pond filter

"ken" wrote in message
s.com...
I am in the midst of making my own pond filter. I was going to use
charcoal brickets from the barbeque. A friend advised me to be
careful. Does anyone out there know if this is a good idea or not? If
not, what are the possible substitutes?
Thanks for all your help.
--

Charcoal briquets are just dust charcoal held together with some kind of
glue - personaally I think they make food taste funny so I never use them &
I certainly wouldn't put them in a pond filter - I would have thought they'd
disintegrate.

The easiest/cheapest thing to do is to get some of that black corrugated
hose they sell for pond pipework - about 1/2 or 3/4" dia should do. Chop it
up into pieces an inch or so long and stick them in the filter. All you are
looking for is as much surface area for bacteria to grow on as possible but
without making it so dense that the filter will clog. I've read of people
using chopped up drinking straws - but I think it would be quite a loabour
intensive thing to try & do!

I.

On Fri, 01 Aug 2003 22:55:03 GMT, ken
wrote:

I am in the midst of making my own pond filter. I was going to use
charcoal brickets from the barbeque. A friend advised me to be
careful. Does anyone out there know if this is a good idea or not? If
not, what are the possible substitutes?
Thanks for all your help.

A biofilter is simply a place for bacteria to grow on a surface. A
material that could be rinsed of algae and dead stuff would be more
practical. There are filters with broken clay pots, bio balls,
plastic pieces of a number of description that work well. Charcoal
and things that absorb ammonia worry me because some of those things
saturate and release the ammonia back into the pond under some
conditions.

Regards,

Hal

"ken" wrote in message
s.com...
I am in the midst of making my own pond filter. I was going to use
charcoal brickets from the barbeque. A friend advised me to be
careful. Does anyone out there know if this is a good idea or not? If
not, what are the possible substitutes?
Thanks for all your help.


I am going to attempt to start a new elist trend here on rec.ponds and
suggest you abandon the SILLY idea of a bio-mechanical filter, and build a
VF. VF'ers rule. The yahoo's on this group with bio-mechanical filters are
just sadist that like doing too much work.

BV.

tee hee...that should ruffle some feather...seemed like a fun
troll...ooh...I am trolling rec.ponds. So much fun? *laugh* You guys know I
am kidding.

BV,

Your VF is a combination bio-mechanical and veggie filter. The roots on the
plants act as strainers for the mechanical filtration, and they also act as
surfaces, along with the liner, any submerged rocks, etc. as a place for the
bacteria of the biological filtration. Then they also remove the nutrients
created by the bio filter. A nice large filter needs little cleaning, but
you do have plans to vacuum out the veggie filter once or twice a year,
don't you? It is a matter of size.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html


"BenignVanilla" wrote in message
...

"ken" wrote in message
s.com...
I am in the midst of making my own pond filter. I was going to use
charcoal brickets from the barbeque. A friend advised me to be
careful. Does anyone out there know if this is a good idea or not? If
not, what are the possible substitutes?
Thanks for all your help.


I am going to attempt to start a new elist trend here on rec.ponds and
suggest you abandon the SILLY idea of a bio-mechanical filter, and build a
VF. VF'ers rule. The yahoo's on this group with bio-mechanical filters are
just sadist that like doing too much work.

BV.

tee hee...that should ruffle some feather...seemed like a fun
troll...ooh...I am trolling rec.ponds. So much fun? *laugh* You guys know
I
am kidding.

"RichToyBox" wrote in message
news:qmhXa.41805$cF.15683@rwcrnsc53...
BV,

Your VF is a combination bio-mechanical and veggie filter. The roots on
the
plants act as strainers for the mechanical filtration, and they also act
as
surfaces, along with the liner, any submerged rocks, etc. as a place for
the
bacteria of the biological filtration. Then they also remove the
nutrients
created by the bio filter. A nice large filter needs little cleaning, but
you do have plans to vacuum out the veggie filter once or twice a year,
don't you? It is a matter of size.
snip

Shhh...Don't ruin my fun.

BV.

BenignVanilla wrote:
"ken" wrote in message
s.com...

I am in the midst of making my own pond filter. I was going to use
charcoal brickets from the barbeque. A friend advised me to be
careful. Does anyone out there know if this is a good idea or not? If
not, what are the possible substitutes?
Thanks for all your help.



I am going to attempt to start a new elist trend here on rec.ponds and
suggest you abandon the SILLY idea of a bio-mechanical filter, and build a
VF. VF'ers rule. The yahoo's on this group with bio-mechanical filters are
just sadist that like doing too much work.

BV.

tee hee...that should ruffle some feather...seemed like a fun
troll...ooh...I am trolling rec.ponds. So much fun? *laugh* You guys know I
am kidding.




-- ok now we need another terminology thingy----- a bog without dirt
and with plants in pots is a veggie filter ,,, we did that one
a bog with mostly dirt is still a bog we left that alone
bio mechanical filters self explanatory

so now what do we call a container with filter media and plants ????





John Rutz
Z5 New Mexico

never miss a good oportunity to shut up

see my pond at:

http://www.fuerjefe.com

If we want to get really technical a bog is a body of water through which no
water moves. The frog bog is a bog. And when Heidi goes tromping through it and
gets covered in bog mud --- oh-my-gawd, the smell is out of this world.
The mud and mulm that is caught in the mech/bio/veggie filter for the pond
smells river sweet when we clean it.


k30a
and the watergardening labradors
http://www.geocities.com/watergarden...ors/index.html

When I start this thread I didn't realize the response it would create.
I think it is wonderful.

My idea of a pond is to create a natural environment where you do not
have to look at ph levels or add chemicals to adjust for nitrites or
nitrates. That is why I thought a skippy filter was the answer.

I made a 250 gallon pond in early July. I t is a birthday present for
my wife. I put in several plants, both on the surface and on the
bottom. I then added a dozen feeder gold fish. A week later I added
my version of the skippy. I am using a pump that moves 170 gallons per
hour. I made a 1 1/2 foot water fall.

I t has been over a month since I added the filter. My fish are
growing, My plants are healthy. And my water is pretty good. I can
see the bottom (2 feet). I have no idea what the chemical makeup of
the water is. Nor do I care.

All I put into the pond is fish food and water to replace evaporation.
The fish are just starting to know when feeding time is and come to
meet me. This is what creating a pond is all about.

I live on Vancouver Island in Canada (zone 8a).

To me this is the closest thing I can get to a natural pond. All the
ideas I got for how to create this pond came from this chat group.
Thank you for all your advise on how to do things and how not to do
things.
To e-mail see website [/b]
--
ken
------------------------------------------------------------------------
posted via www.GardenBanter.co.uk

"ken" wrote in message
ws.com...
I am in the midst of making my own pond filter. I was going to use
charcoal brickets from the barbeque. A friend advised me to be
careful. Does anyone out there know if this is a good idea or not? If
not, what are the possible substitutes?
Thanks for all your help.

I am going to attempt to start a new elist trend here on rec.ponds and
suggest you abandon the SILLY idea of a bio-mechanical filter, and build a
VF. VF'ers rule. The yahoo's on this group with bio-mechanical filters are
just sadist that like doing too much work.

BV.

tee hee...that should ruffle some feather...seemed like a fun
troll...ooh...I am trolling rec.ponds. So much fun? *laugh* You guys know I
am kidding.

Kidding aside, you young pond whipper snapper, you'll be speaking another
tune when you REALLY get into maintenance this fall. Assuming you follow
our directions. ;o) ~ jan

See my ponds and filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website

"~ jan JJsPond.us" wrote in message
...
"ken" wrote in message
ws.com...
I am in the midst of making my own pond filter. I was going to use
charcoal brickets from the barbeque. A friend advised me to be
careful. Does anyone out there know if this is a good idea or not? If
not, what are the possible substitutes?
Thanks for all your help.

I am going to attempt to start a new elist trend here on rec.ponds and
suggest you abandon the SILLY idea of a bio-mechanical filter, and build
a
VF. VF'ers rule. The yahoo's on this group with bio-mechanical filters
are
just sadist that like doing too much work.

BV.

tee hee...that should ruffle some feather...seemed like a fun
troll...ooh...I am trolling rec.ponds. So much fun? *laugh* You guys know
I
am kidding.

Kidding aside, you young pond whipper snapper, you'll be speaking another
tune when you REALLY get into maintenance this fall. Assuming you follow
our directions. ;o) ~ jan
snip

If my bottom drain does it's job, I should only need to clean out my VF
which is very easy since it is shallow. My only concern is that I to date
put off putting my diffuser on, so I know my BD is not being as effective as
it could be.

I realize I am green, but that won't stop me from being a smart a$$. All in
good fun, I certainly would not be so bold as to think I could run with you
big dogs. At least not until next year...if I come out of the winter with
living fish and a healthy pond, I'll ratchet my tude up a few notches. Next
year, I may even get involved in the salt wars.

For now, I will go back and not mess with my pond.

BV.