I don't know what they were thinking, but I'd imagine that it was a bit stressful having their world turned inside out and seeing the sun for the first time (or at least the real world and not some dungeon in the bottom of a filter). It will be interesting to see if they survive into the spring, though. I've had 4 fry survive this year - one in the pond, one in the lotus tub (which is fed a constant supply of water via a 1/2" line in the falls - so that guy had to get sucked up by the pump, navigate through the filter, and find his way into that 1/2" line to get into the tub - he's currently inside in an aquarium), and these two in the bottom of the filter - for a total count of approx. 58 goldfish. Needless to say I'm gonna put a good amount up for adoption come springtime since it's fairly overpopulated as it is. Surprisingly I didn't have any water quality or algae problems at all last year.

1 yes worms will go down in an attempt to find cooler climes, and bigger ones sooner, partly cuz they've had longer to migrate 2 the grubs also cause worms to go down - they don't like them - the grubs are an indication of too wet and rotting organics [as opposed to decomposing] 3 the rate any system works depends on the feeding schedule and moisture management - any system is 'fully operational' as soon as the worms are at work processing as much as they can Bill

Actually, that post sounds like it would be inappropriate anywhere on this forum except for ad space....

Been there, done that...lint is such a HUGE annoyance to my life. We're in a 2nd floor condo where the dryer vent ducting goes to the roof through the attic over 20 feet and several elbows. My husband bought the condo years before we met, and the ducting was clogged after several years. At the time, he decided to disconnect the vent from the duct. The resulting moisture did some damage to the cabinetry (swelling of the particle board, even under layers of oil-based paint). Soon after we married, he decided we needed to fix the problem correctly. He went up into the attic and disassembled the ducting, brought it outside, and blew it out with his air compressor. I pushed some cleaning tool through it as well. We can't be doing this regularly! I mean preferably, never again! So, I had him put a filter -- a gallon paint strainer -- over the dryer vent where it connects to the machine. This clogs every month or so, we pull the machine out, disconnect the vent, clean the strainer, and put it back. This is still an annoying chore, but not the nightmare of dealing with the whole duct run. My husband had a cool idea, that what we need to do is sew a new, longer strainer that tapers to a skinny point, so that even when it clogs at the point, there can still be air flowing past the clogged strainer, and we should be able to go longer between cleanings. We got a new dryer last summer, and pulled the ducting out of the attic to clean it -- but it was already clean as a whistle. So, our secondary filter system has kept the duct run clean for 9 years. I found you can buy secondary lint traps with a door that opens to clean them out, but we don't have room to install the box in our laundry room, and I don't think it would work any better or be easier to clean than our homemade filter. When I redo the floor, I plan to put magic slider thingies under the dryer feet to make it easier to move in and out, plus I won't want to gouge my new floor. I have researched other solutions. People claim that solid metal vent will maintain better airflow than pleated, but I think it will still clog because we need 2 90-degree elbows to get it connected to the duct in the wall. And if it clogs, how do we pull out the machine with a non-stretching vent? If we could move the duct in the wall to match the dryer vent outlet, that would eliminate 2 elbows and would probably help... I also found you can install a secondary fan in the ducting near the exit, increasing the airspeed in long ducts so the lint won't clog. They cost $150-200, but if I never had to clean out the duct run or pull out the dryer to clean my makeshift secondary lint trap ever again, it would be well worth it. I also think that our ducting is leaky somewhere, because rooms on the other side of the wall (our master bath) get crusted with lint all the time. Finding and sealing those leaks would probably improve airspeed some, plus save me tons of work cleaning the lint all the time. I think the additional fan is the way to go. In 2 other areas where we replaced an ineffective low-cfm cheap fan with a high-cfm good one, like the hood over our cooktop, it made an amazing difference, night and day. Here is a link that might be useful: example of dryer duct fan