New to fish ponds - not completely sure what to do
- Thread starter PallasAthena
- Start date
PallasAthena,
Regarding lilies, I bought four lilies for the pond...haven't seen any of them bloom yet as they have been in the water only a week
but the dwarf one is called Tetragona and gets tiny little flowers just an inch or two across. There is also a red called James Brydon that tolerates more shade and stays pretty small. I had a cutie called Perry's Baby Red with screaming pink flowers at the old place, and it did fine with just a few hours of sunlight, only got a foot across in the three or four years I had it.
Regarding water conditioner, I posted a question about prime and pond prime, and got replies that it is easy to overdose on the pond prime, but that it is good stuff, just to be careful with dosage.
Regarding the evap/leak question, if you have alot of splash from your falls, that can drop your waterlevel quickly, too. Sometimes you can redirect the water by rearranging things a bit, but yours looked pretty mortared in place?
Eyes bleeding from reading all this yet? I suck at short answers
Jen
Regarding lilies, I bought four lilies for the pond...haven't seen any of them bloom yet as they have been in the water only a week
but the dwarf one is called Tetragona and gets tiny little flowers just an inch or two across. There is also a red called James Brydon that tolerates more shade and stays pretty small. I had a cutie called Perry's Baby Red with screaming pink flowers at the old place, and it did fine with just a few hours of sunlight, only got a foot across in the three or four years I had it.Regarding water conditioner, I posted a question about prime and pond prime, and got replies that it is easy to overdose on the pond prime, but that it is good stuff, just to be careful with dosage.
Regarding the evap/leak question, if you have alot of splash from your falls, that can drop your waterlevel quickly, too. Sometimes you can redirect the water by rearranging things a bit, but yours looked pretty mortared in place?
Eyes bleeding from reading all this yet? I suck at short answers
Jen
Ha ha, no my eyes aren't bleeding! I'm just so grateful that you guys are being so patient with me with all of this! What an awesome forum!
Thanks for the tips on the lillies. I'll have to watch this weekend to see how much light (and when) hits the pond.
You know, the water dropped another 1/2" yesterday and it was a warm, sunny day. The fog burned off pretty quickly. I am thinking you may be right on the splashing/evap. It is a really splashy little waterfall. It's mortared into place though. I may be able to creatively place some loose rocks to help with that. I might see a little later on about getting some ferns to plant around the base and maybe some maidenhair's into the rocks. Those are so pretty and would probably love the splashy environment!
This weekend simply will not come fast enough!
ETA: I checked the bottle of my bacteria starter, too. It's this one: Microbe-Lift/PL Gel. I figured if it's good enough for a $10k Koi, it'd be okay for my little guy. Anyone used this before?
Thanks for the tips on the lillies. I'll have to watch this weekend to see how much light (and when) hits the pond.
You know, the water dropped another 1/2" yesterday and it was a warm, sunny day. The fog burned off pretty quickly. I am thinking you may be right on the splashing/evap. It is a really splashy little waterfall. It's mortared into place though. I may be able to creatively place some loose rocks to help with that. I might see a little later on about getting some ferns to plant around the base and maybe some maidenhair's into the rocks. Those are so pretty and would probably love the splashy environment!
This weekend simply will not come fast enough!
ETA: I checked the bottle of my bacteria starter, too. It's this one: Microbe-Lift/PL Gel. I figured if it's good enough for a $10k Koi, it'd be okay for my little guy. Anyone used this before?
Last edited:
Update!
Well, I did it! I got the pond all cleaned out! It was pretty horrible on the bottom. There was a ton of black sand and blue rocks that just looked very unnatural. There was all kinds of rotten leaves and bits of mulch that had blown in. Dead snails clogging up the plumbing, lots of really foul smelling sludge, and filthy, filthy water. Poor Rambo. The muck was so thick on the bottom that he was burrowing down in there to hide.
So anyway, I cleaned it out, didn't scrub the algae too much, since the koi guy said to leave it. Basically I hosed it out, diluted the muck, and just kept scooping. I tried to use the pump to do it, but it was just too awkward, and I ended up spraying the electrical outlet and blowing the fuse! Oops! It was a hair-raising experience! Literally! :eek3: Moral of the story: Don't stand in a puddle barefoot and spray water into a socket!
I hosed out the water fall. There was a dead snail in the pipe, which explains why it wasn't working properly. I dug the sand out of the bowl part, and replaced that with larger pond stones that won't fall down into the pipes and clog it up. I also stuck the hose in there and blew out the junk that was in there clogging it up. It works so much better now!
So I cleaned the pond up, added in the (washed!) river rock to hide the bottom and weigh down the filter box. The pond was deeper than I thought when I got the muck out. 1 ft in the shallows and 2 ft in the well, which is good. I got my plants put it: 1 pot of black rushes, and a floating water hyacinth that Rambo seems to particularly enjoy. He really seems to like nosing around the roots.
I also did some cleaning and planting around the edges of the pond. I put in a maidenhair fern on each side where the falls get really splashy, and a wood fern a bit farther off to give some height. I have to say, I am really happy with how it is turning out. There are still a couple more things I want to do. I want to clean some overgrown baby tears (grown cover) off the flagstones and scrub off some if the algea. And I want to put a few more river rocks at the edges (kind of like mulch) to make it more grotto-y looking.
I haven't taken pictures yet, but I plan to this evening. I am so excited, and so far, Rambo is living up to his name. I'll be watching really closely. Hopefully he won't go belly up from all of these changes. He seems curious, though, and once we got him reintroduced, he was very busy swimming around and exploring the cleaned up diggs. I want to let it cycle and the add in some more fish so he can have a little school to hang around with.
Well, I did it! I got the pond all cleaned out! It was pretty horrible on the bottom. There was a ton of black sand and blue rocks that just looked very unnatural. There was all kinds of rotten leaves and bits of mulch that had blown in. Dead snails clogging up the plumbing, lots of really foul smelling sludge, and filthy, filthy water. Poor Rambo. The muck was so thick on the bottom that he was burrowing down in there to hide.
So anyway, I cleaned it out, didn't scrub the algae too much, since the koi guy said to leave it. Basically I hosed it out, diluted the muck, and just kept scooping. I tried to use the pump to do it, but it was just too awkward, and I ended up spraying the electrical outlet and blowing the fuse! Oops! It was a hair-raising experience! Literally! :eek3: Moral of the story: Don't stand in a puddle barefoot and spray water into a socket!
I hosed out the water fall. There was a dead snail in the pipe, which explains why it wasn't working properly. I dug the sand out of the bowl part, and replaced that with larger pond stones that won't fall down into the pipes and clog it up. I also stuck the hose in there and blew out the junk that was in there clogging it up. It works so much better now!
So I cleaned the pond up, added in the (washed!) river rock to hide the bottom and weigh down the filter box. The pond was deeper than I thought when I got the muck out. 1 ft in the shallows and 2 ft in the well, which is good. I got my plants put it: 1 pot of black rushes, and a floating water hyacinth that Rambo seems to particularly enjoy. He really seems to like nosing around the roots.
I also did some cleaning and planting around the edges of the pond. I put in a maidenhair fern on each side where the falls get really splashy, and a wood fern a bit farther off to give some height. I have to say, I am really happy with how it is turning out. There are still a couple more things I want to do. I want to clean some overgrown baby tears (grown cover) off the flagstones and scrub off some if the algea. And I want to put a few more river rocks at the edges (kind of like mulch) to make it more grotto-y looking.
I haven't taken pictures yet, but I plan to this evening. I am so excited, and so far, Rambo is living up to his name. I'll be watching really closely. Hopefully he won't go belly up from all of these changes. He seems curious, though, and once we got him reintroduced, he was very busy swimming around and exploring the cleaned up diggs. I want to let it cycle and the add in some more fish so he can have a little school to hang around with.
Uh oh...it's too late for you now...you're hooked!!!! I am sorry to have to tell you this, but there is no known cure, it's chronic. Next, you'll be plotting to drive the neighbors out, buy their lot, bulldoze their house, and build a BIG pond...oh, wait, that'd be me
Ain't it great?
Jen
Ain't it great?
Jen
As a kid - started with one fish pond... then added a tadpole pond... ended up putting fish in there too of course.
Then we had a couple of big plastic barrells with golden minnows in them...
Oh and then there was the fish tank...
- then we moved and that stopped all that! After that I had a fishtank - but never swelled beyond that- stopped during my college years. Now I'm back into fishkeeping- and already planning my new fish empire.
I NEED a pond... a mudskipper, and invert tank, a crayfish paludarium, my community tank, a cichlid tank, a... etc
Then we had a couple of big plastic barrells with golden minnows in them...
Oh and then there was the fish tank...
- then we moved and that stopped all that! After that I had a fishtank - but never swelled beyond that- stopped during my college years. Now I'm back into fishkeeping- and already planning my new fish empire.
I NEED a pond... a mudskipper, and invert tank, a crayfish paludarium, my community tank, a cichlid tank, a... etc
That's pretty much why I advised against putting rock in the bottom. It just collects that mess and makes for a more difficult job to maintain.
That's pretty much why I advised against putting rock in the bottom. It just collects that mess and makes for a more difficult job to maintain.
I know I know.
You can say "I told you so," when I post on here to complain about it later. I did go ahead and add some rocks. They aren't tiny aquarium gravel (like what was originally in there), though. They're about thumb sized. Pond rocks is what the bag was labeled. The bottom of the pond was just awful looking and this makes it look much more naturalistic. Any finger wagging from you when I complain about cleaning it will be accepted with grace. LOL!Rambo is STILL ALIVE! And the black patches I noticed on his side have disappeared. Clean water? Yeah, it can be a good thing I guess.
Today in the car, I mentioned needing to pick up a test kit to DH. He asked about it, and I explained mechanical vs biological filtration (thank you 4H and AC!) and cycling and why it's important to know when the pond has cycled. I talked about fish cycling and why I don't like it, but that we don't have a choice as Rambo was already there. Then I mentioned that once it's cycled we can get a couple of more fish. You know what he said? "Cool. I didn't know that's how it worked!" I totally expected him to say, "NO MORE FISH!" But he's seeing how nice the pond is I guess, so... :dance::dance:
