"Charles" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 14 Jul 2005 12:41:43 GMT, " George"
wrote:


"Roy" wrote in message
. ..

The propertys of the two clays are entirely different.......One will
do the job (supposedly) and the other is used by those that don't know
any different simply because its bentonite and they considfer
bentonite all one and the same, which it is not. i'm not gonna get
into a blow by blow difference in clays, as there is a heap of info on
the various bentonite clays, with a google search....

Roy. I'm a geologist, and have used both types of bentonites extensively
in
my work. The question still stands. Why do you say that one is
preferred
over the other for use in garden ponds? The are both highly adsorptive,
and highly hydrophilic, so what difference does it make? Although they're
chemistry is slightly different, their physical properties are nearly
identical.



I believe it's supposed to be the extra calcium that gets into the
fish's diet, leads to better color, health, that sort of thing. The
sodium bentonite doesn't effect the calcium level.

I got some of the expensive kind, can't see that it did much for the
fish, but I have very little string algae this year and am growing
great water hyacinths.

We have so much calcium in our water already it seems odd that more
would do anything, but the ads were tempting.


--
Charles

Does not play well with others.

If calcium is the only reason to use one over the other, you can always use
limestone in your waterworks (like waterfalls and such), and still use the
sodium bentonite, if it is more readily available, which I believe is the
case.