Best products from r/AquaDesignInnovations

"Hey There Backers!

Happy 2016!!! We’re extremely excited for this year and we’re looking forward to transform even more living spaces with nature this year and growing this awesome community you all have created!

Here’s a quick outline/table of contents if you’d like to jump around.

0. Livestock packages are coming next week! Our team has worked extremely hard in the last several weeks and over the holidays on gathering all the boxes, heat packs, different livestock and other shipping materials at our tiny San Diego warehouse to make sure you all receive the best looking bettas and the highest quality livestock! Be ready to add more life to your office/home!

1. 2015 in review- what YOU have enabled us to accomplish
   
   
2. New resources for your EcoQube!
   
   
3. The hard lessons learned- A personal note from the creator
   
   
4. Plant Medium
   
   
5. Final Thoughts
   
   2015 in review
   
   Quick review of what YOU have allowed us to accomplish in 2015:
   Over 1 Million people were exposed to the EcoQube
   Over 250,000 people heard about the concept of aquaponics through the EcoQube and ADI
   7000 EcoQubes were created as a concept demonstration of the almost miraculous concept of aquaponics vs just 650 in 2014 (that’s 10X growth!)
   Over 5800 units of EcoQubes were delivered
   The best part is, we all did this together. You all literally made this happen. In 2016, we’re looking to grow this effort by 5x. So that we can continue to demonstrate the beauty of aquaponics and transform the future of indoor environments. There will be more on this in the upcoming months.
   
   As of now, 100% of our focus will be on ensuring all of you succeed with the EcoQube and for the handful of you who have not received your EcoQubes yet, we are making sure you all receive your EcoQubes as soon as possible.
   
   NEW Resources to make it even easier:
   
   We’ve spent a ton of time and resources to create a series of videos, FAQs and blog posts to ensure you all succeed with your EcoQubes. You can check them out here:
   
   FAQs We update this weekly!: http://adiventures.net/pages/faq
   
   Videos: Unboxing: https://youtu.be/jkgxIO7AsZk
   
   Lessons Learned- A personal note from the project creator (Kevin)
   
   We’ve received literally over a THOUSAND messages from you all telling us how much you or your kids love the EcoQube. We love hearing these stories, it’s the reason we get up everyday and the reason we created the EcoQube in the first place. Thank you for sending your wonderful supportive messages to us and please keep them coming!
   
   We also acknowledge there’s still a small portion of you who still have not received your EcoQubes. To those of you, I (Kevin) want to personally say I am very very sorry. I am honestly embarrassed to have continuously disappointed those of you who have entrusted myself and the team to deliver your EcoQubes.
   
   The team and I want to let you all know we are working every single day to overcome these obstacles and any of the potential issues that may have come up for your EcoQubes.
   
   Due to volume exceeding our anticipated campaign goal by over 10x (2500% funded), the fulfillment process had to be handed over to 3rd party fulfillment centers and distributors that could handle such volume.
   
   We’ve been in communication with these partners to prepare for fulfillment since May 2015. With the volume and the slow speed we were experiencing with the US manufacturers, we quickly made the very hard decision to move manufacturing overseas. I have personally spent over 2 months at the factory itself working 12+ hour days 6 days/week picking up screws from the floor, to learning about every grade of acrylic and dozens of other things to ensure the quality of the product.
   
   These links provide you with a brief summary and overview of all the things we worked extremely hard on to make the EcoQube the top notch quality product it is today.
   
   https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kevinzl/ecoqube-c-your-window-to-nature/posts/1317855
   
   https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kevinzl/ecoqube-c-your-window-to-nature/posts/1302384
   
   https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kevinzl/ecoqube-c-your-window-to-nature/posts/1311870
   
   In order to make all the necessary adjustments, the cost of the EcoQube far exceeded our anticipated costs but we knew that was necessary to achieve our true end goal- to introduce the concept of a sustainable ecosystem by bringing a truly gorgeous product to life. This is why we decided not to take any shortcuts and took the extra time as well as pay the premium prices our factory requested. In return, we asked for a premium product and as many of you have already seen, they delivered on what they promised.
   
   The fact is, after the EcoQubes left our factory, we had little to no control of the timing of fulfillment.
   
   We tried our best to be conservative with our estimates but it obviously was not conservative enough. Since 99% of the community has been extremely supportive and we didn’t want to bring unnecessary negativity to this overwhelmingly positive community. We highly contemplated whether to share all this information in a public post but after thousands of messages and seeing the team go through excruciating pain being blamed, cursed at and ridiculed, we decided we had to share everything.
   
   Here is what happened.
   
   Fulfillment for VIPs and in the Americas:
   
   Our Georgia fulfillment center began going out of business in November but we were not notified until December. Their management provided zero support for the fulfillment of our orders. Luckily, we built a strong relationship with 2 of the warehouse workers who cared enough to stay even after payroll stopped to make sure all of our orders were fulfilled. Because they had no support, we worked with the 2 of them across time zones through spreadsheets to fulfill over 4000 orders. By then they had lost their company discounted shipping rates, domestic shipping costs nearly doubled. In addition, without proper software and systems in place, there were orders that were shipped with 2x the items or missing items. This was honestly just the tip of the iceberg, we don’t want to bore you all with too much details that is irrelevant at this point but wanted to give you an idea of the type of obstacles we’ve overcome.
   
   Of course, the right thing to do was immediately coordinate to replace any damaged units and resend missing items even though we do not receive credit from our factory or fulfillment center for their mistakes. For all of you that were affected by this, I want to personally say thank you again for your patience.
   
   Southeast Asia, Middle East, and Australia
   
   All the EcoQubes for these regions have been in Singapore since November, we expected our shipping partner to be able to send all 800 units in 8 days with 2 people. However, this is not the case. They have not been shipping as quickly as we had hoped and being thousands of miles away, we are trying to find a way to expedite this process. We also do not have access to the orders that have shipped or their tracking numbers. We are doing whatever we can to get everything shipped in the next month but little is in our control at the moment.
   
   As we’ve done in all the scenarios above, we will do whatever is within our capabilities to resolve this and get you your EcoQubes. We are still unsure of the timing of delivery but we will keep you all updated. This is as frustrating to us as it is to you. We want you to know care a lot about your orders and we guarantee you will receive your EcoQubes. Thank you all so much for your patience.
   
   Plant Medium
   
   In the past several weeks, we’ve been notified by several of you regarding the white plant media disintegrating under certain conditions. We initially sourced the white plant medium to replace the brown plant medium ( which contains organic tree bark) so that the EcoQube can easily pass through different countries’ customs regulations. Here’s more resources for all the international backers out there! http://adiventures.net/blogs/blog/17567223-international-backers
   
   The white plant medium was tested in our EcoQubes for several months but we do not yet know what conditions are causing the white plant medium to melt. The white plant medium is not harmful to the ecosystem and can be easily replaced by natural ocean sponge which can be found easily online at very affordable prices. We advise against using media like rockwool because harmful mold can easily grow on rockwool and other plant medium that stay too wet over time. Here’s an example of the natural sea sponge we recommend: http://www.amazon.com/Martha-Stewart-32228-Sea-Sponge/dp/B007C7XN1W/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1453467314&sr=8-4&keywords=natural+sponge
   
   Most US EcoQube owners received the brown plant medium but if you have a white plant medium that is disintegrating, please contact us and we will replace it for you immediately for free! =)
   
   Final Thoughts
   
   We fully understand although unexpected obstacles may occur, it is still 100% our responsibility to find a solution. We’ve put in everything we've got and we will learn from our mistakes and continue to do our best. There are roadblocks but it will be a matter of time before they are resolved. We will not stop until it is ALL resolved.
   
   Despite the minor obstacles presented, I am extremely proud of what our team that consists of just 3 full time team members and several interns have been able to accomplish. We try our best to be professional and speak/write like a company would but we do feel it’s important once in awhile to provide you all with an inner perspective. We are a minimum-wage paid small group of recent graduates and student interns who are passionate enough about the EcoQube to be working day and night to make this a reality. 7 months ago, all these EcoQubes were just sheets of plastic."

I bought this Marina C10 on Amazon.com and it keeps the temp around 77 degrees. Marina C10 Compact Heater, 10-Watt https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003TLWWOO/ref=cm_sw_r_other_awd_T246wbTQ0TJ6C