Five Years of Innovation Part 1

The view of the aquatic ecosystem in 2017

In 2017 Mezzacello was still a nascent dream. We knew we wanted to start building out more complex integrated circuits, but we did not have funds or enough knowledge to do so. This is a blogpost detailing five years of innovation part 1.

The Pond

The biggest and most obvious innovation at Mezzacello has been the continued integration of the aquatic ecosystems. The pond at Mezzacello is much more than just water and fish. There are so many resources that go into and flow from this one ecosystem.

The pond touches every system at Mezzacello in 2022. The water is useful for watering plants and animals. The plants provide green manure for compost, a source of fiber and niacin for the ducks, and shade and shelter to the fish and pollinators.

The algae is useful as well. The original biofilter design was a store bought affair that was inadequate ins cale and power for a pond this size. The next upgrade was a homemade affair built from septic and sump cans, PVC pipe and bulkheads. It was a homemade affair that used five gallon buckets to sift out algae and denitrify the water, and legos to collect bacteria colonies.

Pond Sludge

Pond sludge from the Biofilter and the Pondergeist.

The latest iteration of the biofilter is a much more sophisticated design. This compact unit integrates water flow, sponges, UV light and a more efficient algae cleaning treatment. The new biofilter is far more dependable and responsive than my homemade affair.

The centralized unit is also a great source of relief in that cleaning it and recycling the algae is so much easier. We added a Bakki shower denitrifying filter into the return water flow to further purify the water. These two innovations have completely transformed the pond and greatly benefited all the gardens.