Aquaponics Strikes Again!

What a surprise! We at Mountain Aquaponics Club are simply honoured to have had a delightful visit from representatives of Staples Canada at school today-- to announce that we are the recipients of the Staples Superpower Your School prize! A huge shout-out goes to the Mountain Green Team, who were such great collaborators in this joint effort in achieving this honour. Thank you also to all of the teachers, supporters and our amazing RE Mountain Student Body for cheering us on. We will be putting part of the award towards acquiring new expansions for the Aquaponics club, so stay tuned for new updates on where we’re at.

See us here on the Langley Times: http://www.langleytimes.com/community/375738311.html?mobile=true

Way to go, Aquaponics!

The Mountain Aquaponics Club has reached its new achievement as a team-- we have been selected as one of the ten secondary school winners of the BC Green Games. We are so thankful that our province has honoured us in providing us with some support so that we may continue to spread the word about this eco-friendly, sustainable method of agriculture. A huge thanks to our team; not only the club, but all of the people that have gotten us to where we are. We look forward to sharing more exciting news with all of you soon!

You can see the list of winners here:

http://www.bcgreengames.ca/galleries?field_school_value=All&field_project_type_value=All&field_category_tid=All&field_community_coach_es__value=&field_year_value=1&field_project_winners_value=2&sort_by=field_team_name_value&items_per_page=8

Bake Sale- It's a Hit!

The Mountain Aquaponics Club would like to thank everyone that helped us bring our first bake sale to its successful fruition today. Thanks so much, everyone, we couldn’t have done it without you. Shout-out to the Sugar Plum Bakery, your cookies were well-loved and appreciated amongst the R.E. Mountain student body. A million thanks also to the latter, every cent counts towards improving the Mountain Aquaponics system and possibly the building of new ones. We are so grateful for the support and feel so lucky to be part of such an amazing community.

Don't forget to support Mountain Aquaponics by voting for us on the BC Green Games: http://www.bcgreengames.ca/project/aquaponics-schools550

BC Green Games

Vote Aquaponics! Spread the word! (Watch the video on this link its great fun to watch)

http://www.bcgreengames.ca/project/aquaponics-schools550
We at R.E. Mountain Secondary School have noticed that both famine and shortage of water are not only local, but worldwide issues as well. We have constructed a system made of plants in a deep water culture and a media rock bed that filter out the biologically produced ammonia, converting it into nitrate for the fish below. Imitating nature’s nitrogen cycle of filtration, we’ve created a sustainable environment for both the fish and the plants to grow in. Using this clever device of our earth, we’ve begun to develop a way to help the community and hopefully impact the globe as well-- so vote for Mountain Aquaponics if you want to support us in our journey!

Fish Field Trip

It may have been a lazy day for the rest of the students, but we at Mountain Aquaponics found it the perfect opportunity to bring our system to all of the different teachers gathered at a pro-D day event. However, this was easier said than done. As cars and large amounts of water in uncovered containers aren’t entirely the best of friends, most of the club gathered together to drain everything-- to mobilize the whole system. Our trip to and from Kwantlen Polytechnic University was a huge success and so much fun; we managed to meet so many new teachers that provided such positive feedback and support in aquaponics and the idea of having their own systems in their classrooms. Enormous shout-out and thank-you to Gary Jones, Co-Chair of the School of Horticulture at KPU. Thanks so much for providing us with this opportunity to share our passions to teachers across the district. With this, our team has discovered that our aquaponics can go far-- both literally and metaphorically!

Worms!

There are new members in the Mountain Aquaponics System-- and they go by the name of earthworm. Worms are detritivores, which are organisms that consume detritus (decomposing matter) as nutrients. Since there has been lots of rain going on these days in Vancouver (aka Raincouver), the worms have been coming out of the ground. We at Mountain Aquaponics have seen this as a perfect opportunity to go out and collect some of them to put in our system. Although earthworms may not directly affect growth efficiency of the plants, they do play quite a large role in enriching soil, or in our case, the media rock. Other than consuming the detritus, they burrow holes into the ground, loosening the rock so that the roots of the plants have a place to grow. As well, they shift the position of the rocks, which can mix around the bacteria in different areas for an even distribution of the nutrients in the growing bed. Lastly, the organic waste that they produce add to the bacteria in the growing bed, creating an even more nutrient-rich environment for the plants go grow in.

New Year, New Spring

The Mountain Aquaponics system is showing excellent growth (pun intended) already this year. With yet another crop of green onions freshly sent out for donation, space had been cleared for more vegetables. In the media rock bed, more green onions have been planted and replanted, as these roots can be replanted up to twice with the same incredible growth rate. Our deep water culture tank has been filled by lettuce kale, and parsley, which is a new vegetable to the Mountain Aquaponics system. We continue to see new development every day in our self-sustainable system and we look forward to seeing what the upcoming spring will bring.

Mission: Success!

Hibernation of the Mountain Aquaponics Club’s system was a success! In fact, even without human intervention, our aquaponics system managed to thrive and develop. Bacteria in the water have worked together to create a stable environment. The nitrate (NO3) level, once at 10 ppm (parts per million), has surged to an amazing 100 ppm. There is virtually close to none of both nitrite (NO2) and ammonia (NH3), which are noxious for the system. We have harvested yet another crop of greens. Not only the green onions, but the kale that has been planted recently is growing fabulously as well. The fish are healthy, happy and kicking. All in all, it has been a successful transition into the year of 2016.

Read the previous posts to see our journey and progression!