The brown/yellow water is produced from the plants. The natural decay of matter in the system causes this. The effect is from the tannins released by the plants. You can clear the water up with water changes, just know that you are removing some of the nutrients for your plants when you do this.. I like the natural yellowing effect personally, it looks more like a natural wild scene to me.
Vermiponics - Fish, Plants, and Worms
- Thread starter Rivermud
- Start date
The brown/yellow water is produced from the plants. The natural decay of matter in the system causes this. The effect is from the tannins released by the plants. You can clear the water up with water changes, just know that you are removing some of the nutrients for your plants when you do this.. I like the natural yellowing effect personally, it looks more like a natural wild scene to me.
I noticed that too but I'm assuming its from people who don't have the best understanding. I saw it on a couple indoor systems with just a single grow bed with 4-5 plants in it and several goldfish in the tank. The few plants are not enough to take care of much more then a single goldfish without doing water changes.
Or it could be this. tho I still think a couple of the smaller systems I saw couldn't handle the bio load put on them.
Parts of the issue could be this. Remember, when you perform water changes you are removing the plants food. This won't kill the plants it will just slow the system down a bit.
Yeah, But if their not using up the nutrients fast enough and its building up I'd think that would call for a small-medium water change depending on the build up level.
Blackworms thrive almost anywhere predation is minimized. Got them in my Oscar tank breaking down turds, he won't eat them due to size. It's barebottom, they must be hiding along the silicone strip or under the decor or maybe the modular deep sand bed. I don't think they can crawl out of the sand bed, but I might be wrong. Either way, worms are easy to grow, do a great job of sand-sifting and make a fine snack. I wouldn't do aquatics without worms in my arsenal. I even have a pet bucket of tubifex from an urban stream. I waited a year before feeding them to anyone, and it proved safe.
That's true in any aquarium. The goal with this type of setup is to have a full circle ecosystem. We provide the fish with the food to grow, they in turn provide the plants and worms with what they need to grow. The plants are our filters and are very efficient at their jobs. If your system needs a water change then perform it by all means. This is not a hands off system by any means, you need to monitor it like you do any other system, the bonefit however is that you get so much more out of the system and provide yourself with food or flowers or whatever.
Nice to know. I know I will be adding my red wigglers here in a few months once i deal with the nasty ich my tank got infested with from my wifes goldfish. The treatment of ich in these tanks is limited because salt hurts plants and heat hurts goldies. I can't use other ich treatments as the are not meant for use on fish for human consumption thus not meant for plants the same way. Figured i'd give you all a heads up on that. The only real way to deal with it is to tryo to add salt to a level that can kill the ich. The plants will suffer and some of your first few crops after that will taste awful. Right now the tank is fishless and I am hoping to let the ich run it's life cycle in a fishless environment. Any idea how long ich can live without fish in the tank?
Yep exactly why I'm so interested in it with my turtles being able to consume a head of lettuce a day and greens being 75%+ of their diet they can work for their food a little =)
And if it works good I might do a second indoor/outdoor pond and do this with koi/goldfish.
Ps that was your 666th post.
