Wednesday 20 June 2012

Disaster - System switched OFF for 7 hours!

On Sunday, my parents came over to stay... My mom, as usual, goes around the house looking for something to clean, arrange, or replace... Monday night, she noticed a power socket switched to ON in the living room... Without caring where the inserted plugs lead to, she flipped the switch...! :facepalm:

6am in the morning, after 7 hours have passed, I went outside to check my system and realized that it was silent... The pump wasn't pumping water!

25 to 30 guppies died that day... The tilapias were fine as they were saved by the aerator's backup power but the water had a slight rotting odor probably due to accumulated ammonia...

Floating guppy carcasses sucked by the drainage pipe...
 The thick layer of gunk collected at the bottom of the guppy tank may have also contributed to their death as it contains loads of greedy bacteria competing against them for the remaining precious oxygen...

Some gunk netted out...

As for the plants, strong winds have been the main problem this few days... After being knocked over by the wind repeatedly, all my okras had given up and none could stand upright properly now... I got to think of a solution fast...



Monstrous Kang Kong...
 Thanks for reading... :-D

Saturday 2 June 2012

System Update - 1st June 2012

So... it has been 2 weeks since my last update. The system seems to be doing fine, except for the cloudy water, some dead guppies and one tilapia death.

Water test results:
pH: 6.0
Ammonia: 0.5
Nitrate: ~50
Water has a slight fish poop odor...

This isn't good. The pH is too low for nitrification to take place efficiently. I'll perform water changes this Sunday. For the time being, I added roughly 5 kgs of corals to gradually bring the pH up...

Here are plenty of photos to enjoy:

Full system shot...
Growbed shot...
An okra pod (3 days old, I think)
Two more okra pods
3 pods and a flower... The lowest pod is 8 days old... I won't be harvesting as I want to collect their seeds...
This strange kangkong prefers to grow long thin stems...
Kangkong growing downwards between the wall and growbed...
Largest kangkong plant in the system...
Look how big are the leaves!
Pest attack on kangkong... I just let this little beetle enjoy its meal since I won't be harvesting any veges this round...
I don't know what creature did this... I hope I'll find out soon...
Strange insect on a mint leaf... There were two of them...
Weird looking grasshopper... It has been hanging around the growbed for the past 3 days... I don't know what is it doing there...
I found something interesting... Recently, all the new leaves of my okra plants takes on a different leaf design...
Compare the above leaf with an older leaf at the lower part of the plant... So much difference...
This strange kangkong is reaching for the sun by coiling itself around the okras...
Why does this kangkong exhibit such growing behavior while the others just grow fat stems?
Oh my... mint? Does mint plant actually grow underground suckers?
Those fallen berries from the tree above are germinating... Interesting...
Guppy tank... The bottom is quite dirty... I had removed them after taking this photo...
Guppy shot...
Tilapia tank... Water is a little cloudy...
After feeding them, they are no longer interested in me... :(
Finally, my pleco... Right there, by the pump...
 Thanks for reading...

:-D