yes, that grow bed will easily be supported by the volume of water you have. the big question now is how much of a bio-load are you putting in? Will there be just a few turtles or will you also have say koi or something else compatible with turtles? How many, and how much feed? This will help determine the number of plants you can support. You may find that you have to add things to fill in missing nutrients every once in awhile like chelated iron. Hopefully though with the red wigglers and a good varied diet you can avoid adding much beyond food.
Vermiponics - Fish, Plants, and Worms
- Thread starter Rivermud
- Start date
4 Red eared sliders and probably around 50-60 rosy red minnows for em to chase around. Feed once a day, a little flake, a hand full of pond pellets, and a head of lettuce every other day. As for replacing iron and other minerals would it be horrible to just do a 10-15% water change every month? I can't imagine it having too much of an impact on the system but then again what do I know.
In AP they use Seasol to add missing nutrients to the system. I'll look for the american counterpart and let you know the name. I don't think water changes will add the nutrients you need. You need to add water fairly often as the plants take up a bunch. It sounds like you'll have a decent bio load for the system, just make sure to get it established and cycled. get some solid plant growth before adding worms or they will just try to escape to find better food. You can suppliment the worms diet with veggie based waste.. ie carrot tops, lettuce leaf, corn shucks, whatever you don't use and generally throw away. Do not add any meat based products. There have been people who make a "tea" to help feed the plants and worms but I haven't gone there yet. I might in the near future though as it can help add good things to teh grow beds.
I have alot of Photos plants already growing in my sump that Ill transfer over when I do this. If you can find that product that would be awesome. As for adding veggie based waste I have to suck tons of that out on a weekly basis because they make a mess with the lettuce so that's no problem.
Maxicrop with Chelated Iron, I believe you can find it at Ace Hardware here in the states. It's a very handy thing to have on hand according to a lot of AP people. Lots of trace nutrients to help keep your plants in tip top shape. For you, what would be better than super healthy plants grown by your turtle that in turn feed them again.. win win
Exactly what I figured I going to feed them, pick up after them, and give them a roof over their heads the least they can do is contribute lol. Is there a way to test for the nutrients I need or is it just take some and toss it in?
So with about 350 gallons in the tank since it wont be too full maybe around 18" give or take I should aim for only 500gph going through the filter? that seams almost too low. But I guess I can always get another pump for circulation on the bottom towards the bottom drain.
So with about 350 gallons in the tank since it wont be too full maybe around 18" give or take I should aim for only 500gph going through the filter? that seams almost too low. But I guess I can always get another pump for circulation on the bottom towards the bottom drain.
It's really not low. To give an example, you could probably support a grow bed area 6 times the size of the one you have planned with an increased bio load. In AP they densly populate fish to grow food in grow beds, they have a 12 to 15 minute fill time for their beds and a fairly slow drain time but nearly as slow as the fill. So as you can see they can't really pump their system over real hard, they even go so far and to have their pumps on times with gravity drain systems. Most in AP go with constant flow however due to the ease and the fact that they are primarily interested in food not ornamental fish. My test systems grow bed is too small and thus I fill and drain every 4 minutes or so.. way too fast, it still works but not as well as I would like. I like to give plenty of time from nutrients to get taken up by the plants and then again for air to get to the roots and bacteria.
Oh, and you really don't need 18 inches of grow bed depth. 12 inches has been found to be about optimum in the hobby.
Oh, and you really don't need 18 inches of grow bed depth. 12 inches has been found to be about optimum in the hobby.
I ment 18" for the pond depth. The grow bed I was thinking around 1' 6" but I think ill bump that down a couple inches. Have any good links to some info about AP so I can read up more If you can't tell I'm quite new to it. Thank you for all the help thus far.
Really wish I didn't have to wait till I was done with Military Training and Technical Training to start on this. Its really interesting but I don't have the money to start on it now so all I get to do is doodle. Thank you for the site and the help it will be really useful while setting this up on my turtle pond and may even do something like it for my tank I build for my Oscars.
