Acid and Base Chemistry of Aquaponics Brief Overview

It’s all about water

Acid and base chemistry has its roots in the actions of water.  Water (H₂O) does not solely exist as H₂O as it sits in a glass on a table, but rather splits into its ionic (charged) parts.  H-OH breaks into H⁺ and OH^-.  H⁺is a hungry proton, looking for another compound to attack to balance its positive charge and become neutral.  This is what makes acid “acidic”, and why hydrochloric acid (HCl) will eat your flesh…it’s all about those hungry H⁺’s looking to balance their “+” charge.  Similarly, OH^- is a hungry hydroxide looking to balance its charge by attacking other compounds.  This is what makes bases “basic”, and why lye will eat your flesh…it’s all about those hungry OH^-‘s looking to balance their “-” charges.

How water is the acid

Let’s say your fish tank is full of water sitting at room temperature.  Some water will remain as H₂O molecules, while some dissociate (split) into H⁺ and OH^-ions.

Let’s add 4 parts hydrochloric acid (HCl) to the water.  Acid will also dissociate into H⁺and Cl^- ions.

The hungry H⁺’s from HCl will attack the OH^-‘s in the water, turning them back into H₂O.

Since 4 OH^-‘s are removed from the solution, we now have an excess of H⁺.  Thus, by HCl making H₂O less basic…it becomes more acidic. Our extra choride ions are just floating around, doing nothing as spectator ions. 

How water is the base

Now, let’s add 4 parts ammonia (NH₃) to the original neutral water in the fish tank.  Ammonia is uncharged, so it dissolves but doesn’t dissociate in water.  However, nitrogen is famous for having an extra pair of electrons (negative charges) that are hungry for positively charged species.

 

The hungry electrons on ammonia (NH3) will steal 4 H+’s from the water, turning it into the positively charged species ammonium ion (NH4+).  Since 4 H’s are removed from solution, we have an excess of OH-‘s.  Thus, by ammonia making H2O less acidic…it becomes more basic.

 

Where does pH come into play?

pH is based on logarithms.  Specifically, it is the negative log of H+ concentration.  The pH scale only goes from 0-14.  There is nothing more or less.

If concentration of H+ is 10^-14 in a solution, that means its concentration is 0.00000000000001.  This is a VERY weak acid.  Calculate -log(10^-14) = pH of 14.  This VERY basic because not much acid.

If concentration of H+ is 10^-7 in a solution, that means its concentration is 0.0000001.  Calculate -log(10^-7) = pH of 7.  This is neutral, like pure water.

If concentration of H+ is 10^-1 in a solution, that means its concentration is 0.1.  Compared to 10^-14, this is a VERY strong acid.  Calculate -log (10^-1) = pH of 1.  This is VERY acidic. 

So why bother using pH at all?  Consider this:  An H+ concentration of 10^-1is 0.1.  An H+ concentration of 10^-7is 0.0000001, which is 1,000,000 times LESS than 10^-1.  Rather than making it difficult for the layman with calculating exponents and logarithms, pH makes things easy by saying pH 1 and pH 7.  Let’s recap:

Acid = LOW pH (below 7)

Base = HIGH pH (above 7)

Brooklyn Non Dirt Talk

Brooklyn Non Dirt Talk: Growing without dirt
Urban greenscaping with particular emphasis on helping city dwellers to grow some of their own fresh food using modern user-friendly methods with innovator Bob Hyland and hydroponics for sustainable agriculture with Gwen Hill.

Tuesday May 15th, 2012
7:30 - 9:30 pm
Downstairs @ Sycamore Bar and Flowershop, 21+
1118 Cortelyou RD, BK (Q train to Cortelyou)
Hosted by Meera Bhat

----------
Bob Hyland is an urban greenscaping professional with almost 40 years of experience since his days running a leading interior plantscaping company in Los Angeles. He was a national industry organization speaker, writer and educator during those years.

This is what Interiorscape, the leading industry trade magazine, had to say in the Nov-Dec 1983 issue.
“Bob is truly an advanced thinker in our industry. We can think of no other individual who is more familiar and tuned in to advanced technology for interiorscapes.” “Surely, when the history is written of our still evolving industry, Bob will be recognized as the interiorscaper that modernized the industry with irrigation technology, and for that we will owe him a debt.”

Hyland has been blogging for the past eight years. Inside Urban Green, his internationally known blog, focuses on urban greenscaping with particular emphasis on helping city dwellers to grow some of their own fresh food using modern user-friendly methods. These highly productive systems are particularly suitable for nomadic urban lifestyles and do not require tillable land.
www.insideurbangreen.org/

Gwen Hill is an urban farmer, garden educator and local food lover based in Brooklyn, NY.  She is a team member at Prospect Farm, and leads a gardening program at the Harbor School, a public high school on Governors Island.  She worked as the director of education and greenhouse manager at the Science Barge, a sustainable hydroponic urban farm and environmental education center in Yonkers for two years.  She holds a bachelors degree in Environmental Studies and is completing her MA in Geography at Hunter College, for which she is studying the diversity of NYCs urban agriculture movement.

Meera Bhat is part of the team at Prospect Farm (http://prospectfarm.org), a neighborhood growing initiative in Windsor Terrace that is working together to grow food in a formerly vacant lot.  She lives in Prospect Park South and works as a project manager at the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University.  She also leads a girl scout troop, if youre looking for cookies.

Cantaloupe Alone is the creator of this event and a food blog for people with garlic breath run by Kensington, Brooklyn based Naomi Donabedian www.cantaloupealone.com

Harvesting

Date:  Jan 18, 2016

The kids love to play in the veggie garden downstairs.

We grew all kinds of veggies, herbs and fruits here.

You can tell from the leafs that the plants are very healthy.

You will see more and more butterflies appear around here.  Because there are flowers here.  From the veggies or the fruit tree.

Some sort of capsicum. 

The organic lady fingers.

Every time you come down you will see different plot of land being “open up”.

The Compost.  Stinky.

Papaya trees.

Ribena.

South Africa Leaf.

A healthy drink.  It is my office drink.  Just put in the tea bags and you can drink it to lower down your cholesterol.

Super Veggie - Kale.

One of the purpose of this garden is to teach kids how to grow food.

Not to be afraid of dirts and worms.

Its harvesting time.  Time to cook these veggies.

This is our little garden.  Getting big now.  Approved by Condo management.  

Kays First Students Recital Performance

Date:  March 22, 2015

This is my younger son, Kay Kay.

Today, he is going to go up stage to perform what he has learned from the Piano class.

Yup, it is his first “100 Stages Students’ Recital” performance.  

I think he started to learn Piano from Cristofori since end of 2014.

It is hard work for parents as we need to pick him up and sent him to class.  So, on Wednesday, he always comes home late at 7:30pm because of the 30 minutes piano class.

Influenced by his brother, Jay Jay.  He started to like Piano.  One day, he come back from school and tell mommy he wanted to learn piano.

That is how he got into this piano.

Take note, still, Mommy and Daddy has not played piano before when we were young.  And I don’t think we have much musical instinct in our cells.

So, the kids have to learn on their own, and pick up piano from the class on their own.

Today will be the Recital performance.  So, he has been practising hard at home.

He actually can perform without the music CD.  Let’s take a look.  This is 10 minutes before the performance.

Very playful.

Because Jay Jay has to go to the Golf School later for Monthly competition.  So, the school have arranged him to be the first one to performance.  No pressure at all.

Since this is his very first performance the teacher insists he follows the music CD.  Teacher says he always practice in school using the CD.  I told the teacher, but he practice at home without the CD.  But then, it was decided to let him follow the CD.

He is pretty serious when he performs.  Don’t you think?  HaHaHaHa… I seldom see that kind of serous face.

And he got a certificate from his teacher Jay.  Yeap, the teacher is the same name as Jay Jay.  That is why he is willing to learn from teacher Jay.  Because of this same name.  HaHaHaHa...

Well done Kay Kay!

So shy.  Receiving his certificate from teacher Jay.

All the students who performed yesterday.

OK.  What a relief.  Drink lots of water.  Eat the sushi.  Well done Kay Kay!

Reef Tank Part 3

Time to finish up the light canopy. Ill be running 4 florescent VHO lamps with an Icecap 660 ballast for a total of 440 watts of lighting.

I picked up a 4x8 sheet of 1/4" plywood and had it cut to size at Lowes and attached it to the frame with paneling nails.

next I measured for the risers to mount the endcaps for the bulbs, then i remeasured 10 more times and test fit before drilling pilot holes for mounting screws.
then I checked the fit and checked it again just to make sure.

I mounted the remaining lamps the same way and switched it on to test it out. (note:do not look directly at the lamps when you plug them in, i was seeing spots for 30 mins after)

Damn thats bright!

I finished up the top and mounted it to the hinges















Then i placed it on top of the tank and switched it on














perfect, now I have to mount the ballast, clean up the wiring , add the handle to the top ,add molding around the corners and stain it to match the stand.

To Do List E Learning Keyboard Typing

Date:  Jan 18, 2016

Kids in Primary School is different from kids in Kindergarten.

For example, Kay Kay in P1 has a lot of time in the afternoon.  We have to figure out a way to help him fill up the time.

We have to find a way to teach Kay Kay to be self- discipline too.

So, To-Do Check List become an important part of Kay Kay.  

We enrolled some enrichment class such as CMA (Abacus & Mental Calculations) and BrainFit (Focus learning and languages), both aren’t exactly MOE related courses.  There are homework, and some e-learning resources.  

So, let’s take a look at Kay Kay’s first ever to-do list.

1.  We requested him to do his CMA homework.  

2.  We requested him to do his day to day Braind Fit exercise on the Computer.

3.  Of course, if they perform the tasks well, they can play board game or ii (another word of iPad in the house).

4.  Telling him when will we be in bed.

Once done, place a tick beside.

So, we going to do this every day.  And we are going to put in more E-Learning resources, Weekly Spelling and ?? self-learning.  Even reading story book too.  As he is still P1.  So, let him play Lego, or any of his toys.  I also bought a Lego Wedo Robotics for him, and he will get to make robots every day too.  I also have a keyboard typing lesson in place.

We started with Jay Jay too back in 2013.  And it has done a good job.  By P2, he no longer need the To-Do list.  He will calculate all this time in a day, and plan his day to do the home work.  We are so glad that Jay even do his home work at school so that he can come home and attend those extra sports classes that he likes.

So, on this first week of school week, we did the to-do list for Jay Jay as well just to SHOW kay kay how much work his brother has to do.

So that Kay Kay can appreciate that his to-do list is not so scary.  Hahahahaha

There are a lot of E-learning resources.  For example the school provided MC Online for the kids.  And the students can learn English, Math and Chinese from it.

Oh ya, first of all, I must declare, I don’t play games on my PC.  So the children don’t see daddy or mommy play games on PC be it iMac or Windows PC.

I very seldom play games in from of my kids.

As I know Monkey See Monkey Do.

I do play games on iPad.  But only when I am together with them.  We played together.

I do play games on my TV either on Apple TV or Amazon Fire TV or even Xbox or Wii.  

But during schooling time, we don’t play TV Console games at all.  Only play the TV Console games when we have guests.

Also, I don’t watch Youtube in front of the kids too.

In fact, when the kids is around, I seldom use my iPhone too.  Only use it as taking photo or some messages arrived.

There is a purpose of doing so.

I want my kids to know and understand the following…

1) PC / Computer is for work, and it is not for gaming.

2) Mobile phones is for work, phone and messaging and as a camera.

3) iPad is for Games as well as learning tool.

4) In this house, if the kid ask for playing iPad they will get caned.  (no joke).  They cannot even mentioned the name “iPad”.  So, they invented another name for it, namely “ii”.  But they know if they behaves well, they done what parents ask them to do, they are rewarded with “iPad” time.

Rewarding systems is very important.  I reward them by taking them out, by letting them play iPad, by buying lots of toys they loved.  Most importantly they have to become a self-motivated kid who knows how to do homework, and know study is important to them.  That is what I need especially for a family that has both daddy and mommy working.

Expose them to so many things so that they sometimes will say “Daddy, I don’t want to play ii (iPad) can you teach me Ukulele?”

or “Daddy, I don’t want to play ii (iPad), can you play Otello with me, I just learned this game by watching other people play in school today.”

A kids who cares and willing to help parents to do work in the garden.

A kids who really know how to survive when they grow up, not scare of worms and able to pick up the ??.

Let’s get back to the E-Learning platform the school has for the kid.

I am teaching him that E-learning on MC Online is not only see and learn.  You got to keep notes.  

Yeah!  I make no mistake now.  I didn’t teach Jay Jay well enough during his P1 days.  

For Kay Kay, I am not taking any chances especially in building his learning skills during P1 time.

So, I taught him that he needs to start keeping notes.  So that he can refer to the notes from time to time.

I think he did great in here.  And at the same time, he can choose to learn the vocabs or wait until later.

Penmanship is very important too.

I teach him to write down notes so that he can write correctly, write faster.

I didn’t pay so much attention while Jay Jay in P1.  But I do realised that Jay was a bit weak with his penmanship last time.  

So, again, whatever mistakes we make before shall not happen to this new kid in P1.  How fortunate. 

Kay Kay has been taking his Brain Fit E-lessons or Games for almost a year.  So he is very familiar with this sort of E-learning platform.

And he likes it.

Next is the typewriting.

Strange enough that the school do not have lessons to teach kids how to type.

The biggest mistakes I think from MOE.

They introduce E-Learning and without introducing Keyboard typewriting.

How many times I see kids struggle in this.

And how many times I see kids use two fingers to type and they sure can type very fast with two fingers.

But unfortunately, that’s wrong.

So for my kids, they will get proper type writing learning programs.

This is what I bought for both Jay (Windows 10) and Kay (iMac).

I found it pretty cool to learn it the kids way.

It trains them concentration.  Focus.

They must place their fingers correctly on to the keyboard.

The aim is to increase their WPM (Word per minute) and the Accuracy.

There are different types of games they can play too.  By all to do with typing.

The two brothers some time can compete with each other too.

So I really hope that both of them can learn the typing well. Because after that, learning how to do simple programming will be the next steps.

See how I am going to turn them into Computer nerds.  hahahahaha

I am so glad to see how Jay Jay has learned how to use the flash cards to learn his spelling.  hahaha

Kay Kay felt excited to learn the Chinese on MC Online platform.

Hey, do you notice it?  The fingers.

Yeah, ten fingers on the keyboard.  The correct way of typing.  hahaha

Good luck in teaching your kids.  

May the force be with you!