- Joined
- Jul 14, 2018
- Messages
- 538
- Reaction score
- 486
- Location
- Huntsville, AL
- Hardiness Zone
- 7B
- Country
With the first year behind us, I thought I would provide a couple observations that may help other fist time ponders. We started up the pond in April of 2019 adding plants to the bog, and 2 water lilies and 3 pickerel rush, a handfull of mermaid plants, hornwort, and red ludwigia to the pond and 12 trap door snails. The total pond has about 1200 gallons of water and a 3,200 GPH recirculation pump feeding a waterfall bio-falls box, the bog and a small upper pond that we originally thought would be another bog
.
Before we added the first fish, we cycled the pond with ammonia. While waiting for the pond to stabilize, we were visited by a heron that spent a few days standing on the side looking into the pond. That led to purchasing a net to cover the pond.
We visited a local pond store with the plan to get 3 small shubunkins. They had a deal for 5 and we could not resist the urge so we came home with them. There were three that were about 2 1/2" and two that were 3". At that time the pond water was nice and clear. WIthin a few days the algae showed up and then gradually turned a soupy green. The green water lasted all year clearing up sometimes and getting really soupy as the bog plants really never took off so the algae was doing all the work in keeping the water healthy for the fish. We had string algae, algae on everything wet, and microscopic algae in the water.
We added a dwarf bamboo and two spider lilies in floating rings mid summer.
The fish grew throughout the year and were about 7 inches by the end of the summer. While some visitors were checking out our pond, we saw a small new fish so we were sure that they had spawned sometime during the year. The water was still green so we only had that brief moment of seeing the new one.
We added a pond aeration kit from Matala Hakko MEA Pro EZ-air pond aeration system to make sure we had adequate aeration.
Now that fall has arrived, the water has cleared up and we discovered about 14-20 new fish. Since the new fish were of varying sizes, we assume there were at least three different spawns and the new fish were hidden by the green water. Once we saw the little guys we started feeding them gold fish flake food that they really liked. All of them have grown a lot and the largest of them is the same size as the ones we orignially purchased. It seems the plant growth over the year allowed more babies to survive with each subsequent spawn. We have three presumably from the first spawn, five from the second spawn and a slew of guppy sized babies from the last spawn.
So fall is here and we are enjoying the clear water. Our upper pond is now a plant paradise that is full of hornwort and red Ludwigia. The top of the waterfall is solid red ludwigia and the bog plants have mostly died bag. We pruned the pickerel rush and water lilies. We left the green stem and lily pads. That was a mistake, we should have cut everything back because now it is a bit to cold to wade in the pond and trim those we left. We moved our floating plants into 5 gallon buckets of pond water and put them in my heated shop with plant light 8 hour a day. They seem to be doing great so far.
The pickerel rush is potted in three 2 1/2 gallon plastic buckets. The roots have spread out about a foot and the hornwort has grown into the roots making an underwater jungle where the new fish probably hid throughout the year.
The mermaid plants did not survive. Our water is very hard so I think they may not do well in hard water. We also had poor luck with the bog plants and perhaps the hard water is a contributor to their struggles. We will have to replant the bog in the spring with some hardwater plants. We did get some sedge to survive but not thrive and some water celery did great until the first frost.
Our water chemistry has stayed perfect all year. Still testing once a month.
Now we are ready for winter and the water temperature has gotten down to 40F. At that temp, the fish hide in the pickerel rush and hornwort. At 45 and above the fish are out moving around slowly and still begging for food anytime we approach the pond. We switched to winter food in October. We added a K&H Thermo-Pond 3.0 de-icer. So far, no ice has formed in the pond but January and February are our coldest months.
I have attached a diagram of the pond and some photos.
.
Before we added the first fish, we cycled the pond with ammonia. While waiting for the pond to stabilize, we were visited by a heron that spent a few days standing on the side looking into the pond. That led to purchasing a net to cover the pond.
We visited a local pond store with the plan to get 3 small shubunkins. They had a deal for 5 and we could not resist the urge so we came home with them. There were three that were about 2 1/2" and two that were 3". At that time the pond water was nice and clear. WIthin a few days the algae showed up and then gradually turned a soupy green. The green water lasted all year clearing up sometimes and getting really soupy as the bog plants really never took off so the algae was doing all the work in keeping the water healthy for the fish. We had string algae, algae on everything wet, and microscopic algae in the water.
We added a dwarf bamboo and two spider lilies in floating rings mid summer.
The fish grew throughout the year and were about 7 inches by the end of the summer. While some visitors were checking out our pond, we saw a small new fish so we were sure that they had spawned sometime during the year. The water was still green so we only had that brief moment of seeing the new one.
We added a pond aeration kit from Matala Hakko MEA Pro EZ-air pond aeration system to make sure we had adequate aeration.
Now that fall has arrived, the water has cleared up and we discovered about 14-20 new fish. Since the new fish were of varying sizes, we assume there were at least three different spawns and the new fish were hidden by the green water. Once we saw the little guys we started feeding them gold fish flake food that they really liked. All of them have grown a lot and the largest of them is the same size as the ones we orignially purchased. It seems the plant growth over the year allowed more babies to survive with each subsequent spawn. We have three presumably from the first spawn, five from the second spawn and a slew of guppy sized babies from the last spawn.
So fall is here and we are enjoying the clear water. Our upper pond is now a plant paradise that is full of hornwort and red Ludwigia. The top of the waterfall is solid red ludwigia and the bog plants have mostly died bag. We pruned the pickerel rush and water lilies. We left the green stem and lily pads. That was a mistake, we should have cut everything back because now it is a bit to cold to wade in the pond and trim those we left. We moved our floating plants into 5 gallon buckets of pond water and put them in my heated shop with plant light 8 hour a day. They seem to be doing great so far.
The pickerel rush is potted in three 2 1/2 gallon plastic buckets. The roots have spread out about a foot and the hornwort has grown into the roots making an underwater jungle where the new fish probably hid throughout the year.
The mermaid plants did not survive. Our water is very hard so I think they may not do well in hard water. We also had poor luck with the bog plants and perhaps the hard water is a contributor to their struggles. We will have to replant the bog in the spring with some hardwater plants. We did get some sedge to survive but not thrive and some water celery did great until the first frost.
Our water chemistry has stayed perfect all year. Still testing once a month.
Now we are ready for winter and the water temperature has gotten down to 40F. At that temp, the fish hide in the pickerel rush and hornwort. At 45 and above the fish are out moving around slowly and still begging for food anytime we approach the pond. We switched to winter food in October. We added a K&H Thermo-Pond 3.0 de-icer. So far, no ice has formed in the pond but January and February are our coldest months.
I have attached a diagram of the pond and some photos.
