Fish sediment

[urbanfarmer]

Please keep us updated!

[chrisfoerst]

David, Ok, now I get the SLO method, it’s always helpful to have a visual. I will keep it in mind for another system down the road.

rfeiller, What is the best way to create a current? That sounds like my best option at this point.

Urban Farmer, I am intrigued about adding worms to the gravel at the bottom of the fish tank, but wouldn’t they drown being submersed in water like that?

Thanks for all of the responses!

[keith_r]

worms breath through their skin, as long as the water is oxygenated, they'll be fine..i have worms in my gravel growbeds doin the job, i wouldn't use gravel in the ft, unless i was using an undergravel filter

[chrisfoerst]

Ok, thanks so much! That's what I'll do.

[jackalope]

I had that problem, once, fish poo standing in the bottom of the FT ..... then I took an external filter (Cascade 400) and put the suction in one end of the FT, and the return in the other end of the FT .... Viola! .... it created a 'current' that would cause the fish poo to be driven/sucked into the suction end of the filter. I had plans to revise this approach, by using a piece of PVC pipe on each end , drilled with lots of holes to be able to spread the 'current' over the whole width of the bottom of the tank .... but Winter in Montana came along. One tank froze, even with the heater, and broke out the bottom, drained out when a thaw came along, etc., etc.

I think if you are sucking the water from one end of the FT, running the water into a sump, it will force the fish poo into the sump, then cycle the water into the GBs, then drain the water from the GBs back into the opposite end of the FT it will do the same thing that I experimented with using the external filter.

Just my 2 centavos ...... YMMV!

[urbanfarmer]

Hm, well the setup I had was a fish tank with gravel and worms in the bottom. I had 1 pump taking water up into a hydroton grow bed that would flood and drain. The more "floaty" solids got stuck in the grow bed, and the heavier turds would sink down into the gravel. I only put in 3 or 4 worms to start and in a few months there were tons of them and REALLY FAT. My plants were growing off a few CFL bulbs, and to be honest they were doing better indoors than outdoors by about a factor of 300% in size and vegetable yield (I had peppers mostly). Anyway, it was fun to eat dinner in front of my TV and reach over to my pepper plant and pick a few to add some more spice to it.

I don't grow indoors anymore because it freaks out the ladies when I bring them over... Worms are especially scary and whatnot...

[chrisfoerst]

Hi Jackalope,

I'm going to include a sump with the second system that I am going to start building this coming week and compare how it does to the other one. Are you the one who I spoke to about swirl filters?

[chrisfoerst]

Hi Urban Farmer,

Well, I happen to be a lady who digs worms! This is great, your system sounds very similar to mine. Did you need an under gravel filter of any kind or was it just the gravel and the worms? Did you add any extra air flow under the gravel?

[urbanfarmer]

Hi Urban Farmer,

Well, I happen to be a lady who digs worms! This is great, your system sounds very similar to mine. Did you need an under gravel filter of any kind or was it just the gravel and the worms? Did you add any extra air flow under the gravel?

Well, you are one of the few! I just had gravel and worms. The fish were all fairly small. If I recall correctly, I had 30-40 small goldfish in a 10 gallon tank. They definitely produced TONS of ammonia, but the system converted it EXTREMELY rapidly. I was so impressed. The floaty type solids were sucked up by the pump and typically got left in the growbed above the tank. I did have the water aerated with a bubbler at the time as I did not know any better. I think I had the bubbler in the gravel, but that was just to keep it weighed down as it tended to float otherwise. This was not needed though and didn't do anything extra for the worms being in the gravel.

[chrisfoerst]

I have air bubblers in my tank right now because it was the best, immediate way I knew of to add oxygen to the water. Are you saying that there is a better way to do this?