Something that could add some coarser material to the matting would be like plastic pop or water bottles, cap taken off and mashed, then lots of holes drilled in them so gas will not accumulate.
This is another hair brain idea I have had. Save all the plastic bottles and make a pillow out of them with the fencing stuff. Maybe a combo of the baler twine/netting and plastic bottles might work. The bottles crushed and packed together would provide lots of small passage ways between them, kind of like a coarse rock pile would.
Where I got the baler twine idea was a commercial fish attractor made out of shredded recycled plastic in a mesh bag. Will try to find it and provide a picture or link. Always figured anything that dense would be too dense for the fish. But I think the idea is to provide surface area for the little critters to reproduce that the very small fish feed on. Maybe some of the experts can comment on material density for various forms of life that provide food for the life cycle of fish.
In an established pond with weeds, probably don't need anything like we are talking about. But I would think providing this habitat earlier before weeds are established in a new pond would be beneficial.
I'm a newby also. Only had a pond that I paid any attention to for a couple years now. Have a bunch of old delapidated farm ponds scattered around farm land that have been forgotten. Paid no attention to ponds since I did not have live stock. But when we built the new one behind our house for pleasure, been paying more attention and learning about ponds. Been renovating some of the old ones also. So I am learning along with you, with maybe a couple years head start is all.
Last edited by snrub; 02/21/14 05:21 PM.
