Well, worm tea won't kill them. It'll actually be of some benefit even if it's not optimal. Big thing is to bubble that tap water & remove the chlorine. A couple of aquarium bubblers work great for that.

BTW, de-chlorinated water is better for plants too. I bubble gallons of water perpetually for my wife to use on house plants. Works better.

Chuckiebtoo

I didnt think the wmart bubblers would be strong enough so I ordered one from petco . # AC-9903 RATED for 13-106 gal.tanks. hp .007 It has a variable speed dial and turned all the way up it seemed to bubble pretty strong enough to satisfy me. The previous night I bubbled a 5gal bucket of tap water all night to make sure it was de-chlorinated.

In the olden days they said letting a gallon of water sit for 24 hours removed the chlorine.

I have heard a lot of different theories on that. All the way from 1 hour to 24hrs. I wonder which is correct or safest to go by. Mine dissapated for around the latter.

"In the olden days they said letting a gallon of water sit for 24 hours removed the chlorine."

Yessirreebob they did. The still say it in the newen days too....everywhere except the places that sell state-of-the-art (?), more expensive, custom bubblers.

Another method of de-chlorination that would work if all else failed or if you wanted to speed up the process taking place au natural in that bucket out on the porch: stirring it with a stick.

In the unlikely event that electricity becomes unavailable, WalMart and Petco are sold out of aerator devices, your front porch turns up missing, and all the sticks have disappeared.....I gotta admit......sometimes I have....ahem....forgive me, spritzed, sprayed, sprinkled, and drizzled raw tap water onto an innocent worm gathering bed with no noticeable increase in worm mortality or decrease in reproductive activity of the afflicted vermi.

cb2

BTW...how ya'll liking the re-design of the forum? Missed it? I just caught a glimpse of it just after logging on and then it disappeared.??

I like that the locked message up top is gone. I think it was an events or something.

Note: Some communities use Chloramine. Call the water company and ask. To remove Chloramine use a product that specifically claims to remove it.

Concerning worm tea and chlorine-- I just assumed with city water thats what I have. I checked with my local waterworks and sure enough my water is treated with chlorine[at the treatment plant]. So Ive been doing the bubbler with buckets of water for gasing off. Then yesterday I read where someone of authority said with city water you should not have chlorine at your home tap. So today I went out and got me a test kit, followed the directions exact per pool supply attendant. Guess what - I had a 0 reading on the chlorine. I checked it twice just to make sure. So for me it appears Im wasting time and money on this aeration crap. The same person who was saying you should have no chlorine at the tap said its the well water that should be checked. Here I thought it was the other way around. So yes someone else said its the people selling these fancy $100 and up brew kits that are scaring people into this and I have to agree.. So you just may not need to worry about it. Its well worth the few dollars for a test kit for peace of mind though. Im sure glad I did not invest in one of those , but I did buy a nice petco pump.

So here I was thinking that by adding the so - called chlorinated water to my worm casting and potting mix that I was killing the microbes in my plants , in other words defeating my purpose or so I thought. So for anyone with a doubt, first contact your water company to find out what your water is treated with then get some test strips especially if your water was treated with only chlorine.

hummersteve to use the "nice petco pump" did you ever as a child want to raise sea monkeys?!?!!

http://www.retronaut.com/2012/03/sea-monkeys-ads-1960s/

I am surprised to find that the chlorine at the tap is zero and the water system is designed that way. Many people have water systems where they can smell the chlorine, or perhaps I am wrong. Interesting. Very Interesting. Thank you for reporting your research.

equinoxequinox

No but I did raise gourami when I was younger even breeding them for awhile. Maybe I can now use my "nice petco pump" to start up another aquarium.

Our local bottled water distributor has an outdoor, coin-operated tap where people may take their bottles (up to 5-gallon size) and for 25 cents a gallon, fill 'em up any hour of the day or night. That is where we get our drinking water. It is filtered, reverse osmosis, etc. and does remove chlorine, so that is what I use on house plants.

We also have a well (water untested since we moved here 6 years ago) and that is what I use on the garden outside. It obviously has iron in it, since there is a pale orange-y "patina" left behind on the white siding of our house. I keep thinking we should have it tested since we are on the edge of town in a rural community with a large farmer's field adjacent, so I often have wondered what ag chemicals may be in there that I really do NOT want on my otherwise organically-grown plants. But at the same time, I do not want to use the city water for the garden (chlorine + expense as we are metered). Rain here in central Ohio is not terribly dependable mid-to-late summer. "Course, with the climate getting pretty wacky, who knows anymore... Sigh.

Even though the test strips read 0 for chlorine the question is just how accurate are they. As has been suggested to me I should still let it sit for a while. Point taken, I will most likely still run the bubbler for an hour or so before adding my mix just to be safe.

Even though my test strips chlorine continue to read zero Im not satisfied how correct that might be, nor am I satisfied running a bubbler x amount of hours without the mix is enough. Yes you can let sit in the sun or overnight , but there are some of us who like to get it started when we want. Petsmart has a product that will dechlorinate in as little as 15min for $3-$5 depending on size you want. So on my next batch that is the route I intend to go add the dechlorinator and still bubble for an hour before adding the mix. On the container the mix says

10gal --- use 1ml

so what the hell is that? So after online research I find that
16 drops = 1ml so depending on how much you intend to make thats a good go by.

I bring this up because after all the time it takes to get good vermicompost I dont want to screw this up for making worm tea. Hope this helps someone.

"I had a 0 reading on the chlorine. I checked it twice just to make sure. So for me it appears Im wasting time and money on this aeration crap."
This if far more often true than not IF your local water processing plant is operating properly.

I'm a little baffled by using chemicals to remove chemicals. Of course I understand that one can combine two "nasty" chemicals and get one "benign" chemical, but the whole concept of ADDING a chemical when I'm trying to REMOVE a chemical seems antithetical to me.

WRT "iron" in your well water: Have a look here: http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/wells/waterquality/ironbacteria.html

Paul

Once upon a time, I worked in a small community where several bottled water companies bottled water. The best water I ever drank was flowing right out of the tap. I got to know a municipal water company worker there. I asked why there was no chlorine smell/taste to the tap water, except on very rare occasions. He said that they only added chlorine before a required test. The rest of the time there was none!

Moral of the story: Your chlorine levels may vary......

My test strips also tested 0 but being the untrusting sort when It comes to my worms. How accurate are the strips/ if there was even a little chlorine in it would it kill my microbes/most likely. So even though mine tests zero I still add the dechlorinator and aerate for an hour or two before adding the mix, thats just me better safe than sorry- or disappointment in lack of success because I didnt go the extra mile.

It's easy to be 'cavalier' when it's someone else's worms. :)

I often employ both belt and suspenders when MY assessment of risk (as opposed to other's assessment of MY risk), calls for such precautions.

Paul

This post was edited by pskvorc on Fri, Apr 25, 14 at 14:39