My pond is in good shape this spring. I think the reason may be because I turned off my UV lights last fall and turned them back on in early March. I also stopped draining and flushing my bio-filter last summer which I was doing pretty regularly before at the rate of maybe once or twice a month. I was adding bacteria supplements last year as well but haven't yet this spring.
The water is clear, the fish woke up feeling good and are eating a spring/fall diet from DrFostersSmith catalogue.
My question is now should I drain and clean my filter? The filter is home made from a 50gallon drum filled with lava rock from Lowe's and several heavy duty filter pads on top. The water is pumped down the middle to the bottom and flows up from the bottom and out the top outlet into the pond. It has a tetra pond debris handling pump - approx 3600gph. Since things are working, maybe the why fix it if it ain't broke saying might be apt.
I am open and welcome all input and advise.
Thanks.
filter advice
All I can say is I clean all filtration medium at least every 6 months now that I use the thick blue padding. Before I had to clean them every month.
Not sure if you need to but I figure can't be too clean when it comes to filtration.
Good luck with your fish this summer.
Thanks for your input BonnieGardens.
I have thought about this awhile and think I should disassemble the filter and clean it thoroughly. Its been almost a year and think it might be a good idea to see whats what deep down inside the system. What I am hoping is that since the pond is in good shape now it may be able to tolerate the disruption the cleaning might cause. I am ready with new bacterial inoculate to help reestablish the digesting colonies. I also have new UV bulbs to start up again after the infusion of bacteria has had a chance to get established.
Thanks for the good luck wish… I'll take all the luck I can get. :-) ^_^
Should work out fine. Right now I am pressure washing all my pool screens, patio furniture and then pool deck. After that I will start cleanup in larger pond. Due to fish deaths had to empty and clean smaller pond in a hurry. That lousy oak blossom caused all the trouble even though I scooped it out twice a day. Both my ponds need covers during leaf drop season. That's another project for another day.
Take care, Bonnie
Bonnie, after all the oak blooms and now camphor blooms, my pond was such a mess that today I drained it. I left maybe 10 inches of water in it (that looks like total sludge) because I dont have anywhere to move the fish. Will clean all the temporary canister filters again, and try to clear up the shallow water before refilling. I've never had this issue before. I've added extra bacteria, enzymes, water conditioners, barley, etc....and it's still a mess.
Not exactly my plan for Easter weekend, but don't want to lose fish either! bleh....
I disassembled my filter and thoroughly rinsed all parts with pond water until the filters and lava rock ran clear. Then I put it all back together. Next I took out the UV lights and added a big dose of Microbe-Lift. All seems well.
I don't have any oaks close enough to matter but I have the huge flowering cherry close by. It has been raining pink petals for days which I have been hand skimming 2-4 x a day. I wish I had a built in skimmer. After the petals come the little fruiting component of the cherry tree. Its ornamental so the little unit that in a fruit bearing tree would turn into a cherry falls off and tons of them end up in the pond. Yuck. These sink and are much harder to scoop out.
So seems these water gardens/koi ponds have a some maintenance that keeps us young. Good exercise of course but sometimes it all seems like a big drag.
Question- how long after the infusion of new bacteria/microbes should I wait before reconnecting the UV lights?
Sorry about your hassles MerryMary. I hope you get things squared away with some time left over to enjoy the holiday.
Also I never scrub down the sides of my pond. I figure a lot of good bacteria live in the fuzz that grows on the liner. Plus the fish like to nibble the algae the form a film on everything under water. Is this a bad practice for some reason I don't understand?
Son Jeff came over yesterday and finished up larger pond. Does look a lot clearer but not the best it has been. This has been a horrific year for pond water conditioning.
M. Mary, how long after proform-C treatment before you can add microblift-pl. I can't remember. I've tried looking it up but no luck with an answer yet.
Hope everyone enjoys their Resurection Sunday at least for a little while. I love the special Easter music. Lights up my whole year.
Bonnie
https://www.pondrx.com/pages.php?pageid=16 Try this for info Bonnie.
There are several skimmers that you can add to a pond without it being built in. I use several of the floating skimmers when the season gets bad. They do a great job, unfortunately this year was beyond a skimmer no matter what type I used! I had to empty them 2-3 times a day!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHjDHQLi52M
I thought this skimmer idea would be interesting to try.
Nothing pertaining to preform-C on that site. I'll call Pentair Aquatic Eco Systems and see what they have to say. I've lost enough fish already this year. Don't want to loose more.
Slight breeze up today so more junk falling into ponds. UG!!!!
Just for the record: formaline and malachite in proform C dissipates in 3 to 4 days and then other treatments can be added.
Hope this helps someone.