Blackwell System

Blackwell System

Today I introduce the Blackwell System. The owner Alex Blackwell, is a good buddy of mine. His system is awesome. It can be reproduced all over because it uses universal parts. It is in his basement so he needs supplemental lighting. He is using an eight bulb, T5 fluorescent light. It has two settings to choose between flowering and vegetative stages. The grow beds are two heavy duty plastic totes bought at Walmart. The whole system is nested in a stainless steal utility shelf. The bottom  portion is filled with a 75 gallon aquarium. The whole system has a 2 x 4 footprint, so it is very space efficient. 

Lights on! The plants are loving their aquaponic home.

The system is growing peppers, green and purple basil, mixed greens, and two types of melons! The melons were just planted so they are only sprouts at this point, but the rest is going amazingly! We have harvested the mixed greens three times in the past 16 days! And the next harvest is not far away. 

Peppers started flowering not too long ago.

Delicious mixed greens. It grows about as fast as we can eat it!
Everyone here loves here "fish poop salad!"

The nutrient machines that power this awesome system are just as beautiful as the greens they produce. I never knew tilapia were such colorful fish until I saw these! They have doubled their length and more than tripled their weight (all estimates at the moment) in  the two months or so Alex has had them. They are super lively and have personalities I did not expect.

Cool colors that I did not expect from tilapia.
Leave it to aquaponics to teach me even more!

This system is a perfect example for someone who wants to set up an aquaponics anywhere in their home or business. It has easy to find materials and simple mechanics. The Blackwell System has lots of cool odds and ends that work awesomely. I will highlight these in upcoming posts.

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Quick Video

Please excuse the noise :)

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Raising Baby Tilapia Aquaponicly

Tilapia Fry

The Blackwell System recently had babies (fry)! There have been a few mothers holding eggs, but we never stripped them in time. This time was different, we were ready! 

We were trying an experiment with two mothers at the same time. Alex bought a small terrarium with a screen lid which was submersed into the large aquarium to make a small holding tank. With the two mothers holding eggs, we corralled one of the mothers into the holding tank. Our reasoning; the mother would spit the babies out and then we would release the mother back into the tank and keep the babies in the holding tank. The second mother fish would act as a control, to see how the babies survive (or dont) being spit into the tank directly. 

Things did not go as planned. On the third day, we went to check on the mother in the holding tank first thing in the morning. The mother was in there (where else would she go?), but she was definitely was not holding eggs any more and there was none in the tank. She ate them.

The control mother was still holding her eggs though. We had watched a movie on YouTube about stripping mother tilapia of their eggs the day before, and have decided to try and strip the control mother as we were tired of loosing babies. 

So we set up a bucket we could strip the mother in (that sound dirty!) and caught her in the net. While we where trying to get a good grip on her, she started spitting the eggs out! So we quickly got her in place and got all the eggs out. There were close to forty eggs and newly hatched eggs swimming and sitting in the bowl! It worked! 

We got a turkey baster and transported the eggs and newborns into a plastic vial. We strapped a fiberglass window screen on top so they cannot swim out and placed that under the grow bed drain. And there it hangs!

Water returning from the grow beds flows into the tube and replaces the water.
There are about 30 tilapia fry in the tube.

The fry are growing every day. After the eggs yolk sacks were gone, we have fed them crushed fish food. A good way to tell if fish are healthy is the food test. Fish that eat and have no physical symptoms are usually doing alright.

After they start to crowd this tube, which should not take long, the plan is to move them to the holding tank originally designed to house the holding mothers. The holding tank used to be resting on the bottom of the aquarium but too much fish poop was falling in it. It is now hanging kinda like the hatching tube but is semi-submersed.

Holding tank originally used to house tilapia mothers holding eggs.
When the fry are big enough they will be transferred to this tank.

Being able to strip the mother and raise our own babies has allowed us to close the loop in our system that can now be perpetual and not reliant on buying new tilapia after these ones... Well after these current fish make a tasty meal!

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Student Training

As North Americans, Julie and I (Doug) are careful with the time we spend with our students. Our intent is to have a predominantly indigenous ministry where our Nicaraguan staff are the principle guides for our students. Having said that, we look for opportunities were we can speak into their lives to implant life skills and values.

The video shows one such opportunity where we took small groups of students (5 at a time) out to a suspended bridge site, hiked up river, and built our own rope bridge. Then we trained them on how to make a Swiss seat and secure themselves to cross the river. The goal was to all cross the river while working as a team. At the same time, we were able to talk about career goals, Hopes and dreams, next steps in life, etc. It was a fantastic time.

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