~ janj JJsPond.us wrote:

On Wed, 01 Jun 2005 01:28:35 GMT, (~Roy~) wrote:



Sodium (western type) is more on the grey side, but it can also be
creame or tan as it depends on what depth it was mined at, and the
area it came from up in that area of the country where its mined,
which is Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas .

Calcium for the most part is usually a cream of buff / tan color, and
ther larger the mesh size the more pronounced the color is.......

Both of the bentonites are collodial type clays which means they
expand and multiply in size as they get hydrated..........and both
will clump to some degree. Sodium will expand upwards of 22 or more
times its original size, and calcium can expand up to 5 times, with
about 3 being more common.

Calcium when wet and mixed feels slick and smooth but not sticky, as
sodium is, which feels like a handfull of slugs in a bowl of jello,
anmd has a heavy thick body to it. Using granulated form is wasted
material as what is in the granule will just expand out and stick to
each grain in that granule. Finer mesh gives more surface area and it
has to "hunt" for other particles to bond to. You can try crushing it
up buyt its almost impossible to do it right without a ball mill. I
know folks that have bought kiutty litter to make foundry sand and
wore out their wifes blenders, coffee grinders, cake mixers and wore
themselves out beating it up into fine particle size with hammers and
mortars and pestles, and it still does not work as good as stuff thats
ground up uniformly with a ball mill and seived.Kitty littler is
sodium so it is not what you want to use.....if it says clumping its
definately sodium bentonite ...although it will work fine with plants.

I just would not want to run sodium bentonite thorugh a filter system
or pipes as it leaves a film and its sediment is going to make things
prone to blocking or reducing flow.



Okay, sounds like kitty litter is out, cheapest is not always best. I got a
free sample of this: www.perfectearthkoi.com a couple years back, it looks
like good stuff. ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~


Yep, that is what is sounds like. I wonder what kind of kitty litter
all those other posters are talking about? I put some water on the
wally world stuff and it did not clump as much as dissolve, sort of. On
another note, what is everyone's favorite pump?
Thanks for the input everybody! :-)
W. Dale