aquaponics

i'm not sure where to put this...

any aquaponics people out there i would love feed back...

started a aquaponics effort. right now im limited to a 50 gallon barrel with koi and gold fish in it growing about 15 plants. mostly lettuce but there is one grapevine.

i hear that its either bad or just stupid to use rock wool to hold the plants while in hydroton but they are good seed starters, thoughts?

aquaponics videos say when you start a system to use lettuce for the first few grows to get the good bacteria started, can i use something else?

can i transfer large aquaponic grown plants into soil when they are too big for the system ie: trees and grapes?

i've seen murray halem grow papaya in his aquaponics system but can you grow other trees? i think it would be cool to see things like bamboo and surgarcane in the systems. but how cool would it be to see the california redwood (giant sequoia) in aquaponics.

any one have aquaponic potatoe ideas? i've heard you can grow them in shallow ground and its much easier to harvest them.

to sign and spread, please:
a petition to make Organic Certification possible for Aquaponics:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/allow_Organic_Certification_for_more_modern_techniques/?pv=3

Here are a couple of threads Dustin.

https://permies.com/t/10183/organic/aquaponics

Hi Dustin, I don't see any reason why you could not use rock wool, sometimes I use coco coir. You can try to grow anything you want. People grow lettuce because the nutrients are generally low at first, lettuce, kale and greens don't require a lot of nutrients. So when fish are small and system is new its nice to see something growing half decent, and to have live plants in the system. Ya why not transplant things when they get big. My AP system is awesome for rooting cuttings and starting tomatoes etc. Haven't tried papaya yet but now that you mention it, I have a tough time getting them to sprout in dirt sometimes. But I'm not always good about watering them either. Potatoes haven't tried its too hot here I think, best to find seed potatoes to start with. Maybe a barrel with dirt and a drip from your AP. There's lots of options to explore and the ap water gives them a nice boost of fertilizer. Here's a link to a informative site that pretty much has it all. http://community.theaquaponicsource.com/