Best 2020 - Aquaponic Gardening: A Step-by-Step Guide to Raising Vegetables and Fish Together

Best Engineering 2020 ✔ Aquaponic Gardening: A Step-by-Step Guide to Raising Vegetables and Fish Together. 

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Sylvia Bernstein If you’re like me, you read the one-star reviews before buying anything on Amazon. After I read a few of those, I opted use the library instead of Amazon. After I binge-read the first half of my library copy, I bought it. That said, the book is not for everyone, as evidenced by (currently) 3% one-star reviews. These are the issues I think they had, and that others might have:Issue 1: This book is subtitled as a “Step-by-Step Guide” but actually delves into principles rather than being exclusively a guide. If you’re looking for true step-by-step guides, you can find them on YouTube (including very good videos produced by the author) along with many websites. This book might not be for those who already know and understand the principles of aquaponics. For the impatient novice, I’d strongly suggest reading Aquaponic Gardening first so that you know why you’re doing things listed in those step-by-step guides.Issue 2: This information is available for free on the web. True, but the author collected, organized, and summarized it in a way that most people (myself included) would benefit from. I found I appreciated having a conceptual framework from the book before diving into the resources on the web. That said, if you’d rather spend the money on equipment, you can learn the principles yourself by reading and watching, along with trial and error.Issue 3: Ms. Bernstein doesn’t know everything and sometimes oversimplified. Also true, but that’s a fair critique of every author. As a Ph.D. aquaculturist and former science editor for Water Gardening Magazine, I understood the rationale for most simplifications and found few real errors. Undoubtedly, a number of sharp people (many listed in the three pages of acknowledgements) contributed to making the book as good as it is.In summary, if any of the three issues discussed resonate with you, skip this purchase or use the library. But, after doing the latter, I am glad I bought it.

Best Sylvia Bernstein  The amount of real information in this book is rather few and far between. One of the final appendices sums up nearly the entire book's actual information in a handful of pages. The filler (anecdotal caveats and such) is not bad...but ultimately defeats any chance at a useful structure. "Step-by-step" is very misleading. The formatting is almost all endless prose- very few lists, diagrams, tables. And as a whole the treatment of aquaponics is very myopic, giving barely enough small bites of info to accomplish a small consumer sized production and nothing more. Leaving out really any abstract analysis, scientific thesis or expanded potentials.Turns out, if you're really into aquaponics the author is more than happy to recommend over-priced courses in aquaponics. These courses I can only assume include what the book should have been. Oddly enough, the author herself sells some of these courses on her website. Making this whole book all that much more disappointing.I would say the book could use a re-write but I believe the author's purpose was to be intentionally cutesy and barely informative. So my final conclusion of this book puts it in-between a weak diy instructional manual and an infomercial. Pathetic.

Sylvia Bernstein  If you want to get involved in aquaponics, this is the book for you. As the author suggested, I read it cover to cover before I began planning my aquaponics set up and I am very glad I did. I can see lots of mistakes that I would have made that would have cost me it’s lots of wasted money and, frankly, I might have given up. But by following the instructions I was able to put together my aquaponics set up and IT WORKS!!!!!One thing I would suggest is don’t be a slave to exactly she suggests using. For example she suggests using 6 inch PVC to make a media guard, but my big box hardware stores don’t carry 6 inch PVC. Instead, I used 4 inch PVC for the media guard and scaled everything else down on the autosiphon to fit inside it and it works like a dream. The important thing is to understand how things work and what needs to happen, and that is where this book really does the job.My Norwegian seaweed extract will arrive today and that will start my cycling so I can add my fish in a couple of weeks.Buy this book if you want to know about aquaponics. It is amazing!!!