903, you see it was the largest vegetable family in the sample list of ten crops with 544 different species of Cabbage in it. So when I first looked at this Image, I thought no wonder I don’t know all the species of Cabbage because there are so many.

But that’s actually not the case; and I’m back to being a dufus. Because this Image shockingly shows that by 1983, those 544 species of Cabbage became a mere 28 species. What’s happening to the diversity of our vegetables? One of the things that is happening (and it’s been happening at greater and greater speeds since the mid nineties) is there has been a consolidation of seed companies leading to a corporate domination of our food supply. And the one corporation that has been buying up more seed companies than all the others put together is non other than Monsanto. This pdf, “Seed Industry Structure 1996-2008″  shows eye-opening proof of that statement.

As you most likely already know, Monsanto is one of the main corporations behind the proliferation of GMO’s, which is about genetically modifying seeds and then placing a patent on those seeds followed by a pay-to-play business model. Farmers who use Monsanto’s seeds are forbidden to harvest the seeds they already purchased from Monsanto and must re-purchase new seeds every season.

It appears that in buying up as many seed companies as they can, Monsanto is trying to create a monopoly in which eventually only their patented GMO seeds are available on the seed market. Before they pull the plug on all the natural seeds they now control, Monsanto can pretend to be the good guys who are also interested in marketing natural non-GMO seeds. I’m not buying it; and I’m not buying any seeds from a Monsanto controlled company either.

The seed packet above of the Chinese Cabbage, Michihli, is by a company called FERRY-MORSE; and as I trace the ownership, I find FERRY-MORSE is owned by a French company called Limagrain. FERRY-MORSE does not appear in the already mentioned “Seed Industry Structure Map”; but there is a place where there is a crossover between Limagrain and Monsanto. That’s enough to stop me from buying another package of FERRY-MORSE seeds. I guess you could say I’m personally boycotting any seed company connected to Monsanto.

We are presently buying our seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Paramount Seeds and Humble Seed. All three of these companies are, or originated from, family owned US based businesses that emphasize quality, nutrition, health and above all, non-GMO natural seeds. We are actually featuring and selling Humble Seed right on our Aquaponics USA website. Just go to our “Aquaponics and Gardening SEEDS” page to check out these great seeds packaged in long-term unique packaging that maintains the seeds life force.

Hopefully, someone will come forward and help us identify the mystery Grow Bed as both veggies in that bed are still in question. We’ve definitely learned our lesson about the importance of identifying our vegetables. It’s always good to know what you’re eating and from where it’s originating.

Hope this post has been helpful and informative. Until next time, GET GROWING!

Want to see the other side of yesterday’s mystery Grow Bed?

It looks like the mystery Veggie from yesterday is solved, thanks to Usona Asher (hope you don’t mind my giving you credit here, Usona). So far Usona is the only person who has responded to our call for help to identify a vegetable that was unfamiliar to us; and she agrees with my basically wild guess based on pictures from the internet that the mystery veggie is none other than Turnip Greens.

So now all I have to do is get back on the internet, connect to an heirloom seed supplier and order some Turnip Greens post haste as we’re about to start a major seed sprouting project over here. Think I’ll order some Bok Choy along with the Turnip Greens.

This time we’re going to sprout our seeds the tried and true (albeit more time consuming) way, which means I’ll be planting the seeds into a Seed Starting Kit that consists of a black seedling tray with a multi pargro rockwool cube pack with 98 one and one half inch cubes in it and topping the planted tray off with a protective, humidifying 3″ dome cover. This Seed Starting Kit is offered on our website with two different dome sizes.

I’ll be doing a post to show this seedling sprouting process in the near future so stay tuned. Now, on to what this post is all about. I want you to understand that yesterday I only showed you one side of the 11 sq. ft. Grow Bed that is housing the now identified Turnip Greens. As you can see by looking at yesterday’s post, there are a lot of Turnip Greens in that Grow Bed. But what’s really amazing is this:

This is Spinach, which was planted at the same time as the Turnip Greens on the other side of the same Grow Bed. This Spinach is also delicious and seems to be milder than store bought spinach so it’s looking like aquaponically grown Turnip Greens and Spinach are both milder than their soil cultivated counterparts; and do they ever grow fast and thick in our Food Forever™ Growing Systems.

Here’s some interesting information about Spinach from the website I introduced you to yesterday, “the world’s healthiest foods“. A new category of health-supportive nutrients has been found in Spinach called “glycoglycerolipids”. Recent studies show that glycoglycerolipids (they sure can come up with some convoluted words to describe nutrition) from Spinach can help protect the lining of the digestive tract from damage, especially damage related to the big baddy called inflammation.

Here’s another reason why Popeye ate so much Spinach. Out of all the cruciferous vegetables (see yesterday’s post for more information on cruciferous veggies), Spinach is the only one that showed evidence of significant protection against aggressive prostate cancer defined as cancer in stage 3 or 4. It seems Spinach contains certain unique cancer fighting carotenoids called (here comes another one of those impossible to spell or remember words) “epoxyxanthophylls” (spell-check doesn’t even know how to spell it); nevertheless, it’s a really good guy.

So take Popeye’s advice and “eat your Spinach”.

Just to make sure you get the picture of how much vegetable growth is possible in one 11 sq. ft. Grow Bed, this picture is worth a thousand words. It shows both sides of the Grow Bed we’re discussing side by side. Now, do you see what’s so remarkable about growing vegetables in a Food Forever™ Growing System? The veggies just love the living fertilizer that they are getting compliments of happy Tilapia swimming in tanks nearby. 

Until next time, GET GROWING!

Would someone tell us what in the world we’re growing in this Grow Bed?

This may be one of the lamest posts I’ve ever done because we have a Grow Bed in our Greenhouse right now that is full of this lovely green vegetable, which is really delicious, works great in a stir fry and is also quite good steamed. Raw, the stocks taste like mild celery. The leaves have a slight tartness to them. They don’t have smooth edges but are notched. Here’s what’s lame. We don’t know what the name of this plant is.

Here’s what happened to create this embarrassing scenario. I, Grace, was out of town for an extended period of time and my partner, Oliver, was busy designing our next Food Forever™ Growing System and creating the manual for the last one, so our helper, Fred, planted seeds into this Grow Bed in the Greenhouse. He just placed the seeds into the bed without sprouting them first; and that was about seven weeks ago.

Now we have this beautiful and tasty plant that’s really great because you can eat the whole thing from top to bottom, and it grew like a weed in this Grow Bed. I’d really like to plant more of this plant; but Fred can’t remember what he planted and said he thinks it is some kind of cabbage.

With that in mind, I googled “cabbage” and found that there are cabbages that are more leafy than head like. It’s common knowledge that both Oliver and I are beginner gardeners and have only been gardening as long as we’ve been running our aquaponics systems, so we’re still amazed to discover all the veggies that are out there waiting to be cultivated. If only we knew the name of this one.

I googled “Bok Choy” and announced to everyone that it is Bok Choy; but when I looked at photos of Bok Choy closer today, I realized it’s too leafy and does not have enough stock to qualify as Bok Choy. Bok Choy is in the cabbage family and is a staple in Chinese cooking. It also works well in stir fries; and is becoming more popular in the West. I plan to plant some this spring as I’m sure it will grow well in one of our Food Forever™ Growing Systems. However, once I knew I wasn’t growing Bok Choy yet, I continued to search and came up with what I think this plant might be–“Turnip Greens”.

I also found a great website called “the world’s healthiest foods”, which is absolutely full of information about the best nutritional foods; and I discovered that Turnip Greens are part of the family of vegetables called “cruciferous vegetables”; and they are, just like Fred said, also part of the cabbage family.

They are considered supper foods because they are full of vitamins, fiber and disease fighting phytochemicals. Phytochemicals are chemical compounds that occur naturally in plants. The term is generally used to refer to those chemicals that may have biological significance but are not established as essential nutrients. Scientists estimate that there may be as many as 10,000 different phytochemicals having the potential to affect diseases such as cancer and strokes.  Although certain phytochemicals are available as dietary supplements, some scientists believe that the health benefits of phytochemicals are greatly enhanced by eating whole foods.

Lends a lot of credence to the phrase “eat your vegetables”. What’s more, I discovered that Turnip Greens have four times the calcium as regular cabbage; and they outscore cabbage, kale, cauliflower and broccoli in glucosinolate content which means they have a natural ability to mitigate cancer. What’s not to like about this rather obscure veggie? It has a reputation for being bitter; and those cancer mitigating properties may be what’s attributing to the more bitter taste.

But here’s the thing. If this mystery plant is Turnip Greens, we’ve got a best seller because they aren’t bitter. They are tart but not bitter. So now you have the whole story and then some. If anyone out there recognizes this plant as Turnip Greens or WHATEVER, please let us know so we can sow more of this delicious, nutritious, cruciferous vegetable.

Even if it turns out I’m not growing them, I’ve certainly gained an appreciation for Turnip Greens today. Thanks for going on this journey with me.

Now, Let’s GET GROWING! (and hopefully, we’ll know what it is)

What’s happening in the Aquaponics USA Growroom Lab?

We had to do a Blog post in celebration of the first day of Spring. YEAH! It’s finally here. Hope yours was a happy one and you’ve started thinking about what you’re going to plant this year. You know it doesn’t matter what you plant into, dirt, water, a grow bed; or if you don’t have land and aren’t ready to tackle aquaponics yet, then maybe one of those famous EarthBOXES.

They are available on our website so go take a peek at the Videos here: http://www.aquaponicsusa.com/Aquaponics_USA_Earth_BOX.html

Or maybe you’re ready to take the leap into the one food-growing technology that really makes sense because it grows both food-fish and veggies using the same water. When all is said and done, Aquaponics is the supreme way to grow food. Here’s a peek at the new Food Forever™ Growing System we just introduced that duplicates our most popular system and turns the FFGS-20 into the FFGS-20-20. We can hook multiples of the FFGS-20 together to make an ultra FAMILY SYSTEM.

Back in our Growroom Lab we took an interesting series of shots of lettuce growth in one of our Growroom Grow Beds. This Growroom has a FFGS-40 Food Forever™ Growing System in it, which means instead of two 120 gallon tanks, it has one 320 gallon tank with four Grow Beds.

The first shot above shows the growth of our seeds after one week of growth. These seeds were planted directly into the Grow Bed and allowed to sprout right out of the bed. We experimented with this quicker form of seedling planting but have decided it isn’t as reliable as sprouting seeds in rockwool cubes and allowing them to grow out in their seedling trays for a few weeks and then planting them into their Grow Bed. Above is the same Grow Bed after the seeds have been growing in the bed for two weeks.

This third picture shows the same Grow Bed after three weeks. This gives you an idea of how fast plants grow in a Food Forever™ Growing System. Remember, this is growth from mere seeds, which were placed into the Grow Bed without having been sprouted.

Do you see something different about the light? During this three week experiment with these lettuce seeds, we switched our indoor lighting from florescent lighting to LED lighting. That’s why you now see this pinkish glow in our Growroom.

We now have four of these LED Grow Lights over our four Grow Beds and are using LED’s exclusively. I’ll be doing a Blog post about these LED’s and show you how well they are working in a future post.

This beautiful first spring day is coming to a close. God Bless the folks in Acapulco, Mexico where there was a big quake today; and God Bless all of you who are reading this post.

Stay Safe and Get Growing

Aquaponics USA Installs a Food Forever™ Growing System at Davis Bilingual Elementary School

Aquaponics USA installs an FFGS-40-plus into the Library of the Davis Bilingual Elementary School in Tucson, Arizona.

The Davis Bilingual Elementary School in Tucson, Arizona was the first site of three Tucson Elementary schools to receive Food Forever™ Growing Systems during the whirlwind installation project conducted by Aquaponics USA and the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona.

Now you can view this fascinating installation in a Video recently posted on the Aquaponics USA You Tube Channel. Just click on the Blogroll to your right where the Aquaponics USA TV Channel link is located. The Davis Installation is called “Aquaponics USA Travels to Tucson, Arizona – Part 1 of 4″. You can also watch this installation right here on our Vodpod widget. It’s the second Video from the top.

During the break between Christmas of 2011 and New Years of 2012, Aquaponics USA took a two-man crew with them to Tucson, Arizona where the crew efficiently built, installed and tested three Food Forever™ Growing Systems in three different elementary schools. What was challenging about these installations is that the crew had no idea what the set up was going to look like until they walked into the rooms allocated to contain the aquaponics systems. Then the crew essentially built the systems on site to perfectly fit the allocated space; and, of course, after building the system, it had to be tested. It was an ambitious project that took one day for each of the sites given some of the system construction was done prior to landing in Tucson.

Davis Bilingual Elementary School opted to house their Food Forever™ Growing System in the Library. They tore up a section of carpet, moved book cases, painted the cement floor; and Wah Lah!, the library becomes an aquaponic garden ready to grow out food fish and veggies. This system will serve as a teaching lab for teachers and students in many subjects as aquaponics lends itself to teaching biology, science, physics, language arts and culinary arts.

This project has been created by the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, which is serving as a model for how Food Banks in other communities can run their programs. What’s different about this Community Food Bank is it has an arm that is all about food production not just government food distribution. If you find yourself in Southern Arizona and want to see an aquaponics Food Forever™ Growing System in action, make a request to visit the Davis Bilingual School Library. I’m sure they’d welcome you. In the meantime, watch the installation over at the Aquaponics USA TV Channel under our Blogroll or click on our Vodpod widget right here. The Davis Installation is the second video from the top.

All three schools received the exact same system, which is an FFGS-40 plus, which means they got four grow beds with a 320 gallon fish tank, plus an extra brooding and breeding tank that is 120 gallons. Watching all three videos showing these school installations is quite informative as each installation was shot showing different aspects of that installation. Putting all three of them together in your mind will give you a real clear concept of how these systems are built and how they work to grow-out food fish and veggies. (The Video of the third installation and the Interview of the lead on the project from the Southern Arizona Community Food Bank will not be up for a couple of weeks so watch for them.)

Until then have a happy and healthy 2012, which has moved into March faster than we can say “Aquaponics”.

AQUAPONICS USA’s FOOD FOREVER™ Growing Systems go into 3 TUCSON SCHOOLS

The Aquaponics USA Food Forever™ Growing System at Manzo Elementary School

Manzo Elementary School is in the Inner City of Tucson Arizona; and now it’s one of three Tucson schools that are the envy of  the Tucson School District because it has a state of the art Aquaponics USA Food Forever™ Growing System sitting smack dab in the middle of one of its all-purpose rooms, which also houses band equipment and music classes.

Now, you can see a video of this entire installation at Manzo Elementary on our You Tube Aquaponics USA TV Channel. Just go to our Blogroll on the right and click on our Aquaponics USA TV Channel or connect through our Vodpod widget right here. It’s called “Aquaponics USA Travels to Tucson, Arizona – Part 2 of 4 and is on the top of the Vodpod widget below.

The Tilapia that will be swimming around in the 320 gallon fish tank (it sits in the open space between the four Grow Beds) will love hearing the music that the students play in this room as they eat their Aquaponics USA FAST GROWTH Tilapia Fish food and fertilize the plants that will soon be growing under the indoor fluorescent grow lights that will soon be installed over this Food Forever™ Growing System.

The screen you see over the fish tank has been added by the Manzo Aquaponics Team to keep the fish in and the children out of their new and very exciting food growing system. In the main photo above, all the red stuff in the Grow Beds is called Hydroton and was originally created for Hydroponic food growers; and it works just as well for aquaponics because it is pH neutral and has lots of porous space for beneficial bacteria to grow on it. You can learn all about Hydroton from our website by going to our “Products” page and then scrolling down to the “Hydroton” page.

Manzo Elementary School has a wonderful feel and is the epitome of what every elementary school should be these days because it’s all about being and teaching sustainability. There are water-catch cisterns everywhere to catch and save rain water as Tucson is a desert environment.

These cisterns have provided enough rain water to water the schools outdoor gardens this winter.

There’s a courtyard in the middle of a rectangle of classrooms that has a hen house with six chickens that run free during the day  when they’re not laying their one egg a day contribution to food sustainability. 

The above photo shows the chickens in the compost pile. Teaching the children how to compost is another wonderful way to instill the importance of sustainable living.

The addition of their Food Forever™ Growing System is going to add a lot to this program as the students will learn how to raise food fish along with veggies in a cross-linked system that recirculates the water and raises vegetables year round. So many subjects can be taught through a hands on aquaponics system including biology, math, science, language and culinary arts.

We’ll be sharing posts and pictures of what’s happening with this Food Forever™ Growing System at Manzo Elementary School as it progresses through its stages of getting lights, fish and plants so stay tuned. In the meantime, visit the Manzo Elementary School Reconciliation Ecology Facebook page here:   http://www.facebook.com/pages/Reconciliation-Ecology-at-Manzo-Elementary/125141114170146

All three schools received the exact same system, which is an FFGS-40 plus, which means they got four grow beds with a 320 gallon fish tank, plus an extra brooding and breeding tank that is 120 gallons. Watching all three videos showing these school installations is quite informative as each installation was shot showing different aspects of that installation. Putting all three of them together in your mind will give you a real clear concept of how these systems are built and how they work to grow-out food fish and veggies. (The Video of the third installation and the Interview of the lead on the project from the Southern Arizona Community Food Bank will not be up for a couple of weeks).

Until then, enjoy the first two instructional installation videos compliments of Aquaponics USA and Enjoy.

A Mini Aquaponics System

You can turn any aquarium into an Aquaponics System

A while back, we did a post showing this area of the Growroom when we had just set up this aquarium to work as our Tilapia nursery. In that earlier post, the aquarium was just an aquarium with the traditional aquarium filter on the left corner filtering out the fish waste toxins. However, our adult Tilapia in the big 320 gallon tank in this Growroom are so happy with their 80 degree plus degree water and their Tilapia Nesting Condos that they started mating like crazy and produced about 400 offspring, which you can see in this aquarium.

There were now too many fish for the little aquarium filter to handle. So what do you do when you want to house a lot more fish in an aquarium than the filter can handle? You turn the aquarium into a Mini Aquaponics System. We went to Home Depot and bought this 7″ deep black, 5 gallon mixing tray, which we turned into a Grow Bed. We filled it with hydroton, plumbed it and planted lettuce seedlings into it. WALA! A Tilapia Nursery as a Mini Aquaponics System.

The next thing you have to figure out is how much to feed these little guys to keep the system stable. We started out over feeding them; and when we did our water quality measurements, we had way too much ammonia in the system. In fact, the ammonia was so high it was almost lethal. Now, one of the great things about Tilapia is they are so hardy, which makes them capable of withstanding those kinds of mistakes so not one of them died. Tilapia are also gill sifters so they are getting a lot of their nutrition from the algae that naturally forms in the water and on the tank. We are feeding them the #O FAST GROWTH TILAPIA FISH FOOD that we sell on our website and we’re giving them l tsp. a day.

As we prepare to leave for Tucson for five days to assemble and install the three systems in three elementary schools, what do we do about our Greenhouse and

Growroom? We lock the doors and let the systems take care of themselves. We are so confident about the technology behind our Food Forever™ Growing Systems that we can actually leave them unattended for five days without worry. We have automatic fish feeders on all five of our tanks so our fish won’t even notice we’re gone; and because you recirculate the water continuously, we don’t need to add any to the system over a five day period.

Raising baby Tilapia and Lettuce in a Mini Aquaponics System

So off we go. We’ll be bringing back lots of pictures of our adventures in the Tucson school installation and Phoenix where we’ll be picking up our 6,000 watts of solar panels for our next big “Getting Off The Grid” project.

Continue to have a healthy and happy Holiday Season.

Love, Grace

Beautiful Tucson, here we come!

These are the Grow Beds that will be teaching elementary school children in Tucson how to grow veggies aquaponically.

Tucson! We're on our way.

Here are some pictures of the components of our FFGS-40 systems that are going into three elementary schools in Tucson Arizona. We’re going to be glad to load these Food Forever™ Growing System components into the U-Haul truck tomorrow so we can move again in our manufacturing facility, which, right now is full of Grow Beds, Fish Tanks, Stands, Tables, Step Stools, Fish Nets, Fish Food, Water Rings, Plumbing and a lot of other parts that make up three FFGS-40 Growing Systems with three extra 120 gallon Fish Tanks.

This project is being lead by Zotero Citlalcoatl the School & Community Garden Program Coordinator of the Community Food Resource Center of the Community Food Bank and the Tucson AquaPonics Project. The Tucson AquaPonics Project is an “open-source, non-profit, community supported training and resource organization designed to help individuals and communities achieve Food Freedom and Food Security”.  The Tucson AquaPonics Project has a new website and is a great place to make an end of the year donation. Tucson appears to be way ahead of the curve when it comes to innovative ways to grow food and create a sustainable community food program; and we are so pleased that Zotero decided to choose our systems for his elementary school aquaponics projects.

Schools of Tilapia in three elementary schools in Tucson.

We’re going to be shooting stills of the trip and the step by step assembly process of each of these systems in the three different schools; and we’ll also be making videos of this adventure to show on our Aquaponics USA TV Channel.

Once we complete the delivery and assembly of our Food Forever™ Growing Systems in Tucson, we’ll be going to Phoenix to pick up a pallet of solar panels from Sun Electric, a reputable solar company there. We’re getting 30 two hundred watt panels for a total of 6,000 watts, which we’ll be using to run our house, our greenhouse and our growroom in the near future. Eat your heart out, Edison. We’ll also be blogging about that early 2012 project under our Getting Off The Grid category so watch for those posts.

So many projects, so little time; and one hour before Christmas dinner.