Recently New Pond Owner - DFW

[jfdeneve]

Hello from DFW, I recently moved to the DFW area last summer, and purchased a home with a pond. I have been lurking and learning a lot about taking care of the pond. The pond is about 2,000 gallons in size and I have a mix of 16 goldfish and koi. The pond has a Aquascape AquaSurge pump and Aquascape IonGen system. After reading a lot of posts about algae control i have added more plants and the pond seems to be doing fine. I’d like to add floating plants like water lettuce to my bio falls, but unfortunately they aren’t allowed in TX. I check the PH, KH, etc. every few weeks, add koi clay every week and barley extract every other week, and so far so good.

One recommendation for everyone if you have Lilly pads is this Cut ‘n Hold Pruner which I use to remove yellowing leaves and old blooms.

I’m hoping all goes well as the weather gets colder. Last winter I lost a few fish because of the rapid temperature drop (I think).

 

[TheFishGuy]

Welcome! Aquascape has always been amazing quality for me, and I am glad to see another aquascape user! Wonderful pond you have and also what an amazing assortment of plants!

 

[Mmathis]

Hello and welcome! I’m about 3 hours east of you, in Shreveport, LA!

 

[JRS]

Welcome!

 

[Tula]

Lovely pond, welcome

 

[j.w]

@jfdeneve
Nice looking pond!

 

[BKHpondcritters]

Welcome. Your pond is beautiful, and YES! I have those exact same pruners & they are worth every single penny paid! During the warm season, I have no problem wading around in the pond to cut fading lily pads & flowers (It's rather fun, actually.) But once things get colder... Yeah, I'd rather not. Donning the waders is always an option, but being able to simply snip off fading foliage from the outside is often a much simpler solution.

 

[cas]

Welcome. Pretty pond.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our forum!

 

[Jhn]

Nice looking pond. I personally wouldn’t use the iongen in the pond. It does control algae but it does it by releasing copper ions into the water via the probe. Copper is acutely toxic to invertebrate life and bioaccumulates in fish which can take years to manifest but will eventually cause issues with the fish. Basically, It’s counterproductive to having a balanced pond, which is what most strive for.

 

[poconojoe]

Nice!

 

[jfdeneve]

Nice looking pond. I personally wouldn’t use the iongen in the pond. It does control algae but it does it by releasing copper ions into the water via the probe. Copper is acutely toxic to invertebrate life and bioaccumulates in fish which can take years to manifest but will eventually cause issues with the fish. Basically, It’s counterproductive to having a balanced pond, which is what most strive for.

I would prefer to not use the Iongen, but i had it turned off in the spring and I had a lot of thick string algae on my waterfalls. As soon as I turned it on (after replacing probe) the string algae was under control. I’ve added plants and lilly pads to shade the pond from out hot summers, but I don’t know what else i can add. I’d like to keep my current fish, but eventually as they grow I’m sure I will have to give some away.

 

[GBBUDD]

Looks good , and it appears you even get some shade for your plants

 

[texastkc]

Hi & welcome!!

I'm about 90 minutes south of you. Nice to have more neighbors around.

 

[Jhn]

I would prefer to not use the Iongen, but i had it turned off in the spring and I had a lot of thick string algae on my waterfalls. As soon as I turned it on (after replacing probe) the string algae was under control. I’ve added plants and lilly pads to shade the pond from out hot summers, but I don’t know what else i can add. I’d like to keep my current fish, but eventually as they grow I’m sure I will have to give some away.

Excess string algae can be typical of waterfall areas, in some ponds Especially if there aren’t a lot of plants and in spring before plants get going. Just letting you know the ionizer will eventually cause issues in your pond if you keep using it. We have seen it on here time and time again. Excess algae is a sign of an imbalance in the pond, using the ionizer is just treating the end result the excess algae, not the source of the issue excess nutrients.