I am disabled, and can't clean filters easily, so I am planning on
making a veggie filter from a large water trough (Tractor Supply).
Planning on rocking this in, with a roof, so that it looks like a
wishing well...
This trough has an opening at the bottom for draining water.
I am planning on having water pumped from my pond into the top, so
that it trickles down to the bottom and back into the pond.
I figure lava rock on the bottom, then a layer of gravel, then a layer
of barley straw, with water cress and water plants on top.

Will this work?

"GrannyGrump" wrote in message
...
I am disabled, and can't clean filters easily, so I am planning on
making a veggie filter from a large water trough (Tractor Supply).
Planning on rocking this in, with a roof, so that it looks like a
wishing well...
This trough has an opening at the bottom for draining water.
I am planning on having water pumped from my pond into the top, so
that it trickles down to the bottom and back into the pond.
I figure lava rock on the bottom, then a layer of gravel, then a layer
of barley straw, with water cress and water plants on top.

Will this work?

GG,

Any amount of dense rooted plants will work well in a VF. I love Hyacinth,
and Ingrid has had fantastic succes with celery. Water cress in a moving
body of water will grow like wildfire, but does not have as dense a root
system as the WH or the celery.

I think your idea is great, except for one thing. Eventually that rock will
get clogged up. How will you clean it?

BV.

Any amount of dense rooted plants will work well in a VF. I love Hyacinth,
and Ingrid has had fantastic succes with celery. Water cress in a moving
body of water will grow like wildfire, but does not have as dense a root
system as the WH or the celery.

I will use hyacinth too... celery doesn't seem to grow for me. We have
some sort of nasty weeds in our livestock pond, so might get a few of
those and put in one corner of the trough.

I think your idea is great, except for one thing. Eventually that rock will
get clogged up. How will you clean it?

Everything is going to be enclosed in mesh bags, light enough for me
to lift out. (Hubby actually LOL)

"GrannyGrump" wrote in message
...

Any amount of dense rooted plants will work well in a VF. I love
Hyacinth,
and Ingrid has had fantastic succes with celery. Water cress in a moving
body of water will grow like wildfire, but does not have as dense a root
system as the WH or the celery.

I will use hyacinth too... celery doesn't seem to grow for me. We have
some sort of nasty weeds in our livestock pond, so might get a few of
those and put in one corner of the trough.

WH has always flourished for me. My celery is planted around the edge of the
pond. It thrives but does not seem to get roots as dense as the WH.
Hopefully Ingrid will chime in and mention how hers is planted. She has
celery that puts her WH to shame. I think Jim has the same results. I chaulk
it up to planting location. Mine is jammed into rocks around the pond,
whereas hers is in the VF.

I'd be wary of the weeds, until I knew what they were. They could end up
choking your VF. Remember, you want lots of plants in the VF, but you prefer
densely rooted plants.

I think your idea is great, except for one thing. Eventually that rock
will
get clogged up. How will you clean it?

Everything is going to be enclosed in mesh bags, light enough for me
to lift out. (Hubby actually LOL)

You may want to consider using lighter weight bio media, such as the stuff
that is commercially available. It'll cost you more, but save your back. I
am currently planning a trickle tower to be added to my VF, and when I do
it, I plan to use cross sections of PVC pipe. It'll be cheap. Easy to make,
and lightweight.

BV.

An easy way to deal with watercress is to stick each stem of it thru a grid.
You can use any kind of grid - I used a grid that we bought at the hardware
store that is put into florescent lights. There may be some grids out there at
craft stores used for rug hooking or needle work.
I buy my watercress in bunches at the grocery store. One year I bought a whole
case, ten bunches for ten dollars, by talking to the produce manager.
Originally I floated the grids on top of my stock tank which backs the
waterfall. (make sure any thing floating has an 'anchor' to the edge so it
doesn't block the outflow.
Watercress grows lots of roots but they are fairly 'weak' meaning that they are
easy to pull out.
Right now I grow watercress attached to the rock in my waterfall. When I want
to weed it -
it is very easy to rip away.
Same with water celery.


kathy :-)
A HREF="http://www.onceuponapond.com/"Once upon a pond/A

I'd be wary of the weeds, until I knew what they were. They could end up
choking your VF. Remember, you want lots of plants in the VF, but you prefer
densely rooted plants.

LOL These weeds are very deeply rooted. The tops fall over into the
water, and new plants sprout from the seed heads...found this out
after hubby had weed-eated partially around the pond and the weeds
were left in the water... gads!

You may want to consider using lighter weight bio media, such as the stuff
that is commercially available. It'll cost you more, but save your back. I
am currently planning a trickle tower to be added to my VF, and when I do
it, I plan to use cross sections of PVC pipe. It'll be cheap. Easy to make,
and lightweight.

bio media instead of lava rocks?

An easy way to deal with watercress is to stick each stem of it thru a grid.

I have plastic tat is perforated like pegboard that
I can use.

I buy my watercress in bunches at the grocery store.

I have access to a long ditch full of cress. Used it one year, a few
years ago in the falls.

bio media can be bought online or at some nurseries that carry pond products.
they look like - um... let's see - hollow balls with.... spaces, well, that
doesn't make sense... remember the unfinished space station from Star Wars?
Like that. Kind of. ;-)

what works about them is that they have lots of surface area for bacterial to
grow on, are easy to clean as their spaces and hollows are larger than those in
lava rock which can clog up.

Other stuff that can work are plastic curlers, shredded packing tape, vinyl
screening - all rough surfaces, with lots of space inbetween, easy to clean and
light to lift.


kathy :-)
A HREF="http://www.onceuponapond.com/"Once upon a pond/A

"GrannyGrump" wrote in message
...

I'd be wary of the weeds, until I knew what they were. They could end up
choking your VF. Remember, you want lots of plants in the VF, but you
prefer
densely rooted plants.

LOL These weeds are very deeply rooted. The tops fall over into the
water, and new plants sprout from the seed heads...found this out
after hubby had weed-eated partially around the pond and the weeds
were left in the water... gads!

You may want to consider using lighter weight bio media, such as the
stuff
that is commercially available. It'll cost you more, but save your back.
I
am currently planning a trickle tower to be added to my VF, and when I do
it, I plan to use cross sections of PVC pipe. It'll be cheap. Easy to
make,
and lightweight.

bio media instead of lava rocks?

Lava rock is a popular biomedia because it has so many nooks and crannies,
IE, lots of surface area for the biobugs. Artificial biomedia provides
similar surface area without the weight of the lava rock. In the past
ponders have used artificial biomedia like, bioballs, plastic forks, pieces
of pvc pipe, curlers, etc.

BV.

"Ka30P" wrote in message
...

bio media can be bought online or at some nurseries that carry pond
products.
they look like - um... let's see - hollow balls with.... spaces, well,
that
doesn't make sense... remember the unfinished space station from Star
Wars?
Like that. Kind of. ;-)

what works about them is that they have lots of surface area for
bacterial to
grow on, are easy to clean as their spaces and hollows are larger than
those in
lava rock which can clog up.

Other stuff that can work are plastic curlers, shredded packing tape,
vinyl
screening - all rough surfaces, with lots of space inbetween, easy to
clean and
light to lift.

This post brought to you by Kathy "Always One Post Ahead of BV" 30a.



BV.

BV wrote This post brought to you by Kathy "Always One Post Ahead of BV"
30a.

Actually that is
Kathy - Avoiding Medical Insurance Paperwork - 30a :-P





kathy :-)
A HREF="http://www.onceuponapond.com/"Once upon a pond/A

Water Celery is a mainstay for my veggie/biofilter. I have the regular and
the variegated, though for me the regular( all green )seems to grow much
more vigorous. It will grow everywhere even on the ground, wherever it
touches. I have had so much excess I pull it up and give to a friend to
feed his ducks. They love it. Its roots get very thick and form a dense
matt when in the veggie filter. Mike

Water Celery is a mainstay for my veggie/biofilter. I have the regular and
the variegated, though for me the regular( all green )seems to grow much
more vigorous. It will grow everywhere even on the ground, wherever it
touches. I have had so much excess I pull it up and give to a friend to
feed his ducks. They love it. Its roots get very thick and form a dense
matt when in the veggie filter. Mike

ok, I will get WC also

What I have done is to have my pump in a bucket that has lava rock filling
the bucket and surrounding the pump. The water is pumped into a liner that
you can get at Home Depot which is meant to line a half oak barrel. It has
a lip on the rim for water to flow out of (which goes back into the pond
where it is pumped from). I grow my plants in this and it has worked very
well as a filtering system. The only work that has to be done is the plants
must be thinned on occasion since they really do flourish in this type of
set up and I have actually had the roots become such a solid mass that the
water cannot flow in and out properly without thinning. I have forgotten to
rinse out my bucket which as the lava rock for as long as two years without
any problem. As inexpensive as lava rock is you could just replace it every
year if you could not manage to do the work of cleaning it but you would
still need to get it in and out of the pond eventually.

Given that this works for me very well and sounds similar to what you are
proposing, your plan may work but I have never heard of a bottom drain
system. I would think that you might have a problem with getting really
clean water from this type of system and that you would have a build up of
gunk that had to be dealt with. I would think you would want the water
pumped in to be a very low flow rate... I don't know... just guessing on
this.


"GrannyGrump" wrote in message
...
I am disabled, and can't clean filters easily, so I am planning on
making a veggie filter from a large water trough (Tractor Supply).
Planning on rocking this in, with a roof, so that it looks like a
wishing well...
This trough has an opening at the bottom for draining water.
I am planning on having water pumped from my pond into the top, so
that it trickles down to the bottom and back into the pond.
I figure lava rock on the bottom, then a layer of gravel, then a layer
of barley straw, with water cress and water plants on top.

Will this work?