A old newbie looking for wisdom from the experienced

[Lroszkow]

Greetings, garden pond friends,

I am Lee from the great state of Tennessee. My new retirement home has a small old plastic pond in which local green and leopard frogs live. I am a 100% newbie to this hobby and I’m trying to catch up to make a home for the sweet singers to the moon. They thrived in water with a greenish tinge.

The plastic basin leaked and my lady and I pulled the muck and water out. we installed a 7ft x 10 ft liner. We utilized captured rain water for the topping off the evaporations, leaks, and refill To avoid chemicals and disinfectants from the tap water.

My quandry is The water was clear in the barrels but has a whitish fog after being poured into the pond. with limited knowledge I’m assuming aeration and settling time maybe the answer.

my questions to the experienced are:
Is this normal?
what water testing equipment is recommended?
are there any good books for the knowledge deprived beginner?

thanks in advance for any replies. I look forward to reading your forums and maybe making some new friends.

 

[YShahar]

Hello @Lroszkow , not sure why the more experienced members haven't weighed in on this one... Probably slipped between the cracks somewhere!

As far as water test kits go, I've seen a lot of recommendations here for the API freshwater testing kits. I haven't used any of these myself, but they seem highly regarded. From my own experience, I've found that given plenty of aeration, lots of gravel on which nitrifying bacteria can grow, and abundant plant life, most water issues seem to sort themselves out. I'm using untreated tap water (no rain in my region between March and November, so that's not an option). But the bigger the pond, the easier it is to keep it in balance. When the ecological balance was just getting started, I had green water with a bit of a "film" on top for a few days. That eventually cleared up, leaving the water clear but with a slight brownish-green tinge. This is normal for ecosystem ponds.

I'm not at all sure which of the newer books to recommend. I've got a bunch of the older ones with lots of good information, but most are somewhat dated now. The one I found most helpful when I first started digging (several decades back) was The Complete Pond Builder, by Helen Nash. I'm sure there are plenty of more up-to-date books out there that folks can recommend.

I think the vast majority of pond builders are now getting their information from the excellent pond building videos put out by Aquascape, Atlantis Water Gardens, and The Pond Digger. The Pond Digger has a couple of good tutorials for building different kinds of ponds, which are well worth the time. For DIY filtration, I recommend Ozponds.com, and his Youtube videos.

Happy Ponding!

-Yael

 

[Mgessert]

My liner had white powder on it, which I rinsed off prior to use. I wonder if the white fog was something like that.

 

[SarahT]

Greetings, Lee. Can you post a picture for us of the pond/ water, which might help us. Or has it cleared?

 

[Hound Heaven]

Hi from Oak Ridge Lee, you've come to the right place for good ponding advice.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to the forum!
@Lroszkow

Sorry we missed your posting. Has the whitish fog gone away?

 

[Lroszkow]

Greetings, Lee. Can you post a picture for us of the pond/ water, which might help us. Or has it cleared?

Welcome to the forum!
@Lroszkow

Sorry we missed your posting. Has the whitish fog gone away?

Thanks for your interest! I can proudly state that the cloudiness dissipated in a week. The water is clear, and the pebbles placed on the bottom of the liner is starting to turn tannin color.

Below is a photo of the pond. Since the photo we replaced the bricks with natural stone of different sizes to provide ballast for the liner, to provide egress in and out of the pond for the frogs.

4 local frogs have taken up residence in this pond and garden. We even received a midnight serenade from one of them about a week ago. We're elated and proud of our efforts. Thanks so very much. I enjoy returning, reading, and learning.

You're pondish friend,

Lee R

Hi from Oak Ridge Lee, you've come to the right place for good ponding advice.

Howdy Neighbor, I'm in Greene County.

 

[addy1]

Very nice!