Pond and Garden

[MingtheMerciless]

Not sure if there is a thread for this stuff so I'll start one.

@Count Steer

As requested details of pond clearance stuff and a few pics of mine.

Latest oxygenator and I get most of my stuff from : https://www.watersidenursery.co.uk/oxygenating-plants

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Pond "cleaner" doesn't seem to affect the invertebrates or newts.

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[Count Steer]

Not sure if there is a thread for this stuff so I'll start one.

@Count Steer

As requested details of pond clearance stuff and a few pics of mine.

Latest oxygenator and I get most of my stuff from : https://www.watersidenursery.co.uk/oxygenating-plants

IMG_1458.jpeg

IMG_1457.jpeg

Pond "cleaner" doesn't seem to affect the invertebrates or newts.

IMG_1456.jpeg

Great ta! I've got some other Envii stuff for other things like dechlorinating and something that's for surface blanket weed but this isn't really surface blanket weed it forms around the submerged plants like a cloud and eventually kills them so I'll give the Envii cleaner a go. It's a real at the moment either I sacrifice the plants or I haul them out into quarantine and clean them up which sacrifices the newt eggs. The newts even lay in the weed rather than on the plants.

I'll get some more oxygenators and bring them on in the nursery tubs so they're a bit bigger when they go in.

Your pond looks Excellent use of gabions too.

[Dodgy69]

Any fish. ☝

[Felix]

Nice reminder i was to google an insect i seen in a customers pond. Water Boatmen what seem harmless enough.

[Skub]

Nice reminder i was to google an insect i seen in a customers pond. Water Boatmen what seem harmless enough.

We used to call them water spiders,the fookers will bite you if provoked.

[Count Steer]

Nice reminder i was to google an insect i seen in a customers pond. Water Boatmen what seem harmless enough.

Perfectly harmless and fun to watch. They can fly if they need too as well.

They could actually be 'backswimmers' though. (They eat mosquitos ).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notonecta_glauca

[Felix]

She has quite a nice small garden. I have cleared away a lot from around the pond and took away a lot of the water lilies but the liner has a lot of black shit all over the bottom. She has some sort of Water Milfoil what the fish seem to like but it grows like wild fire and when i take some out you cant see the fish or anything else for that matter. Im all for draining it for a good clean and start again.

[Count Steer]

She has quite a nice small garden. I have cleared away a lot from around the pond and took away a lot of the water lilies but the liner has a lot of black shit all over the bottom. She has some sort of Water Milfoil what the fish seem to like but it grows like wild fire and when i take some out you cant see the fish or anything else for that matter. Im all for draining it for a good clean and start again.

That's sort of where we started. Inherited a small pond with fish in but thoroughly clogged with something like Canada pondweed. Cleared a lot of it but that meant the fish lost a lot of hiding places and the heron took the lot. Decided to start again, make the pond bigger etc, now we're struggling to get it in balance (not for fish, just for wildlife). It's proving difficult.

Could you haul a lot of the stuff out and put a temporary pump and filter on to remove the disturbed crud? I don't think an old layer of stuff in the bottom is a bad thing in a natural pond - but it would drive the koi people bonkers probably. The previous owner of this place said he didn't feed the fish (goldfish type things) so I guess they were getting wee beasties aplenty from the bottom.

[MingtheMerciless]

I did have a few minnows which I guess hatched from plants I err liberated from a nearby stream but the newts, when they arrived made short work of them.

Lots of newts and some dragon fly larva/nymphs which are truly the things of nightmares, the Devils inimical concoction of top predator and brooding evil. I've just had look in the pond and seen two, they're bigger than most of the newts!

[Felix]

@Count Steer i dont mean clean it back to a shinning rubber liner but when i reduce the plants it really is thick shit almost oily looking and probably 2/3 inch deep. I helped keep this garden years ago when i worked for another guy who had the job and i dont think its ever had a clean. I am sure the fish is small Koi Carp so would have to look into how they would do in a large fish tank for a few hours as i can get a six foot one and about two foot deep. You cant see it in that picture but the pond has green fine mesh chicken wire over it.

[Felix]

I did have a few minnows which I guess hatched from plants I err liberated from a nearby stream but the newts, when they arrived made short work of them.

Lots of newts and some dragon fly larva/nymphs which are truly the things of nightmares, the Devils inimical concoction of top predator and brooding evil. I've just had look in the pond and seen two, they're bigger than most of the newts!

Does the water stay clearer if moving. Customers pond has a waterfall option what is still plumbed in but disconnected for years. Im sure i could get this running again as the hose is still hanging under the water for the pump to slot into.

[ZRX61]

Easiest way to clear the water is to spread some chopped barley straw on the water. It doesn't take much. It falls to the bottom taking a lot of snarge with it, then the bacteria take over the job.

[Felix]

Easiest way to clear the water is to spread some chopped barley straw on the water. It doesn't take much. It falls to the bottom taking a lot of snarge with it, then the bacteria take over the job.

She has straw in old tights floating about.

[ZRX61]

She has straw in old tights floating about.

Barley? needs to be loose.

[Count Steer]

@Count Steer i dont mean clean it back to a shinning rubber liner but when i reduce the plants it really is thick shit almost oily looking and probably 2/3 inch deep. I helped keep this garden years ago when i worked for another guy who had the job and i dont think its ever had a clean. I am sure the fish is small Koi Carp so would have to look into how they would do in a large fish tank for a few hours as i can get a six foot one and about two foot deep. You cant see it in that picture but the pond has green fine mesh chicken wire over it.

At our previous place there was a small rectangular pond that needed a clean up and reprofiling (it was all the same depth). The pond woman that did it turned up with a collapsible rectangular pond and pumped the water out into it and put all the living stuff in it. Then dug out the sludge etc. Then pumped the water back in, reused the plants. Everything was quite happy in the temporary pond for 3 or 4 days.

Currently I get a lot of weed growing in the rocky cascade (it's about 4 small pools and little waterfalls with liner, felt and gravel in). It's easy to remove but it grows v quickly. I've started putting plants in baskets in the pools to wild it up a bit.

Next thing is to get some of the Envii stuff that Ming recommended, buy some snails and buy some more plants. I'm going to keep some plants in large tubs so I can swap stuff in and out. I'll treat the water in the tubs too so anything that gets clogged with green stuff can get quarantined and cleaned up then swapped back in.

(It looks like the well established plants aren't suffering as much as small new plants do. It's like the weed is parasitic So I need to get some big healthy stuff in there. Once the water lily gets going this year the shade from the leaves will help keep the weed down too).

[MingtheMerciless]

I did have a few minnows which I guess hatched from plants I err liberated from a nearby stream but the newts, when they arrived made short work of them.

Lots of newts and some dragon fly larva/nymphs which are truly the things of nightmares, the Devils inimical concoction of top predator and brooding evil. I've just had look in the pond and seen two, they're bigger than most of the newts!

Does the water stay clearer if moving. Customers pond has a waterfall option what is still plumbed in but disconnected for years. Im sure i could get this running again as the hose is still hanging under the water for the pump to slot into.

I have a solar powered fountain with a filter assembly, no UV, just foam and rock in an ice cream tub sized box. I think it helps with oxygenation and clearing the water but it is a sprinkle so no great flow rate, I let it run till it flattens its battery each day so is very weather dependent. Biggest hazard is on windy days it sprays water outside the pond so I top it up from the water butt.

[Dodgy69]

Could you drill out the middle hole on sprinkler to reduce spray height. Little bit at a time.

[Horse]

Apologies for butting in.

I have no interest in ponds etc , but great thread

[MingtheMerciless]

@Dodgy69 I shall give that a go, thank you

It's looking good in the rare spring sunshine (rhubarb is fenced off to stop a certain hound digging it up)

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[ZRX61]

Check out this channel on YT:

https://www.youtube.com/@GregWittstockThePondGuy