John Ford October 9, 2013 October 9, 2013 Well ive been feeding my freshwater tank Blackworms for years I never considered feeding them to my new reef. After reading PaulBs comments/threads I started feeding them to my saltwater as well. Also I have always kept them in my refrigerator. I cant tell you how happy my wife is now that they are in my basement!! I had a few die off in the first couple of days but i think taking some of my freshwater plants and placing them in the lower bucket and some of my gravel debris it helped cycle the buckets. Over a week later all worms are healthy and thriving. I used all parts I had laying around so in theory this didnt cost me anything but 2 hours in rigging parts. I siliconed the lid to the bottom. esp. where i was going to drill my holes and the rest is self explanatory( i think). So far no leaks...
John Ford October 9, 2013 Author October 9, 2013 Everything's upside down. DOAH! Didn't show that way before I posted it. Oh well
Origami October 9, 2013 October 9, 2013 Looks fine here. Do you drill a small hole in the side if the bottom bucket to exit the cord and tubing to the Venturi? Have you thought about adding a visual indicator of the water level in the bottom bucket? Nice project. Thanks for posting it. Sent from my phone
sachabballi reef October 9, 2013 October 9, 2013 wow that is fantastic and looks like something we can actually duplicate....You know I love you PaulB but your worm keeper completely perplexes me....and don't even make my head swirl with the brine shrimp feeding station LOL... I agree with Tom..just a few more details on water level etc great job and thank you very much for sharing this!
John Ford October 9, 2013 Author October 9, 2013 I have a notch in the bottom bucket for the cord and Venturi. I used the white for the bottom bucket so I can somewhat see the water level. I keep it about 3/4 of the way full and the top pipes stick up about 2" in the top bucket. The drain is covered by the screen for my maxi jet 600 to attempt to keep the worms inside the top. So far so good. I really didn't take measurements. I slapped it together just to see if it would work. It worky
paul b October 23, 2013 October 23, 2013 Did you put worms in that thing yet? I see a few problems but I think you will find them soon. First off there is no screen small enough to keep worms out. They will get through anything larger than a rotifer screen and that would clog quickly. Also if you get worms near that sponge, you will never get them out of that and you will have to throw it out with the worms entangles in it unless perhaps you could play rap music near it, they hate that. Just suspend the pump off the bottom of the bucket. Worms swim about as good as Paris Hilton's dog with a cinder block duct taped to it's belly. They don't fare well in powerheads and come out as SPAM.
lnevo October 23, 2013 October 23, 2013 Whats the point of the circulation between the two buckets? Aeration? Why not just a powerhead (suspended as paul suggested) or just an airstone+airpump in one bucket?
Origami October 24, 2013 October 24, 2013 Paul, this looks like a two-bucket setup to me. One above the other. The worms are in the top bucket and most of the water and the pump are in the bottom bucket. His drain (overflow) pipe in the top bucket is a length of tubing that sets the water level in the top bucket (where the worms are). If they're not good swimmers, do you think that they'll make it up and over the overflow and to the screen there?
paul b October 24, 2013 October 24, 2013 It's hard to tell from that picture, but it looks like that strainer is low in the bucket. If it is raised off the bottom, like it may be and that pump runs very slow, it would work. If that pump swirls the water around, the worms will also swirl and go into the strainer. But if the flow is not to much it will work fine.
John Ford October 24, 2013 Author October 24, 2013 Still works great. The drain pipe is 3" off the bottom of the top bucket. I just have my maxi 600 screen covering the drain. A few worms have made it into the bottom but not many so far. That pump is only a 600 sobit just barely circulates water and helps keep the water oxiginated (sp?) Once a week I change the water in the lower bucket and they stay fresh for the most part. When I order new worms I have to change the water every other day for the first few days.
John Ford October 24, 2013 Author October 24, 2013 I do like you setup better Paul. I had these parts laying around so this was more economical. I'm also building a few rooms in the basement so keeping the bucket closed up is helping with the dust factor
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