Mid-July

German Blue Rams

My fishes were barely in the tank for one month before they spawned.
I thought the eggs were eaten, and then the male was gone.
The female was swimming around fine, and eating healthy.
Then I found the male in a coconut shell, guarding the fry.
Good parents.

Okra

I have a habit of taking seeds out to the back yard and looking for a suitable pot. It is better than leaving them to die slowly in the package. In my NFT system, I planted lettuce, broccoli and okra. The okra sprouted and took off. It has been growing bigger and faster than any plant I ever grew. I'm using General Hydroponics MaxiGro. At 2 tbsps per gallon, it comes out a perfect 5.5 or 6 pH every time.

Here is the plant just a few minutes ago.

Below was taken on July 15.

Here is a look at the stem and flowers.

Marmorkreb crayfish are great pets

I am really enjoying my Marmorkreb crayfish. It is sometimes called a freshwater lobster, but that's not really accurate. What is cool about them is they have a personality. The one I have will rush to the front glass when she see me looking. I know it is a female because all Marmorkrebs are. They reproduce without a male. She waves her claws around and tries to be intimidating. If I back up an inch or two, she will advance a bit. Yesterday, when she did that bit, she clacked her claws together. All crayfish are a little aggressive, but mine is one of the more docile. Still, there is a saying:
Crayfish eat everything, and everything eats crayfish. I think she knows it.
Anyway, she loves yellow squash and broccoli. I gave her a small piece of breast of chicken, and she guarded it like it was life. I want her to have lots of pretty colors, though, so it will be a lot of yellow and green blanched vegetables.

The system continues to perform as well as I could hope for. It has been seven weeks since the dry seeds were placed into the perlite, (along with one spearmint and one lemon thyme plant which was moved from soil to hydro). The basil are now bigger than the spearmint (both basil and spearmint have been trimmed many times to keep them manageable sized), and the parsley is about to overtake them all. The system typically consumes a gallon of nutrient solution per day, and I plan on upgrading the size of the solution tank to allow me to go longer between maintenances. Right now, I can put about 9 gallons of solution in at a time, and I'd like to make that more like 15.
But regardless, it comes down to watering once a week, and admiring it every chance I get. The fragrance of the basil and other herbs is just wonderful. I'm still using PureBlend Pro© Gro and Bloom from Botanicare, and have no plans to change that. I'm also adding Catalyst from Earth Juice©. I have to say that a lot of my success is from the nutrients, but the design of the system is critical. This NFT system combines reliability, oxygenation, flexibility and simplicity. The individual plants can be moved to another plant site if it gets crowded, and entire trays can also be moved from one slot to another in about two minutes.

I will be building a second system with some minor improvements, but this prototype is so easy to use and produces such great results, it is difficult to imagine getting more out of plants.

2014 upgrade. Replaced the manifold completely, and it was less difficult than I expected, and the results were perfect. No leaks at all from the manifold. I still have to revamp the way I make the bottom part of the trays to keep leaks from developing, but that's it other than some frame enhancements.
I'm putting together another 5X5 system soon. This one was planted about a month ago, and it is going gangbusters.

6-6-2012
Lettuce and Bok Choy are doing well. I let them fend for themselves until I saw them wilting today, and put 5 gallons of fresh nutrient in there. They perked right back up.