新车间 [Xinchejian]

Thanks to Roger who planted some new veggies in the aquaponic and got the LED grow light setup.

Location:Huashan Road,,China

To counter the harsh Sun of Shanghai summer, a Sun Shade Cover is added.

Also, 100 earth worms are added to help process the organic matter in the system. Hope they can survive with constant ebb and flow.

Finally, over 300 Chinese green, tomato, cucumbers, eggplants, and sun flowers are transplanted and we should be ready to harvest in about 4 weeks.

The basils and chives transplanted into the system are growing amazingly.

It’s almost a month since I setup the aquaponic system in Gubei. I have learn a lot about this amazing technology and make fair amount of mistakes. But now, the plants are growing and the fishes are swimming. The system now has 5 grown carps and 10 Tilapia fingerlings and the waters are in good cycles with 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and good amount of nitrate for plants food. This is becoming a stable aquaponic system.

Now, I just have to wait for the batch of seedlings ready to transplant as well as getting a few more fish fingerlings.

We have been searching for Tilapia for aquaponic for a long time. Most of sellers in China we contacted won’t sell us anything less then 3000 fishes. Thanks to Jia-Qi who charmed a seller on Taobao to sell us small quantity of Tilapia fingerlings.

45 of these little guys made a 72 hours journey via land and air from Guangxi to Shanghai arriving at Xinchejian at 10:30 AM. 13 didn’t make it. R.I.P.

The rest of them seem to be happy with the little tank we set up for them and hopefully we don’t lose any more of them.

They will be joining in the aquaponic project at xinchejian contributing their part to growing the veggies and in 6 to 8 months, we will also turn them into fish sticks.

So, when you visit xinchejian, say hello to the newest members of aquaponic project. Here are the rules of visitation:

1. Don’t feed them. Roger and I will put them on scheduled diet.

2. No netting them out of water. It’s bad for the fishes.

3. Do not name them. It will make it much harder to turn them into delicious fish sticks if they have names.

Small aquaponic indoor is fun and building big one outdoor is even better. These system is of two 500L fish tanks at the bottom and two 300L growing bed on top giving about 2 square meters growing space and capacity for about 50+ fishes. I am still trying to figure out how to get Tilapia in Shanghai but for now, carps will do.

Planning with SketchUp

Actual installation

Roger setup the aquaponic box last Saturday. It’s a ebb and flow system with ceramic pebbles.

Roger Mu who presented his home farm a few weeks ago just sent a few pictures to share. Some pretty nice tomatoes