First Fish

On June 14, 34 trout were brought into the world of our aquaponics system. Through Trout in the Classroom, a teacher at Arlington acquired 127 brown trout and raised them from eggs. She graciously saved 34 of them for us to use as our first AquaPals. In the days leading up to June 14, we raised the temperature in their tank to acclimate them to the slightly higher temperatures of their new environment. Brown trout are fairly cold water fish and their tank had been attached to a chiller that was maintaining a temperature of 63 degrees, but our system was held constant merely by the room’s air conditioning (typically ranging from 68-72). To avoid stressing the fish drastically, we raised their tank one degree per day until we reached 71 degrees fahrenheit. Then, on June 14, we moved the fish to our system. We put rocks in the tanks to encourage the growth of nitrifying bacteria, and we would soon add a chiller due to the heat of New York summer days. We faced a lot of struggles initially in acclimating them to our system. We did not have sufficient colonies of bacteria which proved to be very dangerous, and we added bacteria as a result. The most pressing issue for us was our issue with escapees! Several of our fish were small fingerlings that managed to travel from the fish tank into the clarifier! It was terrifying and we kept having to move them back to their home. We plan to fix that issue once we release them, so that we don't cause any harm to them. All in all, our trout are precious and we are so excited to plant lettuce! The nitrate levels are rising and we can't wait to start farming!! Stay tuned.