Naw, it's fine, I think the lights thing was done, and I put those lights in already, they look fine. There might be some fine tuning, but I'm happy with how they look so we can talk about photography for the next 10 pages.
Lights
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brandonsdad02
They call me Ryan
lol awesome
JohnHuff
I know nothing.
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Wait a minute... I'm late to the party but what was it that WB said that was totally right?
He said, "Go ahead and build a skippy filter, then when your water clears on its own, you'll have no choice but to believe it ws the skippy."
My water cleared on it's own while I was debating what to do about it. The only change I made to my pond was adding a third pump that was eventually going to run either a UV or a skippy. The pump is not filtering anything, just pumping water from deep down in the pond to my waterfall. it's probably not what I would call crystal clear, but it's whatever is one notch below that. It looks great, and I have to agree, if I would have accidentally spilled cinnamon into my pond at some point this week, I would have posted all over the internet that cinnamon is a natural algae killer. I think skippy filters might just be great big srubby filled placebos.
My water cleared on it's own while I was debating what to do about it. The only change I made to my pond was adding a third pump that was eventually going to run either a UV or a skippy. The pump is not filtering anything, just pumping water from deep down in the pond to my waterfall. it's probably not what I would call crystal clear, but it's whatever is one notch below that. It looks great, and I have to agree, if I would have accidentally spilled cinnamon into my pond at some point this week, I would have posted all over the internet that cinnamon is a natural algae killer. I think skippy filters might just be great big srubby filled placebos.
Buckry you are playing with fire saying things like that in a forum like this. If that is true then what about things like Barely straw, bottled bacteria, and all the other stretched truths you find in these forums??? Take it back quick! before your name becomes "Mud" around here. (sorry "Mucky" is already taken). LOL
BTW lets at least see some night photos of your pond with the lights. I like night photos of ponds, you can get some neat effects with the right lighting and low shutter speeds.
And you are right, lighting is everything when it comes to taking picture (or video).
ididntdoit99
ididntdoit99
Ponds love pepper, they hate cinnamon.
My personal camera was unable to take pictures of the pond, I'll break out the business camera and a tripod tonight and do it right. The pond looked amazing from 10' away, it looked like a giant softly illuminated bowl of jello.
Yeah, sorry for my pragmatism, but you learn from what you observe, most of the advice I've gotten here I've taken back to my pond to test out. If it worked great, if not, I checked that item from list of things to try again. And in this case someone said skippys are hocum, and my pond cleared without one, so that's a big old check mark next to good advice.
Yeah, sorry for my pragmatism, but you learn from what you observe, most of the advice I've gotten here I've taken back to my pond to test out. If it worked great, if not, I checked that item from list of things to try again. And in this case someone said skippys are hocum, and my pond cleared without one, so that's a big old check mark next to good advice.
Well it doesn’t conclusively prove that Skippys are “worthless”, but it does make you wonder, had you been a little quicker throwing a Skippy together, if you wouldn’t have drawn the same conclusions that so many other devout Skippy fans have.
No it doesn't prove they don't work, I guess it proves there are at least 2 different things that do work. Of course that also leads me to think that more than likely the number of ways to make it work are nearly unlimited, and the number of ways to ruin your pond are probably infinite.
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Buck;
a bit late in the conversation perhaps, but I included underwater lights for my pond and ended up putting 10 LED types (some have diff color filters for effect) and 'lined' the far edge (from a viewing perspective). I originally thought the lights would indeed 'light up the pond' and pictures et al would be easy. But it's mostly for effect. You did note that your fish WON'T swim through the beams...and yet, I find mine only too willing to do so. What I like about my setup is that the lights are about 8" down, pointing more or less across/up, and the plants as they grow, tend to look like lace in front of the light, adding a more ghostly effect (which is how the fish look too; ghostly as they are silhouetted in the beam). I think we had a thread in which I contributed to this underwater light aspect, and if you're looking for more (or different, in case you want/don't have the LED variety), I got mine on ebay, 10 for about $100, which was the best cost per unit I could find. Being LED, they should last a long time. Also, I didn't do anything special to them except lower them into the water; no sealing, caulking etc. So far, working on the second summer and except for the algae that likes to grow on the filter (doesn't seem to really dim the effect much), they've been worry-free. I DID however, take them in for the winter, not sure how they'd fare being frozen and all.
Oh, and; should mention that using a good polarizer will help cut the glare/reflections (daytime photos) of the fish, and all the basics about DOF, adequate shutter speed and or/creative shutter speeds in case you want to give your waterfall the smooth flowing effect. I find I just like taking pics of the plants, as the pond sure can have a variety of textures and shapes; the fish/turtles/frogs etc only add to the back-to-nature feel of such photos.
Michael
a bit late in the conversation perhaps, but I included underwater lights for my pond and ended up putting 10 LED types (some have diff color filters for effect) and 'lined' the far edge (from a viewing perspective). I originally thought the lights would indeed 'light up the pond' and pictures et al would be easy. But it's mostly for effect. You did note that your fish WON'T swim through the beams...and yet, I find mine only too willing to do so. What I like about my setup is that the lights are about 8" down, pointing more or less across/up, and the plants as they grow, tend to look like lace in front of the light, adding a more ghostly effect (which is how the fish look too; ghostly as they are silhouetted in the beam). I think we had a thread in which I contributed to this underwater light aspect, and if you're looking for more (or different, in case you want/don't have the LED variety), I got mine on ebay, 10 for about $100, which was the best cost per unit I could find. Being LED, they should last a long time. Also, I didn't do anything special to them except lower them into the water; no sealing, caulking etc. So far, working on the second summer and except for the algae that likes to grow on the filter (doesn't seem to really dim the effect much), they've been worry-free. I DID however, take them in for the winter, not sure how they'd fare being frozen and all.
Oh, and; should mention that using a good polarizer will help cut the glare/reflections (daytime photos) of the fish, and all the basics about DOF, adequate shutter speed and or/creative shutter speeds in case you want to give your waterfall the smooth flowing effect. I find I just like taking pics of the plants, as the pond sure can have a variety of textures and shapes; the fish/turtles/frogs etc only add to the back-to-nature feel of such photos.
Michael
Ok, great info, thanks BS. I've already removed them from the water, I probalby will go ahead and seal them. I can see pond water corroding solder joints inside the lights, that seems like a real possibility. I've got 3 and the pond looks great, I think 3 more will be perfect, but it's interesting you put them on the opposite side of the pond. Do they shine up into your eyes while looking at the pond?
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They can (shine in your eyes) if the fish have knocked them off their perch or I've misaligned their direction, but they're easy to work with. I like the LED versions because of their long life and low cost. I was intending to completely ring the pong, but my wife and son don't think it's necessary. I've included the link where you can see pics of what I've done as well as read more re underwater lighting.
https://www.gardenpondforum.com/topic/8761-underwater-lights/
https://www.gardenpondforum.com/topic/8761-underwater-lights/
Hmmm, Buck, those lights look a little bright for my liking. I think I prefer something a little more subued. Those lights kind of look like car headlights down there. lol I can understand now why the fish aren't too keen to swim in front of the light beam, they don't want to get their scales burned off. lol
Have you tried differnt angles? Did the lights come with colored lense covers you could try putting on?
Have you tried differnt angles? Did the lights come with colored lense covers you could try putting on?