Barley straw/hay

ZEROPILOT

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I recently found a Becket product that claims to help with water clarity. Sachets of Barley hay.
Do they work? And how, exactly.
It's been too soon to tell yet as I've just tossed them into my pond this morning.
 
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sissy

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garley straw just gets mucky and ugly and found that it was not worth it .I have used the liquid with peat in it .But really saw it did not do much .
 
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The bales can clog up and cause problems, depends on water flow.
I can't really comment on the quality of various liquid additives, but the science behind the benefits of humic substances is pretty good.
 

sissy

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true but in adding barley with peat it will turn the water a little brown .Not sure most would like that look .It is like a pee brown ,yellowish brown .I use it in my stock tanks once in awhile
 
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Hopefully people will change their minds.
Any tint (green, yellow, brown) will also help protect their fish from sunburn.
 
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I, too, wish people would move away from the idea that crystal clear water is the goal in a pond. I watch a lot of pond build videos and invariably someone will exclaim "look at that water quality!" because the water is clear. Come on now... you can't see "water quality". Couple that with the koi pond owners who boast about their "gin clear water" and you have a whole lot of ponders who fret over their tea-colored pond.

Concern yourself with the health of the pond - clarity is not a good barometer.
 

sissy

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funny thing is when I add peat it only stays tea colored for a day or 2 and then turns clear .Even koi clay turns it cloudy for a day or 2 and then clear
 

JohnHuff

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Don't bother. I've used them and didn't find they made a difference. Using them is a bandaid anyway. If you want good water quality, you need to work on the basics.

You need good mechanical filters to get rid of the solids. You need good water parameters for the rest. It all comes down to good water quality, i.e. a good filter, maintenance, and treating your pond well.
 
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Hi, I've been using homemade barley straw bags for several years now and found it totally removes algea bloom and reduces blanket (the stringy stuff?) considerably. The pond is approx' 5000ltrs/1600galls
Had a small bale of barley straw for rabbits, REALLY cheap, not the overpriced pond sachets from a petshop.
About twice a year I stuff a couple of small nylon netting sacks & dangle them from "the bridge" under which the water flows from the output of the circulation pump. I have no filter, just a grid of drilled plastic pipes beneath layers of large to small stones/shingle separated by a plastic mesh in the square section left of attached pic, shallower than main pool behind a retaining wall.
Water is sucked down through the layers into the pipes and expelled into a small pool behind "the bridge".
For a more in depth explanation of its use read the attached .pdf
 

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I, too, wish people would move away from the idea that crystal clear water is the goal in a pond. I watch a lot of pond build videos and invariably someone will exclaim "look at that water quality!" because the water is clear. Come on now... you can't see "water quality". Couple that with the koi pond owners who boast about their "gin clear water" and you have a whole lot of ponders who fret over their tea-colored pond.

Concern yourself with the health of the pond - clarity is not a good barometer.
I agree. My water is pretty clear in the upper 18"-24", but not so clear in the deeper range. I think it helps protect the fish from possible predators and as stated, sun exposure.
 
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found it totally removes algea bloom and reduces blanket (the stringy stuff?) considerably.

Regular algae blooms shouldn't happen in a pond - that and the appearance of string algae is telling you something. You have too many nutrients in your pond. Address that issue and your need for barley straw - or any other algae fix - will be a thing of the past. Not that you shouldn't have algae - every healthy pond needs algae - but algae that becomes a nuisance or overgrows the pond can be controlled by better pond management. Fewer fish, less feeding, more plants, keeping the organic materials from decaying in the pond... all good steps to keeping the algae under control. Anything else is just a bandaid, in my opinion. It's not a "fix" if you have to repeat it over and over and over.
 
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I guess your right, "better pond management" is the answer, but we "inherited" the pond when we moved in, it's actually 30 years old. I would never have built one myself, no idea what they actually are.
Pretty sure we are overstocked, they keep breeding, natural selection helped out there thanks to the local herons (must set-up a camera for that ;) but with the onset of grandchildren & childproof netting installed, we have another baby boom. I'm not a ponder by choice, more the casual maintenance guy with a mild interest....... Lol!
 

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