Fish Pee and Sunshine

The bee part of my plan is finally starting to come together, amidst all the other bustle of getting the garden ready for spring, and remodeling the basement. Here's my self assessment:

Bee Plus
A couple weeks ago, my wife alerted me to a Craigslist posting that someone had a swarm of bees in their yard, not far from our neighborhood. I left work early that Tuesday afternoon, grabbing a box, raincoat, goggles, gloves, and pruning shears, from home along the way. The guy who'd posted the bees showed me where the parent hive was holed up in the rock face of his underground home. He said they had also swarmed the previous year (which was a bad year for bees!), so regardless of honey production, it was evident that this swarm was prolific breeding stock. I suited up into my raincoat, goggles, and gloves, snipped the branch the swarm was on, and lowered it carefully into the box. It was a sting free operation. I taped the box closed and brought it home. I wasn't quite sure how to get the bees into my top bar hive, and so removed the hive partition, and just put the branch in, with most of the bees still clinging to it. Since I only had top bars for half the enclosure, I sealed up the other half with cardboard, and decided to wait for the bees to settle in. Perhaps they sensed the impending May snowstorm, but they never quite settled in, and left early that Saturday, probably taking up residence in some neighbor's chimney. It snowed that night for a day and a half, so I hope they found a good shelter, wherever it was.

It was like being dumped, my honey had left me, and I was bummed for days, but last Sunday, oila! the same guy posted that he had another swarm. In the meantime, I'd done a little more research, watched some YouTube videos, and made some choice upgrades to the top bar enclosure, including some lemongrass oil to make it smell like queen bee pheromone. I repeated the collection exercise, pretty much the same as before, but when I got them home, instead of putting the branch into the hive, I diligently shook all the bees into the hive and buttoned it up with partition, to make the ideal volume for the new swarm. The next morning I saw a good chunk of the swarm hanging on the outside of the enclosure, so swept them into a dustpan and poured them back into the hive. Then, with the help of my visiting parents, set about making some sugar syrup and filled up a hummingbird feeder (bee guards removed) for them to suckle on next to the hive. One week later, they appear to still be there, setting up house, hauling out the dead, and depositing propolis in the seams.

F is for Grafting
Earlier in the spring I had obtained ten apple scions which I unsuccessfully grafted onto my two crabapple trees. Not a single one took. I suspected that perhaps I had waited too long between getting the scions and doing the grafting (bad weather in late March/early April) and the scions had all a bit of fungal infection. Then my neighbor gave me some peach and Asian pear scions, and I tried again (on peach and pear trees, not crabapple), again with no success. Will have to wait until next spring to try again... with a bit more diligence and research perhaps.

Incomplete for Hugelkultur, but an A for Effort
Back in February I had started clearing a spot for a raised bed hugelkultur berm. There was a large ponderosa that had died in my backyard, and so, borrowing the neighbor's chainsaw I dropped and chopped it into the base layer of my horsesh&% berm (where &% = oe and it). In late April, I finally got my trailer finished and used it to pick up a couple loads of manure from the local stables, and spent a whole day shoveling sh&%, for the middle layer. I covered it with some clay/soil, planted some peas, kale, cukes, and radishes, plus some 3 sisters combos, and topped it off with some mulch. Most of it is coming up now. Retaining walls are still in the works. I built the trellis to provide shade, give the cukes and peas something to climb, and create a little fort for the kids.


Pending Potatoes and Paw Paws
Scavenged a couple of old pallets from the receiving dock at work and fashioned the lumber into a 1m x1m stackable layer system for my potato bed, which I planted with sprouted potatoes and yams from the kitchen, and leaves from my 2012 leaf stores. I also mail ordered a couple of paw paw trees, which I potted, and are thriving in the shade of my living room. Unfortunately, it'll be a couple years at least before I have the pleasure of eating the fruit.

Meanwhile, back in the basement
Construction is drawing to a close- just need to paint, before proceeding with aquaponics. My wife has sourced a few 10gal aquariums (average price under $2) for my modular grow beds, unfortunately one of them still contains hermit crabs. I'm content to observe them for now, to see what niche they could fill in a full up CELSS... . Four modules will be sufficient to get me started, and the yard sale season is still young. Hopefully we can find a good deal on Hydroton, my preferred grow media. I may eventually research how to make my own grow media, but reserve that topic for another post.

Been doing some networking lately, to build up a support base of technical expertise. This weekend, I went to a permaculture event at the Living Systems Institute over in Golden, and learned a little about hugelkultur, poultry, and beekeeping/swarm capturing.

LSI has a relatively immature greenhouse/aquaponics setup going, but as they are at least a few months ahead of me, I look forward to learning from their mistakes and successes. There were a few other aquaponicists there as well, all doing tilapia, so if my wife doesn't manage to source some free fingerlings through craigslist or freecycle (giveaways are not uncommon around here), I've learned that I can go to The Grow Haus or the associated Colorado Aquaponics site.

The LSI class was titled "Introduction to Integrated Closed Loop Productions Systems":



This has gotten me to musing about the differences between the permaculture movement and the ultimate goals of CELSS. With traditional permaculture, the emphasis is on the integration of the system into the local and global ecosystem. There really aren't any closed loops, except perhaps (practically speaking) at the global level. Different permaculturists have varying ideas regarding self sufficiency, but are generally plugged into the surrounding habitat. CELSS are not- emphasis is on closed, they are designed to be completely self sufficient and stable for long periods. Clearly however there is a need for understanding the integration of various cycles internal to a CELSS, so permaculture lessons are extremely valuable to CELSS implementation. At the same time, CELSS are somewhat simpler, and thus have the potential to better explore the causal effects within a controlled system, ultimately enhancing understanding of the system integration.

In the course of setting up my plumbing and researching bell siphon designs, I ran across some YouTube videos on black soldier fly composting systems. Since I know that BSF larvae are a commercially available food source for aquaculture, I was intrigued. A few things about BSF (courtesy Wikipedia and other sources):

• Prevents houseflies from laying eggs in the material inhabited by BSF larvae.
• Not usually a pest. Not attracted to human habitation or foods. As a detritivore and coprovore, the egg-bearing females are attracted to rotting food or manure (i.e., compost).
• Black soldier flies don't fly around as much as houseflies. They are very easy to catch and relocate when they get inside a house, as they do not avoid being picked up, they are sanitary, and they do not bite or sting.
• Reduce E. coli and Salmonella
• Quickly reclaim would-be pollutants
• Break down compost, create heat, increasing compost evaporation. Significant amounts are also converted to carbon dioxide respired by the grubs and microorganisms.
• Compared to worm composting, BSF larvae are better at quickly converting "high-nutrient" waste into animal feed. Worms are better at converting high-cellulose materials into soil amendment. The activity of larvae can keep temperatures around a 100 degrees F while worms require cooler temperatures.
• Larvae are also human edible, containing up to 42% of protein, and a lot of calcium and amino acids. In 2 weeks, a gram of black soldier fly eggs can become 2.4 kg of protein. The taste is said to be "nutty and a bit meaty."

BSF larvae composting seems to be complementary to redworm composting, in that it can process some of the wastes not usually compatible with worm composting (citrus and fatty animal waste). It also sounds like a better means to feed fish.


Most of the systems I've seen are based on wild, outdoor ovipositors. Here is the video for what I would consider a fairly convenient design:


What I like about this design (as opposed to some of the other 5gal bucket ones out there) is the transparent walls that have the educational advantage of allowing my kids to see into it, as well as reducing the need to open it. It also seems like a reasonable size for my household, to augment our worm farm. Like everything else nowadays, there is at least one website devoted to the subject. The open question for me remains how compatible they are for my climate here in Denver. If I have to maintain the entire life cycle indoors, I need to set up a relatively closed system, to maintain breeding stock.

Finally got my fish tank moved inside. I moved the base myself in December, but for the tank itself, with the tricky landing on the basement stairwell, ended up hiring a moving crew. The crew leader said it was one of the heaviest things they've ever had to move, so I don't feel too bad about shelling out $95 (Groupon deal) to have it done. I've started setting it up, but will wait to fully clean it and fill it until my other winter basement projects are complete... concrete dust will just re-contaminate anything I do now.


You can see my one year old moringa basking in what little light there is. I've since moved it to a sunnier location in the house, upstairs in my temporary office. I will be installing another fluorescent light fixture over the grow bed as part of my basement project. Hopefully that will be sufficient for awhile.

I've started collecting 10gal aquariums to arrange as growbed modules over my sump, but need to procure a glass drill large enough to plumb a bell siphon into the bottom of each. I can fit 5 each of these 10 gallon modules on the sump to start, but will need to fabricate a base and plumbing to expand beyond that. Since it is only an 80gal sump, I hesitate to exceed more than about 10-12 modules total (keeping in mind that much of their volume will be media).


In other news, the worms seem to be thriving on my coffee grounds and neglect. They're even having babies, which is great news for the fish... once I get them.

A brief update: In early September, I managed to separate my shoulder after hitting a wet patch bicycling to work one day. This has put me out of commission for any heavy lifting for the last month. Combined with a busy social schedule and a slight obsession with getting my new RepRap 3d printer kit built, the result is that my aquarium is still located in the garage. Gonna try to start moving the base next weekend, if I can line up some extra muscle.

Between last week's freeze and the ravenous squirrels, the outdoor growing season is pretty much over here. I've moved the worm farm into the basement, and got one tomato plant indoors. At the office, I cut back the moringa, and am attempting to get the cutting to root. If successful, I'll keep it going there and bring home the parent, which is probably ready for a bigger pot.

In the meantime, we went to the NoCo Mini Maker Faire this weekend, and I ran into a guy making open source water sensors. No nitrate or ammonia sensors yet, but he is certainly on the right track. It'll be some time before I'll be ready to implement a real time sensor system, but can certainly see where it would be handy for a computerized alarm system for the possible times when things go out of whack quickly.

It seems I've been remiss in outlining my system plan in much detail, but let me assure the reader that there is indeed a plan, and that it is more or less on course.

Design

My intent is to build a modified CHOP2 system with total water volume about 300 gal. The top third of the fish tank (1) will gravity drain to a 1 gal vortex filter where I will collect solid wastes (occasionally ported off as fertilizer for garden and houseplants). The vortex filter will drain to the sump (3), which can also be used as a fingerling nursery. The pump (4) will distribute nutrient water to the grow bed (5) and feed tank (6). The grow bed will drain back to the sump via a standard bell siphon. The feed tank will act as a pump buffer and drain back to the fish tank. It will be used to grow and periodically distribute duck weed and perhaps freshwater shrimp by an as-yet-undetermined overflow mechanism (water pendulum?).

Rationale

The advantage of the CHOP (Constant Height One Pump) design is the relative dependability of the water volume in the fish tank. However, the classic CHOP2 design has a theoretical loss of filtering efficiency due to the mixing of grow bed and fish tank water in the sump. My additions of the vortex filter and feed tank will hopefully mitigate this somewhat. The feed tank will also provide a small buffer of fresh water in the event of pump failure.

Schedule

While eager to reap the rewards of my anticipated system, I am taking it slow. Our first summer here has been busy with gardening, entertaining guests, and vacation. I intend to start putting hardware together in September/October and add fish by February/March. So, I am getting close to moving stuff into the basement as the first step.

Having just returned from a two week vacation in Alaska, I figure it's time to provide some updates on my preliminary horticultural education efforts, and briefly muse upon my travels.

While travelling through Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, Anchorage, Mat-Su, and Denali areas, I noticed a plethora of greenhouses, almost exlusvely the freestanding variety. Perhaps I've simply become more attuned to them recently, but I would swear that Alaska has the most greenhouses per capita of anywhere I've been. I was somewhat perplexed at the relative lack of lean-tos, but am speculating that they are probably not much used in the winter, when there is only a couple hours of daylight anyway. During the long days of summer at ~60 degrees latitude, the sun sweeps nearly all four points of the compass (rising/setting at +/-10 degrees or so off due North), hence the utility of having 360 degrees exposure. I also suspect some kind of local grant/subsidy program, because I saw a lot of greenhouses just being used as storage sheds.

This has gotten me thinking about how to possibly rotate my grow beds to expose different sides to the one window's worth of light. The simple solution to this is heavy duty castors, flexible hosing, and manual rotation every few weeks. However, I've also been considering how to experiment with tilting plants, ala graviponics, so am considering how to construct a system on an off-vertical rotational axis, tilted toward my light source, as a sort of clinostsat.

Back on the Front Range, it's actually turned out to be an unseasonably wet summer, so the garden did better than I expected while I was away. Unfortunately so did the lawn, of which, unfortunately, I still have entirely too much). The pole beans are starting to blossom and come in. I had planted them around a crabapple tree, which the bean vines are now climbing. I had done something similar with the other crabapple tree and my peas, which did not climb as successfully, even with the help of angled strings. I'm hoping the pole beans don't choke out the tree. I put them there hoping their nitrogen fixing properties would benefit the tree. I've mentally earmarked this tree as a host candidate for some apple graftings next spring. Since most apple trees are hybrids and have weak roots, susceptible to fungal rot they tend not to be long lived. Therefore most edible apple varieties are hybrid grafts grown on crabapple rootstock, which tends to be more resistant to root diseases.

My Chinese Pioneer Apricot tree is still struggling with the leaves turning brown. Not sure if its getting too much sun or experiencing some kind of root issue. While I don't have it on my drip irrigation system, I can't imagine that water shortage would be the issue, not with our recent rains. I'm having similar problems with my grapevine. My suspiscion is that the compost I used when planting them was not sufficiently mature. Both plants "should" be good at high altitudes.

3 of my 4 tomato varieties are also ripening now and there are a couple of jalepenos growing from a store bought plantling. The pepper seeds I planted in the spring never came up. The lettuce and carrots I planted from seed in patio planters have done well; the planters seem to be high enough to keep the rabbits out, so we've been enjoying fresh leaf lettuce all summer. The carrots are still not quite ready. The planters are about 2sf. We are pretty voracious salad eaters (especially my 5 yo). I estimate that for us it will take at least 1sf of lettuce planting per person to avoid supermarket lettuce altogether, so note-to-self: set aside 4sf of grow bed for lettuce.

I've also discovered that the dime size moringa leaves make a great addition to salad, imparting a slight peppery flavor. The moringa plant I took to work has thrived in my absence. Could be the magically green thumb of my cubicle neighbor, or just the additional nutrients finally kicking in from the fertilizer spike Iadded before vacation, or perhaps the absence of me nibbling at leaves for a couple weeks. I think one moringa tree, kept to dwarf size (no more than 3-4' high), could share root space with low lying lettuce in the aquaponics grow bed, and keep us in fresh salad year round.

Lately, I've been giving some further thoughts to fish feeding. The traditional approach is commercial pelletized or flake product, manually administered once or twice a day. My plans thus far (for an omnivorous species mix of tilapia and catfish) include a diet of fresh duckweed, red wriggler earthworms, some table scraps, and seasonal dead bees (no idea yet how they'll go over). I highly suspect that the sum of this will still not be sufficient. I also prefer that the feeding mechanism be somewhat automated, so that I might have the occasional luxury of being absent for a few days or weeks at a time, without having to enlist a fish sitter.

For the duckweed, which I envision as the base of the fishies' dietary pyramid, I was thinking of having an additional sump located above the fish tank where the duck weed would grow, and periodically overflow into the fish tank. My preference is for a purely hydraulic timing mechanism such as a bell siphon, but will need to think some more on how to achieve a twice daily spillover without otherwise impeding the steady cycling of water needed for oxygenation. I'll probably also want something that is adjustable, so that if my flow rate (dependent on my sump pumps) changes (if for instance I expand the system), my feeding schedule can be consistent.

I've also been considering the addition of a buffer species in the food chain such as Hyalella azteca, which might also act as "canaries in the coalmine" for chemical and temperature imbalances. These tiny crustaceans eat primarily algae and diatoms so I'd need to provide (mainly light) for those species as well. Most aquarium enthusiasts and aquaponists view algae as anathema to their systems, with the understanding that dying algae deplete dissolved oxygen and add nitrates to the water. Live algae should theoretically be net oxygen producers, but I suspect that there must be something to keep it in check (enter the amphipods) to avoid unstable population spiking. Although it's not a true algae, I'm hoping spirulina will work. I have no references yet for aquarium grown diatoms but would love to explore further. I have long been fascinated however by the natural design of diatoms and the practical applicability of eventually developing CELSS along those same lines: two interlocking halves that can split apart and grow into separate organisms. Eventually there will be a need for such reproductive "mitosis" of CELSS (although technically in order to grow, they will need to consume and transmute raw matter into organic structure, just as natural diatoms do, so would no longer strictly be "closed"). Diatoms are also photosynthetic. I know they build their shells from dissolved silicon compounds; how readily these minerals are available in a standard aquaponics system is an open question for me.

Incidentally, my title for this installment pays homage to Stephen J Gould's treatise on bioddivergence in evolution. His chapter of course discusses the spawning of the Reformation movement from its Catholic parentage, in explanation of the titular pun.

Thinking about my last post Aquaponics Through the Looking Glass, I remembered that I'd done some research awhile back using the solar positioning tool at SunCalc.net and even compiled a little composite animation for my exact window well location:


In addition, I've learned that glass will reflect rather than transmit light when it is incident at greater than 56 degrees. I'll have to keep that in mind when planning my mirrored bank shots of sunshine and designing my greenhouse, so as to maximize winter sunlight and minimize summer heat. I've calculated that the solstice peak solar angle (at noon) will be at 73 degrees above the southern horizon for my location (latitude 39.5 degrees). Winter peak angle will be 27 degrees. Equinox peaks will of course be 39.5. I have not investigated the critical angle for polycarbonate, as my preferred material is glass.

Last year when we were still house hunting, one of my requirements (pretty much the only one, aside from having a sufficiently large yard to have a garden) was to have a southern exposure capable of building a lean-to style greenhouse/sunroom. A walk out basememt was preferred. Between those requirements and my wife's (post-1979 construction, updated kitchen/baths, main floor den, no pedophiles in a 5 mile radius, enclosed yard, close to shopping, priced under 70% of what I considered my budget, but value at 200%), and the Denver real estate market that shifted toward the sellers early last summer, it took us a full 9 months to find a house. The house we found is nice enough, good deal, good neighborhood, good condition, with almost a half acre on a cul-de-sac. It was a bit of a compromise, however in that not only does it not have a walk out basement, there is NO southern exposure. The front of the house is oriented toward the southeast, with NO basement windows on that side. While not ideal, there is one 4'x4' window on the the southwest side in a deep window well.

Pretty much the only requirements for an aquaponics set up are:

• power (for running pumps), and
• light (for, hello, growing plants)

I've discovered since moving in and attempting to germinate plants there, that the lighting from that window will be wholly inadequate for any substantial plant growing. This was not completely unanticipated, and allows for some needed engineering development in a tangential area of interest...

Consider that any off world habitat will likely be without the benefit of Earth's thick atmosphere and magnetosphere. The simplest solution to shielding from radiation in space is to put at least a meter of regolith between space and the habitat interior (ice would also work well, but for melting and sublimating under the sun's rays). Unfortunately, sunlight does not penetrate regolith any better than it penetrates my basement. So, if I can solve the problem for myself, perhaps there will be generations of grateful space colonists indebted to me.

Rather than immediately resorting to grow lights (still plan B), I'm implementing mirrors. Afterall, no grow light is as efficient as the sun (plants have, to-date, mostly evolved for sunlight), and any sustainable power generation in solar space must basically come from the sun anyway (interstellar space is another story). Photovoltaics are at best 30% efficient. Add in the losses of power storage and the lighting itself, and the mirrors start to become more and more appealing. Besides, Colorado is the sunniest state in the US; it'd be a shame not to put that to use.

Plan A:

1. Obtain mirrors
2. Orient mirrors
3. Expand window well
4. Reorient mirrors as needed
5. Build hothouse/greenhouse over window well
6. Reorient mirrors as needed

Plan B:

1. Install grow lights

The problem with mirrors is that the sun moves (relative to my window, for you astronomical nitpickers out there). I'm mainly going to want morning sunlight as it is best for thermal management (warms things up after being in the dark overnight), and it is the component I get the least of currently. For morning sun, I will need at least 3 mirrors (labeled 1, 2, and 3 in the diagram).

I have so far obtained most of the needed mirrors through my wife's garage saling efforts. I've placed them in approximate locations, with 1a and 1b hanging on my fence, 2 on the side of the house above ground, and 3 angled inside the window well. I've been casually observing reflections at various times, and it seems to be an improvement. Since the light will be much more critical in the winter months, and at a lower elevation in the sky, I haven't put much effort thus far into optimization.