Hi everyone! I LOVE the forum!

My name is Jeff, and I am a self employed business owner. I was born and raised in San Jose, California......but I have lived in Tracy, CA for the last 10 years. I'm 36 and married with two little girls.

So why am I here? I have literally been dreaming...DREAMING.....of aquaponics every night for the past couple of weeks. I knew NOTHING about it two weeks ago, but I've been hungrily reading up like a madman day and night ever since!

My goal is start a backyard system - 110 Gallon fish tank, and probably three 40 gallon grow beds. I still am one of those guys you see wandering around a hardware store, looking like a lost boy in a big city. I don't even know how to cut PVC for heaven's sake, but this is something I am determined to do on my own and prove my wife wrong!

She laughed at me when I tried to explain how AWESOME aquaponics was. Of course, she's seen me get excited about things before, so she knows that I get real gung-ho on completely random things!

But anyway, I look forward to your help and support as I design my own backyard system, with literally no prior experience even in gardening. So if I can do this, it will prove that ANYONE can do this!

I am hoping in the next week, I can purchase my stock tanks, and that's about all I have planned out so far! Next would be PVC plumbing, but I honestly don't even know the names of the parts I need (bulk head fitting? gaskets? LOL). I do know that I want to make a flood drain system with Affnan's bell siphon in all three of them. I just don't know if I should also add a separate BIOFILTER to this setup, or if the hydroton will be enough filtering on it's own.

Looking forward to feedback and warm welcomes. HUGS ALL AROUND!