Sparkling clean pond?

[mwpond]

I find that my pond is clear with the fish and snails. Before we put them in my water was cloudy and not as clear. Just a few as the others said... too many and too much poop! :lol: Good Luck!

 

[Hinezy]

I'm able to maintain a crystal clear pond with a whole lot of mixed life forms from fish to turtles. I struggled the first couple of years with UV lights and filter cleanings/water changes. The past 3 or 4 years my water has been perfect with no UV lights, the secret is a good biological filter and never clean it (the filter), I mean never! Not at the end of the season, not at the beginning of the season, never.

 

[addy1]

laughing hinezy, like my bog, never will be cleaned. The only thing we would ever do is back wash the pipes if they get clogged.

 

[fishin4cars]

I'm able to maintain a crystal clear pond with a whole lot of mixed life forms from fish to turtles. I struggled the first couple of years with UV lights and filter cleanings/water changes. The past 3 or 4 years my water has been perfect with no UV lights, the secret is a good biological filter and never clean it (the filter), I mean never! Not at the end of the season, not at the beginning of the season, never.

Not good advice at all, at some point that will come back and haunt you. The more the filter processes the more left over matter stays in the filter that is not doing anything but sitting there, this will eventually clog the filter, making the anaerobic bacteria die off and your pond will go in the other direction. Back flushing a filter and getting rid of the solid matter waste actually improves the filter. I don't take my filters down and clean them thoroughly, However just before winter I do take a small kiddie pool and fill it with pond or rain water, I take out the sack of bio-material and just dip them in and out of the water in the kiddie pool a few times to loosen up the matter and allow it to released but I don't rinse with a hose or high pressure. reinstall it immediately and turn the filter back on, My filters are needed to be run year round. I never clean them all the way and I try to leave some matting undisturbed if possible. Cleaning the whole pond and filter can cause serious problems. But not cleaning them at all can also, Problem with that is it may be effecting the fish and wildlife with out you even knowing it until disaster happens. Some of the newer DYI designs that have good solid seperators can go for far longer between cleanings, I would never recommend breaking a filter completely down and cleaning it completely but some maintance should be done.

 

[addy1]

My fish load is so small, the bog is so big, we will be fine for years, but my situation is different than others.

 

[fishin4cars]

laughing hinezy, like my bog, never will be cleaned. The only thing we would ever do is back wash the pipes if they get clogged.

Addy, your pond set up is so different from many others, Your set-up is designed for plants, water movement, frogs and wildlife, and only minimal fish. You could probably get away with that for many many years. However, You stated that you would backflush the pipes if they get clogged. IMO, I would back flush the pipes and bogs once a year to prevent them from clogging and give the pond a relief from the solid matter trapped in the pea gravel. Simply running something into the gravel to help loosen the debris/solids and back flushing with pond water will do wonders for the pond as a whole. I wouldn't recommend doing everything in one weekend, One bog one weekend, and another weeks apart from it. Then the primary filter later than that. This allows for a good stable bacteria bed but at the same time gets rid of the solids that do get trapped in any pond that has any life any. Remember, Fish contribute a large amount of waste, but frogs/tadpoles, newts,plants, insects, snails, etc. still produce waste. the more the solid waste is removed the smoother the pond runs.

Edit: LOL I see were thinking the same thing at the same time!!!!

 

[Hinezy]

I guess what I should have also pointed out is that my skimmer also has a built in filtration system that I do clean weekly. This catches most if not all of the waste in the water leaving my main filter to only really contain positive bacteria. It is built in such a way that you can see all of the components when the lid is off and it doesn't build up any amount of soot or waste. I guess the beneficial bacteria does it's job of keeping it clean.

 

[fishin4cars]

I guess what I should have also pointed out is that my skimmer also has a built in filtration system that I do clean weekly. This catches most if not all of the waste in the water leaving my main filter to only really contain positive bacteria. It is built in such a way that you can see all of the components when the lid is off and it doesn't build up any amount of soot or waste. I guess the beneficial bacteria does it's job of keeping it clean.

can you see the bottom of your main bio-filter? that's normally where the most accumiltion would be. A simple periodic back flush on that system and your right. It could be run for many years without a real cleaning.

 

[Hinezy]

can you see the bottom of your main bio-filter? that's normally where the most accumiltion would be. A simple periodic back flush on that system and your right. It could be run for many years without a real cleaning.

Well my filter is gravity fed, the water dumps in from a spray bar at the top. It also empties out of a pipe on the top side. The bio balls are all located on the bottom below a false bottom that has 5 holes, 4 that have tube sponges on them and one that connects directly to the empty spout. I'll try and get a pic of it, I've never seen one like it and I got it used.

I don't see how I could backwash it in any way.

 

[addy1]

Addy, your pond set up is so different from many others, Your set-up is designed for plants, water movement, frogs and wildlife, and only minimal fish. You could probably get away with that for many many years. However, You stated that you would backflush the pipes if they get clogged. IMO, I would back flush the pipes and bogs once a year to prevent them from clogging and give the pond a relief from the solid matter trapped in the pea gravel. Simply running something into the gravel to help loosen the debris/solids and back flushing with pond water will do wonders for the pond as a whole. I wouldn't recommend doing everything in one weekend, One bog one weekend, and another weeks apart from it. Then the primary filter later than that. This allows for a good stable bacteria bed but at the same time gets rid of the solids that do get trapped in any pond that has any life any. Remember, Fish contribute a large amount of waste, but frogs/tadpoles, newts,plants, insects, snails, etc. still produce waste. the more the solid waste is removed the smoother the pond runs.

Edit: LOL I see were thinking the same thing at the same time!!!!

We have a drain in the bottom of the bog, open it and 2400 or so gallons of water come pouring out! We have done it a few times already to help get rid of some of the dirt we missed in rinsing the gravel. With a well and a very dry summer it was not as clean as i would have like. It does flush well, like a big toilet! lol

 

[fishin4cars]

Well my filter is gravity fed, the water dumps in from a spray bar at the top. It also empties out of a pipe on the top side. The bio balls are all located on the bottom below a false bottom that has 5 holes, 4 that have tube sponges on them and one that connects directly to the empty spout. I'll try and get a pic of it, I've never seen one like it and I got it used.

I don't see how I could backwash it in any way.

I think your right, pics would probably explain better. Do you run anything between the spray bar and the gravel? If you run a filter media, Matala, sponges, batting material, what ever you could see how much matter is actually making it thru the mechanical filter into the bio. If those stay clean then the mechanical is doing a very effeciant job. maintance free? I'm intrested in learning more, we all like to see pics.

 

[CometKeith]

What a difference a year makes. Last year I thoroughly cleaned my pond because the water smelled bad, started up the pump and waterfall and fed the fish on the first warm day. Result=huge ammonia spike, and probably nitrite and nitrate were out of whack, but didn't know because I didn't test for it. Unfortunately a lot of my fish did really badly. This year read everything I could on the forum over the winter and thought about my mistakes, started the pump and waterfall in late winter to oxygenate the water and the water smelled good, just scooped out debris and did no real cleaning, no food yet because it's not consistently over 50 degrees and waiting for the pond to cycle. Result fish are doing great and the pond water is clear, zero ammonia, zero nitrites,zero nitrates, perfect ph, and a pile of bookwork on my desk because I am addicted to the forum!

 

[addy1]

Aww we sucked in a another soul! lost forever in ponding