i have an not- so- old wine barrel that I want to use as a water garden. Alcohol and tannins that readily leach out od of the water are provenly toxic to fish. I have various water plants in it, and they are doing fine. I overflow it once a week onto the vegies and they are booming, so obvioulsy the soil microbes are happily drunk and okay. I also have pots of zeolite down the bottom, but i believe it only works on ammonia and substances with a positive charge, and i'm not sure that alcohol is ionically charged. I've heard boiling wood removes tannins, if true I could get hold of a cast iron bathtub. Does any one have any suggestions for the speedy rehabilitation into a non toxic water pond. I don't want to line it and I don't want to breed mosquitos.
