How's your pond?

Clear! 2 uv lights, biofilter, and quilt batting for extra media :-)

Our pond is clear.

We don't have any filters or lights nor do we use any chemicals or other additives.

Our pond was clear. I put fertilizer tabs in the pots & within an hour or so it started turning green. Now 2 days later is is pretty green. I put quilt batten in the filter today but so far no diference. I sure hope it clears soon as I don't like green water. It wasn't green last year but I didn't use any tabs.

Even in zone 10 my pond slows down for a few month's in the winter.
It is all about balance the right amount of plants , fish and whatever... My water is always crystal clear and the secret is stated above .... simple balance... also if you are not raising show koi , your fish will and can find their own food..
My 2 cents
John

I have no pond...except where the water ran off my brand new greenhouse and under the walls!I've got to raise the floor or dig a trench,or I'll have skeeters till January!

I don't have a pond yet, but we are planning to incorporate one into our landscaping around the new house. We went to a one day landscaping class last weekend and one segment was on ponds. That sold DH, and now he wants one. :)

Those of you that have ponds, I'd love to see a picture of yours if you would have time to email me one. We are very undecided about what we want and pictures help us alot.

Clear :) How? Good question. lol I have 2 biofilters running 24/7 all year and I added one more for spring/summer/early fall so I probably overfilter my water. I don't have a uv filters. I do have algae covering all sides and bottom of the pond and a small amount of string algae. I try to eliminate that by hand every year. I love my little hole in the ground.

Our algae is really bad this spring.

Paul

My pond isn't particularly green. What I never seem to get rid of is the string algae. It is such a pain. It continually clogs the filter to my filter! Any suggestions?
Cathy

Where we live the leaves begin to fall before the plants are finished and ready to be cut down. We try to keep the ponds skimmed with a net every day to remove fallen leaves. When the plants are ready to be cut for the winter, we cut them and put them in the deepest part of the ponds. Then we cover the ponds with screening in a frame and put a heater in each (purchased at a farm supply.....for plastic water troughs). plug them in. and forget it.

In the spring we usually completely clean the ponds because of the leaves that sank during the fall season and the algae and fish muck. We keep a few gallons of the old water to add to the new water, add chlorine remover, and we are set for another year.

Some folks don't clean their ponds (ours are small....120 gallons for the large ponds and 45 gallons for the runoff ponds)but if we don't clean ours, there is always a thick layer of sediment that stays in the bottom and addition of any plants roils it up and clouds the water badly. We use filters in both ponds.

I wish I had a pond with fish, but I know it is a huge amount of work, so I really don't have the extra time. I also wish I could afford to have a maintance company take care of it. That would be the only way, I would consider it.

Mine stays clear most of the time, I saw it get green when it was warmer last year but it went away fairly soon. I think our colder water here in the mountains may retard algae bloom somewhat......

Our newly acquired pond was built by DNR and they must have done a great job. There is a drain in one end so the water continually flows. The lily pads are running rampant and the fish are biting.

I wish I had any water; there's a big hole in my pond:-( Only a little mud left...

Oh, that algae were the worst of our poor pond's problems!

We were unwise and let leaves accumulate in our pond (and everywhere else) last fall. We had a pump going all winter, and it kept a nice little circle thawed around the spout. However, in mid-January the basement waterproofing crew needed the pump unplugged since the power was buried where they'd trench.

You can imagine how quickly the pond and the pump froze in that bitterly cold weather. It stayed frozen until nearly April, when things finally thawed out.

I'm afraid we lost all the fish and frogs. *sniffle* The danged potted ribbon grass came back though, LOL!

So, we have a sludgy, stinky, dead pond we must now clean out. THIS fall, we're going to put netting over the pond to keep the leaves out.

Gardenwife, that is too bad, I know what it feels like, the fish are like pets.

Algae here and I've already completely cleaned out the pond once. I don't want to get any filters or anything - I'd rather have just fish and such clean it themselves. We have one big koi and several frogs (the pond is under our bedroom window, so we listen to frogs all night. Riiiiiiiiiiibbit!).

Baa and others who have natural success: What's the secret? What should I do to keep this clean? That stringy algae is my plague. I scoop out the stuff with a fish net (and with my hands) at least once a week and throw it into Trish's herb garden.

dave

Ok, I did have some algae, but I cleaned the pond a few weeks ago, found my ONE little goldfishie still there with cool orange eggs (I dare not say row) in the floating roots of one of my lilys. I use this stuff that is safe for your fish and pond that keeps your pond clear and hardly without algae. I also have a bio filter. I need more goldfish cuz the racoon ate all of them but one.

My sister found a source for coyote urine stuff that DOES NOT SMELL. Maybe I will be able to keep all my fish from becoming someones dinner this year. Racoons are cute and furry but very destructive and can be mean. So, I will try this new stuff. I am sooooo tired of finding my pond thrashed. That racoon knows there is one fish left!

I use a barley ball in my 3 ponds. Wouldn't be without one.
It's all natural and won't affect plants or fish.

Sure wish it would keep the neighbor's cats the heck outta the yard tho.

Does the barley ball help with string algae, Oliver.

We used barley straw in ours last year and it realy helped clear things up. I believe it needs to have water running through it to be most effective, so place it beneath a waterfall or near your pump.

My pond is clear. We use an in-pond homemade filter that is raised up during the winter months. We remove the biofiltration from this filter during the cold months also.
We have a 3900 gallon per hour turnover on our waterfalls which runs 12 months per year. I attribute the lack of algae to the constant aeration.
I do have algae on the waterfalls, and moss growing right next to the falls.
My fish are healthy and are original to the 5 year old pond.
Arianne377

I voted a little murky, but it's sure not as bad as last year. We put in a large gravel-filled bog filter above the pond last year, and I attribute the clearer water this spring to the filtration work it does. We didn't run it all winter, but it's been up and going for about a month now. Well worth the time and effort to install it!

Next comes the barley straw, then it'll be time to start sloshing around in there and mucking out the remaining leaves and debris....

Dave

We used to have endless problems. We still do get a little blanket weed (string algae?) and green water in hot weather, but we deal with it straight away by removing it by hand in the case of the blanket weed and barley straw wads for green water.

Contrary to many experts opinions, the pond is in partial shade (pear tree). Our aim is to have 2 thirds of the surface covered with floating plants in summer (mainly native duckweeds and frogbit). This, we find, helps prevent the water from overheating and shades the water to prevent algal growth to a degree.

We no longer buy in marginal plants for the 'big' pond. We don't fertilise any of the pond plants. These seem to bring more trouble than pleasure, any plants we bring in now will have the soil washed off their roots first and be potted in gravel with a little garden soil. We rarely top it up with tap water.

We keep the ducks and children out with the aid of a small fence, much to both parties bemusement. We have 3 Rudd fish and will buy in some more Swan Mussels when we can find them again (ducks scoffed the last lot), there are innumerable tadpoles and we've seen frogs, toads and slow worms swimming. Even the cats prefer to drink the pond water to that out of their own bowls, (they also eat the tadpoles when we're not looking).

In other words, the pond has found it's own balance, we help out a little when the balance is tipped slightly in favour of the unwanted, but by and large, it's quite happy on it's own.

My pond is like pea soup. From everything I've read and seen, a bog filter is the way to go. I'm putting one in soon, I'll let you know!

I came home from work to find Howie had cleaned the pond and partially rebuilt the waterfall while I was gone this morning. Yippee!

Mine is clean (only because I just filled it last week) Mine stays much cleaner now that I have about 80% covered all the time and the water hyacinth really seem to keep it from getting green. No filters and pumps, just a spitter going and mine does fine. It's only 250 gallons so not too big.
Mary

I don't have a pond, but I use Pond's Hand-Cream after my wee bit of gardening.
It keeps my hands lovely and soft ..... hmmmmmm.. nice

Winterfleur

While I do have some green stringy stuff, but it comes and goes on Mother Nature's whims. I prefer not to use chemicals, and I am rewarded with lots of pond life. I let about two-thirds get covered with plant life, which keeps the water clear and cooler. It usually starts off a bit murky in spring, but I pull out some debris and it clears in a day. Ponds have natural cycles, just like a saltwater aquarium. I just let mine cycle, and add water when needed. No filters. Just goldfish and Mother Nature.

LOL, Winterfleur

We never had green water last year & didn't this year till I put fertilizer tabs in the plants. The water started turning green within a hour or so. I'm gonna give it time as I hate to use Chemicals...don't like green water either..

My pond is clear for most of the year and we have a bio filter and 3 goldfish, one turtle and 2 frogs. We had a small outbreak of algae bloom last summer when it got real hot, but DH put some algae cleaner in it and poof, all gone. My pond runs, 24/7.

Donna

we have a big 1 acre pond and is is a little murky but we have an airaitor ( if that's how you spell it)But our local paper has a garden colum and he says that cornmeal helps clear a pond and is good for the pond and it's eco system.He also says cornmeal is good for lawns and getting rid of the weeds.I have not tried it yet but have noticed that all our nurseries here are stocking it.Our life on the pond is so happy and the frogs seranade us at night.The iris's are blooming and we just got the first lilly blooms.

I should have a bigger garden to have enough room for it, but even if I had, I wouldn't take a pond.
Lots of work to keep it clean and what may be even worse: it's often a source of gnats and mosquitos. Even without a pond (some neighbours have one, though) we have LOTS of those critters in summer (itch, itch).

This message was edited Wednesday, Apr 23rd 6:43 PM

Have a fairly large pond that my father built, years ago!
Have had health problems and my husband had been extremely, seriously ill....so our pond was neglected last year! Now with Spring on the threshold we REALLY NEED TO GET BUSY!!!! I love the way it attracts the birds. It is stocked with just ordinary gold fish that "overwinter" well.

Our pond is clear but is a winter run-off which flows back into the creek down below. It dries up in July and August.

Pond is clear, has been for the 4 years I have had it. We even doubled the size of it last year. Have never had an algae bloom, never get string algae. Don't do anything special, have never added an chemicals other than fertilizer tabs for the plants. We have a pump/filter, and the rest is just mother nature. As someone else mentioned above...it needs to find it's "balance". It's full of plants and lots of fish (even though mother nature has let something eat a bunch of them, we had quite a few babies last year), and I do put fert tabs in my lilies, but still have never had green water or algae.

Jody I never had green water before but put fertilizer tabs in the lilly pots & almost right away it started turning green. For the size (50 gallons) I have quite a few plants & only 3 small fish. I haven't used any chemicals but tempted to do it.

Aaahh Sugar, your pond is small, that may have something to do with the tabs/greenwater. I didn't fertilize any of mine for the first two years, but had little blooms on my lilies. So I broke down and put the tabs in, but by that time my pond was and is about 600 gallons.

Now my yard on the other hand...was under about 2' of water for most of the spring and I had an "algae bloom" on the side of my garage, LOLOLOL! That area is still rather green even now that the water has gone down, hehehe.