Koi clay is something of an amusement for me to follow on 'aquatic' message boards, I marvel at all the comments and speculation made of the stuff... 'koi clay' is basically any smectite type clay which is quite common over many parts of America, while manufacturers might claim only their 'koi clay' is the real thing because they have 'refined it' any type of processing is losing quite a lot of the clays trace minerals... If you can locate either kitty litter (without additives) or clay processed for the oil industry, or find beds of it to dig yourself, you can tinker with it on a grand scale if you want to.
The industrial minerals association has defined 'bentonite' aka smectite aka koi clay quite well at this url:
http://www.ima-na.org/about_industrial_minerals/bentonite.asp Most of the ponds here are dug directly into the stuff, lol, so far the only obvious merits of the clay is it makes life difficult for free floating algaes to establish and some quite fickle varieties of water lilies seem to like the range of minerals in it, thats about it, otherwise its fairly good at holding water as far as I can see... yup, something in clays (smectite clays aka kitty litter aka bentonite aka fullers earth aka koi clay etc) has noticeable benefits from the trace minerals, I've found rose arey hardy water lilies grow well if it is present whereas it will struggle in plainer soils, what is amusing about the stuff is how retailers seem to impress that only they have the 'right' stuff, when bentonite clay is commonly available from many other sources, even trying to sell it to folk who quite possibly live directly on top of it.
Water gardeners have reported that their bio filters function faster, within days rather than weeks when the microbes have the wide mineral range start that koi clay provides. One of the 'big things' for water gardeners is that many are ponding in a closed environment with liners, and koi clay can provide many of the trace minerals in the water that a fertile pond naturally has...
If you check out us geologic survey information you will find there are extensive cretaceous deposits scattered along the east, some a few feet, others 300ft. While they may not be commercially used, 'smectite' type clays are extensive over many parts of America
quote: 'Smectite is locally abundant in discontinuous sedimentary geologic units of Tertiary age and younger along the Atlantic Coastal Plain and the Gulf Coastal Plain of Florida (Witczak, 1972; Tourtelot, 1974). These sedimentary units consist of sand, clay, and soft, porous limestone. The following Tertiary units containing swelling clay are extensive in the coastal plains of the southeastern United States':
http://www.surevoid.com/surevoid_web/soil_maps/reg_ea_cons.html The brand 'koi clay' is not entirely owned by folk in the retail business and you may not want to believe everything you read that 'only' certain suppliers can get the 'real thing', lol. A decent grade of bentonite clay could be ordered more cost effectively from folk who supply the oil industry, rather than folk who 'promote' koi clay methinks
Regards, andy
