Help with start up.

[JenH]

I'm posting a picture of my pond. Not sure if I have done something wrong or if I am just lacking patience. You can see in the pic I have two preformed ponds with a waterfall between them. The design when completely finished will look like one pond flowing to the other, but the top one is actually not connected at all. It will have its own pump eventually witha fountain. My waterfall is a modified skippy biofilter. I used their plans together with another video I saw to create more of a waterfall weir. The media in the waterfall is cut up blue aquarium filter from the petstore I couldn't find anything like what they had locally. My pump is a Beckett 3500gph, which was the size recommended from the water garden place nearby. I love the look and flow of my falls so, I think this was ok. I finished everything on Monday and started adding Aquascape pond bacteria (powder form) Monday as well. I have 9 comet goldfish (small) in there as well. Which seem to be doing ok, although I can only see them when they come up to eat. I added the water hyacinth today. Also after visiting our pond store added Aquascape Rapid Clear, per their instructions. I added it first to a bucket of pond water then poured it all around the pond. It seemed to be working in the bucket, but has done absolutely nothing for my pond. Do any of you have any suggestions as to what I should be doing to improve the water?

 

[addy1]

how long has it been running, your modified water fall filter may not be enough.

All ponds will do a cycle period, I don't see any plants either, they really help with green water

But in saying that it looks very nice, nice layout

 

[fishin4cars]

No more chemicals! Add plants, then add some more plants, Oh did I mention add some more plants! LOL really, Plants will do far more for your system than any chemical off the shelf. You really want to have a minimal of 50% of the surface covered by plant leaves. hyacinths do great, but also, water lily's taro, pickerel rush, parrots feather, cyprus, thalia, water lettuce. and as for feeding the fish, feed very lightly if at all. until the pond cycles which can take 4-6 weeks the more food you feed the more poop the little fishes release in the pond and you don't have bacteria breaking it down. Did I mention that plants do help break it down? so yes add plants, feed less, no more chemicals, maybe a water change, but first I would test the water and see what the readings of the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, General hardness, and Carbonate hardness are. and a add some patience in there as well, if you don't have the patience, go visit the ponds stores in your area and LOOK FOR PLANTS!

 

[JenH]

Thank you. It has been running since Saturday, but I didn't get anything in the biofilter until Monday. So monday was about the start of it. We had a really hard rain here Monday morning and at that time the water just looked dirty. it has since then gone from dirty to green. The waterfall is probably about 2 feet tall, and the filter is just as deep with the water going into through pvc at the bottom, raising up to the top. It is comparable in size to the Tetra waterfall biofilter's they sell at Lowe's, slightly larger, and those say up to 1000 gallon ponds on them. I hope it doesn't turn out to be to small
The only plants so far are the 4 water hyacinth I put in today. I will be getting some water lilies soon when a friend of a friend starts dividing hers.
We are having a backyard party for my husbands bday in 2 wks and I am just freaking out a little cause the water looks terrible right now. Landscaping and the back pond won't be done by then, but I was hoping I could have whatever is done looking its best.

 

[addy1]

Well you can always do a water change right before the party. Put in more plants, other than that it is a matter of time. What do you have in your filter? what kind of medium?

The rain added good nutrients for the algae to live on, and your filter is not full of good bacteria yet.

 

[fishin4cars]

Lots of sunshine+rain water+new pond+fish= green water. seriously, add as many plants as possible, lily's, water lettuce, marginals. The more plants you have the better it will look for the party and the more good you will do for your pond. The more surface water that is covered by water plants the less light to the algae and the clearer the water will become. the bacteria will take 4-6 weeks to kick in, don't add anymore fish for at least 8 weeks minimal. There are plenty if not a few to many in there now. Spend the money on plants.

 

[j.w]

You can buy a bunch of Water Cress at the grocery store for under $2. and stick it in a plant ring floater w/ screen on the bottom so each stem sticks through a hole and it will grow roots and suck up nutrients from the pond and help clear it also.

 

[JenH]

I have blue filter stuff from the petstore in my biofilter. From the bottom up: water comes in > above that a screen to trap large debris > solid piece of blue filter media from pet store > cut up pieces of blue filter media > another solid piece of filter media. It is all the blue stuff from the pet store, looks like the scrubby side of a sponge, or like batting maybe. The skippy page said to use floor scrubber pads, but I couldn't find any and am trying to avoid ordering online and paying a bunch in shipping. In fact our budget is really small for this right now. It all started because some friends of ours knew that I have been wanting a pond for a few years and came across the liners for free and gave them to us. All the rocks were free as well. Budget is also the reason why there aren't many plants yet. The water lillies around here are $24/small plant. So a friend is going to give me some so I am just waiting on them for that. I will try the water cress, I had no idea I could buy that from the grocery store.
If I do a water change before the party will it affect the bacteria getting established? Also should I change all of the water and scrub down the sides too, or just change part of the water? Last, how do I get the fish out. I can't see them at all and they are really small, but I don't want to harm them in the process.

Thank you all so much for your advice! All of you have so many more suggestions then the water garden store. They have really sucked as far as helping me because I didn't buy all my products from them and do it their way. They even told me that the bacteria probably won't work since I used a preform liner (skippy's told me different though).

 

[fishin4cars]

If you change the water only change 50% or less, DO NOT CLEAN AND SCRUB. that is where a good bit of bacteria are growing too, the filter is the mass but anything in the water is also growing bacteria as well. You can also get lilies for far cheaper than $24 a pot. there are other sites that have members that sell young water lilies. They aren't hard to grow, You may also want to check out here about growing a lotus, they will run about $50-$60 at a nursery. floow the instructions from here and you can grow several for about $10 for the seeds, pot, planting media, etc. You won't know what color they are but for $40-$50 less the mystery is worth it!
https://www.gardenpondforum.com/michaels-dry-lotus-flower-seeds-t8587p11.html

 

[j.w]

No need to start over by taking fish out and scrubbing pond. That will hurt you more than help you. This green algae bloom is something that happens off and on. It is your pond cycling. Never, ever scrub the sides or anything in the pond. Leave that nice green stuff as it is beneficial for your pond. It is plant material and is growing on the sides so will actually help your green water to go away. If you scrub then you have to start over w/ the cycle and it will just get green again. Fish don't mind it at all and like to nibble on it. Do you have a test kit for measuring your water? Get one and check your Ph, Nitrates, Ammonia etc. If all is well then you just need to wait and while you wait, get lots of plants even if it's just the cheap water cress to start with. At the bottom of the waterfall you can take a laundry basket or whatever that is plastic and has holes in it and put batting material that you can buy at Wal-mart or wherever, it's called filter floss also but when you buy it as batting it is cheaper like in the sewing dept. You take the floss and stuff it in the basket and weigh it down w/ a rock or 2 and set it right under your falls and it will collect all the green gunk from the water and help clear it up. You will have to change it when it gets full of green once per day or even more if you are in a hurry. Hope it clears for your party.

 

[j.w]

Fishin you beat me to it