Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

dangit

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Well, I agree on the two water choices as best to start with. Good Ro will strip out almost anything that is good along with the bad things. I could change over to mountain water but it is going to be a 5 mile truck lug. Not easy over time. The place I am thinking of has a faucet for jugs. Just rather far away. Next time I will get a sample and test it in one of the baby jars. I have 90 liters of jugs now. 60 empty. Our jugs are now 1 dollar a liter so I could buy more the hard part is where to put them in the condo. Empty they stack, full Not so easy.

If the dangit is for editing, me too all I get is SQL problems or no editing at all.

sql seems to be a common issue here

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It's been pretty bad for the last month or so but they've had someone working on it this last few days and it's much better than it was. In the process of getting the forum repaired it was impossible to reach at times over the last few days.

yea the top half could be removed, thanks.

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I still can not find even one stinking worm anywhere. I even bought a hand shovel to look deeper. I think they must have dug them all up and ate them or we just have the wrong type of soil here. Maybe worms don't like clay and sand soils. We do have way too many ants that bite worse then bees. The bites on my foot still hurt after over a week and are red to this day. It is possible that the ants have eaten them all. Need a flame thrower at times to control them. lol

But Bill, how would worm poo be used in making a base concoction of AP water? Toss it in a juicer? And do you know the NPK value for it?

I heard 4-8-4, but that's the brew I reckon. In my experiment I put in plain earthworm poo into the system full of city water and let it run for about 18 hours. I was thinking about ordering red earthworms online until I thought of a perpetually muddy area. The ants we have here are weak, but I have this weird slight phobia of Insects with hives. I go out of my way to destroy ant colonies by various means. I'm also allergic to bees in a non life threatening way. when I get stung I loose my equilibrium for an hour or so.

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I found this on TastefulGarden,

"Worm castings are the richest natural fertilizer known to humans. That's right: as little as a tablespoon of pure worm castings provides enough organic plant nutrients to feed a 6" potted plant for more than two months. Worm castings stimulate plant growth more than any other natural product on the market. Unlike animal manure and artificial fertilizers it is absorbed easily and immediately by plants. But Worm Castings don't only stimulate plant growth: they also enhance the ability of your soil to retain water (because of its texture), and it even inhibits root diseases such as root rot.

You can order worm castings in our catalog in our small bags which are about 2 gallons, or our super large bags which are about 1 cubic foot of castings.

What Are Worm Castings?

Worm Castings contain a highly active biological mixture of bacteria, enzymes, remnants of plant matter and animal manure, as well as earthworm cocoons (while damp). The castings are rich in water-soluble plant nutrients, and contain more than 50% more humus than what is normally found in topsoil.

Worm Castings are packed with minerals that are essential for plant growth, such as concentrated nitrates, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium and calcium. It also contains manganese, copper, zinc, cobalt, borax, iron, carbon and nitrogen. However, the best of all is that these minerals are immediately available to the plant, without the risk of ever burning the plant. Remember that animal manure and chemical fertilizers have to be broken down in the soil before the plant can absorb them.

As the organic matter moves through the alimentary canal of the earthworm, a thin layer of oil is deposited on the castings. This layer erodes over a period of 2 months. So although the plant nutrients are immediately available, they are slowly released to last longer. The cocoons in Worm Castings each contain between 2 and 10 eggs that hatch within 2 weeks. This means that the process of decomposition are continued by the young earthworms in the soil, provided that the soil is loose, damp and rich enough in organic matter for the worms to stay alive.

The bacteria in the alimentary canal of the earthworm transforms organic waste to natural fertilizer. The chemical changes that the organic wastes undergo include deodorizing and neutralizing. This means that the pH of the castings is 7 (neutral) and the castings are odorless (they smell like a forest after rain). The worm castings also contain the bacteria, so the process is continued in the soil, and microbiological activity is promoted."

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This looks like great stuff for the beds. Unless I ground it up, how would it help the water. Grinding would chew up all the eggs. I will try and look for this in a bag at the plant market. Maybe someone there knows worms.

well you'd want to grind it dry, which will kill the eggs. It'll help the water by filling it up with nutes and minerals.

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Ok but I can only grind it if I can find it. using ants would be easy. too easy.

just put worms in you growbed, i think you guys might need to do some more reading.

worm tea / castings are the most known fertiiser ever, everyone knows how good it is, thats why people put worms in the beds (also to speed up solids breakdown)

there is really no need to worry about additive this and removal of that unless you are trying to go commercial AQ/Hydro combo.

just let the things do their things and add extras as the plants need them.... or add worms to the bed (or make a worm farm and add a small amount of worm farm juice every so often)


its really all pretty basic gardening stuff and that is all you need, you dont need to be a scientist.

Yavimaya : I can't find any worms and if they were put in a new system there is nothing for them to eat and they would try to bail out to find food. Or wiggle out. Besides just plain water is boring. The house plants got that for years and did nothing. When they got changed over to AP water they went crazy and one even bloomed after many years. With plants water seems to be the key first step. I am looking for about 8-8-8 to use as a base water. Used to start a bed before connecting it to AP. I doubt if I will kill any fish if I start with a sump to GB and see what happens. When ready, add a pesky fish in the sump and see if it lives. You could wait a year for the bed to mature.

yea, my gravel growbed isn't suitable for worms. They don't need to be there, it's just convenient if they are. worm poo is basically the holy grail of all natural fertilizer, and has everything a plant needs and wants, and I've even seen it used in place of man made nutes in hydroponics of to grow cherry tomatoes as big as golfballs. would probably also improve the taste of greens grown in aquaponics. I plan on using it to grow duckweed to feed tilapia.

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I would settle for the cherries just tasting better. I like them small enough to pop in the mouth. Duckweed should double in quantity every day. You will need a lot of fish.

I have since checked all the given links and found some more on the worms. Yes they seem like gold for the AP system. The Big IF is "I cant find or buy any yet." No local Earth Worms yet!

So what's next on the water list? Banana peal ash?