~ jan wrote:
On Mon, 07 Apr 2003 03:32:04 GMT, "Just Me \"Koi\""
wrote:

John R. would be the trickle tower expert. ) ~ jan


See my ponds and filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website


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-- Hmmm is that ex as used to be spurt drip under pressure??

Well Jan is leaving the instruction's to us so here we go.
Firt thing please do yourself a favor by washing those lava
rocks off
as the high temp hot glue won't keep them together if it's not washed
off. Next I found a
large heavy duty plastic lid from a 40 gal barrel that I used as a
base to glue the lava to. before you start cut a hole in the lid ( or a
peice of marine plywood will work also) for your pipe inlet
I then started off with a ring of rock around the outside perimeter of
the lid then glued more rock inside the ring to about 3 in across (
picture a one layer wreath of rocks ) at this point use the largest
rocks you have) put glue wherever you can see that the rock touches
another rock and the lid

then I glued the lava around the circle and just kept going up until
reaching the height that looked good.using smaller and smaller rock as
you go up Then we added the pipe for the pump
filled it with lava rock ---all done.

this year we are building a second bigger TT using a couple milk crates
as the form we plan to glue rocks to the outside of the crates and
leaving a gap in the rock around the ""stacking grooves"" to facilitate
stacking them

LOTS OF LUCK Carolann



John Rutz

the green is grassing the leaves are treeing
I'm happy

see my pond at:

http://www.fuerjefe.com

forgot to mention put the hollow TT in place before filling it
ours was 24x 24 and pretty heavy empty so depending on where in the
pond you put it
also we used multi colored lava rock the first go as it realy looked
perty when wet,,,,, in two weeks it was green. this I found out later
is a good sign its working properly
--





John Rutz

the green is grassing the leaves are treeing
I'm happy

see my pond at:

http://www.fuerjefe.com

John Rutz wrote:

John R. would be the trickle tower expert. ) ~ jan

...
this year we are building a second bigger TT using a couple milk crates
as the form we plan to glue rocks to the outside of the crates and
leaving a gap in the rock around the ""stacking grooves"" to facilitate
stacking them ...

and

forgot to mention put the hollow TT in place before filling it
ours was 24x 24 and pretty heavy empty ...

Great idea to use milk crates as the base! and, I'm glad you mentioned
putting empty trickle tower in place before filling -- I was wondering
how you got such a large, heavy object to the middle of your pond!
--
Kathy B, zookeeper (OR)
3500gal pond

Not that you want to hear this now, John, but you can greatly lighten the
load by making a tube of plastic coated fencing and filling it with
bio-balls. Your total weight, depending on the size of your tube, can be as
little as 20 lbs. or so, while increasing your surface area and decreasing
the effort to clean it. Also, you can stick plants through the gridwork on
the fencing to make it less intrusive visually, and the roots will also help
filter out crud. The downside, however, is that bioballs cost more than
lava rock does, but the benefits may outweigh that for you. The more you
buy, the cheaper they get, and you can always use excess in your main
filtration system. Just a thought!

Lee


"zookeeper" wrote in message
...
John Rutz wrote:

John R. would be the trickle tower expert. ) ~ jan

...
this year we are building a second bigger TT using a couple milk crates
as the form we plan to glue rocks to the outside of the crates and
leaving a gap in the rock around the ""stacking grooves"" to facilitate
stacking them ...

and

forgot to mention put the hollow TT in place before filling it
ours was 24x 24 and pretty heavy empty ...

Great idea to use milk crates as the base! and, I'm glad you mentioned
putting empty trickle tower in place before filling -- I was wondering
how you got such a large, heavy object to the middle of your pond!
--
Kathy B, zookeeper (OR)
3500gal pond

Lee Brouillet wrote:
Not that you want to hear this now, John, but you can greatly lighten
the load by making,snip

while increasing your surface area and decreasing
the effort to clean it. Just a thought!

Lee


ah but thats an addded benifit of the TT as water runs through it at a
fairly fast rate it does'nt build up crud on the inside, it constantly
washes itself clean.
its jsut a home for the bio bugs so its actualy a bio converter( my
term ) not a filter per se

where the water annd stone meet on the outside surface it builds a
verdigris like layer of algae which acts as a mini veggie filter

I havent had to touch the thing since I put in in the place where it
looked the best




John Rutz
Z5 New Mexico


see my pond at:

http://www.fuerjefe.com

OK, crud was the wrong word. It acts like the hyroponic systems where the
plants are grown on ropes with a water trickle: the roots draw out the extra
nutrients to feed themselves, the stuff you're trying to filter out anyway.

This type of system works exactly the same way as the lava rock, just
lighter (and it won't clog, as eventually, the rock will when the pores all
fill up). In fact, if you want to, use the same idea, just fill it with the
rock instead of the bioballs! That way you don't have all the tedious
business of gluing the rocks together. Or glue the rocks to the framework.
But the less time spent glueing rocks together means the more time you can
spend digging holes G! By the way, the best way I've heard of to
clean/renew lava rock when it's all gunked up is to put it in your BBQ and
light a fire under it! The heat will sear the stuff out, and you won't have
to scrub it. When it's cooled back down, rinse it off and reuse it where you
need to.

Lee

"John Rutz" wrote in message
...


Lee Brouillet wrote:
Not that you want to hear this now, John, but you can greatly lighten
the load by making,snip

while increasing your surface area and decreasing
the effort to clean it. Just a thought!

Lee


ah but thats an addded benifit of the TT as water runs through it at a
fairly fast rate it does'nt build up crud on the inside, it constantly
washes itself clean.
its jsut a home for the bio bugs so its actualy a bio converter( my
term ) not a filter per se

where the water annd stone meet on the outside surface it builds a
verdigris like layer of algae which acts as a mini veggie filter

I havent had to touch the thing since I put in in the place where it
looked the best




John Rutz
Z5 New Mexico


see my pond at:

http://www.fuerjefe.com