URGENT bought a house with a pond and koi fish

[gary77]

The pump I pictured has a hose coming from it to the green box , you can see it in the picture , there is a pipe going from the green box to the pond , under the ground , it comes out into the pond near the pot thing

 

[gary77]

The green box is up behind the pot thing in the picture of the pond

The box has a green foam on top of a lot plastic corrugated tubes that are about an inch long , there is a fair amount of muck in there and no easy way of cleaning it out ,

The pipe that returns to the pond is about 35mm corrugated hose , if I could get a fitting to attach more hose to it and run it away from the pond I could wash out the green box with a hose .

Is there anything better to use as a filter in the green box

I need to see if the uv light is working ,

 

[gary77]

Luckily I googled cleaning the filter and found out that it was another bad idea ,

 

[MitchM]

I would divert any water flow from the fountain and put all the water flow through the filter box.
That will give you plenty of aeration for now and help clean your water.

Cleaning the filter isn't a bad idea, you'll have to clean it a few times in the beginning.
Where did you read that cleaning the filter was a bad idea?

 

[MitchM]

What is the thinking behind the green mesh bag on one end of the pond?

 

[gary77]

I was thinking cleaning the box out would destroy bacteria that's needed ?? I have just finnished reading about putting filter material around the pump in the pond , apparently it clears the water within a few hours , I'm not sure why the green mesh , there are reeds? behind it , I think it's maybe stopping them falling over ?

 

[gary77]

I would prefer a more natural looking pond and once I've got the water quality sorted , maybe it's fine , I'll check it this weekend , and the water clear I,'ll maybe redesign it , I'd like a small pond at the raised level and a waterfall maybe using slate type stones down to the lower pond , I'm going to get rid of the stacked pots water feature , lift the slabs from around the edge and have stones and pebbles , plants , I'd prefer it had a gradual slope into the pond instead of a straight drop but that may be to much work

 

[MitchM]

Your pond sounds old enough that it will have an established biofilm in the pond itself, so the most important thing is to get your filter functioning properly again.
Take a bucket full of pond water and squeeze/rinse out the filter material and then give the green box itself a good rinsing with water from the garden hose. Don't let the dirty water from the box rinse back into your pond.
I think the green mesh bag can be removed and let the plants grow as they should. You can always remove excess plant growth later.

I'm thinking that the main focus should be get the water flowing through the filter constantly 24 hours/day for now.
You can tweak the details like appearance and function later.

.

 

[gary77]

Thanks for your advice , I had thought about washing it out with a hose I'll maybe use a bucket at the pond end to catch the dirty water , should be easier with the pond water level lower .

I'll get a test kit and test the rain water barrel and refill the pond on Saturday maybe tomorrow if I have time ,

I will get things under control before I do anything else

 

[MitchM]

Sounds great.

 

[CeeJayH]

Gary,

you're heading in the right direction. Take the material out of the filter, wash it off in the bucket of pond water and use the dirty water in your garden - it's a great natural fertilizer.
It'll take a while but you will get it clear.
Chris

 

[HARO]

I'm wondering if the green mesh is holding barley straw. This is often used to prevent hair algae, but the jury is still out on that one. You may just want to remove it to improve aesthetics. The 'stacked pots thing' is probably a self-contained fountain. Check to see if there is a small pump in the bottom of it. Also, there is a valve on the tee atop your pump, which controls how much water goes to the fountain, and how much to the filter. Play with it until you get the fountain low enough to prevent water loss via overspray. The green matt in the filter is intended to remove coarse matter, and should be taken out and cleaned regularly (whenever it looks like it needs it). The short sections of tubing in the bottom are your biological media, and serve as places for beneficial bacteria to attach themselves. It is THIS part of the filter that should be left alone as much as possible, but once it becomes smothered in crap (for lack of a better word) it must be rinsed, preferably in a pail of pond water, and returned to the filter before it has a chance to dry out.
John
Oh, yes... and welcome to the forums!

 

[gary77]

I tested the water in the barrel it looked fine , I used test strips , so 13 buckets of water later the pond is back to the right level , I removed all the netting , looks better and the reeds? Are fine standing on there own . Cleaned out the green filter in a bucket of the barrel water and stuck a hose in the bottom part and shook all the tubes about ,I was able to connect a hose to the outlet and diverted the dirty water away , I tried the pump before I'd cleaned the box and dirty water was pouring back into the pond ,
I found the bit for adjusting the fountain and turned it off completely ,
I want to try wrapping the pump in some kind of filtering material , I've read good results in clearing the water this way .

And I found a big clump of frog spawn , I guess the tadpoles won't stand a chance with the koi in there ? It's making me think more about making another small pond above the existing one with a waterfall down to the main pond and move the tadpoles up there ,

 

[gary77]

I've opened up the uv light part of the filter , the bulb wasn't in its holder correctly and the uv light wasn't plugged in ,

I traced cables back and found an extension cable and the uv lamp socket in a bag under a bush ,not plugged in

The outdoor electrics need doing properly

The pond is 6foot by 3.5foot , 1.5foot deep with a step down one side 7 inch deep and 12inch wide ,it runs down the 6foot side

I also found the plant on its side at the bottom , any idea what it is and should it be fully submerged

I expected the uv light to be bright for some reason , does it look normal in the picture above ?

 

[addy1]

The plant on the lower left? Hard to tell but it looks like a lily and yes it should be submerged. At least under 6 inches of water.