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

 

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Kirsten Udd Comment by Kirsten Udd on January 17, 2012 at 6:40pm

You discover that it's possible to burn boiled eggs....

Eric Warwick Comment by Eric Warwick on January 12, 2012 at 5:23pm

When you have hydroponic dreams and wish they were aquaponic.

Gary Deck Comment by Gary Deck on January 11, 2012 at 1:24pm

Any suggestions for the trick to raising tomatoes indoors?  I have big, healthy tomatoe plants in an indoor flood and drain system, but very few flowers and they are dying instead of turning into fruit.  Should I be pruning to stress them?  Should I stop watering/feeding them for periods of time?

TCLynx Comment by TCLynx on December 6, 2011 at 7:45am

LOL, The cook got me a tiny harbor freight greenhouse so I would move the seed starting outdoors.  He was partially successful.

Sylvia Bernstein Comment by Sylvia Bernstein on December 5, 2011 at 8:39pm

Nah...no aquaponics allowed inside...there is enough of an AP invasion in our lives! LOL

Eric Warwick Comment by Eric Warwick on December 5, 2011 at 7:29pm

Sylvia, where is the like button for that story?

TCLynx Comment by TCLynx on December 5, 2011 at 11:46am

What Sylvia, you don't have an indoor system set up to accept the stray worms (and start you seeds)?

Sylvia Bernstein Comment by Sylvia Bernstein on December 5, 2011 at 11:04am

It is 9 degrees F outside, and snowing.  You go out to feed the fish and pick some lettuce and radishes for lunch.  You get inside and wash the lettuce and discover a worm...and of course you need to go back out into the 9 degree snowy weather to put the worm back!

Eric Warwick Comment by Eric Warwick on October 17, 2011 at 8:00pm
Jake Schneider Comment by Jake Schneider on October 17, 2011 at 3:31pm

When you buy Halloween costumes for your fish. 

TCLynx Comment by TCLynx on October 13, 2011 at 6:51am
When the sounds of running trickling water no longer give you the constant urge to pee.
clay hartwig Comment by clay hartwig on October 12, 2011 at 9:50pm
the trickling water sounds are the only thing that can calm you
Teresa N Florida Comment by Teresa N Florida on October 12, 2011 at 11:04am
When you lie awake at night dreaming of how to create the perfect healthy and self-sustaining environment. One which:
grows food and fish for your family,
grows feed/fodder for your animals,
eliminates the need for dangerous fertilizers
incorporates the use of any renewable and collectable energy sources available, such as solar, wind, human and animal effluent, methane, compost, hydro, gravity, and thermal mass,
promotes recycling and waste management concepts,
mitigates the contamination of ground water
reduces dependency on outside food sources (and the vulnerability Wall Street speculators create),
and generates all the nutrients necessary to maintain good health and a physically fit lifestyle.

Then you realize aquaponics is one of the best steps toward reaching that goal.

Now, if we could only figure out how to clean the air….hmmm.

I love the 'Twelve Steps of Aquaponics-Anonymous' Kirsten came up with.
Rob Nash Comment by Rob Nash on August 28, 2011 at 4:23pm

when your child doesnt even have to think about what to do for the science project...

and then doesn’t have to research the subject to create content, and even your 6 year old can tell you all about the nitrogen cycle, you know your whole family is addicted.

Man, have i been busted at 3 am watching AP videos... lmao.

Jake Schneider Comment by Jake Schneider on August 26, 2011 at 6:08pm

One growbed is too many and a thousand is never enough.

The Aquaponics Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity
to accept the systems problems I cannot change;
courage to change the systems problems I can;
and wisdom to know when to leave it alone.

ONE DAY AT A TIME!

Kirsten Udd Comment by Kirsten Udd on August 23, 2011 at 6:31pm

Thanks, I'd appreciate some additions/edits, I saw at least one spelling mistake after I posted, but it needs to be tweaked :)

 

Sylvia Bernstein Comment by Sylvia Bernstein on August 23, 2011 at 5:02pm
Awesome, Kirsten!  I think we should all print these out and mount them on our greenhouse walls!
Kirsten Udd Comment by Kirsten Udd on August 23, 2011 at 1:46pm
Twelve Steps of Aquaponics-Anonymous (Those in 12-step programs, PLEASE forgive my blasphemy, take what you like and leave the rest)

1. We GLADLY admitted we were powerless over Aquaponics, that our lettuce, spinach, strawberries, tilapia (insert noun here) had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that an Aquaponics system with non-GMO, organically grown produce could restore us, our families, communities, small and large African (and other) countries, to full health!

3. Made a decision to turn our brainpower, waking moments, REM cycles, garden, families, pets, land, and our lives over to the care of Aquaponics as we understood it, understand it, and continue to learn it as we tweak and tinker.

4. Made a searching and shameless moral inventory of the hardware stores, garage sales, Craigslist, Freecycle, the rubbish dump, and any other means of garnering grow beds, PVC scraps, buckets, and buidling materials.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, the neighborhood, AquaponicsCommunity, and to any other human (fish, dog, horse, or living breathing creature) the exact nature of our Aquaponic trials and errors, and the fixes we've created, and how we'll do it better next time.

6. Were entirely ready to have Aquaponics remove all these defects of construction.

7. Humbly asked Aquaponics to remove our Ph problems, fish-stealing birds, cabbage worms, caterpillars, moths, ants, and aphids.

8. Made a list of all persons who would be great at Aquaponics, have any interest in gardening, have materials we might be able to barter for, and became willing to trade fresh produce and Aquaponics knowledge with them all.

9. Made any excuse to talk to these people about Aquaponics whenever, wherever possible, regardless of whatever appointments they or I might have, except when to do so would injure the fish tanks, vegetables, or Ph.

10. Continued to take our Aquaponics inventory (including but not limited to: temperatures readings, Ph levels, fish counts) and when we were deficient, promptly rectified the deficiencies in the system.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation, midnight PJ trips outside with waterproof cell phones, fish-cams, automated fish feeders, and solar-powered water pumps, to improve our conscious contact with Aquaponics, as we understood It, praying only for knowledge of ways to correct the above problems and the WWOOFers to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry Aquaponics to ANYone who would listen, and to practice these principles in our gardens, churches, places of business, kindergartens, college dorm rooms, and rooftops.
Raychel A Watkins Comment by Raychel A Watkins on August 21, 2011 at 5:15pm
When you have to call an ambulance because your back has gone out and your pain is at number 10 and you get to the  ER and most of your time is spent talking to the nurses, who you have helped start aquaponics systems, about how their systems were working.
Gina Cavaliero Comment by Gina Cavaliero on August 20, 2011 at 10:34pm

When everyone in town knows you as the fish and lettuce ladies.  

When almost every one of your horse's muck buckets and water troughs has either coir, fish or plants in it.  

When you move the fence and take away pasture from your horses to build more aquaponic troughs.

When the shed is no longer just a shed, its the seed shed.  

I could keep going on and on, as its all true!!!

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