We are moving along pretty fast. Yesterday night we wrapped the entire system in a very large tarp. This is our innovation in case of a leak in the system in the apartment conditions. The tarp also protects the semi-transparent buckets from light and will help reduce algae growth.
Since all our bins were already connected with pipes, it took us a little struggle to push the tarp under and around the system evenly, but finally, it was done and is looking very well. In easy, chip and effective solution.
Right after this we made final decisions on the logo, now we are ready to design business cards and a website. Very exiting - a new business sprouting as fast as our arugula and basil in a starter tray!
This afternoon we visited the Chinatown in Brooklyn, NY, where there are an abundance of wonderful fish stores where we found beautiful live specimens of tilapia, barramandy, huge 50 lbs carps, and other types of fish; shrimps of all kinds, turtles and frogs. A saw a woman buying two large 2 lbs turtles, probably for soup. I looked in a turtle bucket full of these poor fellows. One was upside down on its back, helplessly waving its short clumsy legs in the air, with her neck stretched from the shell in the effort to turn belly down. I helped her to get comfortable by turning her and petted her little head. I felt so sad for her. Would never be able to kill a turtle for a soup, i thought to myself. Chris felt the same.
We bought two 1 lbs tilapias to put in our fish tank and a pound of shrimps. They all survived the trip back home very well and tilapia loved their new big tank. But the shrimps all died as soon as we transferred them from the plastic bag full of their Chinatown water into our water bins. We even added some salt to our water to make them feel more at home. But they died anyway within a few minutes. So we cooked them. They were very strange type of shrimps, with flat backs and purple skin under their shells. I didn't have much appetite, but every one else loved them.
After dinner me and Alec painted the floaters. In the next few days we will transfer the plants into the system water, which Chris nurtured very well for a week, lovingly adding bacteria, bubbles and good energy. After all, the little world we create here will be based on this water. There is no earth, only water. Fish and plants.
Telling Tales of Symbiosis. Our family lives in a one bedroom apartment in the Bronx, NYC. We grow organic food in our apartment, including fish, fruit and plenty of vegetables, aquaponically!
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