What is this all about?

So what is aquaponics?  Aquaponics is basically a system of growing produce using fish waste as the fertiliser for the plants and in turn the plants and their growing medium filters and cleans the water for the fish.

A fish tank containing fish has its water pumped periodically through a grow bed where the plants are planted.  Its an amazing system and organic as well.  The growth of the plants is amazing and you can plant more per square meter than in a traditional garden as the nutrients are constantly being replaced by the fish waste.

So why this blog?  We are going to post a record of what we harvest and how much over a year.  We hope this will also help people understand more about aquaponics and just what sort of things you can grow in the system.

Currently we have a 1000 lt fish tank and 2 x 650 lt grow beds.  In the fish tanks is around 50 Murray Cod.  We had trout over the winter months and they grew to an a good "plate" size in about 6 months.  The Cod will take a lot longer though to grow to a decent size.

In the next few weeks we will be doubling the size of the system to incorporate a 3000 lt tank and 2 more grow beds.  This should hopefully mean we can supply our family of four all the veggies we need.  Our oldest daughter at 3years old loves watching the many things grow.  Every day she asks "Is their a strawberry for me?"  "Can I pick a cucumber?"

So join us on this journey as we bring to you a year in "the patch".