Everything is growing well and the fish are thriving. The color in the pictures is weird because the artificial lights have a yellow/red cast, I tried to correct it in Photoshop to little avail, so you will have to trust that these plants are actually normal green colors.
The red bell pepper is already starting to set flowers and even fruit 36 days after transplanting into system from 4" starter:
We've been eating fresh salad greens (clipping a few leaves off each plant) every day and I'm still having a hard time keeping up with the growth rate on them.
Patty Pan squash is also starting to set fruit, although none the flowers have actually bloomed yet.
Some of the basil leaves look strange with lighter colored areas between the leaf veins, not sure of the exact cause, but the pH and other water chemistry has been changing rapidly since start-up so this is not surprising. I hope the next batch looks better, however, it all tastes great, very strong, delicious basil flavor. We have been using it as well as the sage and thyme for cooking the last few weeks.
And finally the fish appear to be thriving. We now have about 20 1.5" goldfish in there, all from the feeder fish tank at the local Petsmart.
The nitrites and nitrates zeroed out a couple of days after adding the last batch of 10 fish as can be seen at the end of the chart.
I suspect the bacterial colonies are adjusting to the small number/size of fish which are likely producing less ammonia than I was manually adding to jump start the cycle. Also, the addition of squash and now duckweed is helping to soak up the nitrates.
I added duckweed to Sump Tank 2 to provide some fresh treats to the goldfish occasionally, they seem to love it, and to soak up the excess nitrates I was seeing up until just a few days ago. The duckweed is doing well in this tank with relatively little water disturbance (this tank is tied to Sump 1 at the bottom) and mostly shaded.
and finally pictures of the growbeds as of 5/25/15
We are having fun with our system and starting to harvest some delicious greens already. We also have a fierce defender should we be attacked by a roving band of barbarians. He is well armed with blue rubber bands and is a crack shot, so be warned.
