The Water Gardens Gazette 

Yes ... Spring is almost here > Found It At last ... Alfagrog in USA, see below and links to right 2. Pond Plants for Spring 3. Permission To Publish and Admin section

Spring is almost here

A biofilter is a box full of biomedia with water coming in one end and going out the other end. In its very simplest terms that is exactly what it is. For most garden ponds that's all you need ... promise.

Do not get carried away with the sales blurb you will come across ... our filter is bigger so must be better implication, has 12 brushes not 10, 3 layers of foam not 2, three different sponge colours and so on and so forth. These are schemes to part you from your money whilst doing no harm I must hasten to add. In fact ignore most of this hype ... unless you truly understand the meaning behind the claims.

Below is an article I wrote for my South African edition in December which I have modified a little for International audiences so ignore references to R for Rands. Unless you are a serious large pond or enthusiastic koi keeper involved in growing large fish for exhibition purposes you do not need to spend hundreds and thousands of $$$$$ even. You need to spend far less than $100 ... even $20 if you are DIY inclined.

Where I use the word Alfagrog below you can substitute plastic tubes, hair curlers, rocks, and any other medium you wish to use as the surface on which the bacteria will grow but just remember you will need CONSIDERABLY larger volumes of other materials and therefore a larger box. But on this subject of Alfagrog I have also color="#00376F">good news .... I have finally found a source of VERY low cost commercial biofilters in the USA that have Alfagrog inside them. It is just not called Alfagrog .... click the link to the right to learn more. Alfagrog is a magical biomedia and is also a good mechanical filter too. And it is cheap.

GARDEN POND BIOFILTERS ARE NOT COMPLEX

This table shows that theoretically you need about 20 times more volume of foam or 5 times more volume of Lava Rock to do the same job as a single unit of Alfagrog ... in other words if you need 2 litres of Alfagrog you need 40 litres of foam and 10 litres of lava rock. The practical and cost implication of this is that you need a MUCH smaller lower cost container for a biofilter containing Alfagrog than other media such as plastic tubes, foam, lava rock, hair curlers and so on.

Making a biofilter is very simple and it will be as effective as most shop bought products, probably better ... see opposite

Some tips to consider if you decide to build your own pond biofilter ..

1. Up flow through the bed of Alfagrog or any other biomedia is best ... in this case it is also an improvement to create an empty space at the bottom of the container into which the pumped water first flows (use a plastic crate section or something similar) to create this void ... any solids can then tend to settle out before the water enters the bed of Alfagrog

4.5 litres is 1 UK gallon approx

3,8 litres is 1 US gallon approx

In simple terms the biofilter contains media on which a large amount of specific bacteria grow in order to digest the pollutants created by fish bodily wastes building up in the pond water. This is the very principle on which all biofilters work ... use more biomedia and you get better biofiltration capacity ... simple as that Think of the bacteria as clinging to all possible surfaces in the biofilter box. This means the more surface there is then the more can the amount of bacteria be ... simple as that. The surface comes from media with rough porous surfaces (not smooth plastic or stones) and this is what creates large areas of surface. We talk of SSA ... specific surface area... Look for biofilters which contain biomedia with high SSA as in the following table ..... Alfagrog porous ceramic biofilter medium is the best and it is low cost Work on using 2 litres of Alfagrog per 1,000 litres of pond water.

How To Make Your Own Bioflter

color="#AA2B00">2 color="#AA2B00">. size="4" color="#AA2B00"> color="#AA2B00"> Pond Plants For Spring and NOW (thanks again to Peter J May)

On the margins ... The Marsh Marigolds (Caltha palustris and all the species and varieties) are still at it. Brilliant. The Water Forgetmenot (Myosotis palustris) is also making waves of blue around the pond. Also there is the Golden Club (Oronitium aquaticum) In the deep water The Water Hawthorn, Aponogeton distachyos, is flowering its socks off. An amazing plants that comes up from unlimited stygian depths to perform at the most ludicrous times of the year. It still thinks its down in the Cape, nestled in the fynbos looking up at Table Mountain. Thinking of bogs, the the American Skunk Cabbage is up. Lysichiton Americanum, it looks almost too alien for our water gardens. Its big spathe of a flower is like a starters flag in a motor race and a timely reminder that things have got into gear and now we’re cruising! color="#AA2B00">

color="#00376F" It is very difficult to find a summary of pond plants. It is even more difficult to find out in a table form what colour (if any) the flower is and whether they like sun or shade. Finding size when fully grown is also a challenge .... so I have done the hard work for you. Print this page out and send to your friends as well.

If you want to buy water plants then click here and enter water plants into the search box that comes up  and don't forget Free Water Lilies and Aquatics book ... see below.

 TO SEE FULL GARDEN PLANTS TABLE  CLICK HERE (and be PATIENT large file involved) color="#AA2B00">

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FREE when you buy at the Pond Professor's book store size="1"> or click here to learn more first  

Biofilters between 1,000 galls and 5,000 gallons capacity are claimed (no UV included) with Alfagrog 3 different sizes . Shipping was free and I think still is but check

  click here BIOLOGICAL POND FILTER .... 1000 galls

click here BIOLOGICAL POND FILTER .... 3000 galls

click here BIOLOGICAL POND FILTER .... 5000 gals

MORE REVIEWS BELOW ... don't buy any new pond equipment until you have read these Pond Professor Price Intelligence Reports Find out why EPDM flexible rubber liner is best for water gardening and ponds Looking for large floating pond aerator fountains? Discover fiberglass rock water fountains Its called bioaugmentation .. Microbe-Lift bacteria to keep ponds healthy Go here to select the correct pump for your own pond or waterfall

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