Sadly the project died a few months ago. The aquaponics system has lay dormant for the last few months, slightly stagnating, growing some light pond scum, but otherwise doing nothing. Today I drained it in preparation for disassembly of the system. Overall the biggest issue we faced, and what I believe is the biggest barrier to wide-spread adoption of micro-hydroponics (and aquaponics especially) is the fragility of the system. Over the course of this project we've had several instances of critical leaks, and multiple pump failures. The damage these failures had to the growing plants was severe root rot, causing severely stunted growth and plant death. The regular injections of plant nutrients require constant babysitting of the system.
Overall, Micro-aquaponics in our experience is nowhere near economically competitive with large scale commercial growers. Planting stuff in the ground is harder to screw up.
Hamish
