Charles wrote:
On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 06:41:51 GMT, Elaine T
wrote:


Hi, all
I was at Home Depot and they had half barrels. Next thing I knew, one
was in my cart. :-) I'm going to try running it unlined because wood
dries out horribly here in San Diego, and a half barrel planter I had
literally fell apart after the staves shrank in the sun.

So, The water is a reasonable 60 degrees ;-p and the handful of hornwort
I tossed in from my fishtanks is already growing. I went ahead and mail
ordered some Egerea najas, Cambomba pulcherrima (purple cambomba), and
Vallisneria americana (spiral val) as oxygenators. I figure at least
one of the three should thrive.

I found some 7" plastic planting baskets, but I'm not sure what to put
in them. I do have extra Fluorite from setting up a fishtank. Fluorite
is a fine laterite clay gravel that's high in minerals and iron,
designed to grow true aquatic plants. Will that work in a pond as well
as in fishtanks?

Thanks - and sorry to you folks who are still cutting holes in the ice
with axes.



At the pond store we just use dirt, plain old yard dirt. Make sure
nothing noxious has been sprayed on it, of course.

That's simple enough. I'll use up the extra Fluourite since it would
just sit around anyway and then go with something cheaper once its gone.
Once I get marginals and a lily, my understanding is that they want
real dirt anyway with gravel on top like Roop said.

Unfortunately, I just fertilized everything last week with timed release
granules so dirt from my yard is probably not the best choice. I'll
check my pond suppliers to see what they have or grab some plain potting
soil.

--
__ Elaine T __
__' http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__