What you'd find for water treatment is generally in granular form, as opposed to powder, which will work much better for this application. Theoretically, activated carbon works by providing hydrophobic sites attractive to chemicals that have hydrophobic properties. Some pesticides (perhaps many) are not very water soluble. In fact, the liquid concentrates you buy often have carriers, solvents and surfactants added to make it possible to dilute the product in water and spray it. Once separated from its carriers, the relatively insoluble pesticide will prefer the carbon surface. It's similar to a water and oil situation, but the 'oil' in this case is the surface of the carbon. With all the hundreds and thousands of naturally occurring compounds floating around in the soil solution, I just wonder how it can work at all, but if it works, it works. Note, however, that it won't work the same for just any pesticide. For example, atrazine, which is used in mass quantities on corn and is causing groundwater problems, is much more water soluble than, say, 2,4-D, and may not respond to carbon treatment as well. Theoretically.

thx gobows, i did that & also found more websites through a book about building a small house. i guess i was confused - i thought there were actual brand names, but all i see are websites that sell them. when i asked my GC, he told me look through brochures (w/out giving me any names) i have found a mantel (through a website) that meets my needs & will be ordering this wknd.

Wow, thanks everyone, for your welcoming! I must say that it's a foreign feeling to find people in the same situation as myself!!! Leaves me a bit tongue-tied here, in a nice way. :-) chargreen, thanks for the compliment on my member page. I got the idea for adding the "funniest thread" after reading Cactus Joe's member page. I never laughed so hard as I did reading his! It's good for a lift, everyone.

Well I found this "down and out" mount and think it may solve my woes. I will have to deal with or patch the hole in the wall behind the tv-but I may leave a smaller opening for components and such. The house was built in 2000 and I just think that was before people started getting super large tv's, so I won't feel too bad about filling it up (having a carpenter re wall it and patch and paint, I can't see such a small space holding a tv again. Anyway here it is, it just swings up and down and out (it will clear fireplace mantles), you can also get it with a pivot head to angle it for viewing preference. It has great reviews, so I am kind of hopeful it can solve the tv issue. Oh and I would probably paint the wall bracket to match the wall so it blended in better.