slakker
AKA Mike
My pond guy says the same and I tested my nitrates and phosphates and they are pretty much 0. I have hornwort, parrot feather, floating hyacinth & lettuces and 2 lilies, cattails that cover about 25-30% of the water surface.
Hello! Newbs, possibly in over our heads
- Thread starter TKForever
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If you want to move forwards in tis hobby tou have to get in your head that a pond needs maintenance doing to it at regular intervals, plus partial water changes regular water testing filter maintenance etc so buy yourself a book that is lined and start adding your scedule to it have differing sections i;e Pond Maintenance , Fish welfare and treatmenr etc etc this is the way forwards for you , weve done it for 27 years and have a number of books we can fall bach on to see what was happeningand when .
Reading is another must for our hobby not the Internet I mean books .
Whar are you going to be keeping please ?
rgrds
Dave
Reading is another must for our hobby not the Internet I mean books .
Whar are you going to be keeping please ?
rgrds
Dave
You are correct the more plant the less algae generally. This is due to the plants consuming all the nutrients leaving little for the algae to consume.
BTW My pond maintenance consists of the following:
This is my filtration, two skippy filters that overflow into a small bog and back into the pond. Two pumps pump water to the skippies from about a foot off the bottom of the pond. No skimmer nothing else.
From behind
From the front (most of the plants you see are growing directly in the water whether in the skippies or bog)
While the plants in and around the fall do great, Plants do not thrive directly in my pond. I think it is due to the water lacking the nutrients since all the plants above the falls use it up.
I only mention this to show you with patience, ponding can be easy and enjoyable. But there are many way to achieve the same results and this is just the way I chose to go about it.
Good luck!
BTW My pond maintenance consists of the following:
- Weekly 10% water changes spring through fall. Just pull a pump hose, let it drain on the lawn then re-fill with the hose adding some de-chlore.
- Large water change once in the fall and once in the spring just before unplugging the pumps for winter and when I turn it back on in the spring. And net out the bottom once in spring and once in fall.
- That's it. Nothing else, no more additives, no filter changes etc.
This is my filtration, two skippy filters that overflow into a small bog and back into the pond. Two pumps pump water to the skippies from about a foot off the bottom of the pond. No skimmer nothing else.
From behind
From the front (most of the plants you see are growing directly in the water whether in the skippies or bog)
While the plants in and around the fall do great, Plants do not thrive directly in my pond. I think it is due to the water lacking the nutrients since all the plants above the falls use it up.
I only mention this to show you with patience, ponding can be easy and enjoyable. But there are many way to achieve the same results and this is just the way I chose to go about it.
Good luck!
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Love your pond Pecan. Beautiful flowers and plants, and pond of course.
I have a similar set up, except no skippies, just a huge bog that takes care of the pond.
The plants in the bog suck out any nutrients needed for algae to survive. Never have green water or string algae in the big pond. I don't do any water changes, the rain takes care of that. We feed gutters into the pond.
The water is always crystal clear.
I draw the water from about a foot from the bottom of the pond. Went to net the pond a few days ago, (I have not done it since last spring a year plus ago) I did about half the pond and did not get enough stuff out to even bother.
My lilies do well in the pond, did not even fertilize them this year, floaters struggle to survive, I don't bother with hyacinths or water lettuce. Some parrots feather is growing sort of decently.
Everything was set up to make it easy to care for, rather enjoy than fuss with it.
I have a similar set up, except no skippies, just a huge bog that takes care of the pond.
The plants in the bog suck out any nutrients needed for algae to survive. Never have green water or string algae in the big pond. I don't do any water changes, the rain takes care of that. We feed gutters into the pond.
The water is always crystal clear.
I draw the water from about a foot from the bottom of the pond. Went to net the pond a few days ago, (I have not done it since last spring a year plus ago) I did about half the pond and did not get enough stuff out to even bother.
My lilies do well in the pond, did not even fertilize them this year, floaters struggle to survive, I don't bother with hyacinths or water lettuce. Some parrots feather is growing sort of decently.
Everything was set up to make it easy to care for, rather enjoy than fuss with it.
Beautifull pond Pecan.pecan said:You are correct the more plant the less algae generally. This is due to the plants consuming all the nutrients leaving little for the algae to consume.
BTW My pond maintenance consists of the following:
It did take some time to get the right balance of plants and biological filtration to get to this point and plenty of green water for the first year, but it has been worth it and now it runs clear with no bad tests, happy fish and happy plants.
- Weekly 10% water changes spring through fall. Just pull a pump hose, let it drain on the lawn then re-fill with the hose adding some de-chlore.
- Large water change once in the fall and once in the spring just before unplugging the pumps for winter and when I turn it back on in the spring. And net out the bottom once in spring and once in fall.
- That's it. Nothing else, no more additives, no filter changes etc.
This is my filtration, two skippy filters that overflow into a small bog and back into the pond. Two pumps pump water to the skippies from about a foot off the bottom of the pond. No skimmer nothing else.
From behind
From the front (most of the plants you see are growing directly in the water whether in the skippies or bog)
While the plants in and around the fall do great, Plants do not thrive directly in my pond. I think it is due to the water lacking the nutrients since all the plants above the falls use it up.
I only mention this to show you with patience, ponding can be easy and enjoyable. But there are many way to achieve the same results and this is just the way I chose to go about it.
Good luck!
I have 11 koi in my pond and that is probably why my plants directly in my pond don't do well. LOL They really do eat up the roots. But I have considered not putting them in then I felt bad for the koi LOL, so I continue to since the koi really enjoy themDave 54 said:
sissy
sissy
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hate to say but we still fuss even if we don't have too .I think it is just a ponders nature .Always have to tweak this and that when we get near the pond .
Patience was our biggest problem, I think! Just under a year later, round II!! pH is a stable 8.2 (stable as in 8.2 since April!), we have an aerator in the middle to get some good surface movement, and a UV light to help combat some of the green. And we have plants! All levels are at 0 except for nitrates, which is decreasing.
Plants are hungry, I think, because the lettuces are a bit yellowish. But still multiplying! From three to eleven already Those water hyacinths are ridiculous! They don't like water on them, they like the heat, they like to be bunched together. Sissy plants
Still battling cloudiness........ We can see about 1-1.5ft down into the water, and then it's a mystery... Fish seem happy. Always hungry good color, no flashing.
I appreciate the active community here, and all your advice. It's great to have experienced pond people out there!!
All levels are at 0 except for nitrates, which is decreasing. Plants are hungry, I think, because the lettuces are a bit yellowish. But still multiplying! From three to eleven already
Those water hyacinths are ridiculous! They don't like water on them, they like the heat, they like to be bunched together. Sissy plants Still battling cloudiness........
We can see about 1-1.5ft down into the water, and then it's a mystery... Fish seem happy. Always hungry good color, no flashing. I appreciate the active community here, and all your advice. It's great to have experienced pond people out there!!
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Thanks for the update. Sounds like your making great progress
Mmathis
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Thanks for the update! Yes, patience is the hardest part of ponding, LOL!
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Sounds great. I think the difficult part about giving or receiving advice on gpf is everyone has different conditions for their pond and it is hard to say exactly what is best in any given circumstance. I agree that patience is what most people don't have when they start a new pond and that is where you see the most problems with people adding all kinds of chemicals instead of just letting their pond cycle naturally and going slow. Everyone wants it to look perfect right off the bat and don't realize what might look bad to the human eye is perfectly fine for your fish. Re cloudiness, probably the easiest way to reduce that is through water changes. I redirect one of my pumps to water my garden so it picks up the water closer to the bottom of the pond that is less clear than the water on top.
Sissy whats the blue thing floating in the water in your pond please , is it a thermometer or something else entirely ?
Dave
i dont believe I saw what kind of pump and filtration is on this pond. If you want clear water, you need good filtration.
We have been testing the water, and the pH rises from 7.5 (our normal tap water) to 8.0 and up, both before we drained it and after. We have a 100 micron filter level in our filter also, but maybe that's not enough? :disappointed_anim:
Well now I see you ahve a 100 micron filter but I will be honest I dont know what that means. I do know the fuel filter in my dodge ram diesel is a 5 micron filter so maybe there is some room for imporvement there. How big is the filter? How many gph is the pump? Is the filter just one layer of 100 micron pad or what?