early spring?

[beetgreens]

Hello! At the moment my greatest interest is in the filter forum threads. We expanded our 6' x 3' x 3' pond after 10 years and now have a murky behemoth on our hands (20 x 20 x 3). We are beginning season 3 of trying to get sufficient filtration to keep the water clear. We have a Savio skimmer and bio-filter and big honking air pump, but clearly (no pun intended) it wasn't sufficient for our pond. So we are adding a second pump and modified skippy filter this spring (150 gallon), and I ordered oodles of floating and oxygenating plants, as well as more hardy lilies. Additionally I am going to put some evaporative cooler pad material into the lower part of the Savio filter for better mechanical filtration.

One question is: can anyone recommend a particular brand of (preferably) dry bacteria for us to use this year? And has anyone used the Microbe-Lift Gel Bacteria or is just the newest shiny thing?

http://www.watergarden.org/Microbe-Lift-Gel

Thanks in advance and I am LOVING the forums!

 

[addy1]

Welcome,
check out the diy section there is good info on making your own filter, that work well. doc and skippy filter

 

[DrDave]

Welcome to the Forum!

 

[j.w]

beetgreens
I don't use any of that stuff in my pond. I like to let it cycle el naturale but I think some others on here have or do use it in their ponds so maybe they will chime in about it :lol:

 

[fishin4cars]

I used a product called Pondcare Powerpacks (Available at petsmart) It's a dry powder in a dissolvable pouch. It releases bacteria and barley. I bought a jar to try as I was trying to cycle the pond as quickly as possible when I started it up. I used it with a 2500 gallon pond, Savio compact skimmer, 30 watt UV light, 3600gph pump through the skimmer and an additional submersible pump of 2000 gph that runs a additional water fall through my plants/bog pond, and also tee's off to bring water from the far end of the pond back to the skimmer. the pond cycled in about 3 weeks and stabilized after about 2 months. I still add one pouch about once every two weeks or after a filter clean. I'm not sure if it really works but my water stays clear, I don't have ammonia issues, and the fish seem happy. One modification I did do was go to a finer and thicker matala pre filter in my skimmer. It clogs faster but removes more solids before reaching the filter. It requires cleaning sometimes twice a day. I don't mind that to much as it allows me to check the pond and fish and it only takes about 2-3 minutes to clean them and put them back in place. Normally I don't recommend adding so called sludge removers, and all the other products that are suppose to do miracles, This product only has barley and bacteria so I figured it wouldn't hurt to try. Another friend of mine used the same product on his 3600 gallon pond and got the same results. I would say for $12 it's a product that I believe did help in me obtaining the water clarity and stable bacteria bed I was looking for.

 

[DrCase]

Welcome to the Forum !!

 

[JoaniePA]

I use the same sort of thing that Fishin uses in the spring, then I use the bene bacteria once a month through the summer and a barley powder if it looks like there's too much gunk suspended in the water.

Joanie