Aquaponic Gardening: A Step-by-Step Guide to Raising Vegetables and Fish Together

After getting this book for my brother-in-law last Christmas and shamelessly paging through before I gave it to him, I ordered a copy for myself shortly after the new year. I was (still am, really) a rookie in aquaponics, but I read this book cover to cover and found the vast majority of what I needed to design and set up a system in our apartment (50 gal fish tank/50 gal grow bed currently producing as much thyme, basil, and swiss chard as I can eat). The author makes a point to cover every design issue you need to consider, laid out in the order in which it should be considered. The book has a very methodical and logical layout that makes it relatively easy to put together a plan to build a system from scratch. (But you'll still have to do the leg work!)In a few cases, it would be nice to have a little more depth. For example, some fluorescent lights come in different 'color temperatures,' but the author doesn't get into blue vs. red spectrum until the section on HID lights, and then only briefly. My 'grow light' seems to have a different spectrum (and works better) than my 'daylight spectrum' T8 fixture, but I wouldn't have expected that from the book. Also, many different strains of tilapia are available with different traits, but the book doesn't go further than differentiating 'tilapia' from 'koi,' 'pacu,' etc. Most of the missing information is readily available on the web, so this shortcoming isn't a huge drawback. I should note here, however, that since I wanted to build a small-scale edible fish system, the hardest thing for me was locating a source that would sell me just five tilapia and didn't charge $80-100 for shipping. I finally found a local tropical fish (pet) store that was willing to order them specially.The author's personal experiences with aquaponics are helpful and make the book very readable. The "10 dumbest mistakes I've made in aquaponics" is a good list of things that novices like me should watch out for, and the "rules of thumb" at the end of every chapter are a great reference when designing your own system. I can't count the number of times I went back and looked at those guidelines, especially when cycling the system. In sum, this book is an excellent resource for anyone just getting started in aquaponics.

This is emphatically not just another "here's how I made my backyard aquaponics setup". Rather it's a good collection of the wisdom of this nascent pursuit. It's pretty evenly balanced between initial considerations, start up and maintenance, and is very easy to read and digest. Despite the fact that the author has her own aquaponics websites and products, she frequently refers to other websites and forums and never really tries to push her own brand of products.There are plenty of forums, blogs and videos online to learn how to construct a basic small scale aquaponics system. Bernstein does a good job of over viewing the basics for this, but I believe most readers would want to seek outside info to augment what she describes. Fortunately she provides links to the most popular and successful sites.Where this book shines is that it goes into detail of what she calls the software of aquaponics. These are the fish, the plants, the worms and the bacteria. I instantly relate to her description of aquaponics farmers as bacteria farmers. I know all too well that growing ruminants, one is primarily a grass farmer. And that growing a conventional garden or using a greenhouse, one is primarily a worm farmer and a compost engineer. So, it makes perfect sense to me that in aquaponics one is primarily a bacteria farmer since it's the crucial bacteria that perform the necessary ammonia to nitrite, nitrite to nitrate conversions. I also really appreciate her detail about such topics as cycling the system and what to do in times of chemical imbalance crisis.This book has given me the confidence to try small scale aquaponics with an eye towards eventually doing it on a much grander scale without feeling like I might just be killing fish in a barrel. It is true that much of what's in the book could eventually be found online in various forums, but I feel like this compilation of info in such an accessible format saves months of looking. If you are thinking of getting into aquaponics, or if you already have but aren't quite sure what it means when your system seems out of balance, this book is for you.

This book was recommended during a short talk I attended on the subject as a good place to start learning about aquaponics. It is all of that and more. The author is relatively thorough in scope and very detailed in presentation. What was I missing? I was looking for more advice/suggestions on types of fish--tilapia, catfish, goldfish and koi are not the only choices out there and none of those meet my needs. There is a really good section on things to consider when choosing your fish...even a cursory listing of some of the more specialized selections would have been a good addition.One area that seems to be missing in a number of books and is barely mentioned in this book is the large backyard, 12-month system that is gaining popularity. Many of the pictures in this book are indoor aquaria with a tank topper and a grow light. While the principles are the same, there are a few scale issues. All-in-all this is a really good book that I hope will be updated in the future to discuss more recent trends. If you know little or nothing about aquaponics, this book will give you enough of a taste to let you know whether you want nothing to do with it or you will be hooked and looking for more.

Auch wenn ich noch nicht ganz durch bin halte ich es für ein sehr gutes Buch, mit vielen guten Informationen. Ich denke, dass das Buch eine ausreichende Anleitung liefert um ein einfaches Aquaponic System aufzubauen. Es werden die Grundprinzipien der Flood and Drain Technik erläutert und eine Handfeste Anleitung zum Bau der Anlage geliefert. Gut gefällt mir, dass die Autorin auch auf weiterführende Quellen verweist, um auch die zufrieden zu stellen, die alternative Techniken suchen oder sich in bestimmten Bereichen vertiefen wollen. Ich werde noch dieses Jahr mit einem Projekt anfangen und denke, dass ich durch dieses Buch wohl einigen Fehlern weniger machen werde.

Great!

This book is exactly what I was looking for: a serious introduction into the world of aquaponics by explaining its concepts and guiding towards building your first system.I'm happy I read it.

Très bon premier livre sur l'aquaponie.Attention le début est assez (voir même très) lent.Si vous voulez tout de suite passer à la partie construction il faudra sauter des chapitres.Cependant, je recommande de ne pas se baser uniquement sur ce livre, il serait judicieux de consulter en ligne et d'avoir d'autres livres en plus.

In would like to have seen diagrams on different aquaponic systems, calculating water pump needs, talk about piping materials and moré technical information.