Best use of money...

[sissy]

very true and by then if you are still having problems then you will have by then saved enough money for a good uv or bad uv which ever .Maybe santa will bring you one you never know .We all have our pond quirks and figuring them all out and finding what works for you may take awhile .Your pond is new so everything in it is new .We go from bogs to skippies to pressurized filters and in the pond filters and from in pond pumps to out of pond pumps .From cheap pumps to expensive pumps and from bottom drains to skimmers and waterfall weirs .It is a game of no hide but lots of seeks .You may end up trying several ways until you find you niche in your search and you are happy .Along the way some hiccups

 

[sissy]

NO CRYSTAL BALL

 

[buckry]

Whoa, wait a minute. I'm super happy with the technical details of my pond right now. I don't want to add any more hardware, and I definitely don't want to add any more electrical devices, so if the answer here is wait it out I'm TOTALLY on board with that. I'm not looking to build a giant frankenstein of a pond system. The shots I've seen of entire tool sheds filled with 55 gallon drums and 4" PVC pipe running in every direction horrify me. I want my water clear, and if that means waiting it out I will do that, if it means adding another device I will do that as well. My pond isn't old at this point, it's only had water for a month, and only had fish for 2 weeks. It's entirely possible I'm trying to solve a problem that cannot be solved at this time, and if that's the case I will sit back and wait.

My ego is not tied to a rubber maid stock tank that I cut some holes in, I would much rather people think I did a good job stacking my waterfall rocks than my ability to dremel a hole into plastic.

 

[sissy]

I have seen tons of those barrels on here and all i have is about 50 dollars in total invested in my filters and the most expensive part was the tank adapters I got at pet mountain for less than 9 dollars a piece .The one tank is a tote I got for 7 dollars and the other is a plantainer I got for 15 dollars .Wish I had not gone for round thought in the plantainer .Harder to get the tank adapter size i wanted to fit .lava rock was broken bags for 1.25 a piece and real lava rock was free from a friend who lived in Hawaii .Quilt batting 8 dollars for a roll and furnace filter 6 dollars .I just wash and reuse quilt batting I bought 8 months ago .

 

[crsublette]

Some folk likely do not have planktonic algae, the free floating single cell algae, since they got all sorts of other carpet algae species and other species of string algae.

I have heard of folk always using a UV light continuously to keep the planktonic algae knocked back, but they then have big explosions of string algae or very heavy carpet type algaes.

I think the best use of your money is to research, pre-plan, talk to folk, then go out buy something or, if ya got the free time, do a DIY to save some money.

I think fishloads and/or heavy feeding and how often you clean the muck out of the water and filter cleaning has a big influence on how much you will eventually spend on your pond. If ya just keep 4 koi for a 2000 gallon pond and do your best on a cleaning maintenance schedule, then likely do not need to spend much at all.

Just don't put your self in that frame of mind that will set your self up, leading to more aggravation.


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I have used my UV setup once this year for about a week to knock back my planktonic algae a bit, heh, I have not used it yet again.

 

[don't ask]

If money were not the issue then you would do both at the same time or even more.. Take your time, it's only been a couple of months as you said.. cycling of a pond has no predetermined time frame, yes we like to see clear or crystal clear water and our fish.. but if you truly want that now then you'll probably find a way to do a uv and skippy and/or someother contraption all at once and look for immediate results.. like the group said Buck, enjoy the pond, tweak your design and rocks if need be..and while testing your water as long as levels are acceptable just try to remember if the fish and plants are doing well you're actually doing well.. the clear water will come

 

[buckry]

Yeah, my chemistry is fine, no ammonia, 8.0 PH, everything is great, the fish are all super active. I don't need it clear today, but it's been really consistently mediocre for a while, it's not getting worse, and it's not getting better, I just feel like I should be proactive, but maybe I should just sit back and observe. I've spent almost as much time fussing over a water lily plant as I have over the water clearness. I think I've finally gotten to the bottom of that problem with some simple sleuthing, maybe the water is the same thing.

I think I've got a super simple place to insert a submersible UV clarifier, so I might do that in the next couple of days, but I'm leaning towards the doing nothing side.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

My pond isn't old at this point, it's only had water for a month, and only had fish for 2 weeks. It's entirely possible I'm trying to solve a problem that cannot be solved at this time, and if that's the case I will sit back and wait.

There ya go. As long as you realize your pond isn't SICK, just because it has algae growing in it, then you'll be fine. If sometime down the road your pond still hasn't cleared up, and you've decided you've had enough of the green water, then it's an easy matter of hooking up a UV unit to your existing plumbing.

I'm not looking to build a giant frankenstein of a pond system. The shots I've seen of entire tool sheds filled with 55 gallon drums and 4" PVC pipe running in every direction horrify me. .

LOL please point me in the direction of those shots, because they fascinate me. :cheerful:

 

[sissy]

There are quite a few on you tube with huge setups of 6 and 7 of those barrels and some with even more that look like a field of barrels .

 

[don't ask]

i would sure hope those people that go to those extremes have crystal clear water and everything just peachy or i'd be feeling pretty sad after going through all of that time, effort and money

 

[buckry]

I don't want to point out any one's systems, I'm not picking on anyone, but it does seem like people get sucked into this weird mentality where the fun in ponding is adding 40 more feet of PVC to the system rather than feeding and watching the fish. It seems like MacGuyverish kind of stuff, and while it can be awesomely fun to build stuff, in this case I want to do the bare minimum to have a beautiful pond with healthy fish.

 

[sissy]

funny things is they showed there ponds off and i could not even see there fish on a couple of them .I agree buckry i would rather sit and enjoy my fish .Have time to relax and watch them swim and save my self some money to use on other stuff .I have seen some pretty weird things on ponds that I'm not sure I would want .Make it pretty is where the money should go and sometimes simple is the best way and cheapest .I have to admit though bogs are pretty neat things with all the nice plants .

 

[crsublette]

Yeah, I just have 3 things, but everything is scalled down to match my dinkly little 435gallon water feature.

1) I got a 20 gallon skippy barrel setup at the head of my stream, where it just gravity dumps into the stream.
2) A dinky little trickle tower fountain that gravity dumps into my stream.
3) a small 5 gallon bucket used as a pressurized filter that is buried halfway into the ground for my mechanical filtration. does the job kind of ok. it gets most of the debris.

4th thing is in progress looking at making a mini-foam phraxinator.

I really don't want to build stuff up around my skippy to hide it; I might be able to move it in my barn so it can be used during the winter.

I am also giving some serious thought into making a small filter pit (4 foot deep, 6 foot long, 3 feet wide maybe, not sure yet) where I can put all this stuff ... with a nice deck looking lid on top. Put a couple of potted plants on top when I do not need to check my filtration.

There are some snazzy looking filter pits ya can build if your space or location does not give ya an option for a shed type structure.


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Yeah, most folk with fancy setups have a tremendous fish load such as 8,000 gallon pond with 400 or so koi or something crazy like that.

It all depends on how many fish ya want your water to sustain.

 

[buckry]

I've decided I'm just going to go to Home Depot right now and buy this:

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...fier&storeId=10051&relatedSearch=uv clarifier

That's super cheap, super easy, and if it clears things up I can take it out and put it in the garage until the next time this happens. It's not quite big enough for my pond, but I guess that just means it will take longer, it should still eventually kill off all of the algae. Anyway, it's an experiment, I'll learn something from this regardless of how my pond looks in 2 weeks.

 

[Waterbug]

For many people the filtering systems IS the hobby. The pond is only needed to run the filters. I was definitely in that hobby for several years. Great fun. And within the filter hobby there's 2 separate hobbies, the DIY and the buying the most expensive and complex possible. It's a hobby, no more silly than any other hobby. But boy oh boy do people love to look at other people's hobbies and snicker.

My ego is not tied to a rubber maid stock tank that I cut some holes in, I would much rather people think I did a good job stacking my waterfall rocks than my ability to dremel a hole into plastic.

Then why would you ever consider a Skippy? Trickle tower, shower filters 10-30 better nitrification. Bottom drain and sieve filter way has to be 100 times better at removal of waste and the suspended particles that would follow. UV 100% effect against green water. Veggie filter excellent nitrification and nitrate removal. Bogs excellent at suspended particle removal. Foam fractionator super at lower DOC levels.