I have used tap water with no problems.

thank you

Chlorinated water is always a stress on any living system. Especially since the use of chloramine instead of raw chlorine became widespread. As most of us observe, chlorinated water is better than no water for your plants but plants grow more slowly when they are given chlorinated water over de-chlorinated water or rain water. Most likely because the chlorine damages the soil's bacterial food web hindering nutrient uptake.

Any animal that breathes through its skin or gills suffers from chlorine in its medium. It may not be enough at one time to cause a detectable killings but it will hurt both directly or indirectly.

Why add a stressor to your system when safer alternatives are available? If a chloramine filter on your water supply is unavailable (best option), then use the chlorimine neutralizer chem you can get at pet stores and probable use with your fish.

1. Rain water
2. Chloramine filtered Water
3. Chemically De-Chloramined water
4. Chloramined Tap water.

You can de-chlorinate by leaving a bucket of it outside for a few hours. Stir it, bubble it, swish it if you wanna get rid of the chlorine faster.

Chuckiebtoo

Chuckie:

"You can de-chlorinate by leaving a bucket of it outside for a few hours. Stir it, bubble it, swish it if you wanna get rid of the chlorine faster. "

That was true when they were adding raw chlorine to our water. It was highly toxic but very labile and evaporated easily doing as you described. Now most US municipalities mix chlorine with ammonia to make chloramine; a less toxic but much more stable compound and add it to our water. It could take weeks to break down to non-toxic levels if not exposed to UV light.

Only way to be sure is to use an inexpensive aquarium chloramine test.

Boukmn...are you saying that if the water is treated with chlorine, leaving it out to air will eliminate it but if it is treated with chloramine than it should be treated with a UV light filter. Can the water be treated with the same chemical that is use in aquariums to bind up chloramine or would that be dangerous for the worms tooÃÂ I`ve been thinking of using used aquarium water to `water` my herd but been wondering about the chemicals,

Point taken and appreciated Boukmn.

I use aquarium bubblers myself for AVCT, and I was not up to speed on the new mixtures (although I have read about them casually).

Thank goodness someone corrected my ignorance.

That said, I also have never seen raw tap water affect the wormies adversely, and I do often spray bedding with it.

Chuckiebtoo

BTW....de-chlorinated water is also better for plants too.

Anitasplace;

Certainly UV light plus bubbling (with air pump and air stone) will break the chloramine back into chlorine and ammonia. Then, the chlorine will degas. I do not know if the left over ammonium would affect our worms. Or, how long that UV/O2 treatment approach needs to be run to be safe. To eliminate the left over ammonia, run the water through an aged aquarium filter for a few hours. The cycling bacteria colonies in the filter will quickly convert the potentially toxic ammonium into nitrate which is non-toxic to fish or worms in such tiny concentrations.

To pull this of you will need:

1. Chloramine test kit (Don't use a chlorine test kit)
2. Ammonium test kit. (Don't use a Nitrate or Nitrite kit)
3. UV sterilizer
4. An extra well aged "dirty" aquarium filter (not rinsed recently)
5. Air stone and air pump.

Proceedure:
==========
1. Verify if your municipality uses chloramine (almost all do by now).
2. Test your water's chloramine concentration.
3. Setup the UV sterilizer with the air stone.
~ Do NOT add the dirty filter yet.
4. Test chloramine concentration every hr for at least 3 hrs till the chloramine is undetectable.
5. Test the ammonium. If ammonium is detected,
6. Add the dirty filter and run for a few hours.
7. Test for ammonium.

Once no ammonium is detected, the water is safe. You would only need to run the experiment ONCE to establish how x-time takes to detox x-gallons of water using O2 and UV.

What we do know for certain from years of experience, is the cheap de-chloramine solutions from your pet shop work very well and are the cheapest approach. 1-2 drops per gal is all that is needed to neutralize the split the chlorine from ammonia and neutralize them both.

This post was edited by Boukmn on Sat, Jan 11, 14 at 0:45

Boukmn...that sounds like a lot of fun but, alas, will take time that I do not have in abundance. What I do have is aquarium drops and aquarium water. If the drops are safe for the fish I`m guessing the worms will do swimmingly as well.

And since the possibility of yet another fish tank coming into my life (55 gallon, my biggest ever) I will have an alarming amount of bacterial laden, pre treated, anti-chloramine, de ammonia-ed water, that I think I will just use and not think about starting up another experiment that I will have even less time for.

Thank you for all the info. I`ve always wondered about tap water in the bin so I`ve usually used left over bottled water, which I also have in abundance thanks to my kids.

Anita:

"If the drops are safe for the fish I`m guessing the worms will do swimmingly as well. "

That's the best approach. The drops are safe for the fish and they are safe for the worms.

Wow I did t know people were still posting on this I was originally just asking because when I wash veggies they are wet with tap and I wanted to know if I should dry them or not but I don't bother thanks all

I recommend collecting rain water & using that for both
worms and indoor plants.

Here in Northern Arizona we have a "slight" arsenic problem. 13 parts per billion. Not a biggie BUT I like to err on the side of caution. For our drinking water we buy Reverse Osmosis water from a store in town. At 25 cents a gallon I also use it for my worms and plan to use it for AACT.

Collecting rain water may be illegal in some areas. Yup. Local municipalities claim all rights to any water that falls from the sky.

This policy by some local municipalities I have heard in the US. This is very threatening to freedom. No matter the justification for this policy, once it goes unopposed, the next step is the state or municipality selling "rainwater rights" to private companies so all access to water becomes privatized.

This happened in Bolivia when Aguas del Tunari, a joint venture involving Bechtel bought the countries "water rights" (including rain water) & doubled the price of municipal water. This sparked a revolution that overthrew the government.

sbryce, I've never heard that! Wow. Here in Ontario, rain barrels are encouraged, to cut down on municipal water usage. Most home-owners have at least 1 rain barrel, and out city was routinely giving them away in an annual one-day event. That was cancelled last spring.

I'm posting this to take back what I wrote about checking a bin with a moisture meter. I measured the contents of my Worm Inn with a moisture meter:

The contents were dumped into a bin, thoroughly mixed to mix the damp at the bottom with the dry on the top and sides.

it read Wet . So: a mid-moist measurement might be an OK guide for a new bin,
VC that has been half or more digested by worms, is wetter .

Springtails are an indicator of moisture: Too many springtails, ( in the view of the wormer) probably means the bin is erring toward wet.

Somewhere on this forum is a discussion of the percents of moisture worms can thrive in, if there is sufficient oxygen . For example, they survive in an aquarium with an air pump ? ( All else equal ? & for how long ? )

It might help beginners if we re-aggregate the ways we decide what the wrung sponge means.

Forever.

My interpretation of "wrung-out sponge":

1. Wrung out with only one hand, not two.
2. By an average sized adult human, male or female (that range
   differential is not crucial except for those picky alien inbred
   survivors of the detonation.)
3. Just moist enough to wipe an errant toothbrush splatter off
   the bathroom mirror without excess Colgate-laced spittle
   running onto the cabinet.

Hope this helps.

Chuckiebtoo

Moderation, Diversity, Patience, Liquidity Advocacy

This post was edited by chuckiebtoo on Thu, Sep 25, 14 at 10:25