Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'd like to hear from people with older systems regarding what they've noticed...........

Ok, fine, i'll start

Worms. we've all found them in our grow beds. i assume they're like most living things and dont eat rocks, so i'd hazard a guess they come for the solids, play their part in their break down and leave us with pre-diluted worm tea.

i had a build up of solids in my GB, with only a few worms, and it was about to trip the system (i.e. was on its way to sp-iking). threw in about 100 works from my worm farm, and 24hr later all the solids were gon and i was getting some higher nitrate readings.

Solids into GBs is fine, but works are essential, otherwise maybe a swirl filter before the gb, then feed the solids into a worm farm or something . . .

Would be hard to run a trial of a worm system beside non worm system because they tend to populate whether you want them to or not.

In some systems I can see that solids removal might be important, but generally only removal from the main water flow for decomposition, then to be returned to the system. And this is generally only in larger systems, floating rafts, NFT etc. Unless your main aim is to grow fish and you're really not so bothered with the plants and only consider them to be a minor water treatment for your waste water. Then why would you waste those solids from the system, especially when the most expensive ongoing running cost is generally feed.

Look at the commercial results of aquaponics, it's all about the plants in your commercial returns, the fish are a very minor part. So how is it any different when sizing down.. Yeah I know everyone loves the fish side...

I'm probably getting a little off track.. The only time I have aver had troubles with solids within a bed was when there were no worms in the bed, as with FB, add worms, problem goes away..

Jeez, I even stuff banana peels and spent brewing grain into the beds to feed the worms some more. I see what they do to the spent grain in the compost bin. The little buggers can chow down big time

I've used swirl filters to take a lot of solids out of my system. But I don't have a lot of media to water, fish ratio. I've run some gb's to the point that the clay does not like to move cos of the solids that keep them in place. Once the worms got to a critical mass the solids never seem to build up any more. Even new gb's I like to run the water 24/7 untill the media gets enough solids to get the worms going. This way I get a lot of plant growth in new gb's.

EB how do you get compost worms from the fish poo

Hey I can post to this one

My 3 year old + system at the old house is totally full of worms, and it has no algae build up problems in the growbeds, and the wter enters the beds in full sunlight.

The older part of the new commercial system is nearing 1 year old, and has a few worms in it, not heaps yet, the ph is still stabilising. There is not too much of an algae problem with the water inlets.

The newer part of the commercial system has pretty much no worms that I can find when removing plants, and still has a relatively high ph nearing 8. It has quite a big problem with algae growing on the surface of the beds where the water enters.

Proof enough for me

Just shoveled old gravel from one bed to another yesterday. Area under the net basket that is the filter for the standpipe had a 1/2" layer of sludge around it. I don't add worms, they must not have found their way in there. BTW it is freezing here so adding worms now wouldn't do much.

On solids: I think it depends. My gravel beds do fine with a lot of solids and no solids. With the worms, its not an issue at all. My DWC bed however has issues when there's too much solids floating around. It's pretty well connected however, when the worms are flourishing in the gravel beds the DWC beds are pretty clean (all connected to same pond). But overall I have to flush out my DWC bed ever so often because it does collect junk.

On worms: I've been talking with a professor studying AP and he's finding that worms are able to chelate nutrients in fish poo that plants normally can't absorb. In his experiments he's finding that with some green veggies, no supplements are needed if your system has a good colony of worms.

Good to hear.... we've been saying that for years...

Hey, hawaiinewbie, the Friendlies use gammarus, water fleas, in their raft systems to keep the solids down. The gammarus colonized on their own. Might be worth a try?

That is interesting.... So as long as the minerals the plants need are in the fish feed and you have worms to break down the fish feed/poo, then you should be set...

You always have to keep the inputs in mind though, if you're using feed that doesn't contain the micro nutrients plants need then you'll have to add them.

swan, tried adding several amphipods (gammarus) and I haven't seen them since. Dunno if they are still around.

EB: the prof was telling me that he makes his own grow blocks from worm compost and that has enough micronutes to carry a head of lettuce through its whole growth cycle. Pretty interesting stuff hes experimenting

When is enough enough i just dug out that giant rubarb and the whole root ball was a solid ball of [mud earth ] and you dig in the bed and its very muddy theres plenty of worms