My Plant Filter

This is our very own biological filter for our pond. I got tired of bi-weekly cleaning that I had to do with the conventional filter more than a year ago. Cleaning fish muck is a very messy affair. So, we looked around and managed to find a pot with a spout and a fibreglass container. We threw in a few plants which we felt could grow well in water. Suffice to say, the filter has worked very well. The time gap for the last round of trimming was something like 9 months. 

For 9 whole months I did not have to touch fish muck. 8) And the above pic is how the roots grew to the shape of the box when Other Half and Son did some sprucing. In time, if they didn't trim them, the box will probably crack as how the terracotta pot we used to contain the green keladi plant in the box has cracked from the bottom.

This time though, we left the plants be for longer. By the time we took this out, the roots were so dense that filtering was happening only at the top layer. When we cut into the roots, much of what is in the middle had rotted. While it may look nice on the outside, there were actually a lot of rotting stuff beyond what the eye can see.

Life is kinda like the plants in the box. Without outside influence or interference, we grow... and grow too... but because we do not trim our excesses such as bad habits or have no one to tell us that we aren't doing the right things, we rot from inside. Eventually we implode. Our country too is at that crossroad now.... if we don't wake up and start trimming, one day, our container will crack. The signs of rot are all there... another MAS bailout, NFC scandal, the goon-ish behaviour of ceramah crashers, the outrageous wealth of our politicians' chilldren, Proton losses, the plight of the Kenyahs, the Baram dam. 

There is a long list... and they are all signs that the rot has set in. Boxed as the roots were, without trimming; that's how it's like in many institutions too, be it schools, churches, mosques, temples, companies....the rot sets in if we do not trim to allow regrowth, replacement, rejuvenation....

As for my natural filter box, Other Half recently put some water cress to grow. I hope they will grow well. Vegetables are so expensive these days, not forgetting coated with pesticides too.