Hello all, I am new to the forum and this is my 5th year having my pond.
At the begining of spring I took my 300 gallon stock tank and filled it with pond water and removed all of the fish. I then drained the rest of the pond water, scrubbed off (as best as possible) the years of attached alge and rinsed and shop vac'ed the sludge. I then re-filled the pond with the 300 gallons of pond water and put the fish back in and slowly replaced the remaining 1200 gallons over the course of 2 days. All of this work somehow did NOTHING because the pond was just as alge ridden after a week of doing that.
Attaching the UV has done a good amount, but it still could be better.
Here is where my question comes into play.... I feel like I am forgetting something in the bio-filter. Currently, in the top tray I have a layer of small rocks/filter media. I actually just added this a few days ago when I noticed my father had the filter media in the bottom tray and nothing in the top tray. Then underneath that I have a square sponge filter, and then in the bottom tray I have a layer of lava rocks.
As you can see my set up is a bit unconventional, but that is because over the years I've mixed the common methods with my own ideas, and it's always worked out just fine... but this year I feel like I am forgetting something..... Maybe I threw something away last year?
Here is a picture of my pond as a bonus :banghead3:
(This is last spring, water isn't this clear now, lol.)
At the begining of spring I took my 300 gallon stock tank and filled it with pond water and removed all of the fish. I then drained the rest of the pond water, scrubbed off (as best as possible) the years of attached alge and rinsed and shop vac'ed the sludge. I then re-filled the pond with the 300 gallons of pond water and put the fish back in and slowly replaced the remaining 1200 gallons over the course of 2 days. All of this work somehow did NOTHING because the pond was just as alge ridden after a week of doing that.
Attaching the UV has done a good amount, but it still could be better.
Here is where my question comes into play.... I feel like I am forgetting something in the bio-filter. Currently, in the top tray I have a layer of small rocks/filter media. I actually just added this a few days ago when I noticed my father had the filter media in the bottom tray and nothing in the top tray. Then underneath that I have a square sponge filter, and then in the bottom tray I have a layer of lava rocks.
As you can see my set up is a bit unconventional, but that is because over the years I've mixed the common methods with my own ideas, and it's always worked out just fine... but this year I feel like I am forgetting something..... Maybe I threw something away last year?
Here is a picture of my pond as a bonus :banghead3:
(This is last spring, water isn't this clear now, lol.)