Water Gardening: Post Dramatic Pond Disorder, 1 by BogweedBuck

BogweedBuck wrote:
Now to fill the bucket with stuff that makes a happy home for your nitrobacter and nitrosomonas bacterias! Again, LOTS of room got arguments and debate here, but this is what has worked for me: a combination of lava rock on the bottom, covered by a half dozen or so nylon mesh sponges. The sponges can be cleaned up a few times a year in another bucket filled with pond water ... just hand rinse out the excess detritus and it's ready to return to service! If your pre-filter for this pump is efficient enough, this can be a once a year cleanup! (yeah, baby!)

Dose the heck out of this set-up with a bacteria culture (lord knows, there's plenty of those to choose from these days!) a couple times the first month of use (repeat in the spring time) and you're on your way to wonderfully healthy water!

Or, so I think at least! I've been doing this fish rearing/breeding thing for over 20 years, so I'm sorta stuck in my ways about what I think fish do and don't need. :o)

Oh, here's a picture of the nylon sponges I mentioned. (I have heard that "loofah" sponges work well too, but they can be a bit more expensive and tougher to clean. ALSO ... I have heard some really good reports about the use of the course pads used by industrial floor scrubbers, "chopped" into 4 ~ 6" pieces)

This message was edited Sep 8, 2005 9:02 AM