https://www.phoenixheller.work/home daily 1.0 2026-02-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f4d46f2faeb3467bff2f909/1768689547698-YAXHITDXJ2QGOHZ7483H/unsplash-image-vZJdYl5JVXY.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f4d46f2faeb3467bff2f909/1768688816038-2TPOEJGF6ZMZ8ESGGV02/unsplash-image-NFyqdZ-H0QA.jpg https://www.phoenixheller.work/contact-me daily 0.75 2026-02-24 https://www.phoenixheller.work/revive-details daily 0.75 2022-11-08 https://www.phoenixheller.work/resume daily 0.75 2025-10-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f4d46f2faeb3467bff2f909/1599849193782-35IL15XM0YDQTHT78HAE/IMG_3054.JPG https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f4d46f2faeb3467bff2f909/cdaf0ed1-c974-4c44-9418-e87523128756/me.jpg https://www.phoenixheller.work/englewood-details daily 0.75 2022-11-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f4d46f2faeb3467bff2f909/40223928-ecc1-4b7d-aae8-07c80da16f2a/ECDC_housing.jpg https://www.phoenixheller.work/cri-details daily 0.75 2022-11-08 https://www.phoenixheller.work/past-projects daily 0.75 2022-11-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f4d46f2faeb3467bff2f909/2e0d1ca0-669d-430a-97bc-0b22bca13d70/tolomatic-logo.png Past Projects - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f4d46f2faeb3467bff2f909/1599846998031-DV6P925KTV5I186SIPOT/CRI+logo.jpg Past Projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f4d46f2faeb3467bff2f909/48d176cb-92c5-4002-b738-a1b25a0added/GECDC-logo.png Past Projects - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f4d46f2faeb3467bff2f909/1599847051686-NJIUW9OECWN9ZBMFIN1K/REVIVE+copy.jpg Past Projects https://www.phoenixheller.work/funextras daily 0.75 2025-10-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f4d46f2faeb3467bff2f909/d561881d-9b80-4d62-86f4-d6124cce9046/IMG_1899.JPG Fun Extras - Growing, Sweating, Writing In 2017 I took a tour of the aquaponics business, Metropolitan Farms, and fell in love with this amazing closed-loop agricultural solution! I talked with the owner and found out they offered internships so I signed up, offering my marketing skills as a bonus. The following blog posts were published on the Metropolitan Farms website commemorating a very hot summer spent in a magical greenhouse on the west side of Chicago: Life in the Greenhouse: My First Day “Wear layers and bring a refillable water bottle.” That’s what I was told for my first day working in the greenhouse at Metropolitan Farms. So I wore a hoodie, t-shirt with a tank top underneath, and packed my trusty black metal water bottle that I’d picked up from some swag bag in years past. I hopped mass transit and headed west for my first day. Hi, I’m Phoenix, the newest Intern to join the Metro-Farms team. I dream of having my own aquaponics farm someday, however, I know I have a lot to learn since, well, I’ve been working in marketing and graphic design for the past 16 years. This part of the blog will be written by yours truly about what it’s like working in an aquaponics system and what I’ve learned in the past week. So did I use all three of those layers I put on for my first day? Yep. Ashley, our greenhouse manager, put me to work immediately packing up watercress in the walk-in cooler -- hoodie with hood up over ears. I packed up 5oz bags and 1 oz boxes of watercress that would be sold later that week at the Logan Square (Link) and Jefferson Park (link) farmer’s markets. I also filled orders for the butcher shop, Carnivore (link), where our fish are processed and also sold. Into crates the bags and boxes went, each labeled for its final destination. Next, to the greenhouse where the hoodie came off quickly and my T-shirt was perfect while Ashley instructed me on how to do transfers- moving seedlings from the nursery to the Nutrient Film Technique system (NFTs for short), then moving the plants from the NFTs to the rafts. Up, over, around, and back. I was assigned quite a number of sets and went to work. And shortly thereafter, the sun came out. It is amazing how quickly the heat builds in that greenhouse! My t-shirt came off and I wore my tank top for the rest of the day. Oh, and that water bottle I brought- the black metal one. Yeah, a black metal water bottle is a bad idea when you’re working in the sun. Drinking hot water while being hot yourself doesn’t quench your thirst. This first day I fell asleep on the bus, bought Chinese takeout for dinner, and went to bed at 9pm. I was so exhausted. Happily exhausted. This first day was the first time in way too long that I felt satisfied with a good hard day’s work. And I was looking forward to the next day with all my heart. ------------------------ Life in the Greenhouse: Second week for the intern, Phoenix Fish! We’re getting in a shipment of fry! Baby fish less than an inch long. 1,000 of them. Everyone on the farm is abuzz with anticipation. I’m astonished to learn that they are being shipped from down south via UPS. Ha! Who knew you could order stuff like this and have it delivered by the same truck that gives you your Amazon order? The box is opened and we all gathered around to peek in at the new kids. It’s quite amazing that these little guys (yes, they’re all male) will be over a foot long in just a few months. I asked Shockey if they are all the same breed or kind. “Well, they’re the mutts,” he says. “Crossbreeding makes a stronger stock that tastes better.” Good point. When fry first arrives at our greenhouse they have to be acclimated. Ashley, two other greenhouse workers, and myself all took turns adding water from the nursery tanks every half hour into the box in which the fry was delivered. This slowly raises the temperature without shocking the poor little guys further. We also added a cup full of slightly salted water to the box. This cleans the fish and lowers their stress levels. Once the temps became equal, it was transferring time! Myself and another greenhouse worker were handed small fish nets like the ones you find in an aquarium shop. We were instructed to catch a few fish, count them, call out the number of fish, and the number of the tank we put them in. Seems simple, right? Not so. Boy, can they move! And once you get a few in the net, they don’t stop moving to count either! We laughed our way through catching them and calling out numbers. “Five in Tank One!” “Eight in Tank Seven!” I’m happy to report we didn’t drop a single one! ---------------------------- Life in the Greenhouse: Week Three- ph for P.H. I find it funny that my initials are the same as the water test that has to be done three times a week. In an aquaponics system, keeping ph levels as close to 7.0 or neutral is integral. This can be a bit of a challenge. Especially when you need to make adjustments. On this day Ashley handed the testing kit to me after showing me how it was done. Easy enough. 10 ml of water, a few drops of solution; tip a bunch of times and match the color to the chart. We found that the water in the main system was on the acidic side so we added dolomite to bring it down. Why didn’t we just use calcium? Come to find out that calcium binds other nutrients in the system and makes them less or not at all accessible to the plants. No starving our greens! Next, I was instructed on how to test for Nitrates in the water. Wait, so there are more water tests that need to be done? Yes- two more actually. Both the levels of Nitrite and Nitrate need to be tracked. Metropolitan Farms grows plants, fish, AND bacteria. Although bacteria isn’t a cash crop, it is totally necessary for the system as a whole to work. One type of bacteria takes ammonia produced by the fish and excretes Nitrite while the other takes Nitrite and excretes Nitrate. It's Nitrates that make our greens so lush and growing. All these elements have to be kept in balance, though, because one being too high or too low can stress or even kill our plants and/or fish. Both the Nitrites and Nitrates were right on par for this day, though. Testing the water for these three levels is part of the rhythmic life on an aquaponics farm. Most of the time it isn’t too exciting and this is a good thing. It's pretty amazing what can happen if you just let nature do its magic! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f4d46f2faeb3467bff2f909/1599160476324-YRI7WNG6J64C80E8KDD6/IMG_2418.JPG Fun Extras - What if we added a device to the trucks to make the tipping of the containers less physically stressful? 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