stuck in green stage?

[callingcolleen1]

I'd just put a plant snip in the steam and then when it grows it will clean the pond there for you and won't have to worry about batting and stuff.

 

[j.w]

The batting works great and it takes as long as it takes...................just keep on changing it till you like what you see! I don't have a stream and have lots of plants tucked in the rocks around the edge of the pond and floating all over the pond. Still I find the batting helps a lot.

 

[micaaronfl76]

i just rinse off the3 batting is that ok to do?

 

[sissy]

geeze beginning to wonder about what I was reading .Had to read it all 2 times ,got a little nutty there for awhile .Glad I'm a little nutty and could figure it all out .lol

 

[Shdwdrgn]

I usually hose down my batting as well... just clean off the worst of the gunk and throw it back in again. My betting lasted about a year, but was starting to lose bits into the pond, so I just replaced it this weekend...

I put my batting down as the first layer in the bottom of my skippy filters, then lay the green scrubbies on top of this. I found some 1" thick batting, and cut it larger than the barrel size (about 23" diameter to fit the 22" barrel) because the original piece didn't fit well around the edges and I had a lot of water flowing around the batting rather than through it. This appeared to have worked TOO well, as it created a back-pressure in my pipes and popped one of them loose. I woke up yesterday morning to find the pond missing a lot of water! So I cut slits around the center filter pipe to allow the water to flow up through the center of the batting and force the water through the media, rather than allowing the water to flow up the sides of the barrel past all the media. This relieved the excess water pressure, so all seems to be working now, and the water flow in the barrel is nice and smooth when it reaches the surface, rather than bubbling up around the edges like before.

Its raining like crazy here today (finally), but when I get a chance, I'll have to look and see how this new setup is working for polishing the water...

 

[j.w]

I had an old lawn swing with flat white studier pieces of material then the batting for the seat and I ripped it all out and it is holding up great! I cut it up into a bunch of big squares and when one gets dirty I put the next piece in and then hose of the dirty one and hang it to dry etc. etc.

 

[callingcolleen1]

OK, so I admit I'm a little nutty. Sometimes I think "out of the box" and I'm real new to this computer stuff cause I just got a tablet this year and may have gotten a little overexcited, now I'm just trying to "go with the flow".
Let me tell you I think I was going to have a mental break down trying to operate this darn tablet. But its all good now, cause I found all of you! ha Ha Ha

 

[brandonsdad02]

Yes. That's what I do since its not part of my filter for the pond. As far as your filter pads, rinse those in pond water or water that doesn't have chlorine in it like most city tap water does. You don't want to kill the good bacteria.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Just now beside the pond, reporting live....

 

[j.w]

You are funny Colleen and appear to have a lot of energy,lol!

 

[callingcolleen1]

Got more energy because of my superior diet of large amounts of "saturated fat" yum! and I don't have to worry about my Cholesterol cause I got lots! Ha ha ha

I like to laugh hard, work hard, and play hard by the pond. Someone said 2012 was going to be "the end", and so I thought well if it's going to be "the end" then it might as well be a "good end" so last year I made the flower beds bigger, the bottom pond bigger, and planted a ton more spring bulbs last fall.

 

[callingcolleen1]

I rinse my filters in the rain barrel and feed that to the tomato's, that grew really big last year and produced a extra good crop to feed me, how about that for a "cycle"!

 

[micaaronfl76]

update - it looks to be slowly clearing i am starting to see the bottom rocks. question though beneficial bacteria- i was following aquascapes instructions to add a scoop when u fill the pond then two weeks later, which i did. should i keep doing this for the rest of the summer?

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Beneficial bacteria is a whole other debate of it's own. Regarding the liquid form, many people believe that by the time you buy it off the shelf, the bacteria in the bottle is actually dead, and when you put it in your pond you are simply feeding the bacteria that is already there. Either way you look at it, keep in mind that all local forms of bacteria will be brought to your pond by birds and insects, so chances are your pond already has more forms of beneficial bacteria in it than what you will get from a supplement. However if you want to add your own, it might help kick-start things, and it certainly can't hurt anything except your wallet. If you already have the stuff, just keep following the directions, and continue to add it until you run out.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Years ago I used all kinds of good bacteria. Now that my pond pumps run always and forever (20years) I must have a"trillion" more than I ever did before cause the pond is just so darn clean, but I never clean it! (Just the filters) No UV light here ever. I dumped in bottles cause I though if its good to put in a little, it must be great to put in a lot! Bacteria takes time to get established, Its not a chemical so its hard to overdose. Or just keep putting in the recommended amount. I love good bacteria, its the very best way to go.