Charcoal filter?

Intro: I've been lurking for a few weeks and decided it's time to take the
plunge. My son was given permission to catch goldfish (net) at pond and came
home with 6 very nice comets, ranging from 4 to 9" length. They have been
living in a 37 Gal tank (too small!) while we build a pond for them. We
purchased a 150 gal preform and have put it in the ground. I bought a 1400
gph pump at a fish auction and am starting to build the filter. I have
decided on a 55 gal barrel filter with an up flow gravel bed and plan on
having WH floating in the top as a veggie filter. I know that charcoal
briquettes are only sawdust and glue and some sodium nitrate to speed up
burning, and given this composition, are totally unsuitable for aquatic use,
however, my local food Coop sells natural chunk hardwood charcoal with no
additives. Would this be effective as a filter material, at least while
cycling, and in the future to clear meds, etc?

Jeff Lowe

Regular charcoal is completely different from activated charcoal. Regular
charcoal is made in a high heat, and low oxygen chamber. Activated charcoal
is exposed to oxygen at the last minute, just before it's cooled down. This
exposure to oxygen, makes the charcoal very porous, and it becomes a good
filter for small particles.

Regular charcoal, like chunk charcoal, is just blackened wood, doesn't do
much for the pond, maybe color the pond black from the dust. Charcoal
briquettes is crushed chunk charcoal mixed with binders, some additives to
regulate the burn rate, and other stuff. Briquettes definitely aren't good
pond material, and some would argue, not good bbq material either.

Sameer

"Jeff Lowe" wrote in message
...
Intro: I've been lurking for a few weeks and decided it's time to take the
plunge. My son was given permission to catch goldfish (net) at pond and
came
home with 6 very nice comets, ranging from 4 to 9" length. They have been
living in a 37 Gal tank (too small!) while we build a pond for them. We
purchased a 150 gal preform and have put it in the ground. I bought a 1400
gph pump at a fish auction and am starting to build the filter. I have
decided on a 55 gal barrel filter with an up flow gravel bed and plan on
having WH floating in the top as a veggie filter. I know that charcoal
briquettes are only sawdust and glue and some sodium nitrate to speed up
burning, and given this composition, are totally unsuitable for aquatic
use,
however, my local food Coop sells natural chunk hardwood charcoal with no
additives. Would this be effective as a filter material, at least while
cycling, and in the future to clear meds, etc?

Jeff Lowe

Jeff,

Have you considered screening instead of gravel for your upflow filter? Or
strapping tape. Rock has little surface for bacteria and will be a collosal
pain to clean when it is full of gunk. If you went with screening, it would
catch the junk and be EASY to clean (pull out and flush). That will make a
big difference when you actually clean the filter. Your 55 gal filter for a
150 gal pond is good, although the surface area of the filter is more
important than the depth. Rule of thumb, surface of veggie filter = 10% of
the surface of the pond. Sounds like you will have that.

WH on top will grab nutrients well. If you have WH in the pond as well, you
will have good plant numbers, especially for the 6 fish.

Have you thought about a wider filter format? more surface for plants?

Your pump sounds ample (1400 gph for a 200 gal system). Even with the loss
to lift, you will have a solid flow. You can have a nice return waterfall
into your 150 gal. pond.

On the barrel subject, will it stand by the pond? be hidden? or be burried?
The latter has huge benefits, aesthetically...but does not work well if you
cannot drain it. Our barrels are in the berm at the end of our pond and can
be drained (cf. website below).

Good luck.

Jim

--
____________________________________________
See our pond at: home.bellsouth.net\p\pwp-jameshurley
Ask me about Jog-A-Thon fundraiser (clears $120+ per child) at: jogathon.net



"Jeff Lowe" wrote in message
...
Intro: I've been lurking for a few weeks and decided it's time to take the
plunge. My son was given permission to catch goldfish (net) at pond and
came
home with 6 very nice comets, ranging from 4 to 9" length. They have been
living in a 37 Gal tank (too small!) while we build a pond for them. We
purchased a 150 gal preform and have put it in the ground. I bought a 1400
gph pump at a fish auction and am starting to build the filter. I have
decided on a 55 gal barrel filter with an up flow gravel bed and plan on
having WH floating in the top as a veggie filter. I know that charcoal
briquettes are only sawdust and glue and some sodium nitrate to speed up
burning, and given this composition, are totally unsuitable for aquatic
use,
however, my local food Coop sells natural chunk hardwood charcoal with no
additives. Would this be effective as a filter material, at least while
cycling, and in the future to clear meds, etc?

Jeff Lowe

"Jim and Phyllis Hurley" wrote in message
...
Jeff,

Have you considered screening instead of gravel for your upflow filter? Or
strapping tape. Rock has little surface for bacteria and will be a collosal
pain to clean when it is full of gunk. If you went with screening, it would
catch the junk and be EASY to clean (pull out and flush). That will make a
big difference when you actually clean the filter. Your 55 gal filter for a
150 gal pond is good, although the surface area of the filter is more
important than the depth. Rule of thumb, surface of veggie filter = 10% of
the surface of the pond. Sounds like you will have that.

WH on top will grab nutrients well. If you have WH in the pond as well, you
will have good plant numbers, especially for the 6 fish.

Have you thought about a wider filter format? more surface for plants?

Your pump sounds ample (1400 gph for a 200 gal system). Even with the loss
to lift, you will have a solid flow. You can have a nice return waterfall
into your 150 gal. pond.

On the barrel subject, will it stand by the pond? be hidden? or be burried?
The latter has huge benefits, aesthetically...but does not work well if you
cannot drain it. Our barrels are in the berm at the end of our pond and can
be drained (cf. website below).

Good luck.

Jim


Is it me or what? I have a 5 gallon prefilter on the inlet to my suction main
filter, running 1400 gph. The pre-filter has an open pore biomat, and a screen
bag of small diameter porous scoria (non-ferric). I use aquazyme bacteria. In
the early spring, I get a slight algae bloom (this spring the algae was heavier,
but that was because I turned the pump off during the worst of the winter
thinking it would get damaged, but it never got cold enough - so I got a
nutrient build-up over the winter), and have to clean the prefilter about once
every week to every two weeks. Once the bacteria take (about mid-April), the
algae start to die off. Then I only have to clean the pre-filter about once a
month. The last time I cleaned the pre-filter was about three weeks ago. And
it is still pretty clean right now. I never have to clean the main filter. It
has about 40 lbs of washed gravel in it. The water is crystal clear. The pond
is 4 feet by 12 feet by 45 inches deep. I have 4 koi, 8 goldfish, a 26 inch
albino channel catfish, and lots of babies. I also have one water lilly and one
end of the pond has cattails. By the way, I always use gravel for the main
filtration. I works fine for me.

As for the above, it is my opinion that 1400gph for a 200 gallon system is
overkill for biological filtration. Of course, you want a solid flow for your
waterfall, but the biofilter doesn't need such a high flow rate. The reason I
say this is that at high flow rates, the water doesn't stay in the biofilter for
a long enough period of time to allow for proper biological filtration. I have
always found that biological filtration works best if the entire water contents
of the pond is filtered no more than twice per hour. Mine turns over completely
at about 1 1/2 times per hour. Of course, if you have a very heavy load, more
filtration would be needed, but not necessarily more gph water flow. If the
biological filtration is working properly, you shouldn't get much of a build-up
of sludge in your pond, because the bacteria will digest it. If you then need a
higher flow rate for the water fall, a second pump to add to the flow of the
waterfall comes in handy. But that is just my own two cents worth.

Water thru Hardwood Charcoal = LYE. I wouldn't use it. I beleive most
aquarium safe charcoal is made from bone. ALSO....I have one hose from my
pump which goes thru the veggie/bio/mechanical filter that drains to the
waterfall...then another hose that just goes to the waterfall and not the
filter. Lava rock eventually clogs up I know from experience. I use 3M
floor scrubber mats about 6 of them and water parsley in my 60 gallon
filter. I also have a cleanout on the bottom side of my filter to
occasionally flush out sludge. Mats are cleaned once a year with dechlored
water. Works for me..has for 10 years...MIKE

wrote in message ...
Water thru Hardwood Charcoal = LYE. I wouldn't use it. I beleive most
aquarium safe charcoal is made from bone. ALSO....I have one hose from my
pump which goes thru the veggie/bio/mechanical filter that drains to the
waterfall...then another hose that just goes to the waterfall and not the
filter. Lava rock eventually clogs up I know from experience. I use 3M
floor scrubber mats about 6 of them and water parsley in my 60 gallon
filter. I also have a cleanout on the bottom side of my filter to
occasionally flush out sludge. Mats are cleaned once a year with dechlored
water. Works for me..has for 10 years...MIKE


I don't know what kind of lava rock you used, or the application, but mine is
used for biological filtration only, not mechanical filtration. It hasn't
clogged so far (I've used it for about a year). My experience with 3M mats is
that they clog fairly rapidly. I have the same experience with them in salt
water tanks.