Pond waterfall

[poconojoe]

You have been given excellent advice so far.
I would like to add a bit more...
When rinsing your filter pads, use pond water in a bucket. Don't use your home's chlorinated water. It will kill the beneficial bacteria on the pads and in your filter box. Your pond will have to cycle all over again. Never rinse the bio media in your filter. The beneficial bacteria has colonized on it and you don't want to disturb that. Only rinse the pads.

As far as water changes, that's a matter of opinion, but I never do that. I really don't feel it's necessary. Ponds are different than aquariums. I let nature do it for me when it rains.

I think you mentioned something about cleaning out and refilling. Don't do that either. Again, this is not an aquarium.

I'm also an advocate of bog filtration. I sold both my pressure filters and UV light once I built the bog. No maintenance with a bog. There's no filter pads to constantly rinse out. Believe me, that rinsing gets old real quick and takes the fun out of owning a pond. My water has never been this clear in over a decade of using all kinds of filters.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our forum!

I filter with only a bog. 7 main ponds are on that loop and the bog takes care of them all.

 

[michaelsf90]

I'm going to research bog filtration. As for not emptying the pond. It is covered in duckweed. The water is very brown and dirty and full of frogs and snails and whatever other wildlife. My gut instinct is to empty give it a proper clean abd refill. I was going to fill a paddling pool with pond water and put some rocks in to temporarily house the frogs and tadpoles. My neighbours found tadpoles in their garden. Must be from a frog from our pond and killed them. They chase and kill any frogs as well. Selfish people

 

[poconojoe]

If you empty and clean out your pond, your pond will take some time to recycle. You probably will suffer from new pond syndrome and your new water will most likely go through a period of turning green from an algae bloom. You will be killing off the beneficial bacteria growing on all the surfaces, including your liner. Your liner most likely now has a beneficial biofilm that is part of the natural filtration.

Do what you want, but if you are seriously thinking of doing this, I would suggest partial water changes over long periods of time instead. Maybe do 10% or 20%, then wait a week or so, then do this a couple more times if you feel the need.
Plus, if you do partial water changes, you won't need to capture and temporarily house the inhabitants. Catching them can be quite difficult and sometimes stressful for them. I have lost fish when doing that due to needing a liner replacement.

Let us know how you make out.

 

[brokensword]

That's this mornings task. Research bog filter. That is what I'm going to do. A small section will fill up then naturally it will run into the falls. What plants would you suggest then as the three plants I have are quite large. The marsh marigold is massive!

So don't run the uv after adding fish? All this is new to me. I have my aquarium inside down to a tee but how often and how much pond water do I need to change once its cycled? I know about overfeeding, and how easy it is to do. Feel like they aren't getting enough when in reality its like an all you can eat for fish

as mentioned, don't get into water changes as far as maintenance is concerned. IMO, if the duckweed is thriving, you have a good start (and may even have already) toward your balance. Once you add any fish, you'll be surprised how quickly they'll eat it. Mine never get a chance to propagate and I have to grow it in a separate basin THEN give it as a treat to the fish.

Btw, I've never done a water change in 10 years and my herd count is about 100 gf and 14 koi (most still under 12").

IMO, water changes are only if you don't have enough filtration to keep up AND are trying to overload your pond with koi that you're also trying to grow into 3 footers. It's just not necessary and is more for you to do instead of sitting back and enjoying the pond. You'll be fine with small top-ups as evaporation occurs and rain chances by.

For a bog, I like putting in plants that bloom but you should have a good amount of shallow rooted, quick growing plants, such as parrot's feather, pennywort, forget-me-nots, water cress. These will do a great job and you'll also easily be able to prune out the herd when it overgrows, which it will. The idea is to have nutrition hungry plants but not those that send deep, myriad roots into your bog. So, I balance this. Your sedge would be an example of something to keep an eye on, even if it WILL do great filtering. I've had to contain my yellow flag iris as I LIKE it but it is hard to prune back and sends deep roots, so I watch that one. I have iris and a marsh marigold like yourself. I also grow a couple of tomato plants in it as they LOVE the bog water. I also have a canna, a taro, some horsetail rush, creeping jenny, and cardinal flower. The larger ones go in the back and get separated in the fall, if necessary. The smaller go in front and form the basis of a hungry hoard that typically gets harvested in the fall (they're not cold hardy; though, you could use creeping jenny in this case as it is cold hardy).

The reason your filter has a UV is to combat the floating green algae. The idea here is to NEVER have to use it. Think about it; once you've killed the free floating green algae, where do you think it goes? To the bottom of your pond and contributes to more decaying organics, which feeds...wait for it...more algae! That's why plants (floating and marginals) are a much better solution. They provide texture and color along with their filtering capacity. They also shade your water which will keep the temp down in summer as well as curtail algae's death grip. A bog just gives you more of this (sans the shading) and if you're any type of gardener, another place to grow things!

The general rule of thumb is 30% of pond surface area is what your bog should strive to be. Not a hard and fast rule but larger is always better. You're going to dig anyhow, why not make it as large as your pond vision will allow? Once it's in, you're set for a long time. Again, read up on the bog building threads.

If the brown is from decaying detritus, you can gently scoop it out with a pool net, careful to put back anything that wiggles. Once you get your bog and filter running, this will clear. Remember, you're going to add agitation and that too will cause whatever is loose on the bottom to find it's way into the bog/filter. Hopefully. You should have your pump on the opposite end of your wfalls so you set up a circulation that carries the water column to your pump and then to your filtering.

Hope this helps.

 

[poconojoe]

Here's a link to my bog build... I based it on the bog showcase by addy1....

My add-on bog build

I finally did it! I joined the bog club! The bog is approximately 14 feet by 5 feet and about 12 inches deep. I know my 1600+ gallon pond has been overpopulated due to my fish reproductive rates! Last year the water never cleared up to my liking. I figured my two pressure filters and my...

www.gardenpondforum.com

 

[michaelsf90]

The pond has its own ecosystem set up. But i know for a fact the botton will be full of leaves and dirt and rocks and whatever else has been knocked and dropped in. How can I clean the bottom if its full? Will the large frogs that are currently in try to eat any new fish if they're small? That's give me a lot of ideas with the plants I love the forget me nots. I need to get a lilly as well. Does one lilly plant sprout one lilly on the surface or several?

Would removing half the water to clean the shelves, then just scoop down to the deepest part and get whatever bits I can out work?

 

[addy1]

Does one lilly plant sprout one lilly on the surface or several?

One lily tuber grows to be more. One tuber can become many plants.

 

[poconojoe]

The pond has its own ecosystem set up. But i know for a fact the botton will be full of leaves and dirt and rocks and whatever else has been knocked and dropped in. How can I clean the bottom if its full? Will the large frogs that are currently in try to eat any new fish if they're small? That's give me a lot of ideas with the plants I love the forget me nots. I need to get a lilly as well. Does one lilly plant sprout one lilly on the surface or several?

Would removing half the water to clean the shelves, then just scoop down to the deepest part and get whatever bits I can out work?

If I have a large buildup, like in the early Spring,
I'll use my pool net and it's long telescoping pole. The net is the bag type, not the flat skimmer type. It has small holes, not like the net you use for fishing which has huge holes.

I go slowly along the bottom to scoop up any debris. It's hard to explain, but I'll give it a try. I go forward a short burst, then back a bit, then forward to capture the stuff that rose up with the first forward motion. If it feels heavy, I pull it out. Then dump it on the ground to check for any critters. I have saved many snails and tiny fry doing this. I do this until I've covered the complete bottom. Anything that remains suspended that I didn't catch with the net should get sucked up by the pump and get filtered.

I don't think it's necessary to drain part of the water to clean the shelves, but that's up to you. Remember, you don't want hospital clean with a pond. If there's a buildup of muck, just scoop most of it, don't scrub the liner and don't use a pressure washer. There's a beneficial biofilm living on your liner that you really don't want to get rid of. It's an intricate part of your filtration and the pond's natural balance.

All that being said, I rarely have to do anything to my pond, especially since adding the bog which gave me crystal clear water. The bog is absolutely amazing.
We had a big storm recently with over 5 inches of rain and a lot of wind. I can see a handful of leaves down there, but not enough to go crazy with the net.

 

[michaelsf90]

That is how it looks now. The water is a brown colour. You can't see to the bottom. Even to see stones that have dropped in a shelf the water needs stirring

I wouldnt scrub it completely but I want to remove rocks that have been dropped in. Also when we moved in their were fish in and now there's not. So they have either been eaten by something, eaten by frogs or they're at the bottom of the pond

My plan was to fill a paddling pool up with 50% of the water. Get as much of the duckweed out as possible. Then clean what I can see. Not scrub just pick bits up. The rocks and stuff. Then maybe drain half of the remaining 50%. Clean the bottom the best I can. Would you remove all the sludge? Then put the pond water in the paddling pool back. Top up the remaining 25 to 30% with dechorinated water then let the pump and filter get to work

 

[poconojoe]

Sounds good. Pick out as much muck as you can. Be careful with what you use to remove it. You don't want to damage your liner.
You may yet find those fish in there. They are good at hiding.

 

[michaelsf90]

I haven't seen any movement or any sign of them for probably over a year. Id be very shocked if they are there. How will I know the water is safe. Ph levels and ammonia and nitrate etc? The water is brown so I don't know if it would be possible to test?

 

[michaelsf90]

Also would you remove all the sludge from the bottom or leave some? I expect to find some frogs in the sludge!