Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Oct. 2, 2011 Review of Plant Growth a Month Into Starving Fish; More Lettuce Harvesting

There is not a whole lot to report this week. I harvested 24 fully grown lettuce heads this week plus 3-4 not-so-fully grown ones. This is becoming a regular occurrence now, which is oddly disappointing. I guess the novelty is gone!

As far as water chemistry goes, nitrate levels continue to hover near the high end of the scale, clocking in at between 40-80ppm. Because of that, I am continuing to starve the fish. They have now gone an entire month without any fish feed being thrown in.

I am getting a little worried about approaching the limits here, but I am told Tilapia can go a "winter" without food. I don't know where I read that or what that even means. Tilapia are tropical fish, so what winter would they even be talking about?

Anyway, I'll have to do some more digging around, but I am not too worried. Fish are cold blooded, do not have to maintain any kind of internal temperature, and since they float in water, there isn't much energy used in keeping themselves "up" as it were. They use food for growth only, not for maintenance. Based on that set of facts, I suppose everything should be OK.

The plants continue to grow like gangbusters, and already one of the cuke plants is flowering. It's been in three weeks since planting. Truly amazing, in my book!

Here's the video update for the week:


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