Woods Cleanup

RAD Facilities partnered with RES Life last Friday to organize a woods cleanup event through the trails of the North campus woods. You can thank these students, RAs, and student workers for keeping our forest clean!

MOD 303 Solar

Interested in solar? We have 18 photovoltaic solar panels on top of MOD 302. This November, they’ve produced enough electricity to completely power the refrigerator every day of the month.

Check out how they are holding up in all of this grey here:

https://enlighten.enphaseenergy.com/pv/public_systems/ggfa523388?preview=1

 

 

Aquaponics Water Data

Here’s a look at some of our water data from the aquaponics fish tank over last few weeks. Since the installation of the horizontal nutrient system, we have noticed a dramatic drop in our Nitrate levels which have dropped to our more sustainable target zone between 20 and 50 ppm.  The graph shows how high the Nitrate levels were prior to the horizontal system, which now holds 32 plants which have been using the excess nitrogen (and using it effectively, our strawberry plants are flowering and close to bearing fruit) to spur growth, and how their consumption has caused a major drop to healthy levels.

Data TableNitrate GraphCapture

Horizontal Nutrient Base Aquaponics

We have recently put in a horizontal nutrient addition to our aquaponics setup! Water is pumped from our fish tank to the top pipe which then constantly flows through through the underlying pipes and roots of our plants thanks to gravity. We’ve already noticed flowering in a couple of our strawberry plants within a week of adding them to the system. This setup requires even less water than our original (and still existing) media bed system.

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Aquaponics Update

The aquaponics greenhouse is flourishing! We currently have 10 full-grown tilapia who are enjoying life in their spacious tank while contributing to the growth of our squash, broccoli, and tomatoes in our aquaponics system. We have also added 13 baby tilapia to our office where we are watching attentively and watching their development excitedly.

Finally, we have planted 111 seeds including basil, cilantro, jalapeno, broccoli, eggplant, yellow tomato, red tomato, cherry tomato, cucumber, red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, yellow squash, zucchini, pumpkin, muskmelon, and watermelon  which are resting on the top shelf soaking up the ample sunlight. Stay tuned as these seedlings may be given away to some lucky Greeners!

Take a look at the greenhouse!

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