Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Moring all,

I have been reading the posts here for some time and decided that it was about time that I registered and became a member. I have had a system running since last year but am currently going through a rebuild as I was not totally happy with the original results. Started fairly small so am expanding.

I do have one question, when I ws moving the clay pellets from one of my grow beds into a new one I found a large colony of worms. There was a small amount of silt in the bottom from the clay even though it was washed prior to being put in the beds. I an not worried about it but was very suprised as the beds flood each hour and take about 10 minutes to drain. I just collected the worms up and moved them to the compose. Was wondering, has anyone else experienced this?

finally, thanks to all those that have without knoledge provided me info in the past and look forward to reading more in the future.

Andy

Worms are good, have a quick read here viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6043&hilit=worms

Oh yea ya want some composting worms in your grow beds, they help break down fish wastes, uneaten feed, old roots and other plant debris that happen to be in the beds.

You should see me when I have to empty a grow bed for whatever reason (usually re-build/design changes) I'm there collecting worms and making sure to put them somewhere they won't dry out or get cooked by the sun so that I can place them back in another grow bed or whatever.

Worms can easily survive under water so long as there is enough dissolved oxygen in the water. Worms breath though their skin so they must remain moist. They are perfectly capable of taking oxygen from water as they are in air, there just needs to be plenty of oxygen for them. Also, in flood and drain gravel beds, if the water doesn't have enough oxygen for them, they can always move to the surface layers of the grow bed.

If you often find worms down in the bottom reaches of your grow beds, that is probably a good sign that there is plenty of oxygen in your water. If your worms flee to the surface layers of your grow beds and you don't find worms down in the bottom when you did down, then I would guess you are already seeing problems of root rot in some of your plants as there isn't enough dissolved oxygen.

Anyway, welcome glad you finally joined up

Yeah, welcome aboard Smooftie... keep those worms in your growbed mate... they like being there... and we like them being there...