Hit the ground running

We have had the joy of moving into Mudflower with tonnes of rotting fruit everywhere, Damo has been out there with shovel and bags collecting it all up in the 40+ degree heat. Very little fruit is left edible, which is just so sad. But there was a plum tree covered in yummy goodness.


Yesterday I collected a bucket full and turned them into some yummy jam and preserves.



Have collected another overflowing bucket full today that is now in the dehydrator and the rest will be turned into some plum sauce and plum chutney. Will share pictures of those results tomorrow.

The recipe I used was:

Recipe for Plum Jam in the Microwave 7/9/01. Bunty.

---

450 g (1 lb) Plums
Grated rind and juice of 1 small orange
2 1/2 x 15 ml tbsp water
375 g (12 oz) granulated sugar

1. Halve and stone plums, place in a large dish with the water and microwave for 8 - 10 mins on High until tender.
2. Add sugar an stir.
3. Cook on High for 2 mins. Stir.
4. Cook on High for 8 - 10 mins Stirring several times until
setting point is reached.
5. Cool slightly and pot.

I have successfully been making my jam this way since 1982.

From:
http://www.realgardeners.co.uk/archiverecipes/recipe_for_plum_jam_in_the_micro.htm

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Nitrogen Cycle and Moving Bed Filter

Nitrogen Cycle

Nitrogen Cycle

One of the most important concepts in aquaponics is the nitrogen cycle. Without a full understanding of it, you will not know "how" aquaponics actually works. But if you take a little bit of time to think about it, its not too hard. 

The fish produce waste, and there is usually some food floating around that does not get eaten. These two when let to sit in an aquarium, start to break up, and this creates ammonia. This is the first step in the nitrogen cycle. While ammonia starts the cycle, it is very dangerous and deadly to fish if the ppm (parts per million) gets too high.

The nitrogen cycle has two naturally occurring bacteria that do most of the work. The first bacteria to aid in the nitrogen cycle is nitrosomonas. This bacteria converts ammonia into nitrites. Fish can tolerate nitrites more than they can ammonia, but it can still be toxic to them. 

Nitrospira is the secnond naturally occurring bacteria that aids the nitrogen cycle. Nitrospira consumes the nitrite produced by nitrosomonas and produces nitrates as a byproduct. Nitrates are much safer for fish than either ammonia or nitrites. However if there is nowhere for the nitrates to go and they are not being consumed, it can kill your fish.

In a home aquarium, the nitrates are removed by doing water changes, or if there are plants in the aquarium, they will consume the nitrates, which is essentially plant food. 

In aquaponics, we not only grow veggies, fruits, and fish, we also cultivate these bacteria. Without nitrosomona and nitrospira, aquaponics would not work the way it does. We use their by-products to feed our plants so we do not need to add fertilizers. 

So the key to aquaponics is producing enough nitrates for your plants to grow, and having enough plants to consume the nitrates. While reading up on different filters for my aquarium (before I converted to aquaponics), I came across moving bed filters. 

Moving Bed Filter

A moving bed filter in short is a nitrate factory. It uses small filter media that have extreme amounts of surface area to catch all the bacteria that flow through the filter. The idea is very similar to the way aquaponics works. The filter media cultivate the same naturally occurring bacteria, nitrosomonas and nirospira. Theses filter the water like a mini nitrogen cycle. The filter media is designed to work best when they are moving around in the water, hence its name. 

Tilapia Approved! 

Moving bed filters use nontraditional filter media. Many products can be used but through my research I found that Hel-X. Hel-x has 40% more surface area than its competitors and comes in an array of sizes.  

Close up of Hel-X filter media.
The surface area on these are impressive!

Usually aquaponic systems do not have filters (well Deep Water Culture does but...), however I believe adding this type of filter would be a huge benefit to aquaponic systems.

When I met Alex Blackwell, I brought with me a bag of Hel-X media. The idea was to build a moving bed filter for his system. After a day or two of collaboration and brainstorming, we got the idea of using a moving bed filter as a prefilter for his pump. 

Alexs pump is in the fish tank and the mechanical filter it came with got clogged weekly with all the fish waste. This slowed the flow rate and turned the water a murky brown color, not the best. We designed and added the moving bed filter to the pump. The pump pulls the water through the moving bed filter and stirs up the Hel-X. It works amazingly!

The filter has cleaned the water and increased the flow rate.
Once the bacteria is fully established, it will provide filtration
and nitrates for the plants.

The moving bed filter in the Blackwell system cleaned up the water and increased flow rate. Once the bacteria has a chance to colonize the Hel-X the filtration will consume the ammonia and decrease ammonia spikes. Plus once it is established, it will be pumping extra nitrates into the grow bed each time the pump runs, which is 15 minutes of each hour.

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My Mini Aquaponics Set

Hai everyone, since my bigger aquaponics set left behind in Sabah. Therefore I made a new one here in Johor. This is just experimental indoor set. Because of large space is not available, I just make a mini set. I have gone through a lot of trouble in finding the material needed, and finally, this is the result.

Overall view

Grow bed

Fish tank/ container

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Welcome to FeelGood Aquaponics! Intro Post

Welcome to FeelGood Aquaponics

     My name is Felix Vogele. I am 23 years old and living in Helsingør, Denmark. I have long been interested in sustainability and alternative ways of thinking. The last few years I have been wanting to work more and more with plants, farming, and nature as a whole. The last few months I have been introduced to aquaponics.

     Aquaponics is a blend of two better known farming methods, aquaculture (fish farming) and hydroponics (soil-less growing). The way aquaponics works is simple. The fish are raised in fish tanks, the fish poop, and then the waste is pumped to the grow area where it is used to fertilize crops and plants, the plants and grow medium filter the bacteria and then the then filter water returns back to the aquarium. Here is a picture to help explain 

     I very much wanted to try aquaponics for myself! I am starting in August at Roskilde Teknisk Skole here in Denmark as a Greenhouse Gardener. I am very much looking forward to it and am planning on using my education towards aquaponics. 

    I decided to build my own system. This is easier said than done. I live in a 70.5 m2 apartment. I already had a 250 liter aquarium and had to keep the place looking nice. 

     The design is simple but turned out to be kinda complicated with a few things. I used my existing 250 liter aquarium as my fish tank / sump tank. I built a low stand for my tank so I could build a "table" over it to hold the grow beds. I made it low enough so it can fit under the window and receive natural light pretty much all day.

     I choose two different styles of grow beds to try them out. The first is a flood and drain system with expanded clay as the grow substrate. I made a bell siphon as the draining mechanism. In this grow bed I have an heirloom tomato donated by my girlfriendss mother, rosemary, dill, and jut a bit of parley too. I have also thrown a few head lettuce and spring onion seeds in there just to see what will happen. 

     The second grow bed is a Deep Water Culture (DWC) grow bed. This means that the plants are floating on top on the water in little net pots. The water is filtered so no solids get intertwined with the roots. It drains through a standing drain pipe back into the aquarium. I am currently growing rucola in it but plan on growing many leafy greens when I get more net pots.

Finished!

First set of plants. 

 

Mixed African Cichlids

Another view of the cichlids.

  

     I should also add that these are my African Cichlids and I do not plan on eating them! They are my pets. :) I do plan on getting some Tilapia and somehow add another tank, but that is another post and project all together! I hope you enjoy the pictures. I will continue to update you on my aquaponic adventures!

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More preserving with one working hotplate

Last night Damo and I decided we should sort out the second bucket of plums. The morning saw us fill the 5 tray dehydrator with plums, most of which are ready just the last few still in the machine. Then once it cooled down last night we tried to tackle the rest. With a pot big enough to only fit 5 jars we still had a good few dozen left (plus todays bucket worth). You will notice that there is only one pot on the stove, this is because there is only one working hotplate on the stove. Makes thing difficult and we could only cook one thing at a time and it all just took forever.

But last night we made Plum Chutney it was getting rather late so I did not reduce it enough creating more of a sauce, but it is still yummy and I think will work well in a chicken stir fry. Do wish we had some smaller jars for it though so I could have preserved in one meal quantities. Recipe below.

We also made some plum and apple sauce. Now this one tastes like store apple sauce but with a background flavour and tang of the plums. It is really super nice. Once again tiredness kicked in and we created a chunky sauce as neither of us could be bother to blend it or push through a sieve. We can always do that when we use it if we want. Recipe below. We ended up with about 550g apple and same of plum and used 800g sugar and about 350ml of water. I also threw in a 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid (I am just a little terrified of poisoning the family right now). I did cook for less time so it didnt reduce too much as I wanted more of a sauce than a jam, I had trouble finding a simple plum and apple sauce recipe.

Plum Chutney

Recipe Ingredients
900g / 2lb plums
1 large onion
200g / 7oz raisins or sultanas (optional)
450g / 1lb brown sugar
570ml / 1pint malt or cider vinegar
1 thumb / 3cm ginger
1 Tblsp cinnamon
1 Tsp nutmeg
8 cloves
2 tsp salt

Mise-en-Place:
Sterilize the jars and lids with hot water and a kitchen sanitizer spray
(Or the old school method is to wash the jars then heat to 100°C - 120°C for 10 minutes in the oven)
Cut the plums into quarters (or if very large into eighths)
Slice the onion
Weigh the sugar and measure the vinegar
Roughly chop the ginger, measure the remaining spices

Cooking Method:
Place all the ingredients into a saucepan
Rapidly boil until thick (about 30-45 minutes)
Stir from time to time to ensure that the chutney doesnt stick or start to burn.
To test if the chutney is thick enough rapidly draw a ladle across the bottom of the pan, if you can clearly (yet briefly) see the pans base before the chutney flushes back into place the chutney is done.
If not continue to thicken the chutney by boiling.
Check the seasoning, remove and discard the cloves and sliced ginger.
Pour hot, but not boiling, water into the preserving jars (this is to heat the glass so that it doesnt crack when you add the hot chutney)
Remove the water then pour the plum chutney into jars.
Seal and label.

Adjust:
Its quite difficult to get a real taste of a chutneys flavours while it is still hot. Once the chutney has cooled the flavours will develop and the longer you age the chutney, again the greater the flavours will develop. However if a chutney tastes quite bland when hot, this is an indication that the final product will also be quite flavourless.
Too bland: Add more spices / or salt
Too thin: Continue to heat the chutney until it thickens
Too thick: Add a little water

Chef Tip:
If you dont have a funnel roll up a non-stick baking mat into a cone, then use this to easily pour the chutney from pot to preserving jar.

http://cooking4chumps.com/Chutney%20Plum%20Recipe.html

Homemade Plum and Apple Jam

ingredients

yield 2.5kg (approx)

750 g plums
3 1/2 cups (750 g) apples (peeled and cored)
450 ml water
1.5 kg sugar

method

1. Wash the plums and put into a preserving pan with the apples and the water.

2. Cook the fruit slowly until the skins of the plums are softened.

3. Add the sugar, stir over low heat until dissolved, bring to the boil and boil rapidly until setting point is reached.

4. Remove the stones as they rise to the surface (a stone basket clipped to the side of the pan is useful for holding the stones, and allows any liquid to drip back into the pan).

5. Alternatively, the plums may be stoned before cooking.

6. Remove from the heat, skim, pot, cover, and label.

Cooking time 45 minutes (approx)
http://www.cookitsimply.com/recipe-0010-032o55.html

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Aquaponic Consultant Contact FeelGood Aquaponics

Aquaponic Consultant  

Contact

FeelGood Aquaponics

Email: feelgoodaquaponics@gmail.com

Contact FeelGood Aquaponics with any trouble shooting needs

aquaponic business models . system design . fish questions

. pH issues .

sustainable living . urban agriculture . green gardening

Feel free to leave a comment or contact by email for more in depth consultation 

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