Still newer to ponding and this is the first full year of a working pond after a reconstruction.
Pond Info:
Zone 5a
No winter gear; pond will run until freezing and allowed to freeze solid. No aeration except waterfall/rapids.
Max depth: around 2.5-3’ in the water channel in middle of pond.
Liner: RPE
Filtration: no skimmer. Bog filter. No UV. In waterfall box is some media I’ve used for filter/bacteria growth (hasn’t captured much in way of particles but is a tight material?)
Pump/line: 4500gph, flex pvc. Line splits at pump into 3. End of each line has ball valve for flow control. One end goes to bog, one to the waterfall box in the bog(on right), and third is in the pond, by real log/sweet flag and pointed toward the pumo to create circulation.
Fish: None, none in the future.
Wildlife: frogs and dragonflies very prevalent and desired. Occasional turtle, otter, raccoon, ducks, deer, woodchuck, and birds upon birds who love to line up on the fence and take turns on the large driftwood taking baths by the mini cattails. Added Japanese trap door snails, haven’t seen them for a month but alive for handful of months. Added few crayfish for the kids, 4-5 died but another 5-6 still around we found at nighttime flash lighting.
Gallons: calculate its roughly 700-900 with all the weird shapes and depths.
Plants: all bare-rooted, soil washed off. Need to maybe clean up substrate better as growing in 1/2-3/4” stone. Not inside any baskets/no aquatic soil or kitty litter. Just starting to migrate over to a pea gravel base as the “main” substrate they sit on top of, with larger 1/2-3/4-1” rocks working outwards.
“First year plants” (for being in pond), but got the sweet flag and corkscrew from local nursery and was around the same size, hasn’t grown much but def alive and some thickening. 19 sweet flag, 5 micro-mini cattails, water lettuce which finally multiplied, 3 corkscrew rush, one pickerel which is starting to mature, 5-6 young pickerel starters planted in August, two inpatients, one sunpatient, 2 water lilies, 7-8 hornwort clusters (new, trying to survive). Lots of creeping Jenny growing over and into pond, but seems lots of white fluffy mold grows under the heavy crowding of leaves - seems bad? 2-3 water iris trying to launch from a single Etsy’ed plants. The large clump or partial dead iris is a versicolor. Caterpillars ruined it early in season and it didn’t rebound well. Seemed like it was dying due to crown being under water and not producing new shoots. Then I raised it and helped a bit but still not thriving (substrate issue? Or type?)
Bog: roughly 16”w x 40”l x 36”d. Planted in top is a second year water iris starting to send a few new shoots. Garden iris made it through winter and died in June. Water barely at or above crow. A second year hosta is growing insane in the corner. A random inpatient planted next to it. Random creeping Jenny patches. Large marsh marigold I got from nursery which slowly seemed to die from a fungus or humidity type issue? (Leaves blackened weirdly). Cut it back to cure fungus and it never really sprouted since. 3 first year purple flame water iris. Heard water cress was a good filter for chemicals - it’s growing insane and is taking over bog.
Sun: gets a healthy amount of Sun in summer and only the bog/start of pond get sun now w house shading it. (Water lettuce has multiplied late which gave some shade but The bend by the dying iris has the 3rd pvc line which pushes water (and water lettuce) to the pump area and thus doesn’t stay shaded.)
Clarity: it isnt horrible, but not great unless I’m expecting too much. I could generally see a coin at the bottom (only 3ft) and probably see heads/tails, but quality worsened recently.
Refills: I was having to do fill ups of an inch or two twice a week until I found the seeping/soil contact areas. Since I found the leaks, I’ve filled up every week and half to two now. Less vacuum is leading to less frequent water changes.
Cleaning: have an Oasis pond vac I suck up the algae with. Used to keep mesh bag in water to save on refilling but heard it helps stir up too many algae particles -
Now pump it out and refill with clean city tap water when I do. Not lots of debris to suck up, mainly algae.
Algae: better but still prevalent? Mix of string and blanket if I see and understand? Thought we had enough plants and system would start to see less algae but that was wrong. Also found a number of side leaks where the soil had lowered w weight of rocks, covered by plant foliage so I didn’t notice. With flowers/plants, I had been using bloom booster food on garden and around pond. Was careful none went directly in…that I could see. Totally bonked my head that algae previously was worsened due to bloom booster seeping in from the 7-8 places there was consistent soil and water contact where it could deep in. Pulled liner up and intend to do major fixes this fall and in spring to prevent this.
In August we were annoyed with amount of algae and work of doing bidaily vaccums - the string algae being fixed to the rocks and the suction not taking the algae off/“long” strands persisted so it was only getting free floats. I got API and Tetras algae killer. I tried one at low dose. Nothing. Added more. Nothing. Long story short I was adding about 2x of each, alternating, daily until it killed the algae almost entirely…..except it was still strongly attached to rocks and not entirely dead. I pumped ALL the water out of the pond and used a 0 degree nozzle - still was attached. Had to spray bleach to get it to finally turn white, die, and spray off.
I got Aquascape beneficial bacteria and started using to kick start everything since the nuke of all the algaecides. (RIP dragonfly larvae and tadpoles that didn’t make it through) Slowly increased frequency of use. Can’t say I’m seeing tons of difference and back to algae city. Read that beneficial bacteria only work when nitrate/nitrites? are present, multi fast, then die off. Not sure that’s true or not.
Was trying to maintain them and not getting slimey film on anything to say they’re established.
Haven’t fertilized much. Used 5 total aqua tabs of 10-14-8 in late may and seemed like algae bloomed (also didn’t know seeping then). After the nuke I had not added any fert tabs and algae still came back. I added two fert tabs thinking maybe it needs some food for bacteria to outmatch the algae but it hasn’t done as hoped.
Wife is not happy with the state and can’t say I’m pleased either. Plant to add more plants on the water sides next year and some other possible changes to improve as her fix is the constant addition of algaecide to nuke and keep water clarity good. I’m not that wiling with thoughts of frogs and what not (otherwise maybe). Not planning to add UV or skimmer box, but had some ideas of canister filter maybe on the third line to help balance the system.
Before vac'ing today, and and time maybe 2 weeks ago:
After vac today, and remaining attached algae:
Pond levels: was annoyed enough to purchase API pond master test kit to see if I could figure out anything else. Trying to eyeball and see - PH is high. Tested tap water, still the same. Unsure if test broke or really just stays bad?
Ammonia and nitrites appear low, and phosphate has a bit to be lowered?
I had some future ideas about taking out the real/hollow/decaying log (sweet flag inside hole) as water flows directly into it - maybe food for algae via organics and rot. Would be cool to make a concrete version to replace but whatever. Also thought more oxygen and taking third line, point up through some rocks by butterfly bush as a bubble up, water churn area.
Algae also tends to build up on the sides where the water level is “low” between rocks and guessing the temps and shallow water make perfect breeding ground for algae. Have ideas to fix this, but not the other lower/rock-attached algae.
I’m generally sticking with “patience” and “plants” and avoiding chemicals, but the wife pressure is mounting for a more algae-free pond. I’m realistic and fine with slime rocks and some low blanket weed but the string algae annoys me.
Any ideas?
Pond Info:
Zone 5a
No winter gear; pond will run until freezing and allowed to freeze solid. No aeration except waterfall/rapids.
Max depth: around 2.5-3’ in the water channel in middle of pond.
Liner: RPE
Filtration: no skimmer. Bog filter. No UV. In waterfall box is some media I’ve used for filter/bacteria growth (hasn’t captured much in way of particles but is a tight material?)
Pump/line: 4500gph, flex pvc. Line splits at pump into 3. End of each line has ball valve for flow control. One end goes to bog, one to the waterfall box in the bog(on right), and third is in the pond, by real log/sweet flag and pointed toward the pumo to create circulation.
Fish: None, none in the future.
Wildlife: frogs and dragonflies very prevalent and desired. Occasional turtle, otter, raccoon, ducks, deer, woodchuck, and birds upon birds who love to line up on the fence and take turns on the large driftwood taking baths by the mini cattails. Added Japanese trap door snails, haven’t seen them for a month but alive for handful of months. Added few crayfish for the kids, 4-5 died but another 5-6 still around we found at nighttime flash lighting.
Gallons: calculate its roughly 700-900 with all the weird shapes and depths.
Plants: all bare-rooted, soil washed off. Need to maybe clean up substrate better as growing in 1/2-3/4” stone. Not inside any baskets/no aquatic soil or kitty litter. Just starting to migrate over to a pea gravel base as the “main” substrate they sit on top of, with larger 1/2-3/4-1” rocks working outwards.
“First year plants” (for being in pond), but got the sweet flag and corkscrew from local nursery and was around the same size, hasn’t grown much but def alive and some thickening. 19 sweet flag, 5 micro-mini cattails, water lettuce which finally multiplied, 3 corkscrew rush, one pickerel which is starting to mature, 5-6 young pickerel starters planted in August, two inpatients, one sunpatient, 2 water lilies, 7-8 hornwort clusters (new, trying to survive). Lots of creeping Jenny growing over and into pond, but seems lots of white fluffy mold grows under the heavy crowding of leaves - seems bad? 2-3 water iris trying to launch from a single Etsy’ed plants. The large clump or partial dead iris is a versicolor. Caterpillars ruined it early in season and it didn’t rebound well. Seemed like it was dying due to crown being under water and not producing new shoots. Then I raised it and helped a bit but still not thriving (substrate issue? Or type?)
Bog: roughly 16”w x 40”l x 36”d. Planted in top is a second year water iris starting to send a few new shoots. Garden iris made it through winter and died in June. Water barely at or above crow. A second year hosta is growing insane in the corner. A random inpatient planted next to it. Random creeping Jenny patches. Large marsh marigold I got from nursery which slowly seemed to die from a fungus or humidity type issue? (Leaves blackened weirdly). Cut it back to cure fungus and it never really sprouted since. 3 first year purple flame water iris. Heard water cress was a good filter for chemicals - it’s growing insane and is taking over bog.
Sun: gets a healthy amount of Sun in summer and only the bog/start of pond get sun now w house shading it. (Water lettuce has multiplied late which gave some shade but The bend by the dying iris has the 3rd pvc line which pushes water (and water lettuce) to the pump area and thus doesn’t stay shaded.)
Clarity: it isnt horrible, but not great unless I’m expecting too much. I could generally see a coin at the bottom (only 3ft) and probably see heads/tails, but quality worsened recently.
Refills: I was having to do fill ups of an inch or two twice a week until I found the seeping/soil contact areas. Since I found the leaks, I’ve filled up every week and half to two now. Less vacuum is leading to less frequent water changes.
Cleaning: have an Oasis pond vac I suck up the algae with. Used to keep mesh bag in water to save on refilling but heard it helps stir up too many algae particles -
Now pump it out and refill with clean city tap water when I do. Not lots of debris to suck up, mainly algae.
Algae: better but still prevalent? Mix of string and blanket if I see and understand? Thought we had enough plants and system would start to see less algae but that was wrong. Also found a number of side leaks where the soil had lowered w weight of rocks, covered by plant foliage so I didn’t notice. With flowers/plants, I had been using bloom booster food on garden and around pond. Was careful none went directly in…that I could see. Totally bonked my head that algae previously was worsened due to bloom booster seeping in from the 7-8 places there was consistent soil and water contact where it could deep in. Pulled liner up and intend to do major fixes this fall and in spring to prevent this.
In August we were annoyed with amount of algae and work of doing bidaily vaccums - the string algae being fixed to the rocks and the suction not taking the algae off/“long” strands persisted so it was only getting free floats. I got API and Tetras algae killer. I tried one at low dose. Nothing. Added more. Nothing. Long story short I was adding about 2x of each, alternating, daily until it killed the algae almost entirely…..except it was still strongly attached to rocks and not entirely dead. I pumped ALL the water out of the pond and used a 0 degree nozzle - still was attached. Had to spray bleach to get it to finally turn white, die, and spray off.
I got Aquascape beneficial bacteria and started using to kick start everything since the nuke of all the algaecides. (RIP dragonfly larvae and tadpoles that didn’t make it through) Slowly increased frequency of use. Can’t say I’m seeing tons of difference and back to algae city. Read that beneficial bacteria only work when nitrate/nitrites? are present, multi fast, then die off. Not sure that’s true or not.
Was trying to maintain them and not getting slimey film on anything to say they’re established.
Haven’t fertilized much. Used 5 total aqua tabs of 10-14-8 in late may and seemed like algae bloomed (also didn’t know seeping then). After the nuke I had not added any fert tabs and algae still came back. I added two fert tabs thinking maybe it needs some food for bacteria to outmatch the algae but it hasn’t done as hoped.
Wife is not happy with the state and can’t say I’m pleased either. Plant to add more plants on the water sides next year and some other possible changes to improve as her fix is the constant addition of algaecide to nuke and keep water clarity good. I’m not that wiling with thoughts of frogs and what not (otherwise maybe). Not planning to add UV or skimmer box, but had some ideas of canister filter maybe on the third line to help balance the system.
Before vac'ing today, and and time maybe 2 weeks ago:
After vac today, and remaining attached algae:
Pond levels: was annoyed enough to purchase API pond master test kit to see if I could figure out anything else. Trying to eyeball and see - PH is high. Tested tap water, still the same. Unsure if test broke or really just stays bad?
Ammonia and nitrites appear low, and phosphate has a bit to be lowered?
I had some future ideas about taking out the real/hollow/decaying log (sweet flag inside hole) as water flows directly into it - maybe food for algae via organics and rot. Would be cool to make a concrete version to replace but whatever. Also thought more oxygen and taking third line, point up through some rocks by butterfly bush as a bubble up, water churn area.
Algae also tends to build up on the sides where the water level is “low” between rocks and guessing the temps and shallow water make perfect breeding ground for algae. Have ideas to fix this, but not the other lower/rock-attached algae.
I’m generally sticking with “patience” and “plants” and avoiding chemicals, but the wife pressure is mounting for a more algae-free pond. I’m realistic and fine with slime rocks and some low blanket weed but the string algae annoys me.
Any ideas?
