Zeolite do you use it

[Dave 54]

How many of us use zeolite in our systems Val and I use it and have done for years with no ammonia problems , when we had the crisis with the pond it wentabove .25 ppm but when everything was rectified went back down to 0.0 ppm .
I was in a discussion about the ammonia with our clubs health officer and he said you know I dont know just how much in the way of ammonia they soak up .
So we decided on an experiment when I washed the last seasons zeolite I tested the the salted water we had used to reprime the zeolite after 24 hours.
The resulrs were astounding the ammount of ammnia that the zeolite had taken up read 8.0 ppm OMG I totally couldnt beliece it was that high and all safely locked away.
There are those who claim you ant treat a pond with salt for fear of releasing massive amounts of aammonia back into the pond , this is an old wifes tail as the amount of salt needed to treat the pond would not release the ammonia stored in zeoolite or so I have read
A great tip would be to use two sackfulls of it , have one in the pond and charge the other one ready to go back on the pond in the filter.
Doing it this way you need never have ammonia problems again

Dave

 

[JohnHuff]

I think the problem with zeolite for me is that it needs to be recharged, and I would rather have the bacteria take care of the ammonia. They need the ammonia in order to thrive and I would rather have the ammonia and a thriving biofilter.

 

[dieselplower]

Dave how much water did you measure the 8 PPM? If you have a 1000 gallon pond but measured the 8 PPM in a 10 gallon bucket, that would reduce to .08 PPM in the pond. 5 gallon bucket would dilute to .04 PPM know what I mean? Just wondering.

 

[koiguy1969]

i use zeolite and have for along time... not outside but on the basement pond. recharging zeolite isnt a chore or anything . i keep it in mesh bags and swap it out in less than a minute. mine is in my skimmer , water is puiled in thru 3 egg crate fine foams, then thru the zeolite. (3/4 gallon in volume). pull it out and drop it in a 5 gallon bucket with a cup of salt and maybe 3 gals of water. a $4.00 bag of solar salt lasts over a year. you soak the zeolite for a day or so, rinse it out and its ready to go. i swap every 2 weeks. the whole rinse and prep takes less than 5 minutes. mine is on its own independant system. skimmed in and returned to pond at the bottom of the DIY skimmer. the pump is 256gph.

 

[crsublette]

How many of us use zeolite in our systems Val and I use it and have done for years with no ammonia problems , when 1) we had the crisis with the pond it wentabove .25 ppm but when everything was rectified went back down to 0.0 ppm .
2) I was in a discussion about the ammonia with our clubs health officer and he said you know I dont know just how much in the way of ammonia they soak up .
3) So we decided on an experiment when I washed the last seasons zeolite I tested the the salted water we had used to reprime the zeolite after 24 hours.
The resulrs were astounding the ammount of ammnia that the zeolite had taken up read 8.0 ppm OMG I totally couldnt beliece it was that high and all safely locked away.
4) There are those who claim you ant treat a pond with salt for fear of releasing massive amounts of aammonia back into the pond , this is an old wifes tail as the amount of salt needed to treat the pond would not release the ammonia stored in zeoolite or so I have read
5) A great tip would be to use two sackfulls of it , have one in the pond and charge the other one ready to go back on the pond in the filter.
Doing it this way you need never have ammonia problems again

Dave

Yeah, I wrote a detailed explanation about zeolite in post#10 in the thread An ammonia question...


1) we had the crisis with the pond it wentabove .25 ppm but when everything was rectified went back down to 0.0 ppm .

Personally, I think those type of situations is when it is good to use zeolite, that is when you notice a small increase of ammonia build up.

I have not yet had any reason to use the zeolite, but I would definitely use it when I notice a slight ammonia climb.


2) I was in a discussion about the ammonia with our clubs health officer and he said you know I dont know just how much in the way of ammonia they soak up .

Yep, your health officer is true to an extent. The absorption rate of zeolite is dependent on water's pH and other water contaminants. Zeolite is most effective in water with a pH of 6.48, but still effective in the pH range of 6.0~8.0 and mostly ineffective when the water's pH is at 9.0 or higher or 5.5 or lower.

If the water is skirting on the edge, such as at 6.0 or 8.4, then this simply means more of the zeolite must be used to take into account of the lost effectiveness. Also, when skirting on the edge, then the faster the zeolite will reach its full ammonia absorption potential.

The procedure of "how" zeolite is installed makes a tremendous impact on effectiveness as well.


3) So we decided on an experiment when I washed the last seasons zeolite I tested the the salted water we had used to reprime the zeolite after 24 hours.
The resulrs were astounding the ammount of ammnia that the zeolite had taken up read 8.0 ppm OMG I totally couldnt beliece it was that high and all safely locked away.

Very interesting experiment.

What's your water's pH ?


4) There are those who claim you ant treat a pond with salt for fear of releasing massive amounts of aammonia back into the pond , this is an old wifes tail as the amount of salt needed to treat the pond would not release the ammonia stored in zeoolite or so I have read

Yep, correct. The small amount of salinity typically used in hobby freshwater ponds, that is around 0.10~0.15% or 0.25%, this will have very minimal impact, if any, on the release of ammonia out of the zeolite.

However, once the zeolite fully absorbs its fill of ammonia, there is a potential for the full zeolite to release random ammonia spikes.


5) A great tip would be to use two sackfulls of it , have one in the pond and charge the other one ready to go back on the pond in the filter.

Yep, this would be a good approach. Also, takes extremely little effort to recharge the zeolite, but it just takes time for the zeolite to marinate in the solution; this is why I would keep two sacks of it. One sack that is constantly being recharged and the other sack that is being used.

 

[koiguy1969]

i have 4 mesh bags of zeolite atleast 2 ready for action at any given time.... plus a 5 gallon bucket full. that i use in the fry ponds.