How to clean up "brown water"

On Wed, 28 Jul 2004 00:23:19 +0000, Ka30P wrote:

PS - You can do the smell test with any filter material to make sure it is
efficient. If it practically knocks you over with 'ew du pond'
you've got dead spots and that's not good.
If it smells like fresh river water (mine own description from a childhood
spend sitting in Deer Crick) then it's working.
We've used black vinyl window screening (bought in 24 foot rolls at Lowe's) and
had it come out of the filter after a year, covered in loverly muck and no dead
spots.


Cool, That's great to know. Thanks

Nasa


kathy :-)
algae primer
http://hometown.aol.com/ka30p/myhomepage/garden.html

you can see my Ripplin Waters Pond at...

http://community.webshots.com/user/aspenjd

Sue W

Wow, Sue, very nice. I concur with your white lily being Virginia, have a
picture on my website of mine. That walking iris is impressive along with
your pond. ~ 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

Hi Nathan - Yes, you have the right idea, and it would work, it just isn't
large enough for the size of pond you have - the denser the media you use,
the more surface area you have for "good bacteria" to live on. The only
problem with this is, the denser it is, the quicker it plugs up and no
longer allows your pond water to pass through it and has to go around it, so
you only have the outside surfaces left for your bacteria to biologically
filter the water. Sponge has the most surface area, but clogs up in a few
days and is hard to rinse - then you have Scotch type scouring pads (which I
use) - more porous and easier to clean and will run all season without
cleaning if the quantity is large enough - then all the rest (screening,
lava rock, pea stone, hair curlers, cut up pop bottles and anything else you
can think of that will give you enough surface area to host enough "good
bacteria" to "eat" the stuff in your pond water that causes algae bloom
and/or cloudy/green water. You can use a smaller container than the 45 gal
drum I use, but will probably have to clean it more often, but just remember
it takes time for a filter to become biologically active, so you can't clean
it too often - the longer it runs between cleanings, the better it works
I also try to run my pond volume through my filter/ hour even though I
keep reading once every 2 to 4 hours is good
Gale :~)

The reason I was looking at placing lava rock into the basin around the
pump is to provide a place for "good bacteria" to live. In other words I
wanted to create a small bio-filter next to the pump. Since lava rock --
or some other material (like the nylon scrubbers) allow for bacteria to
grown on them -- wouldn't this work?

Nasa

On Tue, 27 Jul 2004 23:28:04 -0400, Gale Pearce wrote:

Hi Nathan - Yes, you have the right idea, and it would work, it just isn't
large enough for the size of pond you have - the denser the media you use,
the more surface area you have for "good bacteria" to live on. The only
problem with this is, the denser it is, the quicker it plugs up and no
longer allows your pond water to pass through it and has to go around it, so
you only have the outside surfaces left for your bacteria to biologically
filter the water. Sponge has the most surface area, but clogs up in a few
days and is hard to rinse - then you have Scotch type scouring pads (which I
use) - more porous and easier to clean and will run all season without
cleaning if the quantity is large enough - then all the rest (screening,
lava rock, pea stone, hair curlers, cut up pop bottles and anything else you
can think of that will give you enough surface area to host enough "good
bacteria" to "eat" the stuff in your pond water that causes algae bloom
and/or cloudy/green water. You can use a smaller container than the 45 gal
drum I use, but will probably have to clean it more often, but just remember
it takes time for a filter to become biologically active, so you can't clean
it too often - the longer it runs between cleanings, the better it works
I also try to run my pond volume through my filter/ hour even though I
keep reading once every 2 to 4 hours is good
Gale :~)

I turn my water over about 1 an hour as well.

As far as the bio material goes -- I am looking at switching out the
lava rock for the nylon scrubbers (I am as I am able to collect the
scrubbers from my local $1 store!).

Nasa

~ jan JJsPond.us wrote in message . ..

you can see my Ripplin Waters Pond at...

http://community.webshots.com/user/aspenjd

Sue W

Wow, Sue, very nice. I concur with your white lily being Virginia, have a
picture on my website of mine. That walking iris is impressive along with
your pond. ~ 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

Thanks Jan, I've always been impressed with your pond information at
your site, so your compliment is really appreciated. Had a 24 count
of open lily flowers in the pond yesterday, with 6 being the Virginia
Whites. All of them are beautiful, I sure love the lilies. If I had
more room....I'd plant Lotus....

you can see my Ripplin Waters Pond at...

http://community.webshots.com/user/aspenjd

Sue W

Thanks Jan, I've always been impressed with your pond information at
your site, so your compliment is really appreciated.

blush ah gosh, shucks, thanks. ;o)

Had a 24 count of open lily flowers in the pond yesterday, with 6 being the Virginia
Whites.

That was another thing I was going to ask, what with your amazing multiple
blooms.... How are they planted, how often do you feed, how often do you
divide and how many rhizomes do you leave in a container when you do
divide? (Course I am keeping in mind that your are, if memory serves me, in
FL? which does hurt. ;o) ~ jan


(Do you know where your water quality is?)

~ jan JJsPond.us wrote in message . ..

Had a 24 count of open lily flowers in the pond yesterday, with 6 being the Virginia Whites.

That was another thing I was going to ask, what with your amazing multiple
blooms.... How are they planted, how often do you feed, how often do you
divide and how many rhizomes do you leave in a container when you do
divide? (Course I am keeping in mind that your are, if memory serves me, in
FL? which does hurt. ;o) ~ jan

Jan,
I only divide once in early spring. Lilies are planted in dish pans
with a mixture of 1/2 sand and 1/2 topsoil. When they were repotted
in spring 2 LARGE Lily fert tabs were added to each basket and only
one rhizome was left to grow per pot. I think not over crowding the
pots has something to do with the successful rate of flowers. Make
seperate pots with the remainder or give them away. Fertilizer tabs
should be added every 2-3 months until fall. If you only use the
regular size tabs I would add two every month. Yes, Florida sun does
help. I put handles of plastic covered heavy wire in an X across each
dishpan before planting so I can move them around and lift them out
for repotting. They are heavy but it does work.

Now if I just had some room for Lotus....

Can I grow a nice lotus in a 20 gallon barrel garden? If so Would it
need a pump or just plant it?

You can see my "Ripplin Waters" pond at

http://community.webshots.com/user/aspenjd

Sue W
Brooksville, FL

The LOTUS!! My most favorite garden plant.
Of course you can plant a lotus in a 20 gallon container.
Just plant it. I would not plant it too deep however. Now that
I say that I'm wondering about your FL heat and sun?
If you don't doing some research, go to:
http://www.victoria-adventure.org
The gal's name is Babs Ellinwood and is the PCS for Lotses.

Nedra in Missouri
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pines/4836
http://community.webshots.com/user/nedra118

"Sue Walsh" wrote in message
om...
~ jan JJsPond.us wrote in message
. ..

Had a 24 count of open lily flowers in the pond yesterday, with 6 being
the Virginia Whites.

That was another thing I was going to ask, what with your amazing
multiple
blooms.... How are they planted, how often do you feed, how often do you
divide and how many rhizomes do you leave in a container when you do
divide? (Course I am keeping in mind that your are, if memory serves me,
in
FL? which does hurt. ;o) ~ jan

Jan,
I only divide once in early spring. Lilies are planted in dish pans
with a mixture of 1/2 sand and 1/2 topsoil. When they were repotted
in spring 2 LARGE Lily fert tabs were added to each basket and only
one rhizome was left to grow per pot. I think not over crowding the
pots has something to do with the successful rate of flowers. Make
seperate pots with the remainder or give them away. Fertilizer tabs
should be added every 2-3 months until fall. If you only use the
regular size tabs I would add two every month. Yes, Florida sun does
help. I put handles of plastic covered heavy wire in an X across each
dishpan before planting so I can move them around and lift them out
for repotting. They are heavy but it does work.

Now if I just had some room for Lotus....

Can I grow a nice lotus in a 20 gallon barrel garden? If so Would it
need a pump or just plant it?

You can see my "Ripplin Waters" pond at

http://community.webshots.com/user/aspenjd

Sue W
Brooksville, FL

(Sue Walsh) wrote:

Yes, Florida sun does help.

You & I pretty much follow the same planting styles and care, so that long
growing season definitely makes a big difference.

Now if I just had some room for Lotus....
Can I grow a nice lotus in a 20 gallon barrel garden? If so Would it
need a pump or just plant it?

Well, as Nedra mentioned, heat & sun. Whenever I've tried one separate from
the pond, they got too over heated. I use a plastic round dish pan/oat pan
(for feeding horses their oats) about 20" diameter for the Momo Botan I
have. ~ jan


(Do you know where your water quality is?)