Decided to make a thread regarding keeping live Blackworms. And feeding them.
I'm kind of time compressed. I'd say lazy but time compressed sounds better. I have a lot on my plate. Point is, I look for the easiest, least time consuming, cheapest, and most convenient way to do things usually.
And this thread is meant to be about keeping them, not breeding/culturing them. That can be done but it's a whole other topic. You will get a good amount of reproduction this way, but not enough for my own needs.
Keeping then in a container in the refrigerator is not for me. Wife hates that, I hate that. And I just can't keep enough that way.
I feed them on a daily basis to 4 tanks. My reef, my kids tank upcoming reef, my frag tank, my quarantine. I go through a good amount.
So this is to just show how I keep them the easiest cheapest way, in my opinion. As well as discussion about the benefits, with some pictures to back it up.
I keep my worms in my garage (temp controlled so winter/summer is no problem). If you don't have a garage, you could always keep them in your basement this way or somewhere out of the way. Room temp is fine.
I have a large flat container they sell at home depot. I believe it's used for mixing cement or something but any flat container will work. I used left over pvc pipes and an old bulkhead from an old tank. I installed this onto the container so that water drains from the top only. This is important do your worms don't get filtered. That drains into a 5g bucket filled with bio balls or whatever media you choose. There is a cheap pump (maxi-jet) at the bottom to pump water back up to the container through some vinyl hose. That is it, very simple and effective once cycled. You may see I have a bubbler in there as well but that's not needed. I left it there from another tank and just never removed it.
One thing to be cautious with is the amount of worms you keep prior to cycle happening. Don't want to kill them with ammonia. Also be careful how many you buy at a time. You can load this thing up but if you use them all up before replacing the bioload shrinks, then you add a ton and cause another cycle. So try to slowly build your supply to what you need. As you can see in my pics it's about time for me to reload my supply. Which for me will be about 3 times what's there. And I go through that in about 3 to 4 weeks, costing about 10 bucks in worms. I feed them occasionally but more often just mysis or the juice after thawing the mysis.
Also if keeping worms this way, use ro water only, no tap water.
So here is my worm system, excuse the Styrofoam bar that's just there to lift it up higher than the bucket "sump".
The worms with some fabric they usually like to hide under but not today...
The worms as I feed. Don't drop the worm water in your tank. You don't know what could be in it. See my tank crash thread where I posted the results of a triton test on my worm water. I only use rodi water for my worms now.
And my fishes getting ready to enjoy them, followed by my fish enjoying them. Happy reefing!
I'm kind of time compressed. I'd say lazy but time compressed sounds better. I have a lot on my plate. Point is, I look for the easiest, least time consuming, cheapest, and most convenient way to do things usually.
And this thread is meant to be about keeping them, not breeding/culturing them. That can be done but it's a whole other topic. You will get a good amount of reproduction this way, but not enough for my own needs.
Keeping then in a container in the refrigerator is not for me. Wife hates that, I hate that. And I just can't keep enough that way.
I feed them on a daily basis to 4 tanks. My reef, my kids tank upcoming reef, my frag tank, my quarantine. I go through a good amount.
So this is to just show how I keep them the easiest cheapest way, in my opinion. As well as discussion about the benefits, with some pictures to back it up.
I keep my worms in my garage (temp controlled so winter/summer is no problem). If you don't have a garage, you could always keep them in your basement this way or somewhere out of the way. Room temp is fine.
I have a large flat container they sell at home depot. I believe it's used for mixing cement or something but any flat container will work. I used left over pvc pipes and an old bulkhead from an old tank. I installed this onto the container so that water drains from the top only. This is important do your worms don't get filtered. That drains into a 5g bucket filled with bio balls or whatever media you choose. There is a cheap pump (maxi-jet) at the bottom to pump water back up to the container through some vinyl hose. That is it, very simple and effective once cycled. You may see I have a bubbler in there as well but that's not needed. I left it there from another tank and just never removed it.
One thing to be cautious with is the amount of worms you keep prior to cycle happening. Don't want to kill them with ammonia. Also be careful how many you buy at a time. You can load this thing up but if you use them all up before replacing the bioload shrinks, then you add a ton and cause another cycle. So try to slowly build your supply to what you need. As you can see in my pics it's about time for me to reload my supply. Which for me will be about 3 times what's there. And I go through that in about 3 to 4 weeks, costing about 10 bucks in worms. I feed them occasionally but more often just mysis or the juice after thawing the mysis.
Also if keeping worms this way, use ro water only, no tap water.
So here is my worm system, excuse the Styrofoam bar that's just there to lift it up higher than the bucket "sump".
The worms with some fabric they usually like to hide under but not today...
The worms as I feed. Don't drop the worm water in your tank. You don't know what could be in it. See my tank crash thread where I posted the results of a triton test on my worm water. I only use rodi water for my worms now.
And my fishes getting ready to enjoy them, followed by my fish enjoying them. Happy reefing!
