Well, we managed to cut the top out of the shipping-tote-turned-fish-tank and bought the third stock tank to act as a sump, worked out locations for everything, moved my old garden out of the way (don’t worry, if the veggies do well in aquaponics, we will have flowers and root veggies in the pots!) and bought all the lumber needed this weekend.

To cut the tote, we did the following:

1) Removed the top metal bars with a screwdriver

2) Used a framing square and a permanent marker to draw a cutting line all the way around the top of the tank

3) Cut the tank using a jig saw

4) filed the rough edges of the tank

5) rinsed the tank

We also checked for leaks AFTER we cut. I would recommend doing this first.  We had no leaks but assuming does no one any good.

My miniponics system is up and running WITH fish now. Spent a hilarious hour laughing with mom as we dipped net after net of water weeds before FINALLY capturing 7 tiny minnows. They’ve been in the tank for 5 days now and seem to be adjusting well. They still get skittish when I come to the tank but are quickly figuring out that food mysteriously appears with me. Have no idea what kind of fish they are and will probably have to re-release them back to their pond at some point in the future because they will quickly outgrow the 3 gallon tank.

In the meantime, I pulled lettuce from half of the planting cups on top of the tiny aquarium, placed a camellia cutting, a tomato cutting and started corn and sunflower seeds there instead.
Harvested the last of my winter carrots and my 2-year old asparagus this past week. Made delicious honey glazed carrots. Cherry trees continue to grow and my blueberries are starting to ripen if the deer don’t eat them first!

Next weekend is good Friday. I’ll hopefully be building shelves for the big aquaponic system grow-beds and I will be cleaning harnesses for a family picnic complete with carriage rides. Happy Planting everyone!