Pond plants are a good Barometer of your water chemistry

[Jimmy Gibson]

Being a first year ponder I am totally obsessed with watching the pond process.... Fish, plants, water chemistry, and the mechanics of making it all work.... But if you watch your plants and fish on a daily basis they can tell you pretty much tell how you're pond is doing, especially water cabbage. About three weeks ago my UV light went out, took me over a week to get a replacement ballast, but in the meantime I had a huge suspended algae bloom, my ammonia level stayed the same but my nitrates and nitrites went to zero, when my nitrates went down the water cabbage started turning yellow. And when the water cleared up and the nitrates came back up they turned back green again and this process of changing colors was almost immediate. And if someone says Koi don't like green water mine loved it they didn't have to sit under the lilies during the sunny part of the day.

On a side note could someone tell me what this plant is Sarah and I bought it because it was supposed to live in water and believe me it does its five times bigger than when we bought it..... Thanks

 

[Mmathis]

Chameleon plant, or something like that. Can be invasive.

 

[MoonShadows]

What a beautiful plant.

 

[Usman]

such a pretty plant , i thought its artificial at first

 

[Lisak1]

Chameleon plant - it's beautiful, but whatever you do DO NOT let it loose in your yard! You will never see the end of it!

 

[Mmathis]

Chameleon plant - it's beautiful, but whatever you do DO NOT let it loose in your yard! You will never see the end of it!

LOL! Same thing I said!

 

[CometKeith]

Pretty plant. I'm surprised the algae would choke off so much nitrates that it would hurt your cabbage plant.

 

[bagsmom]

Chameleon plant - it's beautiful, but whatever you do DO NOT let it loose in your yard! You will never see the end of it!

I second this! I learned the hard way.

 

[j.w]

Me too, took me forever to get it out of my garden! Really pretty and if you can keep it right there in your pond then wonderful!

 

[Jimmy Gibson]

Me too, took me forever to get it out of my garden! Really pretty and if you can keep it right there in your pond then wonderful!

I have it in a plant basket bare root..... And if it dares to venture beyond the basket my Demon Koi will dismember it...... Having plants in a Koi pond is a struggle

 

[j.w]

Killer Koi