Aquaponics - Recycled Leeks

It turns out it's possible to recycle leeks.

Which is nice.

When you buy or harvest a leek, cut the base off like you might normally do, but perhaps be a little more generous in what you leave. ie cut the bottom off so that it's 1cm thick or so.

Also leave the roots on if they are there still.

Then just stick it into your growbed media and wait patiently for a bit.

If you bought your Leek from a supermarket and the roots are all removed, it takes quite a while before you see new growth. Like all things without roots, they try to grow enough of a root system to keep from getting all thirsty and dead as a priority, then start to put up the all the photosynthesising bits to get on with the business of growing in earnest.

But, if you leave the roots on when you harvest, or better yet, just cut the stem off and leave the roots in the media, you should see new stem growth right from the start.

Pictured here are three store bought Leek bases in different stages of growth.

All of these had no roots at all.

The one I pulled up was just harassed in order to have it's photo taken, but will no doubt be fine because the expanded clay media is very forgiving when doing such things as pulling up a plant just to take a photo of it's roots.

As far as I can tell it's growing normally, and should be a perfectly good Leek in no time.

There's always the chance that something strange might happen and it might turn to a piece of wood or something, but if it does, rest assured I'll probably get around to telling you before you waste too much of your own time doing this.



120ThingsIn20Years thinks it will probably work just fine.

Aquaponics - Constant flood growth

My new constant flood grow beds seem to be working.

And my new constant flood grow bed plants seem to be flourishing.

The spinach has gone crazy.

At least I think the spinach has gone crazy.

It might be silver beet.

But suddenly the words "Silver beet" don't seem to mean anything, so I might be me that's gone crazy.

I think I've thought those words too often during the construction of this post.


I'll stop.

And move on to whatever this is.

This has gone crazy as well.

It's either cucumber or rock melon.

The lettuce in the original grow bed (planted from seedlings) looked like this at various stages of its life, and also seem to be enjoying a good growth rate.

Perhaps the tomato plants were eating all the nutrient. I still have it in a bucket, but it's growth has slowed since being ripped up and cut back to just a few stems.

That blue thing on the left is the bucket with the tomato plants in it.

 All the water for this grow bed goes through the tomato bucket first until I find a proper home for my hacked tomatoes.

I also added two algae eating fish that like to suck onto the side of fish tanks, and eat whatever grows on them. These I put in the old fish tank (now a sump tank) to keep the algae down.

I haven't seen them since.

For some strange reason I didn't take any photo's of them.

As far as I know they are doing fine, but these days there is a stack of plumbing going into and out of the little sump tank, so there are plenty of places for a tiny pair of fish to hide.

I was promised they would love their new home, and grow to be around 10cm long, but I have also been told that there are no cold water varieties of this kind of fish.

Both pieces of advice came from the same aquarium shop.




120 Things in 20 years. Crazy? Growth from my new constant flood aquaponics grow bed? Sucky fish? Only time will tell.

Aquaponics - Duckweed growth rate

I hadn't noticed my duckweed growing, because I tend not to notice such things. But when you compare two photos taken a week apart, it becomes difficult for even the most stubborn unobserver to ignore.

Duckweed grows really fast.

This is what it looked like on the day I bought it.

And this is what it looked like a week later. And I'd given some to the fish!

I only noticed it a few days ago when I was sorting photos.

It does grow only in two dimensions, but it is still amazing.





Duckweed is known for choking river systems, but it's only because the water is far too nutrient rich from fertilizer runoff and other intensive farming and industry. The single leaf with the insect on it still looks the same after a week. I was expecting to be able to show it dividing, but its growth is slow, probably because the water it's in isn't saturated with nutrient.

It's interesting to note the small root system the photo at the top of this post shows. I couldn't see those roots without the aid of the camera. I thought each leaf had a larger white root, but it looks like there are many on each section that will one day become a plant on its own, although its possible that those fine green roots are actually algae or some other type of bio string.

Aquaponics - Silver perch underwater

A front loading washing machine makes fish more visible.

I salvaged the door from a broken front loading washing machine, and suspended it over my fish with the camera sitting inside it. Camera washing machine goggles allow me to see my silver perch underwater. After seeing the results and being able to see the underwater component of my aquaponics test system, I'll definitely be incorporating some kind of porthole into the lager system.

I turned on the powerhead, and pointed the camera where the current was strongest. The fish seemed to love the strong current and spent much of their time in the full strength, rather than taking cover behind the pump at the other end of the tank where it was relatively calm.



While I had the camera outside I thought I'd try to measure my fish. I dropped a 10 cm length of plastic pipe into the fish tank so as to get some idea of their growth rates. And after photographing the school next to the pipe, was surprised to find I actually had eleven. I thought I had nine.

The smallest is still only around 7.5cm and the largest is around 15cm.

I think they might have been much larger if not for the stress they were put under from the poison plant, and the fact that whenever I lost a fish, I would stop feeding them for a day or two, then feed them only a little for the next week. It's standard practice to stop feeding the fish when anything goes wrong in your aquaponics system to ensure there is no extra pressure put on the fish from nitrite or ammonia spikes. Often a fish death can increase your levels of ammonia and nitrite to dangerous levels, so feeding the fish can just add to your woes. It doesn't harm the fish, and potentially can be of great benefit.