Got Interviewed by Wall Street Reporter...

They got wind of our oxygen/ozone patent filings, and I got a phone call. This, after after spending a weekend putting together a video clip. I guess once you get the concepts down it's easy, but it's a whole different bag o' tricks. I've got eyestrain, but I couldn't of done the thing at all without a friend. Thanks, Mr. Peter! (I'll post that clip soon).

I guess I prattled on for the reporter a bit about the history of this process of diffusing gas streams into water, as well as the newest trials. Also covered an agreement with a DOD company for licensing this technology.

This interview can now be accessed by clicking: http://www.wallstreetreporter.com/profile.php?id=24910

Oxygen Breakthrough!

There she sat.

Although already granted the provisional patent, after so many months of "talk-talk," (press releases and such), mostly in the fabrication and development stage, we have finally witnessed first light in our initial tests of the super-oxygenation prototype.

This device will be, we hope, the bedrock technology of the patents we filed. If it works out, it ought to produce the highest efficiency Dissolved Oxygen in the markets we targeted.

"Could you fill her up with 55 gallons - of water?"

The next photo is my first shot after doing all the plumbing with David, my brother-in-law. (I'm a klutz, he's the mechanical brain.) We just primed the thing, and got regular old bubbles - good for aquariums and such, but no cigar, at this point:

But wait! Lookie here:



That isn't dirty water, and it isn't milk, either. That is what I call first light.

For those in the know, SOTE = 60%+, bubble size ~5 microns.

I Visit Kurtz's Fish Hatchery

A mélange of feisty fish - (Kurtz Fish Hatchery)

Aerial View of Kurtz Fish Hatchery

What a visit! KURTZ'S FISH HATCHERY has been in the neighborhood since 1958, and I never stopped by until the other day. They carry fish for stocking. While I was shown around their ponds, I just kept saying: "Wow!" Richard Kurtz just chuckled. He's still as excited about the business that his dad started so long ago as I was, there for the very first time. Must be catching. (Pun intended). Think about it, though - here was almost 100 acres of Bass, Bluegills, Stripers, Catfish, Crayfish, Tadpoles, Koi, and Aquatic Plants - all in 35 ponds, and I was just dumbstruck at the irony of it all.

Up on the adjacent hill I saw the very buildings where "Schooled Fish" and I used to stock our grain bins, and fan systems. I must've seen the place a hundred times, but never noticed it until now. I mean, this is where everybody around these parts goes to stock their lakes, ponds, and their own hatcheries - for going on 50 years now. I guess the whole Zen of the moment was from all that life. I've never felt that sort of vibrant electricity before. I feel like I'm writing another cheesy "advertorial" the likes of which I would be compelled do monthly for the paper, but I really am quite moved.

Closest feeling to this was flying my plane out of the whipcrack world of the Northeast corridor's air traffic controllers, at night, and waking up in the morning to miles and miles of grain fields, blowing to and fro in the wind, to travel in and around the small towns and businesses, visiting all the interesting people, doing our "human thing." Life there seemed less complicated, but always, somewhere in the background, was the subsonic buzz of all that life bursting forth from those fields that stretched out from horizon to horizon.

Then again, maybe it's that cough syrup I took after lunch.

Cage System

In a cage system, in a stream, lake, or pond, the frame is most often constructed of PVC, while the netting itself is rigid. The whole cage structure itself is anchored. The idea is to add fingerlings, feed, add oxygenation if needed, and harvest.

Grow Your Own Fish!

There are 4 basic types of aquaculture (simple to complex):
Home Systems
Cage Systems
Flow-Through
Greenhouse Aquaponics

This photo, to the left, is like one above-ground pool—similar to a Home system.

When the only available water is from a hose, a vinyl-lined above ground pool can be located in a basement, garage, or a yard. For a couple hundred dollars up to a couple thousand, (do fish REALLY need those ladders?) a 3-foot high, 12 foot-diameter pool will hold about 2000 gallons of water. When using unfiltered water, writer Steve Van Gorder says to expect only ~ 13 lbs of fish per year. BUT!! If you remove waste, ammonia, AND you oxygenate, that figure jumps to more than 100 pounds of fish. Almost a 10-fold increase! (And, it's not very expensive, stay tuned...)