Vermiponics - Fish, Plants, and Worms

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I would start out with a much much lower number of worms unless you plan on using the vast majority for a compost heap or something. Red wigglers will have no problems populating your growbed once it's established. I would just go buy a cup of em from your local fishing store and call it good.. but seriously, don't add worms until you have a solid bed going.. if you do you'll have to suppliment feeding the worms with leftover veggie matter for a bit until you bed gets established. The worms will try to leave if there isn't enough food for them and nobody wants worms on their floor or worse yet starved dead worms in their growbed.. ick. start small with the worm colony, let it establish itself.
 
Rivermud said:
I would start out with a much much lower number of worms unless you plan on using the vast majority for a compost heap or something. Red wigglers will have no problems populating your growbed once it's established. I would just go buy a cup of em from your local fishing store and call it good.. but seriously, don't add worms until you have a solid bed going.. if you do you'll have to suppliment feeding the worms with leftover veggie matter for a bit until you bed gets established. The worms will try to leave if there isn't enough food for them and nobody wants worms on their floor or worse yet starved dead worms in their growbed.. ick. start small with the worm colony, let it establish itself.
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Duly noted, Just buying so many because I'm starting a Box also. I've intentionally let silt build up in the tank for food. Should I place them only in the GB or will they be fine in the tank also?
 
I don't know how long they will survive unless you have a very oxygen rich environment. I had standard banded nightcrawlers live for 5 days in the tank.. my DO levels are okay but with high temps it's hard to get the DO real high. What do you plan on planting? Are you going to use a seeded bio filter to help get the tank established or are you going to try to cycle the growbed on its own?
 
Rivermud said:
I don't know how long they will survive unless you have a very oxygen rich environment. I had standard banded nightcrawlers live for 5 days in the tank.. my DO levels are okay but with high temps it's hard to get the DO real high. What do you plan on planting? Are you going to use a seeded bio filter to help get the tank established or are you going to try to cycle the growbed on its own?
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Im going to start with house plants and then slowly switch over to leaf lettuce, and maybe peas once the GB matures. I have some seeded bio-balls , that I plan to use in the auxilary gas can. As an experiment I would like to use some type of plastic pellet along with bio-balls In the GB to see if I can achieve results while trying to keep the weight down.

The Tanks current inhabitants are: Shrimp, Scuds, Mts/Ramshorn and pond snails.Thai micro Crabs... and all the other little micro orgs. that are often present. I've had White Clouds, Giant danio, and raboras breed for me. but can't maintain any fish in there becuase they are too predatory on everything else. So it is going to be a fish-less tank. but I want to create as much biodiversity in there that I can. Will probably remove the micro crabs and put dwarf crays... Currently running a powerhead with an aerator. So Im hoping that will suffice.
 
Rivermud said:
what are you going to do for bio load?
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Well this is vermiponics right? between the snails and worms Im hoping that there will be enough. I'm quite sure the tank is understocked ATM, but I plan to push It as far as I can once I get it Plumbed. The tank and bioballs are well "cultured" It's been set up for a year +. Im thinking I will feed the worms shredded veggies. I just need to be able to measure a tangible amount that won't sit around and rot.

The auxillary sump is vital because I want it to remain portable, that way I can wheel it around to all of the tanks in the house and pull solids. If I do this daily and let the "Rig" be the final resting place after removing solids from all tanks. It should provide enough of a load to grow "whatever"... the tank is 48x12x12 the GB is 48x12x9. the sump is 14gl. I have enough seeded bio balls to fill the Sump and GB, Hence my interest in trying to find a synthetic media for it. If anyone knows of a place to get 1/4" plastic pellets... Drop a link. Thoughts?
 
Ahh.. well when feeding shredded veggie matter to your worms i've heard that people have had luck digging a trough filling it with the veggie matter then closing it over.
 
Resurrecting this dead old thread as i plan to get this going again. Life threw me a few curve balls but I am back again.
 
Any updates on your set up Rivermud? I'd like to see some pictures if you got it going.

I've been working on a small aquaponics project over the last few weeks. Reading this thread has given me some ideas, and I think I'll be adding worms to my system once it gets established.
 
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