Aquaponics Made Easy Blog
Aquaponic news and events at Practical Aquaponics.

We’ve had a number of people asking what happened to the release of the Aquaponics Secrets DVD? Over the last 12 months we have been filming an Aquaponics kit system from start to finish. We wanted to show the tiny fingerlings grow to maturity over the course of a year.

The fish are still growing. We’re still filming them, but they are not quite plate size and not really ready for harvest at the moment. In fact we’ve grown quite fond of them and don’t want to see them end up on the barbecue plate!

We were tempted to substitute other fish and harvest them and film that – but that would have been cheating wouldn’t it? And not in the spirit of this DVD. So we’ve resisted doing that and are waiting for the fish to grow a little more and then finish the DVD as we complete the cycle.

The good news is that we’ve crammed this DVD with heaps and heaps of great tips that were not covered in the first Aquaponics Made Easy DVD.

Aquaponics Secrets

That DVD was a great success and got a lot of interest and praise from around the world. We hope to build on that success and give you part two to that DVD by building on the knowledge base with Aquaponics Secrets.

The biggest problem for us is that we now have far too much information to squeeze into a 90 minute DVD. We don’t want to duplicate any information that was touched on in the first DVD. So together the two DVDs along with Murray Hallam’s expert advice and opinion will make a great reference guide for anyone wishing to try growing spectacular vegetables and fish in their backyard.

We hope to complete the DVD ready for a March 2010 launch at www.aquaponics.net.au

Wow! I never thought I would be having this much fun when we first started Aquaponics 6 months ago! When my husband wanted to set up one of these kits I thought – great… he will get sick of it and it will be another thing that I have to maintain…

But boy am I glad that he bit the bullet and set this Aquaponics System up.

Silver beet harvest

So far the major benefits for us have been the vegetables, but more importantly the tool that we can use to help us in the character building of our children.
We are foster parents and have 7 children living with us, two of which are high support needs.

Budgeting is a major factor of our home. We have saved so much money in the short 6 months that we have been Ponickers… I proudly walk past the lettuce at the shops and say to my kids, xwhy would we pay $2.50 for that, we grow our own for FREE!!
More silver beet

More of that beautiful Silver Beet

Recently, we had harvest day. All the kids joined in as we harvested our massive crop of silverbeet.

We had grown nearly a full growbed of them. We had a production line going, and everybody helped to harvest, clean, chop and cook the silverbeet. We then froze it in portions for quick use in the coming months.

The joy and amazement the children verbalised during this process was invaluable.
But the greatest blessing from being “Ponickers” is the pride that these children felt, being connected to their food source, having contributed to the process, and feeling a sense of achievement.

Look at these beauties !

Wow…look at these beautiful cucumbers.

One of our DWC troughs on it’s way to transport for a job in North Queensland.
The trough is 5000mm long x 140mm wide x 400mm deep.
The trough holds 2450 ltrs at operating depth of 350mm .
In DWC systems the more volume of water in circulation the better. More water means more stability in both water temp and pH.
One added benefit is that very fine suspended solids that have not been collected by the filtration system, can and do drop out to the bottom of the trough as the water moves slowly through the system.
These are easily collected between crops by vacuum from the bottom of the trough and sent to the solids treatment area.

Our standard DWC trough.

The Pawpaw tree continues to bear wonderful fruit.

Picked another yesterday and today wife and I shared some chopped up pieces for lunch.
The fruit is getting better all the time. This fruit is wonderful both in texture and flavour.
Grown in a Homestead Kit, 300mm deep grow bed with 20mm gravel as the medium. The system is powered by 100 plus Jade Perch, Golden Perch, Bass and some Ell Tailed Cat Fish.

Pawpaw pieces for lunch.

From ECO Films web site.
Hard to believe but its almost a year since we made this DVD title with Murray Hallam called “Aquaponics Made Easy” and its has been a very successful title having gone through a second edition recently. Murray’s great informed and conversational style was a great hit with audiences and his fan mail from enthusiastic viewers needs to be seen to be believed! Since we made that DVD and having seen the quality of his systems and produce convinced us to give Aquaponics a try. So next to our office where we edit our videos sits a Murray Hallam Maximus system and yes it has 60 Jade Perch in it all doing very well.
Read more HERE