December 31st

Nothing really completed, Xmas is not my favourite time of year, much Chang Export consumed, many hangovers nursed, it rubs the lotion on its skin.
Have spent a lot of time on Sketchup again, plans finalized, but of course plans change, this at least gives me a target and something to work towards.

1 more night of hedonism, then back to the grind.
Might even give up smoking again this year, but then again might not ;)

December 22

Not much achieved today, feeling lazy and wanting to get all the new bits together to expand the system.

Added another NFT channel made from Bamboo and planted it with spring onions, they seem particularly suited to being very wet and in full sun.
The ones in the CF GB are much bigger than the ones planted in the dirt at the same time.
The system is still cycling so I am not too worried about the performance of the other plants.
The papaya in the CF bed is all but dead, so that pretty much concludes that experiment, papaya won't grow in a CF GB.
The one in the Affnan Siphon bed is picking up again now, it looked sad for a bit, leaves yellowing and dropping off.

Orchids around the house looking great at the moment.

December 21

Getting pretty chilly now, 15 degrees at 08:30 this morning, main tank was 18 though, so not so bad.
Didn't do a lot with the AP today, been playing with other stuff.
Made up a load of mushroom substrate and using the spores we got from the local mushroom farm, inoculated the substrate, first time for me growing mushrooms (Shiitake)
Not expecting a great deal of success as I forgot the brown rice flour, doh!
Will try to get some tomorrow, sterilise it and add it to the bags.

Pregnant guppy gave birth to a few more but was dead this morning as was the algae eating Pleco.
Really don't get why so many fish die in this water.

Got some free Banana plants which was nice, I hate bananas but the fish will love them.

December 20

More Sketchuppery on the redesign this morning.
Took some more Pak Chi and Pak Boong from the garden and put in the DWT raft.

Think the water is getting too warm in the DWT, may need to divert some from somewhere else to increase the water flow.
Also planted some Pak Chi and Pak Boong, again from the garden in plastic cups and put them in the bamboo NFT.
Most of the tomatoes and lettuce that were in the NFT died, either I put them there too early, or the sun is too hot, I put a shade cloth over the NFT.

Am trialling some polystyrene food packaging for use in the DWT's, seems to work well, at least initially.
The foliar treatment I gave seems to have been too strong, lots of the leaves appear burned, need to dilute it more before using it again, overall the plants look better, but hard to tell.
Stuff in the dirt continues to outperform the stuff in the AP system, but it's early days yet.

Two of the 4 new Guppys in the micro system died within 24 hours of buying them, interestingly both females survived and the fattest one gave birth today.
I've isolated her, but that seems to have stressed her and she has stopped giving birth despite still being very fat.

December 19

Guppy fry still alive, perhaps too early to tell for the Florigen, but looking good so far.
Changed the SLO on the 250L tank, outflow now way better.
Didn't get much done today, mostly messing around with Sketchup for the system redesign.
Duckweed still growing well, though in the direct sunlight it seems to yellow quickly.
The stuff in the Catfish tank looks much better, no idea whether it effects the protein content or the desirability to fish.

December 18

Haven't achieved much today, Plecos in the small tank are doing their job, eating the algae.
pH still very high, put some vinegar in some tank water along with some gravel to see how the pH changes over the next few days.
Plants still looking very sad, mixed up some more Florigen with some Fe-EDTA and used as a foliar spray.
Hoping the plants pick up over the next few days.
System is only 1 month old, so I'm not fretting too much.
Also put a tiny amount of Florigen in the Guppy fry tank, mostly to see if they survive.
Would rather lose a couple of Guppy fry than a tank full of Koi.

Seasol

After 2 years of searching for a Seasol equivalent in Thailand, I think I may have found one.
Algea, a Norwegian company who specialise in harvesting seaweed from the Atlantic Ocean, are somehow tied up with a company in Bangkok.
They say on the label that no chemicals are added, so yesterday I added a capful to the fish tank.
Today all the fish are still alive, 10 Koi.
I also added some Chelated Iron as the plants are looking a little yellow.
Will be interesting to see how things develop over the next few days.