My 5 gallon blackworm setup

[fast93accord]

So my lfs sells live blackworms. I just found this out a few weeks ago... Wish I knew this a long time ago... I bought a 1/4 lb which is a lot more then I thought it would be. I did a lot of research on people who successfully kept these breeding so I gave it a shot. I have a 5 gallon mini bow. A small sponge filter that's extremely fine. And filtered waer that's dechlorinated. Filled up 1/3,full for now. Bare bottom. Added a ton of Taiwan moss I had growing in an uninhabited tank. No heater. 27 watt desk lamp to keep the moss growing. Needless to say weeks has passed and it still looks great. Blackworms love moss. Very easy to harvest too. e Wish me luck with this simple setup. My discus love them, and my corys have never been happier. The corys r breeding for the first time. The blackworms that make it into the pfs in my 55g are living in the sand...

[fast93accord]

http://img.tapatalk.com/47f5c298-b11f-67d9.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/47f5c298-b130-32d0.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/47f5c298-b140-efa8.jpg these pics r the day of setup a while ago... Since then the worms r more evenly spaced and active. They look like mini red wigglers. Lol

[Wes]

Don't know if you have seen this thread, a lot of good info. http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?90266-The-ultimate-Hobbyist-California-Blackworm-Keeper

[Rummy]

Thanks for showing us. Please keep us posted on how things work out in the long term.

[seanyuki]

Why question a person just sharing his thought and personal experience in the forum.........imo everyday we learn something new from hobbyists.



Don't know if you have seen this thread, a lot of good info. http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?90266-The-ultimate-Hobbyist-California-Blackworm-Keeper

[fast93accord]

Yes I previous read that thread. I want to try this my own way... When I'm diagnosing a complex electical problem on a vehicle we have a saying. K.I.S.S. keep it simple stupid. About 7 years ago I proved to myself that anything is possible. I took a 140 HP Honda accord and wanted to make it fast. Most people bashed the idea of me not using a popular vtec engine to do this, but instead using the simple sohc non vtec factory engine. I was the first person to attempt this. I did my homework. Built the engine to handle 1000 HP. Yet set it up for 680hp max. I did absolutely everything myself besides the machine work. I bought a book on theory of head porting, ported the head myself, totally redesigning the ports...a book on turbochargers, and spent weeks doing math on the best turbo for my application, bought a $1700 computer for the car that I tuned 100% myself. People said the car would never break 13's in the 1/4 mile. 1st pass ever, babying it the car went 13.2 at 112mph. Needless to say after more tuning the car made 525hp on pump gas, and 620 HP on race fuel and more boost... The car ran low 11 second times at 124 mph before I bought a house and haven't touched the car since due to money issues. The point of this story is don't be a follower, be a leader... There's nothing wrong with trying things differently... The worst that can happen is u fail and need to try again, making some changes...

[Wes]

Why question a person just sharing his thought and personal experience in the forum.........imo everyday we learn something new from hobbyists. Not questioning anything. Just said there is alot of info in that thread..

[Wes]

Yes I previous read that thread. I want to try this my own way... There's nothing wrong with trying things differently... The worst that can happen is u fail and need to try again, making some changes... Did I say there was anything wrong with what you did or place a negitive comment? I have been keeping up with that other thread and it came to mind. Thought you would think it was intresting if you haven't seen it yet.

[fast93accord]

No,no, I didn't mean my story in a negative way... It's just others have said u can't use sponge filters and have these over complex setups...

[Wes]

Starting over. Nice setup, will be checking for updates :)

[Darrell Ward]

In my experence keeping blackworms outside the fridge, bio filtration is extremely important. I went for few weeks without any worms in my setup, and foolishly added worms without adding any freshly cycled bio media. I lost quite a few within a few days. :(

[fast93accord]

Starting over. Nice setup, will be checking for updates :)

Thanks :)

The sponge filter is cycled...

[lgomezvi]

hi 93 accord. I used to feed my discus live blackworms as well (sold by a LFS). But I grew tired of going every week to pick up another batch. Now they are eating all the regular stuff, but I always like feeding blackworms cuz they went wild for them.

i also tried to grow them, but in a small tank with an air stone. my only problem keeping them was they really started to STINK after about 24 yrs. So before the 24 hrs I would rinse they in dechlor water and try again. Does the sponge filter/moss keep the smell down?? Thanks.

[Darrell Ward]

When I first put a load of worms in, they will smell for a couple of days. I combat this problem with 100% water changes and carbon. After a couple of days, they quit stinking. I guess they have to settle in or something, not sure.

[fast93accord]

Honestly, I haven't changed the water yet... It's been around 2 weeks going. I plan to double the water volume later today. And there has been absolutely no odor... The moss had a nice earthy forest smell when I rinsed it before putting it in. The moss was covered with algae and the worms ate it all. They love moss from what I read.

[Darrell Ward]

The small amount of worms in the tank, as opposed to 2 lbs. plus, probably helps with the initial worm odor as well.

[Stag]

fast93accord,

Neat project. Have you done the math to find out about how many worms you will need to suppost your discus? Keep it up. Keep us posted.

[fast93accord]

No I haven't. I've been feeding 6 discus these worms, so who knows if ill run low before the population grows... If i do ill buy more. A lb is $25 at my lfs...

[fast93accord]

Failure. Came home last night to see the water clouded and a lot of death...

[gerrard00]

Failure. Came home last night to see the water clouded and a lot of death...

Sorry to hear that, but thanks for posting a follow up. So many people neglect to do that if things go wrong.

[Darrell Ward]

Good bio filtration on these set ups is important.

[fast93accord]

I have a cycled Ac20 filter ill try using in replace of the spongefilter next time....