Great visit and very effective system. The team was very passionate, educated and aware of the needs of others. Answers with experience not hear say or guessing. It was eye opening and I look forward to working with them in the future.

Wasted my money trying to learn aquaponics with them. Their classes are nothing but hour long sales pitch to have us buy their products.

After taking the time to attend the Nelson and Pade Aquaponics Master Class, it became clear to me they these folks really are the industry leading experts. The passion and zest that their team members radiate to share the 30+ years of experience and knowledge they have developed in the field of aquaponics is second to none. When they say that they have developed a "Science Based" system that WILL yield fruitful results, they are not kidding in the slightest. They have every aspect of the system from technical system operation to plant and fish biology nailed down to such a degree that as long as you take the steps to educate yourself with their program, and apply the information to your aquaponics system, you cannot fail. They are an AMAZING team of individuals, and it is evident to me that they sincerely do want to share what they love with the world, and getting the cleanest, organic, totally chemical free, highest quality, fresh every day produce is something worth being excited about. They are willing to not only disclose all information that they have gained over the years, but also offer a lifetime of support to those who attend their program in order to assist you in becoming truly successful. Attending their class has inspired me to take aquaponis on as a business venture so that one day I can share their vision by contributing to my community with amazing produce and knowledge that can empower local communities around the world to become self reliant in producing all of the produce they could ever dream of. Thank you Nelson and Pade for your outstanding contributions to communities around the world!

I recently attended the master class at Nelson & Pade. As someone interested in commercial Aquaponics, I thought the class was very informative. All of the instructors were extremely knowledgeable & well spoken. I loved meeting everyone one on one & I feel confident working with them through the process of becoming established!

I attended the master class and it was a great way to reality check my plans to get into aquaponics. The staff was super friendly and knowledgeable.

My husband and I did the three day masters course! We were exposed to every aspect of operating an aquaponics farm, and given an education on the science behind it. The Nelson and Pade staff were incredible when it comes to customer service! We left feeling better about our new venture. Many thanks to Rebecca, John, Janelle, Erin, Tiffanie, Jeff, along with show and tell Tim and the rest of the staff.
Cheers!
Peri and Ali Moore

I did the three day Masterclass in March 2019. I found it very useful, informative and it sparked a lot of interest for me. The course was professionally put together but delivered with a down-to-earth nature. All the staff were exceptionally helpful. It was fantastic to see, touch and most importantly eat the ''fruits'' of Nelson & Pade's labour. The course is wide ranging and the instructors are very experienced. I'd recommend it to anyone starting out on their aquaponics journey.

Just as an aside there is an earlier review complaining about a ''hard-sell'' approach taken by N&P. I did not feel like this in any way and was surprised to read such a review. It's a business and they do more than train people so of course there is an element of their other lines included. From my perspective, I was very comfortable.

Over the years Nelson and Pade have inspired me. Every interaction is professional and pleasant. I've attended their workshop and purchased books and they are truly the industry leaders. If you are considering aquaponics for personal or commercial applications Nelson and Pade is the only way to go for your continued success!

I recently purchased a Nelson and Pade, Inc. MicroFarm system and have been very happy with the entire process from the planning stages all the way through the build and now into the actual operation. The staff there has been very open to answering any and all of my questions in a timely manner. (and I have had a lot of questions!!). The system comes with a detailed instruction manual, including pictures, that explains every little piece and exactly where it needs to go. I put the entire system together myself using their plans and had little to no issues. I ran into a couple questions as I was building and called the office and got answers almost immediately on how to fix the issue.
I bought their bundle package that included the greenhouse and the system as well as their Extended Stay Program that I gladly participated in. I found it to be extremely helpful as I spent the entire week running a system just like the one that I had just built. This allowed me to learn all about how to properly operate and manage an aquaponics system in order to maximize my profits without reinventing the wheel. I see some negative comments on their website saying that they could build all of this on their own, and maybe they could, but I don't see the point in spending the time and effort to reinvent the wheel on something that is a bit more complicated than what some may think. The knowledge that the Nelson and Pade team is willing to share with me is worth every penny that I have spent!

Overall, a great company to work with and I would recommend them to anyone!

I've seen several negative reviews of Nelson and Pade. Some were regarding cost. I compare Nelson and Pade to franchises that cost much more than what the training costs for Nelson and Pade.
Compare to the cost of a McDonald's franchise, they require $500,000 in start up costs. Clearly, you can open a burger restaurant for less money, but it won't be a McDonalds.
If you decide you don't like Nelson and Pade that is fine, it doesn't bother me. I just wish I had the money and land to do it.
I am disabled and would have loved to have been able to do this.

Warning, they pushed a fish supplier that knowingly uses sex-reversal hormones! I attended their course back in September and after listening to what amounted to a long sales pitch for their equipment, for which I paid good money, they highly recommended that I purchase fish from a place in New Mexico. The thing that Nelson and Pade didn't disclose was the fact that the State of New Mexico REQUIRES that all tilapia raised in their state be treated with SEX-REVERSAL HORMONES! I did some investigating with New Mexico's Game and Fish department to verify this fact. When I confronted the tilapia supplier, I was told that they have a long-standing agreement with Nelson and Pade to push their fish. The only excuse that they offered was that "sex-reversal hormones we're not required until a few years ago" and they have been working together much longer. WHAT? So basically Nelson and Pade knew that they were recommending tilapia that were treated with testosterone or similar chemical hormones, and decided to continue to promote them anyway? The worst part for me is that I didn't find out until just before I was about to serve one of these tainted fish to my family. I only have myself to blame however, because I ignored all the bad reviews before I spent my money. Stay away folks, Aquaponics is a simple DIY project, you don't need what they are selling!

The Aquaponics Master Class is an amazing overview to the aquaponics world. A very well planned and presented workshop supplying all to information and support you need to be successful in the aquaponics world.

Don't bother. These people's #1 interest is their how thick their wallet is and by any means necessary. No help. No useful info. They are the snakes and sharks of this industry.

We've been trying to get specific dimensions and spec's on N&P's 4x200 commercial aqauponics system for about 10 days now. We are in the process of putting together a complete and solid business plan for a commercial aqauponics greenhouse project. After 3 phone calls, and multiple emails asking specific questions about N&P's 4-200 system we were told by Troy that we don't need specific dimensions and system specs for our business plan. Not true, we absolutely need to know the dimensions of the system for many reasons not the least of which is making a decision on what size greenhouse we would need. We also need acurate energy usage requirements for the system so we can budget annual electricity usage into our business plan. The bottom line is Nelson and Pade's website is intentionally vague, they want you to pay 3K or more for information and simple tech assistance that would be complimentary with other commercial hydroponic and aquaponic system available. Thanks to Nelson and Pade we are convinced that designing and building our own system will not only save us a ton of time (8 weeks from order until system is shipped. We can build it ourselves in 1/2 the time) and money (N&P basically takes products from many other manufactures puts them on a pallet and charges a premium for it) Building it ourselves also saves us the headache of dealing with a company that is only interested in how much money they can charge for information. ($1200 to speak with N&P about installation issues over the phone on top of $40000 for a system thats 90+% off the shelf components.)

I didn't really know much about Aquaponics before touring the facility but I definitely learned a lot by then end. This is truly a state of the art facility. It's amazing the variety of produce you can grow with systems like these. I wish I had more room to purchase one of my own.

Short Story: The Aquaponic Master Class will not teach you to set up your own aquaponic system.

The "Master Class" was only to supplement and convince you to buy one of their systems. If you knew that you had to travel out in the middle of no-where in Wisconsin, pay $1000, and learn nothing helpful in constructing your own aquaponic system, would you go? This was what happened. The Pentair course was much better and this class I had hoped was up to that level. Don't get me wrong, the Pentair course was not perfect, but I did learned every detail of the systems and how to construct and do all calculations there at least. After day one at Nelson and Pade I learned nothing helpful. After Day 2, maybe one thing related to selling fish. Day three was nothing new either.

Dr. Rakocy is referred to as a "lonely professor" and "we came across his work" along with "the reason no one used his system is that it is not economically viable" For all intents and purposes, there system is practically the same system that Dr. Rakocy invented. Dr. Rakocy used to teach courses with them, why doesn't he now? Ask yourself that!

Here are some more examples of what happens there:

Started class by saying that "This class is not supposed to be an infomercial for Nelson and Pade." Difficult to convince me otherwise!

Male presenter reminds you that you signed a "promise"(i.e. contract) to basically not compete with them for 2 years. "We want you to grow food" so they say, but is a "promise" necessary for that? Are they going to sue you if you start a consulting business?

If you ever ask where you can buy something, they tell you "from us!"(just to note that everything I remember seeing can be bought from anyone else online or even at Lowes or Home Depot)

Presentation was interrupted by male presenter randomly to say they you can only take no specific or detailed photos and no recording. ("no pictures of motor plates")

Male presenter also was very into informing that they "charge for project planning" but they keep saying that staff in available to answer questions for "project planning."

They are obsessed with their "patented technology" which is as effective as a coffee filter, yet far more expensive. It is actually based on a design called a mineralization tank designed by Dr. Wilson Lennard.

They pretty much act like you should just not waste you time trying to design a system and just trust them. If you did that then you would pay them for this class, buy a system and ship it to you, then they want you to pay $1200 a week for up to four weeks for up to two people to stay and learn to run your system. Aquaponics is just not that difficult.

We were told that if we had any questions we could email them "WITHIN THE NEXT 30 DAYS!" So much for support of people that paid for the class.

Their focus is for you to put their system in a greenhouse.

Beyond all that happened in the class:

I did not deal with this myself but I was informed by a friend of a customer that if you modify the system that they will drop all support.

As far as positive things, Rebecca Nelson is very nice and inviting. She is a good speaker. The rest of the staff is nice and hard working. The guy that shows you how to fillet the fish was an excellent and friendly presenter. The guy managing the schedule Troy was on top of his game and good at his job.

Will they set you up is a working system? Probably yes. Just be prepared to pay a lot and pay attention to realistic output numbers.

I took a tour from them and was quite impressed with their facility. Clean, well-organized, and the young man giving the tour seemed knowledgable about everything they had going on. I've been interested in aquaponics for some time, and learned a lot on the tour. Thanks!