Worm Question

L

lisa

Guest
After months of driving me insane I have come to the conclusion that the worms I feed my girls and boy alter the ph of my tanks, and cause them to have a flakey reaction.
The worms come in a peat/soil mixture which is almost impossible to remove from inside them. So I figure the best thing to do I swap the media they come in and let them pass all the peat before feeding.
But I'm not sure what's best to use. What media won't affect my tank, but will allow the worms to do their thing. I only have a small flat, so I don't really have room for a worm farm either. I know it's kinda off topic but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
i doubt this is the cause of your problem. do you test your waters ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels??? if not then get then checked quickly. also how often do you do water changes? and are you using dechlorinated water?

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Lisa, I'm with Claire. I've fed my axolotls worms that come in peat also, and have never had a problem. But if you have access to some topsoil (try a local garden center for organic soil), a 40 pound bag (that's what they sell in the US) is easily stored, and lasts forever. You could use that. The worms would live happily in it. I'm not sure how much refridgerated worms eat though (assuming you keep your worms in the fridge like I do, to keep them from going bad) and if they don't eat, this won't solve your problem at all.
 
The tank has no ammonia nitrites nitrates, 10% water changes weekly. I use dechlorinator.
I've found if I raise the carbonate hardness to about 4, the fluctuations aren't as big.
Trust me, Ive been trying to figure this out for months, its the peat moss, (I added a little bit of the media to a ph testing kit and the ph dropped about 5 points. The ph only lowers after a poo appears so it can't be anything else. Thankyou for your posts, I shall see how the tanks go now the carbonate hardness is higher. If not, I'll buy some topsoil at work on the weekend.
 
Here's an idea. If you put them in a bowl of topsoil, and left them out overnight, they'd eat, and it'd move through their gut, THEN you could put them in the refrigerator for storage.
 
The tank has no ammonia, nitrite, nitrates? It is completely abnormal for a cycled tank to have no nitrates! If there are zero nitrates, you've got a SERIOUS problem.

Peat does lower pH, although I'm surprised it could have this much affect. Do you have naturally soft water? Raising the carbonate hardness may indeed do the trick. What are you using to raise it?
 
Thanks for the great idea Joan, I shall try it out when I get some topsoil.
In regards to the nitrates, there is no serious problem, just my tank is full of live plants which eat up excess nitrates.
My water than comes out of the tap isnt too bad, I add a teaspoon of blue salts to raise the general hardness to around 10. And I'm trying to keep the carbonate hardness at around 4.
I just have a jar of the generic "Carbonate Hardness Generator". From memory it's just baking soda... or baking powder...?
 
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