Life has begun

Today is the start of life in my system.

I transferred some of my rocket & basil seedlings into the growbed.  This proved to be much more difficult than I had anticipated.  The LECA balls keep on collapsing into the hole. Eventually I got the seedlings in but only time will tell how much damage I did to their roots.  Unless I can get a better method I will have to revert to putting in seeds from the start.

I also put in two goldfish today. According to the pet shop the tank is actually too small for two but we'll see how it goes.  These are the normal pet shop variety - very hardy and they can live in almost any water. At least they look different from one another so I can easily distinguish them.  They already seem to  have unique personalities.

In this photo you will also see the drain pipe coming from the growbed above. Notice the air bubbles. These are generated using the venturi effect. It sound very technical but basically it's a small hole at the top of the pipe.  As the water runs down the pipe, air gets sucked in via the little opening.  This all helps to aerate the water.