Thought Experiment -- Horse Poo

[Mowbz]

Very clever idea in theory, you;ve clearly put some thought into this!

My main concern however would be "dosing". How do you actively measure a dose of 4ppm? Anything over 8ppm produces the wrong type of n-bacs, and would likely stall the cycle eventually. I guess it would be a case of "suck it and see". (I dont suggest this ) If you chuck some in, and its too much, work out an appropriate water change, ie, if it hits 8ppm, 50% water change should see you down to 4ppm.

The other issue is consistency (and not squidgy sort either ). 9.5% Ammonia solution from a bottle is constant. I very much doubt the concentration of ammonia in the manure will be the same, for the sake of arguement, from each square inch of manure to the next.

As above, cool idea, interested to see if the above could be ironed out to actually get this working.

Very interesting to read about the rabbit "pebbles" also. Might try a layer in a planted tank at some point, see what happens. My only issue with this would be myxomatosis. For those that dont know what it is, very briefly, its possibly the worst disease a ferile rabbit can carry, and its highly contagious. Conservative estimates by National Trust etc reckon on about 80% of the UK's ferile rabbit population have it, and its passed by interbreeding. Its also being found more an more in pet rabbits. Look for bulging red eyes

Ben

 

[ShinySideUp]

Very interesting to read about the rabbit "pebbles" also. Might try a layer in a planted tank at some point, see what happens. My only issue with this would be myxomatosis. For those that dont know what it is, very briefly, its possibly the worst disease a ferile rabbit can carry, and its highly contagious. Conservative estimates by National Trust etc reckon on about 80% of the UK's ferile rabbit population have it, and its passed by interbreeding. Its also being found more an more in pet rabbits. Look for bulging red eyes

Hmm, I have access to bunny pellets as I have two (rabbits, not pellets). The decision there would be whether to use end-stage pellets or cecotropes -- which are often called night-pellets and contain half the fibre and twice the protein of end-stage pellets. Myxomatosis in pet rabbits is well-contained as annual injections will prevent the disease in most cases and in any case makes the disease treatable rather than the the poor prognosis in un-vaccinated bunnies.

More thought is necessary before experimentation I think.

Can't believe I'm even considering this, I must be either mad or short of something to do!

 

[Tizer]

I can sell anyone horse poo for £10 a kilo, i have enough to sink a ship, any takers?

 

[fluttermoth]

Very interesting to read about the rabbit "pebbles" also. Might try a layer in a planted tank at some point, see what happens. My only issue with this would be myxomatosis. For those that dont know what it is, very briefly, its possibly the worst disease a ferile rabbit can carry, and its highly contagious. Conservative estimates by National Trust etc reckon on about 80% of the UK's ferile rabbit population have it, and its passed by interbreeding. Its also being found more an more in pet rabbits. Look for bulging red eyes

Hmm, I have access to bunny pellets as I have two (rabbits, not pellets). The decision there would be whether to use end-stage pellets or cecotropes -- which are often called night-pellets and contain half the fibre and twice the protein of end-stage pellets. Myxomatosis in pet rabbits is well-contained as annual injections will prevent the disease in most cases and in any case makes the disease treatable rather than the the poor prognosis in un-vaccinated bunnies.

More thought is necessary before experimentation I think.

Can't believe I'm even considering this, I must be either mad or short of something to do!

I have used 'bunny pellets'!

I tried it a couple of years ago setting up a low tech planted tank.

I started by setting up and planting the tank, using one 'pellet' under each plant/bunch of plants. Then I left the whole thing for a couple of weeks to let the plants settle in and get a head start.

Then I checked the ammonia level; it was around 1 or 2ppm IIRC (if it had been higher, I would have done a water change to bring it down) so then I added my mature media to the filter and tested again after 12 hours.

The ammnonia was gone, so I knew my media was working and could start stocking, and I'd had a couple of weeks to play around with the aquascape and get the plants how I wanted them.

You wouldn't want a whole layer; that would create far too much ammonia, I think; I used maybe a dozen or so in a four foot tank.

Don't worry about myxomatosis; that disease is very specific to lagomorphs and wouldn't infect fish, although you'd want to use pellets from a healthy rabbit any, IMO.

 

[Mowbz]

FM to the rescue as ever!

Brilliant, so perhaps not a whole layer eh? lol

So, the long an short of this is; horse poop might be messy, but perfectly sized "Pebbles" might just become the new "must have" fert.

Mods, shift us to the planted section, we need to raise awareness of our new thumper brand ferts

 

[Baccus]

Ideally the books state to use the dryer daytime rabbit droppings at a rate of one per plant. I guess you could even do the same with goat or sheep droppings. For me it's easier to get sheep or goat because its illigal to keep rabbits in Queensland. But because your wanting to kick off the cycling of a tank via manure I think fresh as possible will be needed that way any microbes that have survived the digestion process and expulsion into the wider environment have a good chance of still being alive.

And Better is Betta you are correct many infant animals get their future gut flora by eating their mothers droppings ( I've raised orphaned joey's and adult kangaroo droppings are a must have to successfulyl raise the joey's and even more important for koalas), they will also get a limited number of gut flora via mutual grooming.