I have been running the system in the basement now for coming up on a year now and have recently completed all of the grow lights and grow media needed for full production. I have had a lot of questions surrounding the various costs and upkeep of the indoor aquaponics system and so I thought I would provide as much detail as possible on that. There are two categories of cost to set up something like this, maintenance costs and the one time setup costs to build the system. I will start with the setup costs. I have also included links to many of the items on Amazon that I used in the system. When we originally planned to build this system we had budgeted about $400 and thought I could have it all setup in a couple of weeks. Well, as my wife always tells me "figure twice as much and twice as long". It wasn't quite twice as much but it surely took twice as long to build it! Now, many of you are saying "$600, that is a lot for growing some lettuce in your basement!". At first thought, you are right it is a lot of money. However, if you are looking to build something similar you do not have to be as elaborate as this setup, there are many ways to cut costs as I discuss in the video further. There are cheaper bulkheads, lights, and other components that you can choose from and if you put this in a greenhouse you can cut that cost in half. This setup has been such an amazing experience for me though, I would have paid twice that to do it again. To justify the cost think of it like this, how much do you pay for organic vegetables? How much do you spend on other hobbies such as golf, bowling, sports, games, and other things that you probably don't need. What is it worth for you to have year round vegetables available for you to pick right off of the stem? For us it is a no brainer, it is worth every penny! Once the system is setup the running costs are minimal and the production is just getting started here so lets see how much food we can produce! Now, on to the matter of running costs. Many people have asked about the lights and what they cost to run as well as the rest of the system. I have made some estimations here and attempted to calculate an accurate monthly cost to run this system. The calculations are based on 12 hour run times on the lights at .13 cents per kwh (kilowatt hour). When you relate the monthly cost to so many of the other things that we pay monthly for, Netflix, cable bills, cell phones, data plans, xm radio, hobbies, and other unnecessary things you can easily justify growing your own food indoors. In the end it comes down to what is important to you and your family, yes we can go out and buy fresh produce in the winter. But, where does it come from? Mexico, Brazil, some other far away country? How long has that been frozen or in a truck or airplane? What chemicals were put on it to make it look nice for you at the store? The ultimate goal for us here is to grow enough in the summer to get us through the winter through preserving and canning our fresh food. However, this system will always have a place in our home producing fish and produce for us year round! Products used in this system Aquarium heater - http://tinyurl.com/ndpavyj Float valve for automatic top-off - http://tinyurl.com/q2y4889 Air stone - http://tinyurl.com/qyys84m Air pump - http://tinyurl.com/ngg2hb5 Aquarium water pump - http://tinyurl.com/lj26q2e Bulkhead adapters 2" - http://tinyurl.com/m9nscj9 3/4" - http://tinyurl.com/koqxm8m Giant tub of fish food - http://tinyurl.com/lk8rmdb For more information please visit - www.simplesuburbanliving.com