Perhaps a lesson for newbies...

[Malak]

Ok, so my pond is new this year and I got the expected green water phase, but it seemed to last forever and was practically pea soup.

It suddenly cleared the last few days and I thought others could learn from it because I may have found the cause...

I had a submersible pump with the strainer basket and foam slip-on filter that fed my combo trickle/solids filter and it worked great till the water turned green and it would clog nearly everyday. I tried wrapping more pads around the foam and held them there with rubber bands and that would increase the interval till I had to clean, but even that would clog up. So finally, I said screw-it and left just the strainer basket on, even though baby minnows etc would get sucked in. Well, it was only a couple of days later that the water cleared! I'm thinking it may have been from the higher flow rate thru the solids filter.

Of course, it MAY just be a coincidence of timing or all the rain lately.

 

[sissy]

I never use those foam filters in my submersible pumps I put them in a basket with laundry bags filled with lava rock and I don't get algae string or other

 

[Malak]

The most annoying thing is that the size of the fitting for that strainer basket seems match nothing using the OD or ID. If anyone has successfully attached to that please tell me what size works.

How often do you have to clean your lava rock setup?

 

[sissy]

once every 3 or 4 month's that's all and all I do is pull out the laundry bags hose them off and throw them back in the basket where the pump is .What are the demensions because one I had was a metric size believe it or not .I knew metric was in sockets and stuff but not hoses and adapters .I got mine at northern tool

 

[sissy]

I have this tub outside with lava rock no filter no air pump just lava rock in water and still no algae in it

 

[sissy]

this is a pic of it and that hose is the one I had to get

 

[Malak]

I know I have some lava rock somewhere, but findinf it is another matter.
Thanks.

 

[sissy]

that is in the area of the pond that is around 2 and a half feet deep .Other pump is in the 4 foot deep area but it is smaller ,because the pump is smaller than this one is

 

[sissy]

I get mine at lowes a little over 3 dollars in the garden center and the laundry bags are the smaller ones from the dollar store 4 bags for a dollar only thing is they have a zipper

 

[sissy]

I need a black or grey thing that green one really stands out and tadpoles love eating the gunk on it

 

[Malak]

Walmart has the bags with the drawstring.

 

[sissy]

As long as there the smaller ones but ones at dollar store are just the right size and right price and really I have had no problems with the zipper at all not even rust

 

[sissy]

maybe the lava rock keeps that from happening too .I have never had string algae and only got a little algae from the dog destroying my pond and these pics were taken yesterday

 

[sissy]

not sure how it works and may be a bother for some but it works for me and I love my lava rock .When I changed my waterfalls and went to bigger filter tanks I tried all that other stuff and water always looked yucky and even think fish did not like it .So I ditched all the other stuff and went back to my lava rock .I do have some filter pads on top of the rock ,but still mostly lava rock .I also still use my quilt batting to catch fine stuff

 

[Malak]

Does the quilt batting look like bridal veil or different?