Worms in Aquaponics

When I first heard of putting worms in Aquaponics, I just coulnt understand how.

I just assumed that the worms would drown, after all when it rains hard you see worms coming to the surface all the time, so I thought they were drowning, but in fact the water was just pushing the oxygen out of the soil, so the worms had to surface to breath.

As long as you are producing plenty of oxygen whether it be from aeration stones or flooding and draining your beds, then the worms do well. I have even seen worms in the tank, up against an aerator doing well, even very lively.

So now that we can say that worms can survive, why would we even think about putting them in our aquaponic system?

Well there are many reasons, more than I will even list but the basic purposes are as follow:

• They break down solid waste from not only your fish but the decaying plant matter.
  
• Suppress parasites, diseases, and pest including mites, aphids, mealy bugs, and even tomato worms. Basically, keeps your plants healthy.
• Cuts down on how often you have to clean your grow beds.

• Loosens up your grow beds so that the water and nutrients can flow freely to get to all the roots of the plants.

Again, That is just the basics with out getting into the technical mumble jumble.

When deciding to put worms in your system, it is recommended that you  try to buy from a reputably company that sells worms for gardens. Using places like craigs list is ok, but you nver know  what the worms have been growing in, which means you dont know what kind of diseases that may be with them.
If you are using them from your own property say from under stones or where ever you will be harvesting them from, make sure you wash the worms first to get any excess dirt off of them, just in case their is a contaminate on them, not a big deal in my opinion, but it only takes a second to rinse them.

But by adding a few worms here and there to your system, it will give your plants and fish a healthier life.