Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

A few months ago I made up a worm bin from a wheelie bin.

The concept is a through flow system. Feed from the top and harvest from below.

I used a round boat examination hatch thingy to make a removable harvesting point about 120mm from the bottom. Just below this is a plastic sheet drilled with holes and riveted in place with brackets to the sides of the bin. I used a piece of fine shade cloth on top of this to form a more fine screen. At the top I drilled loads of small 1mm holes for a bit of ventilation while hoping to keep flies at bay. On the bottom is a small pipe fitted with a bulkhead fitting to let the 'tea' out which drains into a 20liter plastic bottle. I had to put it on some blocks to make this possible.

I loaded it up with lots of compost for bedding, almost 3/4 to the top and a half a KG of tigers I got from a friend.

The worms have been doing great so far. Masses of babies last I looked and really good activity going down.

Only problem is fruit flies seem to be able to get in there. I guess I have been over feeding it a bit, but the worms don't seem to mind.

I have a video of the thing. I am busy trying to upload it now.

Here is the video

Are they fruit flies or the small ones that hepl with breaking down the food. Their is a mob locallly that builds comercial wheelie worm bins.

fruit flies I think... I know I need a better covering material which would help I guess. Wet carpet underlay was my thinking.. Do you have a link to the mob doing the wheelie worm bins over there?

Wormsdownunder.com.au/wormfarms should find the product. Sorry I do not know how to activate or copy a link on ipad

Cool. I guess it is a pretty obvious idea. I like the bigger bulk wormeries they have. That is more like the size I need. It was fine when I was on my own on the farm and only there a few nights a week but now there are some other people in the house and the kitchen scraps are plentiful the one wheelie worm bin is too small. I wonder if I make another one and connect them with a pipe so the worms can migrate over on their own. I really want to get the worm population really dense so I can start feeding my trout on more worms...

also I see they have developed a better sliding harvesting door. the boat thingy is a pain because it is hard to get the threads clean to put it back on again...

Set up a second on to use, can use an old bathtub or blue barrel.

I use the 220l tumbleweed! http://www.tumbleweed.com.au/Composting.aspx

No flies can get in and neither can rats. It is like a black hole, I keep adding organic waste, mostly food scraps, and it never seems to get full.

The worms don't seem to get dizzy, the scraps break down fairly rapidly and to get some out you just turn it upside down with the lid off until you have enough. I was pulling out handfuls of worms. I never actually put any worms in and I have no idea how they got there but I am quite happy to have them.

The only thing you dont really get is the leachate which comes out the bottom and is apparently not worm tea at all.

I would definitely recommend making a second bin as opposed to connecting two bins with a tube. You can easily divide your current bin in half and put half in each bin (the old and the new). Fill the rest with fresh bedding material and you'll be good to go. This is a better option than picking the worms out and transferring them into a new bin, because new bins take a while to really get going while the microbes and bacteria populations build. By using some of the compost and bedding from the old bin, the new bin will hit the ground running.

I think a 55 gallon drum might be as big as you can get and still be able to move the thing. Maybe use an IBC? If you can get one for free, of course. None of the small commercial ones (like the Worm Inn or Worm 360) will work for your volume of food waste.

Another option could be using a large outdoor bin. Wouldn't be flow through obviously, but if you built a 3 sided wooden box with flat dirt underneath and just a tarp on top to keep moisture in, it could handle a large volume of food.

well now there appear to be BSF larvae in the one worm bin. I am happy on the one hand as I did not even know they occurred here but I am concerned about the worms and the larvae colonies cohabiting in one bin. The BSF do seem to have driven off the other flies. I read up and apparently this does happen. I wonder why.

I am also really confused about how the whole BSF thing works. They obviously become flies and fly off... how does the colony sustain itself?

They very usefully clump together in a large warm writhing mass. I just pick them up by the handful and chuck em to the fish

May need to make up a proper BSF pod now...

Beaware that they eat about 5 times as much as worm does, once they find a good source of food others will lay as well

The adult phase of the BSF lays the eggs, they can't even eat anything, they just have about a week to mate. So to sustain the colony you'd want to keep it attractive for them.

Well I now have a wheelie black soldier fly bin. The worms have wriggled the coop leaving just the BSF behind. Its pretty warm in there... And yes they are ravenous. This is good as my wife produces masses of fruit and veg waste from all the green juices and raw food eating. The worms where struggling to keep up.

So now I need suggestions. I'll need to incorporate some elements like a auto grub harvesting pipe and collection bucket. Also perhaps some larger vent holes at the top to let adult flies in and heat out.

Any Ideas??

"round boat examination hatch thingy" I'll have to use that today when someone comes in looking for access ports...