Substrate for oxygenators

[Elaine T]

Hi, all
I was at Home Depot and they had half barrels. Next thing I knew, one
was in my cart. :-) I'm going to try running it unlined because wood
dries out horribly here in San Diego, and a half barrel planter I had
literally fell apart after the staves shrank in the sun.

So, The water is a reasonable 60 degrees ;-p and the handful of hornwort
I tossed in from my fishtanks is already growing. I went ahead and mail
ordered some Egerea najas, Cambomba pulcherrima (purple cambomba), and
Vallisneria americana (spiral val) as oxygenators. I figure at least
one of the three should thrive.

I found some 7" plastic planting baskets, but I'm not sure what to put
in them. I do have extra Fluorite from setting up a fishtank. Fluorite
is a fine laterite clay gravel that's high in minerals and iron,
designed to grow true aquatic plants. Will that work in a pond as well
as in fishtanks?

Thanks - and sorry to you folks who are still cutting holes in the ice
with axes.

--
__ Elaine T __
><__'> http://eethomp.com/fish.html <'__><

[Roop]

lol, thanks for the little reminder there :)

last year i used rotala indica as an oxygenator. this plant feeds
mostly from nutrients in the water as ossposed to the roots. you'll
find a lot of aquatic stem plants are like this. for this reason, the
substrate isn't too important. val's are both, cabomba is almost purly
from the water and i'm not certain about your other plant.

florite should be fine. i've heard that other companies make very
similar clay based substrates specifically for ponds. they don't need
to be rinsed and cost a lot less. shultz's aquatic soil was one. there
are a couple others. i have yet to find this at my local home depot
though.

oh yeah, when i was growing rotala indica in my pond, i just used
potting soil with gravel to hold it down. it was about 20x the size
of what i originally put in in the spring. i've never seen it grow
that well. you should see the flowers it makes when it's emersed.

i think florite would be much cleaner than soil and doesn't break down
like soil does. i would recommend you give it a try.

well, i better get back to my 1.5' of snow and my 1' of ice!


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[Charles]

On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 06:41:51 GMT, Elaine T >
wrote:

>Hi, all
>I was at Home Depot and they had half barrels. Next thing I knew, one
>was in my cart. :-) I'm going to try running it unlined because wood
>dries out horribly here in San Diego, and a half barrel planter I had
>literally fell apart after the staves shrank in the sun.
>
>So, The water is a reasonable 60 degrees ;-p and the handful of hornwort
>I tossed in from my fishtanks is already growing. I went ahead and mail
>ordered some Egerea najas, Cambomba pulcherrima (purple cambomba), and
>Vallisneria americana (spiral val) as oxygenators. I figure at least
>one of the three should thrive.
>
>I found some 7" plastic planting baskets, but I'm not sure what to put
>in them. I do have extra Fluorite from setting up a fishtank. Fluorite
>is a fine laterite clay gravel that's high in minerals and iron,
>designed to grow true aquatic plants. Will that work in a pond as well
>as in fishtanks?
>
>Thanks - and sorry to you folks who are still cutting holes in the ice
>with axes.


At the pond store we just use dirt, plain old yard dirt. Make sure
nothing noxious has been sprayed on it, of course.
--
Charles

Does not play well with others.

[Elaine T]

Charles wrote:
> On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 06:41:51 GMT, Elaine T >
> wrote:
>
>
>>Hi, all
>>I was at Home Depot and they had half barrels. Next thing I knew, one
>>was in my cart. :-) I'm going to try running it unlined because wood
>>dries out horribly here in San Diego, and a half barrel planter I had
>>literally fell apart after the staves shrank in the sun.
>>
>>So, The water is a reasonable 60 degrees ;-p and the handful of hornwort
>>I tossed in from my fishtanks is already growing. I went ahead and mail
>>ordered some Egerea najas, Cambomba pulcherrima (purple cambomba), and
>>Vallisneria americana (spiral val) as oxygenators. I figure at least
>>one of the three should thrive.
>>
>>I found some 7" plastic planting baskets, but I'm not sure what to put
>>in them. I do have extra Fluorite from setting up a fishtank. Fluorite
>>is a fine laterite clay gravel that's high in minerals and iron,
>>designed to grow true aquatic plants. Will that work in a pond as well
>>as in fishtanks?
>>
>>Thanks - and sorry to you folks who are still cutting holes in the ice
>>with axes.
>
>
>
> At the pond store we just use dirt, plain old yard dirt. Make sure
> nothing noxious has been sprayed on it, of course.

That's simple enough. I'll use up the extra Fluourite since it would
just sit around anyway and then go with something cheaper once its gone.
Once I get marginals and a lily, my understanding is that they want
real dirt anyway with gravel on top like Roop said.

Unfortunately, I just fertilized everything last week with timed release
granules so dirt from my yard is probably not the best choice. I'll
check my pond suppliers to see what they have or grab some plain potting
soil.

--
__ Elaine T __
><__'> http://eethomp.com/fish.html <'__><

[Charles]

On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 19:19:21 GMT, Elaine T >
wrote:

>Charles wrote:
>> On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 06:41:51 GMT, Elaine T >
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Hi, all
>>>I was at Home Depot and they had half barrels. Next thing I knew, one
>>>was in my cart. :-) I'm going to try running it unlined because wood
>>>dries out horribly here in San Diego, and a half barrel planter I had
>>>literally fell apart after the staves shrank in the sun.
>>>
>>>So, The water is a reasonable 60 degrees ;-p and the handful of hornwort
>>>I tossed in from my fishtanks is already growing. I went ahead and mail
>>>ordered some Egerea najas, Cambomba pulcherrima (purple cambomba), and
>>>Vallisneria americana (spiral val) as oxygenators. I figure at least
>>>one of the three should thrive.
>>>
>>>I found some 7" plastic planting baskets, but I'm not sure what to put
>>>in them. I do have extra Fluorite from setting up a fishtank. Fluorite
>>>is a fine laterite clay gravel that's high in minerals and iron,
>>>designed to grow true aquatic plants. Will that work in a pond as well
>>>as in fishtanks?
>>>
>>>Thanks - and sorry to you folks who are still cutting holes in the ice
>>>with axes.
>>
>>
>>
>> At the pond store we just use dirt, plain old yard dirt. Make sure
>> nothing noxious has been sprayed on it, of course.
>
>That's simple enough. I'll use up the extra Fluourite since it would
>just sit around anyway and then go with something cheaper once its gone.
> Once I get marginals and a lily, my understanding is that they want
>real dirt anyway with gravel on top like Roop said.
>
>Unfortunately, I just fertilized everything last week with timed release
>granules so dirt from my yard is probably not the best choice. I'll
>check my pond suppliers to see what they have or grab some plain potting
>soil.


I read once that potting soil was good for aquariums. what is sold
here as potting soil has a lot of wood particles and perlite. That
stuff floats. what a mess.


--
Charles

Does not play well with others.

[~ Windsong ~]

"Elaine T" > wrote in message
m...
> Hi, all
> I was at Home Depot and they had half barrels. Next thing I knew, one
> was in my cart. :-) I'm going to try running it unlined because wood
> dries out horribly here in San Diego, and a half barrel planter I had
> literally fell apart after the staves shrank in the sun.
>
> So, The water is a reasonable 60 degrees ;-p and the handful of hornwort
> I tossed in from my fishtanks is already growing. I went ahead and mail
> ordered some Egerea najas, Cambomba pulcherrima (purple cambomba), and
> Vallisneria americana (spiral val) as oxygenators. I figure at least
> one of the three should thrive.

## If you fertilize them they should survive.

> I found some 7" plastic planting baskets, but I'm not sure what to put
> in them. I do have extra Fluorite from setting up a fishtank. Fluorite
> is a fine laterite clay gravel that's high in minerals and iron,
> designed to grow true aquatic plants. Will that work in a pond as well
> as in fishtanks?

## It should. That's an expensive way to do it though.

> Thanks - and sorry to you folks who are still cutting holes in the ice
> with axes.

## No ice here. I just set the filter back up on my larger pond yesterday.
--
Carol.... the frugal ponder...
"WORK HARDER, millions in Welfare depend on you."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[~ Windsong ~]

"Roop" > wrote in message
...
> lol, thanks for the little reminder there :)
>
> last year i used rotala indica as an oxygenator. this plant feeds
> mostly from nutrients in the water as ossposed to the roots. you'll
> find a lot of aquatic stem plants are like this. for this reason, the
> substrate isn't too important. val's are both, cabomba is almost purly
> from the water and i'm not certain about your other plant.
>
> florite should be fine. i've heard that other companies make very
> similar clay based substrates specifically for ponds. they don't need
> to be rinsed and cost a lot less. shultz's aquatic soil was one. there
> are a couple others. i have yet to find this at my local home depot
> though.
===========================
Cheapest way is to mix IRONITE in with the soil you plant your plants in,
plus a Rose spike broken in thirds. :-)
--
Carol.... the frugal ponder...
I have a firm grip on reality.
Now I can strangle it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Sean Dinh]

I used kitty litter as substrate for most of my water plants. I only have 1
pot of Water Parsley with garden dirty, when I couldn't find left over.

Elaine T wrote:

> That's simple enough. I'll use up the extra Fluourite since it would
> just sit around anyway and then go with something cheaper once its gone.
> Once I get marginals and a lily, my understanding is that they want
> real dirt anyway with gravel on top like Roop said.
>
> Unfortunately, I just fertilized everything last week with timed release
> granules so dirt from my yard is probably not the best choice. I'll
> check my pond suppliers to see what they have or grab some plain potting
> soil.