Quilt Batting

[Gomer14]

I bought some quilt batting as some you suggested and used it to replace my filter media that is in my prefilter inside of my Sunterra 1250 pump. It did a great job overnight removing some of the suspended algae and other stuff that is in my 1000 gallon pond. But this morning I noticed that my waterfall flow was greatly reduced and I also found a dead goldfish when i went to go check on it. I don't know if the dead goldfish was a coincidence or not. I then replaced the quilt batting with my original filter in the pump. Should I continue to use the quilt batting but monitor the water flow ? . Or should i just use my original filter media ? I still have allot of suspended algae in my pond , Is there some other way that i can use the batting in my pond ? I really don't want to put it in my bio-filter.

 

[addy1]

The batting can be put anywhere the water will flow through it. Your flow decreased because of the amount of stuff it collected, so it needed to be rinsed out. If you have a place you can put bucket to let the water flow through, use a home depot type bucket with holes drilled in it. Put in the quilt batting when it gets yucky just pull the bucket and rinse it.

The dead goldfish was prob a coincidence. I used it to remove silt from our build and it did not affect our goldies.

 

[j.w]

You can put the batting in a plastic strainer like used for straining noodles etc. and put it right under your waterfall or if you have an extra pump you can run a hose from it so it falls over the strainer that way. You will have to put a rock on the bottom of the strainer or tie it in place to get it to stay put and you may need to put a plant pot or plastic milk crate under it to raise it up higher.

 

[j.w]

Posting together addy.............great minds think alike

 

[fishin4cars]

How are you using it? Pics? I find it clogs intakes to fast, I use it in a planter basket or strainer and allow the water to run through it, if it starts clogging this way it can just overflow until you clean it out or change it out. as for a real filter media I really think it traps well as a mechanical but clogs to fast to me much good for biological. I would replace back to your original filter media in the filter itself and use this as a polisher to remove suspend particles. say in a water fall or water return going back to the pond.

 

[Gomer14]

Thank you all very much. I'll try to figure out someway that I can put it underneath my waterfall. Here are the most recent pix of my pond and its waterfalls that I have . These were taken in '08. My plantings that I have around the pond is much more lush now.

 

[addy1]

We took a cheap swimming pool net raft, the kind the edge blows up with net in the middle. put the quilt batting in a big net bag put it on the raft and floated the raft under my bog water fall. Gets dirty float it out and rinse. Your water fall looks like you could do something similar there.

 

[j.w]

Hey you could use just about anything like that to float the batting in, like Styrofoam. pipe insulation, attach some net underneath or just stick the strainer in it let if float under the falls and call it good. I think I'm gonna try that if it ever stops raining for Heaven's sake and mine too instead of that big bucket thing I'm using now that takes up too much space :rolleyes

 

[Gomer14]

Thank you all again. I put the quilt batting in a plant basket (held the batting in place with a rock),and placed it next to my pump. We will see if this works or not. I will try what both of you suggested if this doesn't work.

I saw some baby goldfish in my pond while I was working on it

 

[j.w]

Awwwwww, babies on father's day...........there is some proud pa pa fish swimming around in your pond today celebrating

 

[addy1]

Neat gomer! happy baby fishes

 

[Gomer14]

Thank you. I just hope the babies survive until I get rid of my 2 bullfrogs.

 

[Peepers Mom]

Hi all -- I want to post to this because I am having great luck using quilt batting as a complement to our waterfall weir filter system (we also have a skimmer, but I don't use it there).
Here's what we do:
* Make a paper template from the original filter pad that came with our Savio waterfall weir. I'm sure this can be adapted to most types of filters. (I have also made additional 'regular' filter pads by cutting my own from bulk media on a roll purchased at our local pond store. We rotate our filter pads as they need changed, then use a pressure washer or garden hose to rinse all the gunk out (of the regular ones) -- hang to dry and keep in rotation.)
* Go to a fabric store and purchase (watch for sales) the thickest polyester (not cotton) quilt batting I can find on the large rolls - I get the stuff that's close to 1" thick, ~54" wide, and purchase at least 2 yards long so I can make several at once (you can estimate how much you need based on your own filter pad size).
* Using your template, draw around it onto the quilt batting with permanent marker and cut as many supplement filters as you can. The more the merrier.... they are reusable, and you won't run out as you change them out.
* I take ONE of the cut quilt pads (I've used as many as two if they're thin) and place it OVER the main filter pad in your gizmo. The reason I place it over and not under is so that the main filter can catch the bigger stuff first, and let the finer weave quilt batting catch all the fine particles that would normally go back into your pond.
* You will need to WATCH the filter a lot right at first because it tends to clog up frequently because of all the fine stuff it's catching. I've had some overflows... That should ease up a bit after awhile. I also don't leave the finer filter in overnight because of the same reason. You'll just have to play with it for your own situation.
* Now here's the gross but interesting part.... I save all the used (and incredibly gross) quilt filter pads in a bucket until there's enough to wash out. I use my washing machine on a gentle wash, and if you have any zip laundry bags, that will help them not get too beat up. You'll probably want to do this several times until you're happy with how clear the rinse water is. Be prepared for some seriously gross thick nasty black water while you're doing this! (NOTE: DO NOT USE DETERGENT OR BLEACH - just plain water!) I've washed my current set of quilt filters many times already and they are still holding up well. Then, just hang outside or in the garage and dry and recycle as many times as you can. (If that grosses you out using the washer, than you can alway run it through a bleach cycle when you're done...

I've notice a huge improvement in our pond clarity and I can't help but think that getting all the fine particle nasty stuff out of the water can only help. Someday maybe we'll have a bio filter, but until then..

 

[sissy]

I have a front loading machine but would not try that on my machine ,wonder how a laundry mat would look at me caring that in .I find if you just take the batting out and let it completely dry out and then put it in a bucket of peroxide and water it works better .I feel like it like killing 1 birds with one stone .After a couple of hours in that mix take it out put it in a fresh bucket of water and then let it dry again take the quilt batting out you put in to replace this one and put the fresh one in and start again I get the big bottles of peroxide at the dollar store

 

[Peepers Mom]

I probably wouldn't want to try that on a front-loader either... LOL! Does the peroxide get all the gunk out of batting, or just disinfect it good? There's a LOT of crud coming out of these when I do that, and I have to run it through the rinse cycle several times to get it all out. They come out free of 95% of all the stuff caught in it. Oh, and my washer gets cleaned good after doing that... ;-} This way is pretty easy and not too time consuming if you don't mind using your appliances that way.