So I had a major setback for this project, about a month ago I had to move! And let's just say it was a disaster as far as this project is concerned. I considered for about a week what it would take to pack everything up and get it moved into my new (much smaller) place, but to keep my sanity I ultimately decided against it and scrapped the whole thing. I threw out my wooden frame, still have my (empty) 55 gallon tank, gave the fish / tomatoes away, but that doesn't mean I'm giving up! I'm planning on recreating the whole project with more of a focus on aesthetics and practicality rather than volume, I think I'll continue to add updates on "AAG 2.0" here as much of what I'm trying to do still applies even though I'm downsizing.

On the positive side of things I learned a lot about what I did wrong with this first attempt, namely my carpentry skills need some improving because it's not fun handling such a large volume of water when leaks are almost guaranteed and I'm at work for most of the day. I'm also going to take a different approach with sensors, I've got my eye on the GrovePi shield for the Raspberry Pi and I'll be looking into that as a solution. And now that space is such a scarce resource I'll be trying out some ideas for utilizing vertical space for growing, I'm hoping things in my life will calm down soon and I can get a proof-of-concept out within the next month.

While I haven't been working on this project for a little while I have been looking in to what it would take to sell produce to restaurants and at farmer's markets. In setting my own expectations I'll probably be doing only the latter since I won't have nearly enough produce to do anything besides sell a couple dozen heads of lettuce, but if I even get that far I'll be extremely happy.

So here's to a fresh start, I'm honestly taken aback by how much attention this project has gotten here and am very grateful and inspired to get back to building!