We started our system in May 2012, so our system is now over a year old now. We learned a lot from this community and are glad we found you all. Our goal in the beginning was to teach our son's something of value (we home school). After the learning curve we decided we wanted to grow fish to eat and have fresh vegetables that are as close to organic as possible. We wanted the highest yield of each with the least amount of cost and work. 

  The children race and giggle outdoors, and come inside for a meal.  They have every reason to truly give thanks for what they have set before them.  Normal children in every way.  They run, they play, they study, and sing and laugh.  Life was not so happy for most of these children, but now they have a chance for a good life ahead of them.  Many children in Honduras cannot say this.

 You have an opportunity to be a partner in sharing Aquaponics! Worldwide Heart To Heart Children’s…

I've been growing plants for a few weeks now.  I'm ready to add gold fish if all the chemicals and Ph are right.  Wish me luck.

     Will be upgrading my aquaponic system next week to include another 275 gallon sump tank, 2 wicking beds, 3 verticle towers and another media bed. My 550 gallon system that is operating now only has 1 media bed, 2 raft beds and 175 gallon fish tank, just not working optimal. When all is completed I should be able grow just about anything, enough food to supply my family and then some. Also when complete, I want to be able demonstrate my system to others as a operating…

I finally broke down and bought a real HPS grow light after growing a big batch of really long stringy pea plants that produced no pea pods. And while it is a very big improvement over the T-8 grow lights with year old bulbs I had been using, I can't help noticing that my outdoor peas are now kicking ass on my indoor plants even though they were started later. Of course, the indoor garden does have a pretty big edge in this area from October through March, but when it warms up it looks like…

Today made for a great day to clone a few new plants for my garden.  I have made it a practice to buy two plants and put one in the soil and the other in the A/P garden, but to take cuttings from both to get new starts.  The new starts are in soil pods and will be placed in both the soil and A/P Garden as they develop roots. 

I have been successful at cloning Stevia, Basil and Tomatoes.  I am nurturing cuttings from my peach tree and various other herbs like oregano and thyme.  I hope…

Hello All

My first aquaponic set up.  I am addressing some valid concerns as the building has progressed and will continue to modify as suggestions come in.  I appreciate your feedback!  This is the ratchet strap modification for the buldging in the blue barrels that is a problem.  I went with a 14' ratchet strap and ran it through a 1" PVC pipe cut to each side.  I am hoping the ratchet will allow me to crank it down or ease up as need be.…

After having some bad luck with the second batch of trout, I decided to give yellow perch a try. This is going to be a much longer project because the fish are smaller (3-5") and don't grow as fast, but the perch are doing well after the first few weeks. They ate very little for the first couple days, but now they are feeding eagerly. Some of the smaller ones looked like they couldn't handle the pellet size, so I broke some of them up and that seems to be doing the trick. Wish me luck!