Aquaponic tomatoes

Since I first began my aquaponics experiment last Winter I've learned a lot about growing indoors, and also a lot about hydro systems in general (I skipped hydro completely and jumped directly into using fish).  I still have way more learning experience to go, especially since I'll probably be adding another grow bed soon because my fish are getting bigger and dirtier.  My first major issue was lighting, which I fixed by getting rid of those crap "plant and fish" T8's from the hardware store and getting a large T5 assembly.  Originally I had no peppers at all in there, they weren't put in until I pulled out some cabbages that were performing poorly and set up my new lights.  My tomatoes showed little signs of promise at the beginning, but now they literally grow 3-4 inches per day.  I have to trim them about once a week and they've been putting off cluster after cluster of Romas, none of which are ripe yet.  They have taught me an important lesson about space in small grow areas, I'll be pulling them out as soon as the fruits ripen and focusing only on peppers.  They've even grown over into the fish tank a couple of times and found themselves getting nibbled on.
 
Here you can see the two tomato plants on the right (only TWO tomato plants)  shortly after I put in my t5 rig.  They had gotten spindly from the crap lights.

 
 
This shot was maybe 2 months later, it took them a while to get to their present glory.  At that time I still had my fish in a tiny 30 gallon storage tote and they were growing rapidly.  You can see it at the bottom.

 
And a current shot, they have become some sort of monster, seriously.  They hopefully will be ripening soon and I can pull them out of there.  It's ridiculous.  I'm definitely going to be trying some DWC tomatoes next summer, but out on the porch where I have plenty of room.  My compost bin is full of snipped branches from these guys.
 


 
and my friendly pond fish, thought the second shot was really cool the way it picked up the wake of one hitting a pellet


 
 
 

ITS ALIVE!!!
 
Nice setup. Those peppers seem to be liking it as well...
 
I like the 2nd pic too.

I like the set up but yeah, that's space is way too small for tomatoes!
I've been experimenting with a tomato dwc system myself and it has really taken off. I'm learning a lot in the process and can't wait to get the rewards from them!

would help to use a determinite variety which is known for being compact and not extremely bushy.  Fresh tomatoes year round without going outside would be nice

another idea is growing a plant outdoors and trim suckers every time you see them.  Once it's flowering good leave a sucker or two on it and when it gets to be 5" or so cut it off and bring it inside to use.  Tomato cuttings root without hormone and any can do it.  Cool thing is that cutting is the same ageand will flower in no time while small, and won't bush as much.  I grew some cuttings exactly like I said but grew them outside.  When they were 12" tall they were loaded with flowers. 

next spring I'm going for some regular hydroponic tomatoes in DWC buckets outside, I'm converting my aquaponics to peppers only
 
I've never even had Romas do anything BUT grow small and bushy so I was surprised they could even grow like this.  It's probably only a matter of about 2 weeks before they meet their fate in the the compost bin.

I grew some wapsipinicon peach tomatoes this year for the first time and I would love to have them year round.  They're the size of a plum and so good.  I mean all tomatoes taste the same pretty much but these were fairly sweeter than the average and the fuzz gave it a cool affect so to speak lol. I usually grow a mix of varieties and only one or two get brought back next year.  These stay. 
 
http://i.imgur.com/0I0wTBH.jpg

I have an ongoing stable Black Krim strain I usually just plant in the raised bed or in compost buckets for the past 3 years, I might mess around with those because they usually don't get much taller than about 3 feet...but then again...neither did my Romas when I was growing those in soil.  Those Peaches look like some nice tomatoes!

They are.  I m,ade sure to save plenty of seed.  I haven't had black krim but I grew a black prince and they were pretty good.  I had a watermelon variety this year but it did horrible.  Have another type of peach to try next year as well as some pineapple tomato.  Cannot wait for spring lol