Cleaning rock is such a hassle. It only provides surface. Roots work as
well and their owners take out other nutrients. Veggie filters are so far
ahead of mechanical! We use anacharis, parrots feather, water celery and
hyacinth. The celery has wonderful roots at the bottom of the pond that
grab everything and can be flushed or just tossed (grows LOTS). Hyacinth
grows wonderfully, pulling nutrients like mad and with roots that hold baby
fish. The hyacinth floats, so the roots reach down, whereas the celery
roots are at the bottom. Parrots feather has more stringy roots. Babies
hide in it quite well.

For surface area of roots, go with celery. If you can do hyacinth as well
(illegal in some states), you can pull nutrients even faster.

Lots of people can send you plants once the season starts.

Jim

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See our pond at: home.bellsouth.net\p\pwp-jameshurley
Check out Jog-A-Thon fundraiser (clears $140+ per child) at: jogathon.net
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"Tom Wikoff" wrote in message
...
With winter in west-central Ohio on the wane, I am nearly ready to
begin
getting the pond back up and running. This will be the second full year
for the pond. It is approximately 1800 gal with a 200 gal. bio-filter.
That bio-filter has approx. 50 bags of lava rock. Last summer a young
man
at the local nursery/water garden outlet advised me to take out and
replace
the lava rock because of my complaint about string algae. I had never
heard of the need to replace this rock and find the thought of the cost of
replacing it just a bit hard to swallow. Was that sound advice? Can't
the
rock be "cleaned" instead. NOTE: I do keep small bales of barley straw
in
the both the filter and at the waterfall and treat the water with products
recommended by the people who sold me the liner, pump and fish (5 to
date).
The ratio of time I spend maintaining versus enjoying my pond does not set
well with me. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.