Nelson and Pade, Inc. - Montello, Wisconsin

The O.

I bought a light kit which came with a 1000W ballast by Yield Lab. The Ballast was DOA. After going through troubleshooting with the manufacturer it was determined that the ballast was broken and would be replaced. After weeks of waiting the replacement arrived. It was USED. Scratched up and bent. It'd been put through the ringer. I'd do business elsewhere.

Fionán

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.

Lucas P.

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.

Troy H.

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.

Megan S.

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! 😊

Alicia M.

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

Tony S.

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!

Drew D.

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.