Cycled in 4 days!

I just cycled a new 40 gallon aquarium with a 10 gallon wet/dry sump tank in four days by using water and media from my aquaponic system.

Day 1 Ammonia = 0.50 Nitrite = 2.0
Day 2 Ammonia = 0.25 Nitrite = 2.0   (added more urea)
Day 3 Ammonia = 0.00 Nitrite = 5.0  (this is the Nitrite spike)  (added more urea)
Day 4 Ammonia = 0.00 Nitrite = 0.0  (Wow,  Ive never had it happen so fast)
The water was kept at 75F.

Inoculating with good strong culture from an established system will greatly speed up the time it takes to cycle a new system.  This time the aquarium was filled with water from the aquaponic system, and I used a small activated carbon filter about 4" x 6" that I had been using to disperse the water with as it poured into the aquaponic grow bed to inoculate the aquarium..

I have also notice that a wet/dry sump is especially helpful compared to a letting the water flow through all of the media.  

Its not real pretty,  but this is my bio filter.  I used a couple baskets filled with new Hydroton, you can see it is still floating.   One basket is submerged while the other is above the water level  (wet/dry sump).

My aquaponic system uses ebb and flow, but Ive seen better results when I duplicate a wet/dry sump by not completely draining the grow bed.
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Aquaponics Growing Fish And Plants Without Soil

Today we are commencing with The Aquaponic Source:
Dear Bruce,
Spring has sprung!  Well, perhaps today is just a tease but it is almost 70 degrees here in Colorado and we are expecting to see daffodils soon!

But dont rush to your outdoor garden because now you can experience aquaponics, year-round in your home...and do it with style!  
So why not get onboard

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Oil drip rocket mass heater/aquaponics (wood burning stoves forum ...
Hi all, I have been wondering. I know that there are stoves that are fueled by a drip system of waste oil. Can this same principle be.......


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Going Creative with Aquaponics | YEA CorpsStudents at The School of Environmental Science are bringing a new twist to YEA Corps aquaponics programming. About 100 students, from what we fondly....

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Countdown – Aquaponics FloMedia 4 day Farm Workshop.

Posted on 01/03/2012 by Murray

It is getting exciting.  Only a few days to go and we will be into our first ever Australian Aquaponics Farm Workshop.
We have guest lecturer Dr Wilson Lennard all booked and ready to fly in early Monday morning.  He will be, as usual a wealth of information as he takes you through the various aspects of Commercial Aquaponics.  Additionally we have a
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What is Aquaponics?what is aquaponics. Aquaponics is a system where plants and animals work together to produce a sustainable food source.
Aquaponics might sound highly technical, but with a little planning and preparation you can build yourself a fully functional aquaponics system at home. 


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tadpoles for aquaponics?

    Every year we have some nondrying puddles that become full of tadpoles...which I then scoop out by the jar full and watch them do what they do...and I was wondering if anyone has tried aquaponics with something like tadpoles...would it be similar, or different...they are part fish..part amphibian...best part?---in a few weeks I get a tent full of baby frogs...lol


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Aquaponics: Growing Fish And Plants Without Soil

profita

Jason Garvey, owner of the rainwater harvesting company Portland Purple Water, is growing lettuce in an aquaponics demonstration behind his storefront in Beaverton. Hes hoping to sell the blueprints for similar systems to other people who want to grow a lot of food in small spaces.

Earlier this week, I posted a story about a net-zero greenhouse that grows food, fish and renewable energy – all in a small backyard space.

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Aquaponics Solves Many Difficult Problems

In the last month, people from 145 countries have visited the Portable Farms LTD websites.  
The overall interest in aquaponics around the world has been growing steadily for the last four years and has now moved into a new phase of hyper growth. This is reflected in the number of visitors, the number of pages they have viewed, the length of time each person spends on our web pages, and the incredibly high number of return visitors that clearly indicates the thirst for aquaponics-related information has intensified. 

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Aquaponics?

Phil February 28, 2012 Organic Living No Comments

What is Aquaponics?
Aquaculture is the symbiotic cultivation of plants and aquatic animals in a re-circulating system and is the method of growing crops and fish together in a re-circulating system.

What has Team Cassell been doing?

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Christopher Zajac

Gov. Malloy visits aquaponics greenhouse at Arc of Meriden-Wallingford

Steven Fields, of Meriden, right, explains the aquaponics system he designed and built to Gov. Dannel Malloy, center, and Sean Moore, left, president of the Greater Meriden Chamber of Commerce, at the Arc of Meriden-Wallingford in Meriden, Thursday morning, March 1, 2012.
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Growing Basil Vertically in Aquaponics

By My Green Australia | March 2, 2012 10:23 AM EST

Recently we were talking to someone who wishes to remain anonymous who say they invested more than $250,000 in their commercial aquaponics business and it wasn’t working to plan. Sure they grew plants. The fish grew fine. They had 1,000 Jade perch in their tanks that were coming up for harvest. The system was running so well that they claimed they could grow lettuce in two weeks for market! They were able to get $1.20 per lettuce head wholesale at the food co-op. Although they.....
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Winners of “Big Idea” Entrepreneurship Contest Announced

By Zoey Erdenebileg

Published: Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Courtesy of Adrian Galbraith-Paul

Adrian Galbraith-Paul ’12 developed an aquaponics system that provides a complete habitat for fish and supports plant growth.

The contest Whats the Big Idea?, sponsored by Kenyons Innovation Greenhouse, a division of the Career Development Office, awarded $500 to four separate business plans last month: SocialBuzz, Reserve Green, Ski ID and Aquaponics.

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Wow plenty to keep you occupied this time.
Enjoy.......
Be back soon
Be good to each other and yourself
O Z Z I E


P.S. I have thrown in a Video clip just down a bit. Question: Should I...or Should I not ?????

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Spark io Raises 4 9 Million Lessons For Humboldt County

Spark Core

Spark.io just raised $4.9 million to hire more employees, increase the usefulness and user base of its cloud-based Spark OS platform, and increase its market presence and penetration. Microcontrollers (MCUs) were a key component of Sparks first product, Spark Core. Spark Core would be useless without the MCU, and knowing how to use and program the MCU was key to the early success of the product.

Can Humboldt County learn anything from the Spark.io story and replicate Sparks success? Yes, it can. Heres why and how.

Humboldts small town atmosphere, access to a beautiful natural environment, and the isolated, pastoral landscape which inspires creativity combine to provide a quality of life that attracts highly talented people to the area. However, Humboldt doesnt have a national or global reputation as a high-profile innovation community or a thriving high-tech business ecosystem. This means Humboldt MCU developers and entrepreneurs need to focus on the right things to be financially sustainable and have a chance for Spark-like success.

The highly talented people in Humboldt County who focus on the following six principles put themselves in a position to succeed like Spark did.

1. Engage in emerging technologies and sectors. (While the focus is on long term technologies, be conscious of low entry cost opportunities which take advantage of short term trends. Italics edit on July 20.)
2. Focus on interesting platforms that have high market potential.
3. Build a core network of people, both in and outside of Humboldt County, who are passionate and highly skilled and are focusing those passionate skills on developing disruptive innovations in emerging technologies and sectors.
4. Have a physical presence both in Humboldt and in a leading US location for the subject technology or sector.
5. Use Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Tindie and other appropriate high-profile sites to launch products, determine mass appeal, gain funding, gain visibility.
6. Build a network of support resources that allows long term serious product and platform development and insightful pivoting.

Only a small percentage of independent developers and startups who build and launch products and

companies will create a sustainable revenue stream, and even fewer will be as successful as Spark has been so far. However, talented people who successfully focus on the above six principles have a much greater chance of success than those who dont leverage those principles.

If youre interested in the Spark story and want more background, check out the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), TechCrunch (TC) and BusinessInsider (BI). According to the WSJ, "Spark.io “empowers engineers” by letting them create and improve products without relying on technology, features and access afforded to them by large companies...Having recently moved his

Spark Core breadboard circuit

business from Minneapolis to San Francisco, Mr. Supalla plans to use Spark.io’s freshly-raised capital on hiring, community-building and outreach to developers, and to manufacture and sell its Spark kits and operating system." TC says, "Today, the company has announced a third product called Spark OS, which allows developers to integrate their projects with an open-source OS, compatible with iOS and Android...The project shifted from the Spark Socket...to the Spark Core and the Spark Cloud...“Our greatest challenge is the shifting landscape,” said Supalla. “The IoT is a big deal, and companies around the world are trying to figure out how they play in it. The market changes every week when someone launches an initiative, but luckily we move quick." Sparks team is currently 12 people, but will, BI says, "...grow to about 20-25 people within the next few months." Per BI, the Spark CEO had "targeted makers and the growing hobbyist community centered on building things with technology, but...was surprised to discover that customers wanted to use Spark to deploy across thousands of devices for work and enterprise purposes...The time and energy it takes to build a product from scratch, we can potentially cut off 6-9 months off development time and millions of dollars from R&D so you’re not starting from zero."

Im going to write a weekly blog post that follows up on opportunities for Humboldt County microcontroller users. The posts will focus first on the above six principles, then will explore emerging products and technologies, MCU-relevant entrepreneurial success news, and other topics that may help Humboldt microcontroller users achieve high-profile success, or at least long term sustainable profit.

If you have comments about Spark-like opportunities in Humboldt County, or if you are interested in expanding or strengthening the community of Humboldt microcontrollers users, send an email to me at arcatabob (at) gmail {dott} com.

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