Fruit Flies
The vinegar never caught any of the flies. It started to smell after a while and I dumped it out. I got rid of the flies by removing the rocks and adding clay pellets. The flies were making their home in the outer layers of the onion plants that were beneath the rocks. So far the flies haven’t returned.
A New Expansion
I added another section to the aquaponics system, with the same materials as last time, except for rocks as the media, I got some clay pellets. While I was adding this, I had seen a wastebucket that I tried. It uses cloth to filter the waste out and so I used some old shirts as my cloth. As it turns out, the shirts still had some laundry detergent in them, and it made my water all soapy. The majority of my fish died, including the suckerfish. Only one of the fish survived, and as a tribute, I named him tank because he is built like a tank if he can survive almost suffocating from the soap coating his gills. I had to take the whole system apart and wash it all down. All of the plants are doing well at the moment. I have moved the whole system and you can see what I will most likely post about next! The clay pellets, as you can see with the last picture in this section, float in the water. The newest tote is seethrough which allows me to be able to see into the system to see if everything is all good.
Fishies and a New Friend
Since most of my fish died, I had to get several new fish. I got seven goldfish and one suckerfish, so that I have 9 fish total. The fish all seem to be doing well and there doesn’t seem to be any soap in the system anymore! The newest friend to the system is a small orb spider that is no bigger than the tip of a pen.
Up Next
I hope to post about my Raspberry Pi system next! See you next time Space Cowboy!