REED BEDS

[Penny]

I'm looking for a design for a reed bed- I saw one in a magazine some time ago but now that I need it I can't locate it, typical ! The one that I saw was a long fairly narrow one that was suposed to produce water of a potable quality using only plants and native Pygmy Perch. I don't know if that is correct and I only want one to clean water for other than drinking purposes. Can anyone help
Thanks

[christopher]

Hi Penny,

I have heard of them, and they seem interesting. I have seen a constructed wetland for sewage treatment in the US in Indiana, near a concert venue. Don't know if the outflow was potable or not.

For general information, w/links, check:
http://peacecorps.mtu.edu/danny/Wetland%20Systems.htm

and the following based out of UK has seeds for reeds:
http://www.brynpolyn.co.uk/

I know that New Alchemy Institute did a lot of work along those lines back in the 70s and 80s, but I think they no longer exist. I found this:
http://www.ratical.org/co-globalize/DO_JohnTodd.html
which talks a bit about some of what they were doing. It was exciting stuff.

I took 10 farmers from Belize to Costa Rica and Panama for biodiversity training, and in Costa Rica we saw a piggery at Escuela Agricultura Region Tropical Humido where the outfow from a biogas plant went through a canal, with lots of water hyacinth, which they subsequently fed to goats. The water leaving the canal was supposed to be good enouggh to drink, but I never saw anyone try it. I floated on air while we were there because what they were doing was so interesting.

Thanks for writing. I tried to send you a message, repeatedly, but it keeps getting refused. The server tells me:

Not Acceptable

An appropriate representation of the requested resource /privmsg.php could not be found on this server.

Apache/1.3.33 Server at http://www.forums.permaculture.org.au Port 80

Don't know what that means except I can't send you a note I wanted to send. Frustrating.

We're having a bit of a week here, with some unhappy things to deal with, but keeping busy. I'm building a new kitchen out of stone, but today it rained almost all day. I had a really nice day writing on the forum about solar while it poured rain outside, alternating with flashes of high sun. The river is way up, the farm, is green, things are good....

Got to run. Applying for an online course in grant writing tonight! Wish me luck in getting accepted. It starts the 29th, and is n 8 week course...

Hope your doing well. I would love to hear about your ponds, and your reed bed purification system when you get it up and running.

Warmly,

Christopher

[SueinWA]

Check out the free online book titled The Humanure Handbook by Joe Jenkins. Chapter 9 gives some good graywater ideas.

http://www.weblife.org/humanure/default.html


There is also a book called Create an Oasis with Grey Water by Art Ludwig that has helpful information.

Sue