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.

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

Iain Miller wrote:

... 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 bought 25,000 straws for $35 and didn't chop them up. I alligned them
so the water went through them. It's working great now. I can now see
everyting in my pond whereas I used to only see down a few inches. But
it did take time and I'm still figuring out what I need to do. I added
bacteria starter but also added quite a bit of potash, epsom salts, and
iron. So I'm not sure what the deal is but I'm enjoying the clear water.

I tried a veggie filter before this and I just wasted a bunch of money
on plants that died. I'm not saying veggie filters don't work but I
think it's more complicated than what people say.

Matt

"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:

I tried a veggie filter before this and I just wasted a bunch of money


I am interested to hear more about this, as my VF is my only filtration.

Long story short: I built a 1300 gallon pond with 2 small koi and 4
shibunkin late one year. Pea green soup. Year 2: VF sounds good so I
added a 10' long stream full of lava rock and pea gravel with the intent
of filling it with plants. It plugged up in less than a month. Tore it
all out. Bought 15-20 iris, a few taro, and some other cool looking
plants on line, a bunch of mesh pots, lots of hyacinth, put the whole
thing in the pond. Yellow hyacinth, yellow iris, one taro going crazy.
*Green* water. If people say you need to dip hyacinth in fertilizer tank
when they turn yellow how can they possibly be filtering the pond? Check
water, add iron and potash and epsom salts. Remember, 2 small koi and 4
shibunkin in 1300 gallons. Sad plants, sad hyacinth, green water.
Shibunkin have babies. Lots of babies. Good news is fish couldn't care
less about green water. Year 3: Added big air pump to circulate water
like you wouldn't believe (fun watching fish swim up stream!). No
change. Add lots of surface area in pond. Fish happy, water green, sick
plants. 40-50 small shibunkin. Went camping. Considered ripping out the
whole thing except the water fall sounded nice. Year 4: Shibunkin
getting mid size. Pulled air pump. Decide I need a lot of surface area
so I get 110 lbs of beany baby beads real cheap, along with a stock
tank. Beads clog with green slime in 2 weeks. Will be selling lots of
beads soon on ebay. Buy 25000 drinking straws cheap and add 16 sq ft of
quilt batting for a prefilter that I rinse out every other week. That
was May. Now, water so clear I can see fish shadows on the bottom of the
pond. The plants are growing this year, although not as much as I'd
like. And guess what? More babies.

So, biological filters do a lot more than remove ammonia. Full sun will
not cause algae. Plants need more than fish waste, epsom salts, and
potash to grow. Clear ponds need lots of nutrients in them if the plants
are to grow. Lots of filter designs on the net will plug. I don't know
what biological filters do and I don't know what pond plants need. I
suspect the filters have a byproduct that kills the algae and from there
added nutrients go to the plants, but I'm not sure. Pond plants (or a
VF) might *require* a large fish load or added fertilizer.

People may tell you what works for them but it might not work for you
because, I suspect, people don't know what's going on in their own
ponds. However, pond store people know less so I'd stick with rec.ponds,
and add a grain of salt.

Matt

MattR I don't know
what biological filters do

They turn fish waste into fertilizer for the plants *and* for the algae.

Our problem, we ornamental garden ponders, is that we usually get carried away.
More plants, more fish, more feeding the darling fish, more fertilizing for
more blooms. More, more, more!!

I think the pond rarely has time to catch up
before we add or substract something new. :-)




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