Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Don't know Stuart... not many feed their worms... but yeah... it would be ironic...

The sad thing is I'd believe it.

I've found red wriggles happily living in my DWC recently.

Cool. Shows that your DO levels must be good.

Second Stuart

Worms do not eat living plant matter, they are the clean up crew.

They will process decomposing material. So in AP systems they help by processing the Poo, uneaten fish food, old roots and anything else that falls into the system and begins to rot. Making it less harmful and reducing the mass.

If there is an over abundance of food there numbers will grow, and they will decline if not enough food. So they will be self sustaining.

The type in the box from Bunnings are Red crawlers and tiger composting worms. They differ from the Earth worm varieties as in they will process much more matter, and breed like rabbits. Earth worms are better in the soil as they do more tunnelling and therefor airate the ground.

They will happily live in water. e.g. I have two worm farms and many time I have drained the sump but not used it immediately due to not enough time. I have gone back to the bucket days even weeks later and all the solids have well and truly settled in the bottom of the bucket. In it I could see many worms from white juveniles to fully matter worms. First time I thought that I had just committed mass genocide of these little buggers but no, they were still wiggling around in the water and happily borrowed into the potting mix I tipped then into.

From my understanding worms are all positive for AP and no downside.
The only bad worms are the ones your dogs and children get.

Thanks Rickie, great points.

I put the worms yesterday in 4 beds approx. 100 g each. I could not find a single one on the surface today, just got disappeared. Ours is a 1/2 inch gravel, hope they are able to tunnel through them. Good news you say they can live in water and no downsides.

I did save 100 g worms and put them in a plastic bucket for now. I was researching stuff for a worm bed model. You said about your worm farms - are these separate from AP system? Dimensions?

They are separate to the AP system. I have had them for around 5 years. They are similar to the ones in the BYAB online shop http://backyardaquaponicsshop.com/shop/ ... fe-3-tier/

Although my two are round.

I use them to compost all my household waste, so not the kind of stuff I would want to be adding to an AP system.

This only applies to soil worm farms doesn't it?

I thought they didn't breed in AP systems.

Why did you think that?

You could be right Jay, my experience has been in the worm farm.
Although it would depend on your system design, I would think some systems would have areas were they would breed happily.
A sponge filter in the grow bed is one such spot I can think of that would work well for them. My syphon tub has a bucket with scourer pads in it and the worms seem to love it.
I had thought from posts from people that have had AP systems longer than me that they did breed in the system.
Won't bother me as I have so many I could just keep adding them.

Many people have not added worms to their systems but have found them there all the same. Given the quantities I've found I assume they are breeding.

every time i pull anything out of my GB i get at least 3 worms and a few eggs tangled in the root system, i put 3 worms in each bed 12 months ago and now cant plant anything without finding a worm they absolutely love it in there

Thanks.. appreciate all your inputs. I am quite enthused about the prospects of vermicomposting side by side AP changing waste-ful to being waste-free.. anyone looking it as a profitable commercial business?

Funny thing these worms have five "hearts".

Worms will be great to process the roots and parts you trim off when harvesting. Although not sure what income source the worms would provide.

Rickle, I purchased these worms @$15 per 1 kg which is big money for such a product.
I read today many people are doing Vermiculture small and also large scale. These African wrigglers are a hot-sell.