Best use of money...

[sissy]

So what ever happen to Buckry? Did he fill in his pond?

wondering huh .Seems some come on gung ho and then poof they loose interest.Maybe he has been busy with taking photo's it is wedding time now .

 

[Mommlea]

Hi, I'm new to ponding and this thread directly addresses my issue. I have a drop in liner, the bigger one. I think its about 300 gal from my calculations. I have a skippy filter going and about 40-50 goldfish less than three inches, mostly less than two. I have two problems which are playing on each other. I have foamy green slime in my skippy that plugs up my drain which is a two inch sink drain and my pump keeps getting plugged up with fish, um, poo. Also my pump hose is plugged up. advicIt has been set up foie a few months adhd has four large water lilies. Any advice? I dont want to clean my skippy and kill my good bacteria, I know better than that at least. I do have algae but not really bad. Mostly on the ramp that makes my little river leading from the output and in the filter. If it helps I'm in fort worth, tx and its a thousand degrees here right now.

 

[Mommlea]

Sorry about the text prediction issues. Lol

 

[Peggy]

Ok I know most have just liner bottoms, but I have rock also, and just do not know what to get to vacuum the bottom. Short of getting in and hauling rock around and out, I am trying to figure the best way to go. Any suggestions, ...it must be something's easy ifit has to be built lol. And if not it has to be something affordable

 

[sissy]

You may need to provide more oxygen to your pond as thats a lot of fish for that small a pond .Not sure how big or how deep your pond is .Full sun will cause algae growth and you may need a bigger filter with better filter media .I am going to order some acurel filter pads for my pond .I did not know pet mountain.com carried them as they put them under fish instead of ponds ,good gosh who who has a 1000 or 2000 gallon fish tank .If you turn off your pump and clean every thing with peroxide and hand take out as much as you can that will help .You can get a decent aerator at petco for less that 30 dollars and it has 4 ports and all the hoses and stuff with it and is the petco brand .I have had one for about 3 or 4 years and like it better than the expensive one I have .

 

[Mommlea]

I have several spare air pumps. I'll get one going. I had another leak last night and woke up to an eight inch deep pond. Glad I didnt put my pump right on the bottom. The stupid waterfall is my problem. The skippy is all sludgy with green foam and it causes overflow. I can pull it all out and clean it but I thought that was bad for it? Other than getting plugged up its cycled pretty well and I dont want to throw off the balance. Its about two and a half feet deep with a shelf at the midway point. Does the rule of an inch of fish per gallon of water not a apply in a pond? I could easily put all of these fish in a fifty gallon aquarium and they would be happy. Maybe my estimate of the amount of fish is off. If I were to put all of them in a bucket they would take up less than a third of a gallon of volume. Yah, thats kind of gory to think about but thats the best way I know to estimate. I do alot of cooking. LOL. The pond is 2.5 x 4.5 x 6. Its really pretty big.

 

[sissy]

I made my filters down flow with a t type pipe that fit over the tank adapter end and a pipe extention that goes down in the filter this way I could put plants in my filters

 

[Mommlea]

I have plants in my filter. I have the purple "wandering jew" please excuse the terminology, thats the only name I know for it. It roots well in water is why I used that one. I intend to put something else in it eventually but I'm on a spending freeze. Lol. I started on putting in a bog type secondary filter today. I just think they look cool and I'm going to use it as my baby fish nursery also. I'm going to reroute the waterfall and make it go to the skippy, then down a ramp and to the bog where I will have more plants and gravel and maybe alayer of filter media. Will putting more plants in the skippy help the slime process better? Also how should I get the peroxide off of the stuff out of the skippy filter after washing it? Just rinse it? Is that good enough? I dont want to kill the fish with peroxide in the water. Also, should I have used a specific starter bacteria? I didnt add anything, I just let it cycle.

 

[koiguy1969]

it never appealed to me to buy a unit and the bulb may or may not last a year and then pay a big sum to replace it again year after year

that is just not true.... a U.V bulb should last for years i used the same bulb for 5 years, it still functioned. you shouldnt have to run a U.V for more than 2 weeks, tops. if you buy the correct size and plumb it right. 10 years isnt out of the range of possibility for a bulbs life. and they are not expensive if you shop around. i got 2 bulbs for $15.00 delivered to my door on ebay. i only bought them because i was selling a fishmate pressure filter and its bulb was broken.it takes the same bulb as my tetrapond clarifier. so 9.75 watts of electricity for 2 weeks a year and a new bulb every 5 years at most....pretty cheap in my book to know you'll likely never have green water. even if you ran it a month a year you should get 8 years out of a bulb. they are almost all rated at 11 months continuous use. and star losing effectiveness at 8 months. the newer style bulbs according to SMARTPOND last 2x as long.

 

[sissy]

See thats the thing if you read most posts on here they use there uv's all summer and not just until algae is gone .I get a tiny bit on my waterfalls but a spray of peroxide while I turn off the pump to clean the filter intake and then turn pump back on and all gone to algae heaven .I have the wondering jew also and never tried it in my filter ,thought it would not grow in there ,now will have to try it> I am guessing what this is as I have one that is purple and silver leafed also

 

[koiguy1969]

i havent read anyone say they use their U.V all season myself..but anyone who does, does it uneccessarily, uses an improperly hooked up, or undersized unit... i ran mine the time it took to clear the water plus one extra week...10 - 12 days roughly. disconnect. clean and store it...why use it if it aint needed... now people who dont know better or like having the piece of mind can run them all year... still even if i did that, $15.00 gets 2 bulbs .. so paying that every 2 years on bulbs wouldnt exactly kill me either.

 

[Mommlea]

Ok, I took most but not quite all of my filter media out of the filter and put it in a bucket and poured peroxide over it. I let it set for a minute then added a little water and swished around. Then I took each piece and rinsed it well and put it back in the filter. Then I added dechlor before turning the pump back on. Should I have just poured peroxide straight in the pond? That sounds scary. I dont want to kill everything. Also, wont this kill my good bacteria? The plant in your picture is the same thing I have. One of the few plants that do well on the surface of the sun. I think we must have hit 110 today. Should my filter media come up to the outlet drain or cover it, or sould it be lower than that? Also, when using plants both in a bog and in the filter should I leave their roots bare or can I pot them? Thanks again!.

 

[sissy]

no it will kill your plants in big doses and may or may not hurt fish .Pot them in 100% pure kitty litter .and rinse in water before you put them in the pond or you will get a clay cloud.I only spray it on my water fall rocks when I turn the pump off and then wait 15 minutes .If you have bad algae try removing some with a toilet bowl brush

 

[Peggy]

Koi guy , 15.00 for two uv bulbs??? I just paid 70.00 for one for the uv light !!!!! What am I missing here!

 

[koiguy1969]

WELL ...for one..do you have a high watt unit?... try LSE enterprizes on ebay or online..yeah..i got 2, 9 watt U.V bulbs for $10.99 plus shipping.. it was right at $15.00 total. now the Tetrapond brand name ones are $27.99 at Lowes. i've seen them up to $35.00. they only make a couple different style bulbs and as long as the plug is the same and the wattage is right they'll work... i wont pay for a name!!