June 2020 Breeder Dairy

Aquaponics Aquarium which I had ordered two weeks ago had arrived, I was expecting it to be delivered in a month but it is faster than I had expected. Due to the Circuit Breaker I am unable to get any fish for it so it will have to temporary work as a Hydroponic System until I am able to put some fishes in it.

It came complete with the Lecca, Charcoal, Water Treatment Tablet. What surprised me is that it even include the Fish Food and Pea Seeds as Free Gift too. We can start Sprouting Micro Green while we wait for the availability of the live stock.

The Crystal Shrimp also adapt well in the Tank, there had been no fatality for few days. The first batch got only 10% survival rate while the second batch greatly improve to 50%. With the stabilization of the Water Condition I can plan for the third batch when sales of live stock is available next month. 

Aquaponics Aquarium

Instruction for Aquarium Setup

Instruction for Micro Green Sprouting 

 

My Wife start Sprouting Pea Micro Green with the Aquaponics Aquarium,  should be able to harvest in 7 to 10 days. A Yellow Bumble Bee Crystal Shrimp seem to have Eggs under her belly, My Wife is very excited about it and keep watching for whole day. About 5 days later another Orange Rili Crystal Shrimp also seem to have Eggs under the belly, My Wife became even more excited and keep taking a lot of Photos and Videos to send to me for record and documentation.

We are very hopeful with the new surprise and think it will be a great success if we manage to breed two type of Crystal Shrimp in such a short time. The Eggs will take about a month to hatch, I wanted to transfer both the shrimp into Breeding Tank but my wife is afraid that they will feel lonely. So we decided to leave it as it is and let nature take its own course, if there are anything abnormal we to react accordingly and save the situation as it develop.

6th June 2020 Pea had Sprout 

7th June 2020 Bumble Bee with Eggs

12th June 2020 Orange Rili with Eggs

12th June 2020 Pea Sprout after 8 days

Decided to change the water for the Aquaponics Aquarium as it had turn brown with powder from the broken Lecca. My Wife finally decided to Harvest the Pea Sprout after 10 days as it had grow taller than the Crystal Shrimp Tank. She had transfer a few longer one to pot for further growth, the dirty water will be use for watering the plant as it is rich in nutrient.

We have also been collecting Rain Water for the watering of the plant since the beginning, it is very pure without any impurity if there are no pollution in the atmosphere. The water also will improve the PH Value of the soil to make it more acidic for the plant to grow well. 

14th June 2020 Pea Sprout Harvested after 10 days

14th June 2020 Pea Sprout Harvested after 10 days

 Collecting of Rain Water for Vegetables

A Orange Rili with Eggs was dead, we had to remove the Eggs and place it into a Breeding Box. I position the Breeding Box directly under the Filter Outlet for the Flow of Water to hatch the eggs. Notice two Yamato getting restless and trying to get out of the tank, one of them was found inside the breeding box the next day morning.

As the Tank is getting dirty I decided to clean it, and we continue to observe the two restless Yamato in the night for any abnormal behavior. They continue to be restless and still trying to break through the water surface near to the breeding box. My wife thought the breeding box might have affected the water flow and so ask me to remove it.

They resume back to normal for a while, but a few moment later I notice they dive into the water plant and got some yellow stuff to eat. I fear that it is the eggs and decided to remove them from the tank and transfer them to the small Aquaponics Aquarium. We had a hard time trying to catch them as they can swim really fast.

After all the effort we manage to transfer six Yamato to the Aquaponics Aquarium, then My Wife discover a big surprise that a few of the eggs had already been hatch into Baby Crystal Shrimps. It was about two weeks earlier than we had expected and the higher temperature of the water might be a contributing factor for the early hatch.

We manage to see about nine of them, but it is very hard for us to spot them as they can only be seen against any background that is not white like them. They will be hard to spot if they stay still in the white sand, I am glad that I had already clean the tank in the morning as it will be difficult to clean it now that there are Baby Crystal Shrimps inside.

18th June 2020 Birth of Baby Crystal Shrimp after 11 days.

Decided to add new batch of Crystal Shrimp to Big Tank after transfer the Yamato to Small Tank. The Big Tank look empty with only 6 Crystal Shrimp, the algae had built up excessively as there are not enough Crystal Shrimp to clean it up. Brought 10 Red Rili, 10 Red Fire and 10 Sunkist Orange, I wanted the color to be more balanced as the new born Baby Crystal Shrimp will mostly be Yellow Bumblebee.

I wanted to get Orange Rili instead of Sunkist Orange as Neo Caridina are more hardy and more tolerance of the water condition. But due to unavailability of the stock I had to get Sunkist Orange instead. What came as a surprise is that one of the Red Rili already had Eggs, with the addition of new Crystal Shrimps the Aquarium became more lively and the Crystal Shrimps will not be shy and hide away in the water plant so often.

I brought a TDS Meter to measure the Total Dissolved Solid in the Water, after trying out on different type of water I realized that Rain Water actually had very good quality of only 1 PPM. Tap Water indicate a reading of about 117 PPM and Aquarium Water indicate a reading of about 246 PPM. The normal range is between 101 to 300, anything lower that 100 indicate good quality and anything higher than 301 indicate bad quality.

22nd June 2020 Red Rili with Eggs

Red Fire

 Sunkist Orange

Rain Water TDS 1 PPM

Tap Water TDS 117 PPM

Aquarium Water TDS 246 PPM

Notice that there are new Crystal Shrimp Baby, was expecting it for the past two days. Not really sure if it came from Orange Rili, as only a few can be seen and it might not hatch all yet. The temperature had been lower for the past few days and it might had slow down the hatching process.

The Eggs should be completely hatch within these two days and the next batch should be around 3 days later. First and Second batch different by 5 days, Second and Third Batch different by 3 days. Third and Fourth batch different by 3 days too, and Fourth and Fifth batch different by 7 days.

If every batch have about 15 Babies, then I will have 45 Yellow Bumblebee from First, Third and Fourth batch. I hope the Orange Rili offspring is also Orange Rili instead of Yellow Bumblebee as it is mixed breed, so I will get at least 15 more Orange Rili to balance up the numbers. The Red Rili also not sure when it had Eggs as it already came with it, so I will just take the first arrival date as reference for the Fifth Batch.

25th June 2020 New Crystal Shrimp Baby after 13 days

25th June 2020 One Week Old Crystal Shrimp Baby

 

Two Yellow Bumblebee hatching Eggs

A Praying Mantis came for a rare visit, Sixth Aunt say it is there to hunt for pest and told me to keep a close look out for any pest. I think it is just hiding from the birds as it is safe place due to most of my deterrence installation. 

29th June 2020 Praying Mantis Rare Visit 

The Praying Mantis decided to stay for good, it seem to fancy the Long Pot where we plant the Sweet Potato. We had shift the Long Pot from the corridor outside our home to the area near to the lifts. Not sure what is the reason, the pots located at the area near to the lifts doesn't seem to grow as well as the one at the corridor near to the house.

The reason could be due to exposure to the harsh weather condition, or it could be due to the other reason which is related to Chinese Feng Shui which we doesn't know. We had been more focus on the Crystal Shrimp Aquarium now as the Eggs start to hatch into Baby Crystal Shrimp. We had also turn from Farmer into Breeder although the success of breading the new Crystal Shrimp which is not what we had expected.

 30th June 2020 Praying Mantis decided to stay

May 2020 Farmer Diary

Receive Bak Choy and Roselle Seed from Sixth Aunt on 7th May, start planting the seeds with New Choy Sum. The Long Pot finally clear up after Harvest, Wife decided to try Carrot once more as the one in the Pot haven't Sprout after almost a month.

Wife decided to try making Enzyme with Pineapple Peel after watching a YouTube Video. As she have some communication issue which like to assume other people will understand her fully without even providing all the necessary information. I had a hard time trying to figure out what she actually want when she approach me for help on the Pineapple Enzyme.

The Proportion Ratio is actually 1:3:10 for Brown Sugar, Pineapple Peel and Water. But due to miscommunication I thought she meant 1:3:30 as she told me the water suppose to be 10 part of Pineapple Peel instead of Brown Sugar.

So she happily add 130g of Brown Sugar, 400g of Pineapple Peel and 3l of Water in the Big Glass Jar and 65g of Brown Sugar, 200g of Pineapple Peel and 1.5l of Water in the Small Glass Jar. Later when Sixth Aunt saw my Facebook Post and correct us, we had to adjust the proportion again.

So since she had fixed amount of 600g of Pineapple Peel, we decided to put all into the Big Glass Jar. The Glass Jar is 4l capacity which capable of making 3l Enzyme with 900g of Pineapple Peel, 300g of Brown Sugar, 25% Air Gap. Now it is reduce to 2l with 600g of Pineapple Peel, 200g of Brown Sugar, 50% Air Gap.

We had to adjust the Proportion by adding 110g of Brown Sugar as it had only 90g left with 2l Water. The remaining Brown Sugar is 105g in 2.75l of Water store in Plastic Bottle reserve for other usage, we still need to add 195g of Brown Sugar and 0.25l of Water next time to get the Proportion right.

New French Bean had Sprout after 6 days, not sure if it will survive this time round. Just had to keep trying until we ran out of the seed, that is what happen with Cucamelon now. New Eggplant which had Sprout end of last month is dying, hopefully there will be new sprout these few days with the seed which we planted for the third time last week together with the French Bean, Jalapeno and Cucumber.

8th May 2020 Pineapple Enzyme

 

9th May 2020 New French Bean had Sprout after 6 days

New Cucumber had Sprout after 7 days, the Potato had also finally Sprout after 2 months. Bak Choy and Choy Sum had Sprout after 2 days, my Wife decided to put some Coconut Fibre as Munch for those pot which are expose to the sun and rain. 

Sudden heavy downpour and strong wind causing damage to the Wind Mill. We might have to buy another stronger one. Wife start to panic as she is afraid that the New Vegetables Sprouts will be destroy. She was supposed to put up the protection net this morning and I had already prepared the whole setup for her since one month ago. She had the tendency to drag all the stuffs until last minute. So I had to brave the rough weather just to set the whole thing up for her again.

10th May 2020 New Cucumber had Sprout after 7 days

10th May 2020 Potato had Sprout after 2 months

10th May 2020 Bak Choy had Sprout after 2 days

10th May 2020 New Choy Sum had Sprout after 2 days 

10th May 2020 Wind Mill Damage and Protection Net Setup

Roselle had Sprout after 3 days, Wife had start to check on how to make tea with it. She also like to study the health benefit of the food stuff because of a popular Korean Drama. I manage to get the White Bitter Gourd for her, she then start learning about everything she need to know about it. The Mini Bitter Gourd did not sprout after one month of long wait, as we only had 5 seeds in the package and had panted all we can only shift our hope for the White Bitter Gourd.  

Try to look for another suitable Wind Mill Replacement from Online Shopping Site, most are either too small or not shiny enough. Finally decided to modify the existing one with old Microsoft Windows XP CD, I choose it out of all the other old CD is because it look better with design. I also hang a old hard disk at the end of the pole as backup in case the Wind Mill got damage again. The new Wind Mill does not turn freely with light wind, it is either too heavy or out of balance. I cannot do anything much in reducing the weight but I can trim the blade to ensure it is balance.

11th May 2020 Roselle had Sprout after 3 days.

Wind Mill Modification with Old Microsoft Windows XP CD. 

Aquarium Tank for Crystal Shrimp complete setup, now only waiting for the Crystal Shrimp to be deliver. First step to Aquaponics. I had also order a smaller Aquaponics Aquarium Tank for Vegetables Sprout, the Bak Choy, Kale and Spinach Micro Green Seed had also arrived. 

I had order Spinach, Asparagus, Cabbage, Kale, Bak Choi, Lettuce, Broccoli, Zucchini, Okra and Lemon Balm Seeds from Horti as it is hard to find some at the Supermarket now. Also order a Wind Mill Generator Toy for fun, it will impress those small kids and inspire them to learn more about science and engineering.

  

12th May 2020 Aquarium Tank for Crystal Shrimp setup complete.

 The Crystal Shrimp finally arrived, I temporary house them in two small containers for the next 14 days while I condition the main tank water. Did a rough layout of how I want my tank to look and start the cultivation of the bacteria for the next 14 days.

Already had plan for modification of the tank top cover for Aquaponics setup, only lacking the tray and angle bar as I am unable to get during the lock down period. Sixth Aunt told me that the tray I give her is not suitable for her method of sprouting, so I kind of solve one worry of getting new tray for the modification.

My army buddy is very interested in Crystal Shrimp too, he book the offspring of my next generation if the breeding is successful. Sixth Aunt also interested in Crystal Shrimp too, she is planning to use her old fish tank for it.

She ask me if I want all her husband old aquarium stuffs, but I told her my planning is kind of completed and had no plan for future expansion at the present moment. I ask her to consult my Cousin Michael to see if he is interest or not as he is more experience in aquarium and he use to keep mini blue lobster before.

My Wife is not very happy about my new spending, but she kind of change her mind after seeing how cute the Crystal Shrimp is. I know she is very into Aquarium as we always spend a lot of time visiting Aquarium and Ocean Theme Park locally and during our overseas tour. I am more of an animal lover who prefer Safari Zoo and Animal Cafe.

13th May 2020 Temporary Quarantine for 14 days.

  13th May 2020 Temporary Quarantine for 14 days.

13th May 2020 Rough Setup before Condition of the Water.

Cousin Iris is interested in the Micro Green, so I send some seeds  to her as I am going to send some to Sixth Aunt too. Wife is start to become interested in the Crystal Shrimp as I had expected, she treat them like precious babies and I had to do the farming work for her while she watch over them.

She notice some shrimp jumping up and down and call me to observe, seem like the shrimp had shit too much and the concentration of Ammonia had cause a crash in their small container. I immediately make the decision to transfer them into the big tank to save the situation.

Not sure if we are lucky, we only suffer lost of two of each color. The blessing is we have a lot of fertilized water for our vegetables which is the main purpose of the setup. My Wife is too sentimental and refuse to give up on the dying shrimp, I told her the body will rot and affect the water quality and kill the other healthy shrimp.

My Wife prepared the seed of Mini Spinach for Sprouting, I had also order some Volcanic Ash for improving the soil quality. Found a solar powered Butterfly which doesn't seem to work, but I still put it near to the pot in hope to attract some real butterfly. Finally saw the humming bird which my wife had been talking about, it is a good sign that the plant attract them.

15th May 2020 Final Setup for Aquarium

New Eggplant had Sprout after 12 days, a bit longer than expected but still hopeful it will survive. Some of the plants are not as easy as what other had claim, we can only keep trying to gain more knowledge and experience to do it better.

Crystal Shrimp continue to die even after the water condition became better, now only left 6 red and 8 yellow. We are still very hopeful as there is about 3 red shrimp that look like they are going to hatch their eggs. For beginner like us with no experience we are already mentally prepare for total failure at first try.

Luck seem to favor us with less then 50% fatality rate, the water condition had been very stable and we are confidence that the remaining stronger shrimp will continue to survive well. Discover that the Bacteria that require two weeks to generate is for the breaking down of the shit, ask my cousin to help me look for any shop which sell Otocinclus Catfish which will help to clean up the tank.

The Beet Seed which Sixth Aunt send had arrive today, the other Vegetables Seed which I order fro Horti also arrive together. After much discussion with my Wife we decided to use the Long Pot which is previously for Carrot to grow Zucchini and Beet, the other pot for Carrot also use for Okra.

I ask my wife to grow Lemon Balm on 4 Small Pot, planning to give them to Sixth Aunt, Cousin Iris and Michael. We also add some sand to the Capsicum soil to see if it improve the condition, the root had rot due to too much water in the soil.

My Wife finally agree to shift half of the Sweet Potato to the Peanut Long Pot, she also grow Peanut and Sweet Potato together at two Long Pot as Sixth Aunt told me that Peanut to provide nutrient to the soil. The Sweet Potato seem to be lack of nutrient with leaf turning yellow with so many plant squeezing in one pot.

My Wife also decided to start sprouting some Bak Choy Micro Green, I told her the earlier she start the earlier we can harvest and eat it. She seem to be able to trust my judgement more as she start to understand that my ability to plan for different situation before it happen.

15th May 2020 New Eggplant had Sprout after 12 days

15th May 2020 Final Setup for Crystal Shrimp Tank with Blue Crystal Pebbles marking out safe area. 

As we constantly heard abnormal noise coming from the built in filter I decided to fabricate a backup filter even though it is just cause by dirty filter element. Brought a Portable Air Pump which could be use with Power Bank by USB Connection as back up in case there is a power failure.

As I had the power supply plug assembly with USB Connection, I decided to put the Air Pump into operation. Modified a Computer Cooling Fan for the Tank, it will help to reduce the water temperature and it is much less expensive than the ready made one in the market.

The original plan to use the Water Cool Type CPU Cooler to modify for Tank cooling will be temporary put on hold until I can get the necessary part for it for Sim Lim Square after the end of Circuit Breaker Period. Mushroom start to Sprout in the Carrot Pot, the soil condition had been one of the best but still no luck with Carrot and Strawberry.   

  

 

Modification of Back Up Filter

 Drying of Sea Shell under the Sun

17th May 2020 Mushroom Sprout instead of Carrot

Modification of Cooling Fan for Aquarium

When I woke up in the morning I saw the Shrimp eating the dead body of another Shrimp. This is not really a bad thing as it save me a lot of trouble to remove the body. My Wife refuse to remove one Orange Rili Shrimp body when it die, by the time I went to remove it I found another Orange Rili Shrimp had die just beside it.

Women are too sentimental, my wife keep having the fantasy that a miracle would happen to bring the dead Shrimp back to life. Because of that she had cause the death of more Shrimp, this is how emotion create more problem instead of solving it.

My Mom also not very happy when she saw the Shrimp eating the body of another Shrimp. I told her there is nothing much I can do about it. She think the bigger Shrimp kill the smaller Shrimp because I did not give them enough food. I start feeding them more food even though they haven't even finish the previous one which I had fed them.

I had to place the food in the path of their frequent swim pass, they doesn't seem to be interested even though they are able to access the feeding bowl. I guess they are observing the Circuit Breaker Measure by not Dining In but prefer Take Away instead. True enough they really practice Safety Social Distancing even when they are feeding.

Bak Choy Micro Green had Sprout after 2 days, it is faster than the Mini Spinach which will only Sprout in another one more day from the look of it. Beet Root had also start to Sprout after 4 days together with the Okra, and what surprised me is that the Jalapeno had finally decide to Sprout after 15 days of long wait.

I had order some Volcanic Soil to be use as Enhancement for all the Fruits and Vegetables. My Wife had finally start to use the Aquarium Water for the Plant. The Strawberry doesn't seem to be successful after waiting for a month without any sign of sprouting. Yesterday my Mom and Wife witness the actual operation of the Wind Power Generator, it will help them to know that a Thunder Storm is coming whenever the Red LED light up.

Crystal Shrimp Feeding

18th May 2020 Bak Choy Micro Green Sprout after 2 days

 18th May 2020 Beet Root had Sprout after 4 days

18th May 2020 Okra had Sprout after 4 days

18th May 2020 Jalapeno had Sprout after 15 days

The Lemon Balm and Baby Spinach had start to Sprout after 5 days. A lot of shrimp had die and I had to dose the powder again within 3 days instead of the recommended two weeks.

20th May 2020 Lemon Balm had Sprout after 5 days

20th May 2020 Baby Spinach had Sprout after 5 days.

Zucchini had Sprout after 7 days, we had high hope for this plant. It will be the biggest of all and yield a lot of fruits. It also doesn't really need much care and will provide shelter for other plant with it's massive leaf. Crystal Shrimp had finally stop dying, guess the water condition finally stable after a week of conditioning. It is still recommended to take at least two weeks to properly cultivate the bacteria, I had taken a short cut and calculated risk because of the unforeseen circumstances.

22nd May 2020 Zucchini had Sprout after 7 days