Massive changes have been occurring at the fish project. The College Project Site where we began our adventure is now up for redevelopment and the fish project had to find a new home and pronto. Unfortunately our numero uno choice fell through at the last minute and we haven’t had time to move the entire project to a new site. But its not all sob stories – the project is continuing as a demo unit for the next few months at Bill and Ben’s Hydroponic Garden Centre. The unit is going to be highly controlled and monitored for the next few months to generate data on optimum growth conditions – something we weren’t able to do in the polytunnel – VERY EXCITING STUFF.

The Demo set-up is rather different – where we were out under the friendly skin of our jumbo polytunnel, we now have one big IBC in a grow tent under synthetic lighting. We transported the fish across to the site on Saturday and planted up the flood and drain bed on Sunday. The next step will be to add NFT systems either side of the tent to ensure adequate ammonium take-up as we have 61 beautiful silver and red tilapia growing in the system!

We want as many people as possible to check out the system while its on its demo – get on down – particularly if you are interested in trying aquaponics yourself. We plan also on running some free workshops on IBC system construction and flood & drain siphon making. If you want to be kept abrest of any workshops, please contact alicemarie.archer@gmail.com for more info.

To arrange a visit call 01249 447796 and arrange to come at a time when Rob is in the shop. – Bill and Ben’s Hydroponic Garden Centre, D15/16 Bumpers Way, Bumpers Farm Industrial Estate, Chippenham, England