A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

You Know You’re Addicted to Aquaponic Gardening When...

Your fish recognize you
You buy a special home for the BSF maggots you are growing to feed your fish.
You are known throughout the neighborhood as the house that grows the fish.
You know the temperature of your fish tank every day.
You talk about bacteria aging like it was a fine wine
You banish your car to the driveway so you can have more room to grow in the garage
You stress out over a .1 move in pH or ammonia.
You buy a bigger truck so that you can haul more gravel.
Your non-gardening spouse becomes conversant in aquaponic terms
You look forward to a Saturday afternoon spent at the dump looking for old bathtubs and barrels
You plan vacation trips around visiting other aquaponic gardeners.
You travel 150 miles to pick up 20 tilapia
When considering your budget, plants and fish are more important than groceries
You could swear your fish are on the verge of speaking to you
The terms "bacteria", "poop" and "waste" have taken on entirely new meanings
You’d rather go to an aquarium store to shop than a clothes store.
You take every single person who enters your house on a “garden tour”
You look at cattle trough and think "grow bed"
You ask for tools for Christmas, Mother/Father’s day, your Birthday and any other occasion you can think of.
Invasive pond life like algae and duckweed are now fish food.
You know how many bags of Hydroton your car will hold.
Your preferred reading matter is forum threads

And last but not least:

You know that the four seasons are:
Planning your System
Cycling your System
Maturing your System
~and~
Expanding your System

45 members like this

Comment

Comment by Kobus Jooste on May 11, 2011 at 9:57pm: When it is time to upgrade your cell phone, you go for a waterproof model because you have your hands in water or duckweed beds so often you loose calls.

Comment by Ricky Flickenger on May 11, 2011 at 9:29pm: You wake up in the middle of the night because you've sensed a change in the sound the water is making and have to make sure something isn't blocked or leaking.

You have dreams about eating vegetables off the vine from your system...I just did last night and the tomatoes were awesome!!! LOL

Comment by Jim Reed on May 11, 2011 at 9:24pm: At the sight of any plastic container you wonder "is that food grade plastic?".

Comment by Raychel A Watkins on May 11, 2011 at 6:51pm: You know you are addicted to aquaponics When you note that on your last birthday you were 70 years old and you realize that you now know what you want to be when you grow up.

When in reflection you realize that for the last 10 months your house and every nook and cranny has been occupied by total strangers from every country imaginable helping you keep up with what you have built, even worse is that you keep building. The amazing thing is that you are having loads of fun. This is the way to stay young.

Comment by Eric Warwick on May 11, 2011 at 6:04pm: I'm addicted to aquaponics already, but I haven't set-up an aquaponic system. I assume I'll go even further when I get the system. Here's a funny quote for new people, "aquaponics is my drug".

Comment by Andrea on May 11, 2011 at 5:08pm: I love the one with the PJs and flashlight. That was me just last week. :-)

- Last year you wouldn't use a hammer; this year you've bought a chop saw and have lumber delivered to your home by the truckload. (My driveway currently looks like a lumberyard... complete with drifts of sawdust.)

- You find yourself looking around your property and thinking "I could squeeze a small system onto the patio. I wouldn't have anywhere for company to sit, but that's okay."

- You go feed the fish after work, start to tinker on something, and eventually notice you're still wearing a suit and heels... and it's nearly midnight.

Comment by Sylvia Bernstein on May 11, 2011 at 4:06pm: I just talked with my book editor and they are going to let me sneak these in to the end of the book! If anyone objects to having their quotes used in the book please let me know. Thanks!

Comment by Sylvia Bernstein on May 11, 2011 at 3:13pm: These are awesome. Keep 'em coming...

Comment by Chris Smith on May 11, 2011 at 3:04pm: When I start working on my systems(or The Time Warp as my wife calls it) at sunrise, skip meals and am forced to stop when the sun goes down. At sunset I am left wondering where the day went?!

I'm addicted and I admit it!!

Comment by TCLynx on May 11, 2011 at 1:39pm: You can happily spend hours watching water flow to make sure the siphons are working properly.

You keep a funnel and empty bottles handy to save hummonia for system cycle up.

The guy at Lowes in the plumbing section asks you to help find odd fittings for a customer.

Everyone visiting your house has this constant urge to pee from the sounds of trickling water.

You know how many tons of gravel it takes to fill a given volume of grow beds.

You throw parties to get your gravel washed but call them "workshops".

You have people offering to guard your house in exchange for food if the collapse of civilization happens.

Comment by David Hart on May 11, 2011 at 12:32pm: -You get up in the middle of the night and go outside in your PJ's with a flashlight....just to make sure everything is OK

Comment by Andrea on May 11, 2011 at 12:20pm: Perry: My local hardware store knows me by name, most of them have been over to see the greenhouse, and a few have even come help with construction of stuff. If I don't show up on a Saturday, they worry. :-)

Comment by Andrea on May 11, 2011 at 12:19pm: WAY too true! I love it... in a head-hanging kind of a way. :-)

Comment by Raychel A Watkins on May 11, 2011 at 11:08am: Several people tell you should convert your 10,000gal swimming pool to a fish tank and you actually consider it.

Great List and very true.

Comment by Sylvia Bernstein on May 11, 2011 at 10:28am: Perry, Wayne - LOVE IT!

Comment by Wayne on May 11, 2011 at 10:24am: Your spouse suggest putting a bed in the greenhouse.

But you don't realize they were talking about a bed for you to sleep in.

Comment by Perry Adkisson on May 11, 2011 at 9:07am: The local hardware stores think you are a plumber because of all the pvc pipe and other supplies you constantly buy.

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