What kind of rock is most popular in filters and why?

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BenignVanilla
Never test the depth of the water with both feet.
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BenignVanilla wrote:
What kind of rock is most popular in filters and why?

--
BenignVanilla
Never test the depth of the water with both feet.
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No rocks in the filter. They makes it a real pain to clean.
When I built my first veggie filter I put in two inches of
1" stone as suggested. A year later when it was time to
clean, I had to pull all the stone out and clean the filter
then rinse the stone and replace. I did that twice and then
decided to go stone free.
Some people use lava rock because it has a large surface
area for bacteria to grow, but this soon becomes clogged and
then you must remove it and clean (a real chore) or replace
and wet lava rock is very heavy.
If you're asking about stone to secure the plants in pots -
go with pea gravel.

--
Bonnie
NJ

none. they are heavy to remove from teh pond to clean. Ingrid

"BenignVanilla" wrote:

What kind of rock is most popular in filters and why?

I bought a carton of plastic forks at Sams Club. Put them in a
sports bag, then into my filter. Easy to clean occasionally. My
little pond is 1000 gal. My filter is a laundry utility sink.

--
D. Wain Garrison
If you can read you can learn anything, for
there are those smarter than you who can
write, however, not everyone who can write
is smarter than you.
"Bonnie Espenshade" wrote in message
...
BenignVanilla wrote:
What kind of rock is most popular in filters and why?

--
BenignVanilla
Never test the depth of the water with both feet.
tibetanbeefgarden.com
x-no-archive: yes

Remove MY SPLEEN to email me.



No rocks in the filter. They makes it a real pain to clean.
When I built my first veggie filter I put in two inches of
1" stone as suggested. A year later when it was time to
clean, I had to pull all the stone out and clean the filter
then rinse the stone and replace. I did that twice and then
decided to go stone free.
Some people use lava rock because it has a large surface
area for bacteria to grow, but this soon becomes clogged and
then you must remove it and clean (a real chore) or replace
and wet lava rock is very heavy.
If you're asking about stone to secure the plants in pots -
go with pea gravel.

--
Bonnie
NJ

On Mon, 3 Mar 2003 09:42:36 -0500, "BenignVanilla"
wrote:

What kind of rock is most popular in filters and why?

Rocks should stay in the ponder's head where they belong!

If I was doing a VF I would use a light grid (as someone mentioned in
another thread) several inches above the bottom and all my plants would be
in baskets anchored with big rocks sitting on the grid. ~ 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

When we inherited our pond (from previous homeowner), two 50gal barrels
were full of red lava rock, and the third had a large rolled piece of
filter "batting." We kept the rock through the first year, but it was
too heavy to remove or stir when trying to clean. We refilled the "rock"
barrels with strapping tape (courtesy of the boys' paper route bundles)
which is much easier to stir and rinse out once a year.
--
Kathy B, zookeeper (OR)
3500g pond w/ 13 pond pigs,
2 sun worshipping pharaoh hounds,
and one "koi detective" lhasa apso
("don't bother me now, I gotta
keep an eye on those koi")

BenignVanilla wrote:
What kind of rock is most popular in filters and why?

"zookeeper" wrote in message
...
When we inherited our pond (from previous homeowner), two 50gal barrels
were full of red lava rock, and the third had a large rolled piece of
filter "batting." We kept the rock through the first year, but it was
too heavy to remove or stir when trying to clean. We refilled the "rock"
barrels with strapping tape (courtesy of the boys' paper route bundles)
which is much easier to stir and rinse out once a year.

Forgive me if this is a naive question...is the material in the filter just
a matter of surface area? I thought the lava rocks had some filtering
property.

BV.

I use lava rock they do a great job. I put them in a laundry bag so thy
are easy to take out of veggie filter when its time to clean. My pond
was clear and its 4' deep I could see all the way to the bottom. The
water did go green when I first set up the pond but it cleared up in
about 3 weeks and never went back green.


http://community.webtv.net/rebeljoe/POND

BV,

Lava rock and gravel both provide a place for the colonization of the
bacteria, which is a matter of surface area, and provide some mechanical
filtration. The biofilm is sticky, and the water passing over it causes the
fine materials to come in contact with the sticky stuff and stay behind.
That is the main problem with these. The build up of solids in the lava
rock or gravel means that they will clog in areas causing channelization in
other areas. The clogged areas go anaerobic. To keep this from happening,
or as soon as it does happen, the lava rock or gravel has to be removed and
cleaned. Lava rock has a ton of sharp abrasive edges and both materials are
heavy. If you have very much, I have about 2 tons, my brother-in-law has
about 10 tons, then it becomes a question of where do you put it when you
take it out of the filter. We started with lava rock filters, then gravel
filters, and even though I have moved to bead filters, DW won't let me get
rid of the rock. Oh well, maybe this year I will try to get her working the
shovel..
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html


"BenignVanilla" wrote in
message ...
"zookeeper" wrote in message
...
When we inherited our pond (from previous homeowner), two 50gal barrels
were full of red lava rock, and the third had a large rolled piece of
filter "batting." We kept the rock through the first year, but it was
too heavy to remove or stir when trying to clean. We refilled the "rock"
barrels with strapping tape (courtesy of the boys' paper route bundles)
which is much easier to stir and rinse out once a year.

Forgive me if this is a naive question...is the material in the filter
just
a matter of surface area? I thought the lava rocks had some filtering
property.

BV.

In our initial setup, the batting provided the initial mechanical
filtering and the lava rock was intended for the biological filtering
(it might have been more successful if these were reversed). I think
lava rock could be used for either type of filtering, but it does clog
easily and we found it too difficult to clean (bad back and tendonitis
in arms require lighter filter media). The strapping tape provides both
types of filtering (lots of surface area with a indented design) and is
easier to clean, but requires rinsing more frequently than the rock.
--
Kathy B, zookeeper (OR)
3500gal pond

BenignVanilla wrote:
"zookeeper" wrote ...

... red lava rock, and ...
filter "batting." ... refilled the "rock"
barrels with strapping tape ... which is
much easier to stir and rinse ...


Forgive me if this is a naive question...is the material in the filter just
a matter of surface area? I thought the lava rocks had some filtering
property.

BV

BenignVanilla wrote:
"zookeeper" wrote in message
...

When we inherited our pond (from previous homeowner), two 50gal barrels
were full of red lava rock, and the third had a large rolled piece of
filter "batting." We kept the rock through the first year, but it was
too heavy to remove or stir when trying to clean. We refilled the "rock"
barrels with strapping tape (courtesy of the boys' paper route bundles)
which is much easier to stir and rinse out once a year.


Forgive me if this is a naive question...is the material in the filter just
a matter of surface area? I thought the lava rocks had some filtering
property.

BV.



Lava rocks have a large surface area which gives the
bacteria a place to grow. The only problem is it gets
clogged and then it's very hard to clean and must be
replaced. It's also very heavy.

--
Bonnie
NJ

When you all talk about strapping tape, do you mean the kind with adhesive? Do
they make non-adhesive tape?

When you all talk about strapping tape, do you mean the kind with adhesive? Do
they make non-adhesive tape?

Yowsa! No adhesive! "Strapping tape" (as used here) is not a tape, it's
really just the "strap" part, the kind of stuff you find wrapped around a
box and clamped with a metal clip. The heavy duty stuff you can use as a
handle to pick up a box. I think it's made of nylon . . . There's a type
that's made specifically for pond filters (although much more expensive than
regular strap), that's supposedly pre-imbedded with dormant bacteria called
Spring-Flo. Light weight, superior surface area, easy to clean with just a
swish. But the other strapping stuff works, too.

Lee


Lee

"EliezerE" wrote in message
...
When you all talk about strapping tape, do you mean the kind with
adhesive? Do
they make non-adhesive tape?

Strapping "tape" may not be the right term -- it's the plastic strips
(~1/4 inch wide) that are overlapped and heat-sealed to secure boxes or
bundles or loose items. We get ours from the newspaper bundles for the
boys' paper route. It was a free, reusable substitute for filter
"ribbon" or Springflo.
--
Kathy B, zookeeper (OR)
3500gal pond

EliezerE wrote:
When you all talk about strapping tape, do you mean the kind with adhesive? Do
they make non-adhesive tape?