Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

There is nothing here that an hour with Google can't replace. Her "science" is lacking at best, and completely false everywhere else. Core issues of the process are given a very biased and cursory treatment. There is however a good bit of time spent trying to lay not so subtle support for her $1,300 packaged "system" (two tubs and a pump on a T.V. stand). "The covers of this book are too far apart." - Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) A quick example of the author's depth of wisdom: Her comparisons of artificial lighting choices refer to lumens, which are a unit of measure that is relative to what the human eye can register. Were aquaponics a system for growing or impairing human eyes I suppose this might be useful. Plants "see" light differently. They use different parts of the spectrum for different things, and this is pretty much completely ignored. She continually refers to the process of water draining and being replaced by new solution provided by a pump, as a process that sucks oxygen into the media. Physics and fluid dynamics be damned. Her contention that magnetic drive pond-type pumps are the obviously superior choice just adds to her credentials as a bloviator of the first order. The multitude of reliable circulating pumps available that are more efficient, longer lasting, more reliable, etc. is but one more example of just how limited her knowledge and/or research on the subject is. On one hand she champions "earth friendly" practices, while forgiving her own system's and suggested practices that don't even begin to fill the bill. Me thinks her an opportunistic fraud. Her suggestion that her methods will result in a system that never needs cleaning is complete idiocy. The very process that she is supposedly such an authority on, is the very essence of soil creation. As this process occurs, there will be a build up of solids and... oh what's the use. She doesn't have even a basic understanding of 8th grade science, marketing and sales... yes, but science... nope. The differences between chlorine and chloramine are Aquariast 101. This is news to the author. One can be agitated or evaporated off, and the other not. Not much original thought here, much about what others have done or are doing. Were quotes, reprints, and cut and paste commentary from her own Googling endeavors edited out, I've no doubt the book would be reduced to a pamphlet. It literally takes her 70 pages to get to the first real potentially useful bit of information about aquaponics (once past her mindless world view politics and pseudo-science), but unfortunately, even this is nothing original. Save your dough and spend 20 minutes watching You Tube videos. She actually suggested using Twatter as a source for product recommendations... gimme a break! There are lots of people that manage to keep fish alive while growing plants, and also in intensive aquaculture, in spite of their best attempts at killing everything. Where fish in a closed system are concerned, there is no such thing as too clean. Most of the variables that are left dangling in the author's process can and will create stresses for the fish, but using the idiot tolerant tilapia, they have a decent shot at surviving anyway. Do yourselves and your fish a favor and learn how to care for the animals in particular, properly, before you attempt anything more complex Just about anyone can kill enough fish and plants to eventually work this all out, but thinking that this "author's" extemporaneous ramblings are going to provide a solid basis for avoiding those pitfalls would be a false hope. Take some time to learn about raising and caring for fish, and some plants, individually first. There's plenty of great information on fish keeping and gardening sites to help you accomplish this. You'll doubtless be provided with a broader knowledge base than the person selling this book. I suggest questioning the testimonials and interlocking support offered by others in the so-called aquaponics community. Understand that this is her and another seller of junk cross branding and vouching for one another. Trust your own instincts and intellect. You must be smarter than the average bear to be interested in the subject in the first place, so don't waste your time and money on these wannabe's and sales people trying to separate you from your hard earned dough.