Anything Wrong with My CBW Tank?

[Bruce]

It's so simple, I figured there's gotta to be something wrong.

This 5 gal tank for the dual worm keeper filter will sit at the bottom of my fridge. I plan to load each basket with 12 oz of worms and change most of the water every other day with pre-chilled, aged-treated water.

Got tired of rinsing and chilling water for 2 worm baskets everyday. Felt like maintaining worms was becoming a hobby instead of the discus. I also wanted to take advantage of ordering discounted worms by the pound through the LFS and to avoid frequent stops there. "You were at the fish store again?"

I'm soliciting criticism of my plans before I order the worms and poke a hole in the fridge seal.

[dred]

Alright,

I understand how this setup will circulate chilled watter to the worms using airlift. So, the setup provides water flow for the worms.

But, I'm not clear on how it will reduce the need to rinse worms/change water. It seems that any worm waste that fouls the water will be more diluted because of higher water volume, but I don't see how the waste is removed or trapped away from the worms.

Rinsing the worms means they are living in water that is frequently renewed, so that they are not living in their own waste. It also seems that you've set yourself up for twice as much work half as often.

You might improve the design a bit by adding a sponge in each tray before the airlift - that way you would be trapping larger waste and you'd eventually have a biofilter which might help. But, it still seems like more work than pouring chilled water across the worms once a day though.

my $.02
milton

[Bruce]

Thanks for your input. Some good points.

I think the challenge is in keeping larger quantities of worms (about 2 lbs) healthy for 5-6 weeks.

Its only been a little more than a week now since I've implemented this system, but the 1-1/2 lbs of worms are doing really well. Hardly any dead, grey ones, they mostly seem to be much more vibrant when I scoop them out to feed to the discus, than when they were in stagnant worm keepers, even though they were only spread to a 1/2" depth.

When I tried rinsing them through the basket, I find that the screen is so fine that it also trapped all the dead worms and did not allow them to float away as with the traditional agitation and pour-out method. So now, instead of rinsing, I do the swish and pour.

Not only did I want to avoid keeping 5 or 6 worm baskets in the fridge, and having to individually clean each one, but I don't feel the water in the worm keeper gets much oxygen. Its got a layer of worms on top, so how does the water at the bottom of the container get oxygenated? And how will this oxygen-deprived water flow through the fine-meshed screen to circulate through the worm cluster and return below?

I wait until the water becomes visibily discolored, to about the same degree that it did after 24 hrs in the stand-alone worm keeper, which now takes about 3 days, before cleaning and changing the water. About 12 minutes, every 3rd day. Best part about it is that the worms seems so much healthier!

I too was thinking about adding a small Dirt Magnet sponge filter, hoping this will keep the water clean longer by processing the ammonia from a few decaying worms.

So far, its working for me, but still looking for a better way. Water is too cold to keep my hands in there for long.Revision II is coming up when I get back from a trip next week, will discuss then.

[BlueTurquoise]

Sounds interesting Bruce, I am looking forward to your revised edition worm life expectancy increaser setup ;D.

[Bruce]

Sounds interesting Bruce, I am looking forward to your revised edition worm life expectancy increaser setup ;D.


Its not working. But found another solution:

For the same reason that water in the base container of the wormkeeper won't circulate through the worms in the basket in normal use, turning the wormkeeper into a flow-through device isn't working either. The screen mesh is too fine and becomes clogged with worm debris too quickly.

Simpler is better. I've taken the entire contraption out of the worm tank and now simply have the worms un-contained, with a cycled Hydro Sponge and an additional airstone for aeration. This is working much better, with less than an inch of worms spread out along the bottom of the tank. Once a week I siphon out 80% of the water, scoop up the amount of worms I'll need for the next few days, then refill from a treated holding bucket I also keep in the fridge. I like doing this rather than trying to clean a couple pounds of worms everyday. The water seems to stay clear and odor free during the week, probably due to the oversized Hydro III. Of the worms I remove, I don't bother cleaning them as they are consumed within 3 days and have been remaining vibrant and healthy as can be.

Half of our large fridgerator is now dedicated to CBW. My wife said something about an obssession. I told her about how some people have a "fishroom" and "worm refridgerators," she just shakes her head and says " . . . you and your fish . . ." and something about being people being sick.
I'm currently looking for a tea-cup Chihuahua to keep her preoccupied and off my back. Anyone know where I can get a Mr. Winkle type of mutt?

[RAWesolowski]

Bruce,

Sounds like you made it simpler and better! I found the screen in the worm pan to be useless, nice place tfor the worms to anchor themselves.

I think Matt uses your new set-up with a twist, runs the RO discharge through a carbon filter to the worm tank... just one more use for the waste water!