Also, if anybody has comments or improvements to the article but aren't savvy with wikipedia, just post them here and Elisabeth or I can make the changes to the article.

Hi Kris and all,

Dean has done lots more work on the Wikipedia article on vermifilters since he first posted about it here in December 2016. Please do take another look if everything is clearer now:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermifilter

He's also tried to make it clearer what makes this different to a trickling filter.

Vermifilters are a type of wastewater treatment biofilter or trickling filter but with the addition of earthworms to improve treatment efficiency.[3]

He's also separated more clearly the two types of vermifilters for primary treatment and for secondary treatment.

I invite everyone to take a look at the article, even if you are not an expert on this topic - we want to make sure it's fairly clear also for lay persons! So please do take a look and let us know what still needs to be improved.

You can see here on the talk page how Dean and I (and Diane a little bit as well) discussed what could be done to improve it:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Vermifilter
We didn't always agree but that's normal and good! (yes, it can cause frustrations for the first main author, sorry Dean , but I think the end result is worth it)

It is my strong belief that Wikipedia articles benefit from having more than a couple of editors. The more well-meaning editors the better so please do help if you have any interest in this topic. More about vermifilters is in this sub-category of the forum:
forum.susana.org/component/kunena/205-ve...ilets-wet-composting

Thanks Dean for sharing your knowledge and experience with your forum posts and with this Wikipedia article - much appreciated! (I wish other technology developers or implementers were the same as you in terms of "sharing is caring")

Regards,
Elisabeth

Having worked some years ago on a rather obscure membrane water filtration system where grazing of helminith worms turned out to be an important factor in lowering bacterial membrane fouling, I investigated other biobactive systems. Another common example from drinking water treatment are so called biosandfilters that have a living layer called "schmutzdecke" (yes even in English) that largely consists of various bacteria, algae and small worms.
Similar, I saw a few small scale and slightly ill maintained tricklingfilters from small community waste water treatment systems in rural Germany, that included quite a few earthworms and thus would have probably qualified as larger scale vermifilters
So to summarize, I just see a repeating pattern in those biofilters, and vermifilters seem very much like a variant of other common systems.

Hi Elisabeth, I've always thought of the vermifilter as a trickling filter adapted for earthworms. Trickling filter being a subset of (or type of) bio-filter and vermifilter being a subset of (or type of) trickling filter.
How does trickling filter have its own meaning? The principles and process seem the same to me, except that vermifiltration is a variation.

The reference says:

Vermifiltration significantly decreased the sewage water physicochemical parameters compared to an ordinary bio-filter without earthworms.

Yes I had used the source edit page. Found it gruelling at times

cheers
Dean

Thanks a lot, Dean. - However, I need to correct you: coding experience is not necessary when editing Wikipedia. Or let's say it is no longer necessary. The old editor of Wikipedia was a HTML editor (a bit like the editor used in this Forum software). But since about a year or two they have a modern and easy to use "what you see is what you get" editor which you can access by clicking on "edit" rather than "edit source". Dean, are you not using this "what you see is what you get" editor? Normally, the longer-term editors prefer the source editor (as you have direct control then) but novices are better off using the new editor which is much easier. Just to sum up: No coding experience is required when editing Wikipedia!

But it's true that the correct referencing of different types of references takes a bit of getting used to (and some people finde it easier to do or to correct in the source editor).

Coming back to the topic of vermifilters, I don't think this sentence is correct:

Vermifilters are a biofilter or trickling filter but with the addition of earthworms to improve wastewater treatment

The term trickling filter has its own meaning and if anything you could say "vermifiltration has the following similarities with trickling filters: ..." or it is a "type of biofilter". Saying that a vermifilter is a trickling filter plus earthworms is misleading. The reference you quoted to substantiate this statement does not say so either (www.researchgate.net/publication/2564522..._Irrigation_Purposes) - actually, it doesn't even mention the term trickling filter as far as I can see?

Kris, perhaps you could also explain more what you were referring to, as you brought up this "similarities with trickling filters"?

Regards,
Elisabeth

I find wikipedia to not be very user friendly to the uninitiated, but once you get the hang of the interface it is okay. Not easy, but okay... I do wonder if the interface could be improved or simplified.

For example I've just added the following to the article:

Vermifilters are a biofilter or trickling filter but with the addition of earthworms to improve wastewater treatment <ref>Manyuchi, M.M., Kadzungura, L., Boka, S. [www.researchgate.net/publication/2564522..._Irrigation_Purposes Vermifiltration of Sewage Wastewater for Potential Use in Irrigation Purposes Using ''Eisenia fetida'' Earthworms] World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology 78 2013, 538–542.</ref>

Note that the coding for referencing is a bit tricky, one needs the time to learn how to code...

I persevered because there needs to be one place where the information is condensed into a document that anyone can read and understand. I often use wikipedia, but contributions are necessary for it to work.

No idea about the maximum capacity, my experience is only with domestic vermifilter systems... but I'd expect the principles and process would be scaleable, noting that vermifilters haven't been around as long as traditional trickling filters. Would be good to have input from those working on or aware of larger scale systems. There might need to be distinctions drawn between vermi-stabilisation of sewage sludge and decontamination of wastewater though.

cheers
Dean

Thanks Dean for putting the Wikipedia vermifilter page together! I am really chuffed that you got it done against all the odds (and that we have now deleted the superfluous page on vermifiltration and placed a redirect to vermifilter).

Could you perhaps summarise to the others how your experience with creating this article in Wikipedia was? I know that your first draft of the article was deleted - perhaps you could explain to the others:

1. what your frustrations with Wikipedia were or are,
2. what pitfalls you see,
3. what you have learned in the process,
4. why you decided to persevere and
5. which value you see in it for your work?

I think that would be useful to perhaps inspire others or at least to tell them what to expect.

Regarding this point about tricking filters that Kris brought up: I had no idea that there was much in terms of similarities. I know trickling filters quite well from my time with Brisbane Water and Wessex Water, and konw them as large sewage treatment plants with primary settling tanks and final settling tanks (due to the biomass sloughing off as Dean mentioned); whereas I had the impression that vermifilters are usually quite small - what is the maximum capacity they have been built for? Would you really build them to treat the sewage or blackwater of say 10,000 people (trickling filters can be that size or even much bigger still)?

Are there any large utilities out there that have used vermifilters to treat sewage? I wouldn't have thought so.

It would be good if such an explanation (if we have it) could be added to the article on vermifilter (and possibly to the article on trickling filter). Like Kris said, do we have information on similarities, differences and types of uses (including good references to substantiate any statements that we make about vermifilters versus trickling filters?

If the references are out there but we don't have them at our fingertips we can also insert the note

{{citation missing}}

and provide the citation at a later stage (or hope that someone else can find it and insert it!)

Regards,
Elisabeth

Thanks JKM. The vermifilter is only a trickling filter that includes earthworms. In my mind it's more of an evolution of the trickling filter rather than something different. Traditional trickling filters are used for treating blackwater after first settling the sludge. Sewage that includes the solids can be used in a vermifilter.

My gut feeling is that a vermifilter system, because it has a natural balance between earthworm biomass and microbial biomass, offers reliability by adding to the filtration media (vermicastings), which improves both the filtration and aeration of the substrate. In a trickling filter, because earthworms are not grazing the biofilm, there is a buildup of biofilm, which then sloughs off to potentially decompose anaerobically, or requires settling thus forming a sludge. Vermifilters eliminate sludge.

cheers
Dean

Maybe the differences and use-scenarios compared to trickling filters ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickling_filter ) that also often include worms could be explained in a bit more detail?

I've put together an article on Vermifilters for wikipedia. This may interest some of you, especially those interested in the process and principles, which is quite different than dry composting. Any questions please ask. Many thanks to Elisabeth for cajoling me into getting the article to this stage.