Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I know there have been several posts from members about the worms in their grow beds. Here's my twist question:

Has anyone tried moderate to aggressive vermicomposting within the GB?

My thinking is that it might be possible to use kitchen scrap composting as feed for the worms in the grow bed in a very integrated manner. The potential obstacles I see are the decay rates of the scraps and the effect flooding will have on the robustness of the worms. There may also be solid particle detritus that makes its way into the fish tanks.

Thoughts?

Your nitrate levels will rise form the scraps returning the nitrogen to the system, most of us a trying to keep these levels under control (and only be supplied by the fish)

More worms scraps less fish quantity

I have added various things to my grow-bed in the past to compost/get eaten by the worms. At present I have about 20 bananas burried in the gravel (the end of a big bunch that ripenned quicker than we could eat them). I am doing this in the hope that it will add potassium to the system. I intend to do similar with various plants that have high levels of trace elements. I always burry things at the far end of the grow-bed, so there is little likelyhood any solids will find the fish tank.

I know beeso set up a little experiment with a small container of scraps in his bed to see if the worms would come in and feed.

Good point, forgot about that

i attempted the aquaponics compost heap but it did not work overly well.
I had two of the pipes that go around the standpipes buried in my bed and then added kitchen waste to them as it came up. Went well initially but after a couple of months i dug into it and found a white somewhat oily substance that smelt foul.

Pulled the pair out after this, so as not to wast growbed space. but did not have a large worm population ( really had no population at all) and also had the though that if the area was larger and up say 10cm off the bottom of the growbed may have done better, but these were just thoughts with no real evidence behind it.
Cheers Nick

I wouldn't have thought worms would like a GB at all, especially flood and drain.
worms breath through their skin so you'd be drowning them every time you flood the GB

My "drowned" worms have been around over 6 months in my F&D system. I see them come up to clean up poo clumps regularly.

Composting vegetable matter in ur gb would deplete DO and compete with ur fish for same. Lot of oxygen used by bacteria to break down organic matter. If ur system is chockers with air, or lowly stocked it may not be as big an issue. My 2 cents.

I continually pull out compost worms from my sump tank that have been living quite comfortably in 400mm deep of water - I think it is the lack of oxygen in the water that drowns worms (this has been stated quite frequently throughout this forum).

When pulling out old plants, I keep finding worms happily living in the GBs, I believe that due to the constant aeration of the water that the DO level is high enough to support worms even if they are submerged for a lengthy period (my thoughts)

ahh yep that makes sense. If the DO in the water is high they breath happily enough.

TT - I think that in a flood and drain bed on a farly rapid cycle, the issue of the 'compost' depleting the DO would noit be an issue. I'll only be using relativelly small amounts anyway of key materials.

Like several hands of bananas

The Muzza approach to stocking densities

but I know what I am doing

do the bananas vary in size between 100gms and 1kg?