Gathered rock?

[RiverRat]

Just wondering how you might go about treating river rock/ locally gathered materials. Need a lot to go around the edges of new pond and also some good sized flat ones for water return. There is plenty to choose from from local river, just wondering if there is anything I should do to treat them before addind them to the pond. BTW pond is still under construction and not cycled if that matters... Thanks

 

[j.w]

I got my river rock at a concrete company and they had a place there where you could drive your pickup full of the rock and rinse it off w/ their hoses. I'd just rinse them off w/ a hose if I were you and they should be good to go!

 

[sissy]

I just hose my river rock off and then soak them in a mixture of water and peroxide to clean any bacteria off .I use a kiddy swimming pool .I just picked some up from a river near my house and they are soaking now .Sure don't want something from the river that can kill my fish .They usually soak for a week .Maybe over kill but better safe than sorry

 

[j.w]

Lol, I think overkill sissy but good job on you protecting your babies to the fullest extent! Can you imagine doing that to hundreds of rocks for a huge pond?

 

[sissy]

If you were just building the pond and no fish that would be easy just pour the bottle in and then clean with the pump and do a 20% or more water change clean and desinfect in one

 

[j.w]

Sissy you have an answer for everything :ideacyclops:

 

[addy1]

I didn't do anything, but my pond was empty ie. being built.

 

[RiverRat]

Thank you very much for the quick responses. I figured it wasnt that big a deal anyway. Ill probably give them a soak in some peroxide mix. Its a small pond anyway, ie. 125-150gallons. Will be more plants than fish im sure. Thanks again peeps!

 

[taherrmann4]

I didn't do anything to mine, too many rock to worry about it. I just hosed them off and put them in place. Let nature take care of the rest.

 

[DrCase]

When i had a load i would stop at the car wash and spray the dirt off

 

[sissy]

oh no he did not say that. lol

 

[j.w]

Well sissy that's basically what the concrete company had there at the site where we pulled the truck into..............a car wash hose type thing.

 

[sissy]

they wash the rocks geeze mine are dirty when they get here

 

[j.w]

No they didn't wash them we did................well my hubby did.......... w/ a big hose wand up on a platform looking down into the bed of the truck. Handy dandy sort of deal it was! And the rocks we hand picked out of piles of different sized rocks w/ hardhats on and climbing these piles looking for just the right ones. It only cost us around $10. for a whole pickup load but we didn't want that many so only took how many we thought we'd need. When I got them home I laid them out on the drive way and hosed them off again just to make sure they were even cleaner.

 

[DrCase]

Sissy i just wash mine sitting in the trailer just to get rid of dirt and weed seeds i don't have to clean up nothing when I'm done its worth a few bucks to me