Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi guys
Due to "complications" when building my little system, i ended up with a 100lt GB (1/2 blue barrel) just sitting there unused, so I ......

put in a garden hose from the bottom of it, to just poking out the end (where the loop syphon was ment to come out )
put in a few inchs of blue metal,
then 3 hessian bags,
then dirt, and some other good dirt that had a few worms in it
then i wet it.

Anything I should know/do before I put in the box of 1000 worms I just got?
(I still have to find a cover, i need 1 more bag I dont have.... can i just use newspaper? )

Just doing this as a worm bin? If so, make sure it is in the shade and yes, newspaper, burlap (untreated of course), cardboard (worms really love corrugated cardboard) any of those things are fine to use as a layer over the worms/compost/bedding etc. That is as a worm bin though. I'm not sure what you are planning with the garden hose? For a worm bin, I would simply leave a hole in the bottom to let excess moisture drain out. You only need to wet stuff a little for worms, as moist as a wrung out sponge is as wet as they really need things.

Now if you are talking about using this as part of an AP system, I'm a little worried since dirt generally isn't well draining enough to put much of it in an AP system.

yeah, its just a worm farm, ( can't belive i didn't say that somewhere..... )

the gravel and hose are just for drainage,
It was ment to be a GB, so the hole for the loop was already there, so i had to run the hose from inside the gravel to just poking out the drum

thanks for that, i never thought of cardboard or newspaper for a lid,.... i'll get right on it

(I'll post a system thread for this one soon as i have some pictures, its 100lt gb, 100lt FT, 70(ish)Lt st CHIFT PIST, with a worm farm)