Pond experts

[Count Steer]

The green water stuff works almost straight away if you've put enough in. Then scoop it off the surface and top up. Works great in my little pond.

Well it seems to be working. I can see the label on the pump at the bottom of the pond.

Nothing to scoop off the surface though. It may be that with topping up and planting I stirred things up a bit and now things have settled down and the extra water reduced the green density. I'll see what happens over the next few days and probably treat it again.

It's not a huge pond but it's a few '000 litres by my calculations. Just not sure how many '000 so I didn't want to overdo it with the first shot.

[Count Steer]

Our pump has a variable control and I have it set at 35 or 40w, when it was switched off for a few days there was very little difference according to the smart meter.

At 40w it consumes less than 1kw in 24 hrs

Not sure what ours is. (Can't find the manual ) The pond people just installed it in the pond and adjusted it to get the flow right for the stream. It's raising it about 9 or 10ft and pumping about 30l/min I'd guess. It's quite a chunky thing with an ouput pipe about 1.25 or 1.5".

(I thought it was 300w but I gather it's not likely to be that big!).

[Mussels]

Good to know that the algae clumps...it doesn't tell you that on the

It doesn't, that product must have a flocculant to bind the algae. I had mixed results with flocculant in the pool but that will be something different as my one sank.

[Count Steer]

Good to know that the algae clumps...it doesn't tell you that on the

It doesn't, that product must have a flocculant to bind the algae. I had mixed results with flocculant in the pool but that will be something different as my one sank.

This Envii stuff is supposed to be algae-eating bacteria. Seems to be doing the trick.

[Count Steer]

Just to sort of round up. Rather than work on my estimate of the pond volume I've done 3 doses of the bacteria stuff that's supposed to clear the green - each one being what you'd add to treat 1000 litres. Did a dose, monitored for a few days, did another etc. It's working (Obvs I don't have a control pond to compare what it would be like if I'd just added the plants I put in, but they're just getting going so I'm pretty well convinced that the dosing is doing the trick). I'll follow the same routine if the clearing stops. The pond is more than 3000 litres so I'm being conservative with the dosing anyway. (The suppliers say hit it with the full dose and do it again 14 days later if needed).

Also been topping up with treated tap water. Probably added 500l over time. When I bought the water treatments I also bought some test strips, just out of interest. I tested the water for the first time today and it's spot on in terms of pH, hardness, nitrates, nitrites etc. Being of a scientific nature (and the fact that there are loads of test strips ) I'll test the rainwater, when we get some , and the treated tap water at some point.

The newts and pond beetles seem happy enough and there's a veritable swarm of dragonflies and damsel flies. The water boatpersons are present in huge numbers but, there were loads of pond skaters not long ago - they've vanished. (They can fly so maybe they've done whatever pond skaters need to do and moved on).

[Rockburner]

Just to sort of round up. Rather than work on my estimate of the pond volume I've done 3 doses of the bacteria stuff that's supposed to clear the green - each one being what you'd add to treat 1000 litres. Did a dose, monitored for a few days, did another etc. It's working (Obvs I don't have a control pond to compare what it would be like if I'd just added the plants I put in, but they're just getting going so I'm pretty well convinced that the dosing is doing the trick). I'll follow the same routine if the clearing stops. The pond is more than 3000 litres so I'm being conservative with the dosing anyway. (The suppliers say hit it with the full dose and do it again 14 days later if needed).

Also been topping up with treated tap water. Probably added 500l over time. When I bought the water treatments I also bought some test strips, just out of interest. I tested the water for the first time today and it's spot on in terms of pH, hardness, nitrates, nitrites etc. Being of a scientific nature (and the fact that there are loads of test strips ) I'll test the rainwater, when we get some , and the treated tap water at some point.

The newts and pond beetles seem happy enough and there's a veritable swarm of dragonflies and damsel flies. The water boatpersons are present in huge numbers but, there were loads of pond skaters not long ago - they've vanished. (They can fly so maybe they've done whatever pond skaters need to do and moved on).

I'd be interested in the state of the "raw" tap water itself....

[Count Steer]

I'd be interested in the state of the "raw" tap water itself....

Good point, I'll check it tomorrow and report back. The strips don't give info about CO2 but I guess that's reflected in the pH. I'd be surprised if there's any detectable difference in pre and post treated water using the strips - they're just colour comparison like urine tests.

Dang! I've got a tub of urine test strips which would probably have been just as good/more informative than the pond ones! Mind you, if I tested tap or pond water with those, they really should flash up a message 'See a doctor, urgently'.

[Mussels]

Tap water info you can get from your water company, if you want to test tap PH then leave it in a glass overnight to allow the CO2 to gas off or you'll get an artificially low PH reading.

Rain water is generally bad to use in an aquarium as it is acidic, very soft, might be contaminated from something on your roof, and has very little in the way of minerals much aquatic life needs. A pond is not such a closed system so it might not matter so much.
How good your tap water is depends on where you live, it might not be much better.

[Count Steer]

Tap water info you can get from your water company, if you want to test tap PH then leave it in a glass overnight to allow the CO2 to gas off or you'll get an artificially low PH reading.

Rain water is generally bad to use in an aquarium as it is acidic, very soft, might be contaminated from something on your roof, and has very little in the way of minerals much aquatic life needs. A pond is not such a closed system so it might not matter so much.
How good your tap water is depends on where you live, it might not be much better.

Not too worried about roof contamination of the rainwater...the collection butts are off a greenhouse and conservatory so, basically, glass. There's no chance I'm getting into aquaria. Looking out for newts etc is as far as I'm going.

Although, my nephew had a rather interesting cold water aquarium which could be interes... *slap!* ....no no no no!!

[ZRX61]

Easiest way to get the water clean is toss a bunch of barley straw in the pond & wait.

[Count Steer]

Easiest way to get the water clean is toss a bunch of barley straw in the pond & wait.

If it was a big, natural, unpumped pond/lake I'd do exactly that...chuck a bale of barley straw in. But really it needs to be a bit bigger than mine for that to be an option.

The general advice is plants, plant and more plants. One place I worked, in an area aptly named World's End, not far from Chelsea Harbour, had a big pond and during a heatwave the fish started to appear, belly up...quite how the fish got in there in the first place is anyone's guess. I think it even had crayfish in. (It was all developed on an old gasworks site so they may have had a lagoon for some reason, but the fish etc?) Fair play to the Facilities Management chap. He was quite upset and bought in a load of pump/spray equipment to try and get some oxygen into the water.

All the contaminated land from the gasworks was eventually 'capped' and, being Chelsea, the whole site was redeveloped as expensive housing. I hope they kept the pond.

[ZRX61]

If it was a big, natural, unpumped pond/lake I'd do exactly that...chuck a bale of barley straw in. But really it needs to be a bit bigger than mine for that to be an option.

The general advice is plants, plant and more plants. One place I worked, in an area aptly named World's End, not far from Chelsea Harbour, had a big pond and during a heatwave the fish started to appear, belly up...quite how the fish got in there in the first place is anyone's guess. I think it even had crayfish in. (It was all developed on an old gasworks site so they may have had a lagoon for some reason, but the fish etc?) Fair play to the Facilities Management chap. He was quite upset and bought in a load of pump/spray equipment to try and get some oxygen into the water.

All the contaminated land from the gasworks was eventually 'capped' and, being Chelsea, the whole site was redeveloped as expensive housing. I hope they kept the pond.

Fish eggs on birds feet/legs etc.

[David]

Flying fish (eggs)?