Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

When I first explained aquaponics to my lovely partner, she really couldn't quite grasp it all. "How do you get plants to grow in rocks?" she said, "Wouldn't the fish die being cooped up together like that?" and the famous "That'll never work?"

Could it be that all my hair brain ideas from the past have set a standard? The standard that more often than not, they never quite worked out the way I had planned. Or never quite made the final product??

As the IBC's and junk started filling up the shed the doubts grew and grew. The continuous days of grinding, cutting, washing, reading, forum posting, nana spitting etc etc at one stage seemed to be all getting away from me, the dirty looks I would get from out the back window...

What had I started?......I had no idea??

But as it all fell together and the results were in our face it was a new born fascination. How awesome is this!! My friends, family and even the missus just cant stop talking about it "our aqua-garden" she calls it, gotta love her.

How did your partner go with it all???

well, my other half liked the idea of having vegetables growing in our greenhouse all winter....

she then decided she would like a little koi pond behind the house... I asked her if she was going to keep it clean? she said NO that was my job.... so...... I decided to add a few AP beds to the pond and put those koi to work.....

She would keep asking me WHY are you doing that, All I wanted was a few koi..... I said.. since she was not going to keep cleaning out the koi pond, neither was I.....

now she loves the produce generated by "HER" Koi

jT

My Missius was so impressed she bought her own system

My wife won't even go outside...

When I was building the system she was annoyed I was spending so much time on it. Now it's complete and I only go out once a day for 30 minutes to feed fish, tend plants, and top up. She's much happier about the system now... Well, I wouldn't say she's happy, just that she's not annoyed.

Me: How about a garden with hardly any weeds and that will be waist high? No more sore back, no watering every day, no mulching and we get to have a fish fry every few months.

Lovely Wife: SOLD on the idea...BUT Blue barrels clash with my backyard landscape and I don't want to trip over pipes. You must have a design that "looks good".

Me: How about a toteponic system? Hide most of the pipes, bamboo skirt around the growbeds, paint it the color you like, add concrete blocks around the outside for a walking path, big enough for herbs, veggies and flowers....SOLD but where does it fit into the budget?

Me: It will pay for itself in a couple of years, the kids all love veggies.

My dear lovely wife: Our 15th year aniversary is coming up. How about I buy the parts for you and you put the together for me? It will be a gift to each of us.

Me: (dusting myself off after fainting) Woo Hoo!! Time to get to work...

Hmmm...
My Wife: I just saw this thing called Aquaponics on Gardening Australia. We are building one. (End of conversation)

LOL

I have it twice as bad. My mum and wife were very annoyed at me setting up AP.

They have eaten the vegies and are coming around i guess lol. My wife still complains that i check on the fish twice a day.....

They both have seen the silvers not grow for the last 4-5 months and laugh when i say they will have fish to eat in Nov (trout)

hmmm, I did ask. And you said "great I can go fishing in the back yard"

I feel your pain... My wife eats the veggies and fish so now she's okay with it. Actually she helped me cull the 40 trout. She took pictures and measurements. Maybe because it was father's day...

Anyone who enjoys gardening or fish keeping will generally like AP. My wife is more of a dinner and movie type...

Hehe, a little off topic but I always tell this story cuz I think its funny. Previously, my wife and I would go hiking at least once a month. Then one day we were walking through this beautiful green forest with ferns and redwood trees. The deer were frolicking to and fro. It was gorgeous and I was loving every minute of it. She stops, looks at me and says, "so, this is hiking huh? I don't like it..." Last time I went hiking with her...

Well she didn't mind the idea but wasn't thrilled... Another crackpot hobby no doubt was going through her mind when I first explained it to her, the one thing she did say was I don't want it to take up to much room which i was a little set back by.. Anyways long story short we broke up for a few months which gave me plenty of time to go about fixing half of our backyard up as a ap system.. What does she think now??? errrr its big but she can't really say much can she hehehe its there now..

to be honest i dont think ive asked her what she thinks of it, i just sorta said i was doing it and got started

just like she does with clothes buying etc so i guess we are square really

Cheers
pete

My missus likes the vegies and fish we get and I think she tells everyone about the systems we have but never talks about it with me. Might be because I ordered several thousand dollars worth of tanks and beds and stuff and didnt tell her about it.

Ouch.....

Hehe looks like we got a confessional going... We might have to password protect this thread...

ha yes she was very sceptical about it all...so were most others who had heard me raving on about it before I had a system running. No way she was going to eat fish poo veges, and it better not stink...why do you want to keep fish? we live 3 minutes from the ocean...thats cruel eating pets, were some of the comments I remember. Once running though and after seeing the final product instead of drawings and diagrams, she loved, tells all her friends about it. She does raise an eyebrow though when I check on and feed the fish after work before coming inside and greeting her and the young one..it's en route I say.