Hello, adopting a pond in England

[oldwortley]

Hi,

I'm totally new to ponds, I never had one until I inherited one when we moved house 18 months ago. I'm very keen to have it fully operational and intend to keep some fish and grow some plants in it.
On moving into the house...
The pump/filter appeared to be working fine, the water was very clear but there were no fish or plants.
Last spring (2015) the water turned green after frogs had been mating in there
I found the UV bulb in the filter box wasn't working due to the crystal tube being broken. I bought a more powerful pump and new filter box - water went crystal clear so I put in 4 goldfish. All still in there!!
Now the water was clear, I noticed thick sludge all over bottom of pond (no idea how long it had been there) so i borrowed a pond vac and cleaned the whole bottom. I also added a couple of plants (not sure what) and a lily
This spring (2016) I have had 100's of frogs mating in there, producing loads of frogspawn - back to murky water and long hair algae all over
Pond now steadily becoming clearer again. I'm not sure if my pump/filter are adequate for the size of pond, I need advice on how to keep the water free of hair algae and what the best thing is to do with frogs when the mating season comes round again. Any help with plants is also welcome

Many Thanks

 

[sissy]

Welcome You can pull the hair algae out and I have the same problem with frogs but this year for some strange reason they are not coming around as much .I guess they are staying in the stream across the road .Been really wet here lately .I have mini cattails and they are great .It is the only plant i can keep in my pond because koi destroy plants

 

[oldwortley]

Thanks sissy. I had quite enjoyed watching the frogs jumping in and out, and the kids were interested in the frogspawn process. However I didn't anticipate them leaving so much mess. Hopefully they can find somewhere else to do their breeding in the future!

 

[sissy]

I take as many frogs as I can to farm ponds here and also give them bucket fulls of tadpoles .They help control mosquito's on farms here .The farmers love seeing my truck come up there driveways because they not what it means for them.The farms here used to pay for them and now they get them free

 

[Dave 54]

Thanks sissy. I had quite enjoyed watching the frogs jumping in and out, and the kids were interested in the frogspawn process. However I didn't anticipate them leaving so much mess. Hopefully they can find somewhere else to do their breeding in the future!

Frogs can be daherous to fish whjen mating as they will clamp the fish around th gill area effectively suffercating them Tetra pond do a great range of algae cures .
What part of the UK are you from by the way ?

Dave

 

[CeeJayH]

OW, welcome.

You need to work out the capacity of your pond and then check that against the flow rates of your pump & filter.
If it's clearing the pond, then it's probably about right.

 

[Becky]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[oldwortley]

Hi Dave, I'm in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. I think the main trouble I have with algae is that the pond is in direct sunlight. I've started adding some plants to offer some shade, I'm just waiting for them to grow. I was intending to avoid chemical treatments if possible. Time will tell if I can manage it!!!!

 

[sissy]

best then is a good filter and lots of air in the pond .I use an aerator with 12 air stones and lots of water movement and 2 filters for my 5000 gallons

 

[oldwortley]

I think my volume is approx 7000 litres (1850 US gallons). I only know that by taking some measurements and using an internet volume calculator though. Ive never used an aerator though, so ill have a look into getting one of those. Thanks

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our group!