GardenBanter.co.uk - AS Biofalls - rocks on top of lavarocks

(Long sigh . . . )

Judy, you will kick yourself in the butt up one side of the street and down
the other if you put lava rock in there as AS suggests. It's heavy as hell,
and will break your back when you try to get it out to clean it (which,
regardless of what they say, WILL have to be done at least twice a year).
Use the bags they gave you, but find lighter weight media: SpringFlo (or
similar strapping material), wadded up window screen (nylon or fiberglass);
bioballs; nylon scrubbie pads, bird netting, something (ANYthing!) other
than the lava rock. Most of these will also give you better surface area for
the bio-bugs to grow on than lava rock, are light weight, and clean with a
swish (rather than with a power washer!) The rock is cheap and readily
available, but all-in-all, is lousy bio-media. It gets clogged up quickly
and is a pain in the butt to clean. Regarding "topping off" the box: see if
you can find a large (thin!) piece of rock that will fit over the top of the
box. Or make a frame from 1 x 4's (NOT pressure treated) that will fit on
the lip on the inside of the filter. You can put plants on these, and remove
them easily enough when you need to perform maintenance. Another idea would
be to run several strands of monofilament fishing line back and forth across
the weir opening (invisible "fence") and fill the top with water hyacinth or
lettuce (added filtration, too). You need to cover the top opening of the
biofalls: if you don't the sun encourages massive algae growth.

Lee

"Judy Konopka" wrote in message
thlink.net...
Hi,

I'm going nuts trying to make my waterfall look natural. I bought
AquaScape's system which you put lava rocks in a bag in the Biofalls. I
was
wondering if I could put smaller river rocks on top of the two bags of
lava
rocks with some plants in there as well. Would that disrupt the AquaScape
system from working?

Thanks!