Tidy Cat litter buckets for black worm culture.

[BF McUmber]

I have a cat, so I have a bunch of kitty litter buckets (Tidy cats Performance). I think they would make a nice tank for my black worm culture because I can easily put a bulk head in their side due to their rectangular shape. In my mind a bulkhead and another bucket will make it more like managing a 6 gallon aquarium as opposed to a 1.5 gallon aquarium like I am currently. 

I have two of the "performance type litter" containers that have been bleached and rinsed out multiple times when I was cleaning rocks. I also have a container of the "free and clear litter type" which is and unscented and carbon based variant, but it has not been rinsed as much. So, I could use the more natural one as one of the buckets if that would be better. 

After bleaching/rinsing the buckets multiple times do you think there would be any leftover residue from the litter that would negatively effect my blackworms or the goby's I feed them to? I can obviously buy other buckets and storage containers but these are such a good size for how I would want to use the bucket. 

Thank you 🙂 

[Zenzo]

On 9/24/2021 at 7:47 PM, BF McUmber said:

I have a cat, so I have a bunch of kitty litter buckets (Tidy cats Performance). I think they would make a nice tank for my black worm culture because I can easily put a bulk head in their side due to their rectangular shape. In my mind a bulkhead and another bucket will make it more like managing a 6 gallon aquarium as opposed to a 1.5 gallon aquarium like I am currently. 

I have two of the "performance type litter" containers that have been bleached and rinsed out multiple times when I was cleaning rocks. I also have a container of the "free and clear litter type" which is and unscented and carbon based variant, but it has not been rinsed as much. So, I could use the more natural one as one of the buckets if that would be better. 

After bleaching/rinsing the buckets multiple times do you think there would be any leftover residue from the litter that would negatively effect my blackworms or the goby's I feed them to? I can obviously buy other buckets and storage containers but these are such a good size for how I would want to use the bucket. 

Thank you 🙂 

Interesting project. I would love to see photos when you are done.

Regarding the residue, if you are concerned with bleach (if you used just regular bleach), you should be fine. A thorough rinsing and drying should do the trick. You can always fill them with water and throw in some dechlorinator and let it sit for a couple of days if you're overly concerned. 

As far as the Tidy Cat Performance residue, here is the MSDS: https://images.homedepot-static.com/catalog/pdfImages/96/96ab7cb9-fc30-46a0-a92a-cbc30d9eafab.pdf

My understanding is that it's mostly a clay and silica (for absorption). The only concern I can see is the deodorizing agent that they use (which I did not explore). 

Maybe someone else that is familiar with the active ingredients (and deodorizer) will comment and give advice.

Good luck!

[Hobbit]

I would feel safer using the containers that held unscented litter. Some companies add stabilizers to scents that are known endocrine disrupters (thanks companies 🙃). Even then, if you’ve rinsed/bleached them several times and can’t smell anything anymore, they’re probably fine. Can’t know for sure until you try it, of course, but if I were you, I’d go for it!

[BF McUmber]

On 9/24/2021 at 11:01 PM, Zenzo said:

Interesting project. I would love to see photos when you are done.

Regarding the residue, if you are concerned with bleach (if you used just regular bleach), you should be fine. A thorough rinsing and drying should do the trick. You can always fill them with water and throw in some dechlorinator and let it sit for a couple of days if you're overly concerned. 

As far as the Tidy Cat Performance residue, here is the MSDS: https://images.homedepot-static.com/catalog/pdfImages/96/96ab7cb9-fc30-46a0-a92a-cbc30d9eafab.pdf

My understanding is that it's mostly a clay and silica (for absorption). The only concern I can see is the deodorizing agent that they use (which I did not explore). 

Maybe someone else that is familiar with the active ingredients (and deodorizer) will comment and give advice.

Good luck!

It will essentially be tiny sump on the tank,  but I will get a picture when I do.  

I think I will rinse out the unscented one more just to hedge my bets. The sump bucket will be a basic one but can be changed out at any time. 

Water changes on it will be super easy. 

[BF McUmber]

This is version number one.  It is running well so far, but only has water in it.  It also does not have the air stone in it.  If it is not leaking over night I will put the worms in it. However, in its final position it will be hard to take a picture of. 

As the worms are sensitive to freshly dechlorinated water,  I plan on removing the bottom bucket to do a water change on my 10 gallon tank. That is why the coupler is there.  

[Streetwise]

LEGO-style.

[BF McUmber]

On 9/29/2021 at 8:57 PM, Streetwise said:

LEGO-style.

Makes it easy

[Hobbit]

That’s pretty neat!

[gardenman]

Kitty litter containers are handy things. I use the jugs that my cats' kitty litter comes in to hold water for topping off the tanks. The jugs are very sturdy, tough, and come free with the litter. If you were to just buy the jugs in a store, you'd end up paying a few bucks for them. You get them free with the litter. It's hard to beat free.

[RadMax8]

Super, super cool idea. I've got almost 20 of those things living in my garage. Maybe I can make a hatchery as well!

[Odd Duck]

I like it!  I used those exact type buckets to make a flow through style Vermicomposter bin for red wigglers and they prospered.  My design didn’t work as I wanted in the long run, but the worms did great.

[BF McUmber]

Guppysnail reminded me I was supposed to circle back to this build as an update, so I will do that now. 

This black worm culture tank has been running for about 6 months now. So far this black worm culture has been working pretty much exactly as expected. I have not ran into any issues so far. I started off with about $2.50 worth of black worms and have not had to buy any more since that initial purchase. I do only feed the black worms to one tank twice a week, so the pullout rate is not terribly high. If I did want more, it would be really easy to daisy chain 4 tanks together to quadruple the grow out space. 

I keep the tank in my basement and over the winter it actually got down to about 45 degrees in the tank, but the black worms did not even flinch. Online they advise you keep black worms in the fridge to keep them alive, so I was not worried about them dying over the winter. When I do a water change on the 10 gallon goby tank I drain the water into the worm tank and that has worked well so far as well. It has grown some sort of grey algae/slime but it has not had any ill effects yet. The tank does not get direct light so not much normal stuff should be growing I hope. I initially had a catappa leaf in the tank, but then also regularly feed the tank hikari algae wafers as well as sometimes some hikari crab cuisine. 

If I was to do it again I think I would try to get a few of the smaller containers and string 2-3 of them together but that is only because I purchased 4 bulkhead tubes. I also cant really move the substrate well to be able to segment the worms, so shallower water or different substrate may be better. It could also be neat if there was a reservoir tank so that I did not have to keep Pulling the pump out when I want to do a water change. Other than that it seems just fine. Let's see if it survives the summer.  

This worm tank is what I attribute the survival of my fish "Skeletor" to. That fish started wasting away and really only eats the black worms. I also don't think he eats all that much when he does eat. I thought for sure he was going to die months ago but he keeps on going. the other fish have taken to frozen food well, but he has not. I've treated him with paracleanse twice as well as levamisole. 

 

[MarkDamon]

Hi make sure to bleach and rinse those buckets real good to get rid of any leftover litter residue. Better safe than sorry, you know? If you're still worried, you could hunt for some different containers.

Edited June 22, 2023 by MarkDamon