Bog Plants Turning Yellow

[Sunshine]

I have Lilies, grasses, Cattails, Iris's and an unknown plant in my pond. They are all doing great. Am I not suppose to back wash the Bog?

 

[addy1]

Depends on how you built yours and who you ask, I don't back wash mine, I also do not pull the water from the floor of the pond. I pull it about 5 inches up to protect the snails etc. We get some muck in the leaf basket, not a ton of muck into the bog. The plants need the waste etc to grow well, mine are doing a lot better this third summer than they did last summer. They did ok last summer, but I had few fish, not much waste.

 

[Sunshine]

Do you open the drain and let the gunk out? My pump is sitting up on a crate, so it don't pull from the bottom. Occasionally I will open the drains on the bog and bio filters to let the gunk out than top off the pond. It just don't make sense why the plants are doing so good in the pond, and so bad in the bog.

 

[addy1]

I have drained ours once, last year, to work on the plumbing, ow it is never drained. We put in a ball valve in case we had to empty it for some reason, but I never do. My plants are going crazy. This is last spring

This is current, you can just see the head of the frog pot to the left

 

[don't ask]

addy what's your going rate for bog builds?

 

[addy1]

lol ...........a lot............. Sunshine we didn't wash the pea gravel either, too much of it, a very hot and dry summer.

 

[taherrmann4]

Addy I am amazed how much your bog has grown this year. Looks great.

 

[addy1]

Thanks t-mann very happy with it. Some of the day lillies will be removed in the fall or spring, they are taking over, sure do love the wet

 

[pecan]

I started my pond up in June last year, waited 2-3 weeks to add fish but added the plants right away. None of my plants flourished last year. I had a lot of yellowing etc. All my tests were 0 all summer and my ph was/is high like all other ponds in this area (8).

This year everything has taken off. All the plants are doing great and even my WH (that I couldn't keep alive last year) are a nice deep green color. I added more fish this year. I think the reason why I had the problem last year was because the pond was so new, it wasn't dirty enough for the plants to feed.

 

[addy1]

The plants love the poop. Glad to hear all is going good for you.

 

[kougs]

have you added salt to the pond? salt can cause this, largw swings in temp. can have effects on some plants, swing in ph, or hardness, and medications can also effect them. my iris did the same thing when i first planted them, they turned yellow and then died back, now they are really starting to come back out but are very small.

Dang! It just dawned on me. We are on a well. Added a whole house water filter which then feeds into a water softener that I add salt. Thus when I do water changes my pond has salt in it. That explains why my Iris is a bit yellow, my WL is slow growing, my rush did not come back, lettuce and hyacinths aren't multiplying. Salt is the culprit. The well water has a lot of iron.
Sad face.

 

[j.w]

Can't you just add the water right from your well instead of through the house water kougs? We are on a well here and ours has a lot of iron but doesn't seem to bother the pond or the fish.

 

[kougs]

The well is on the other side of the property from the pond. It could be done with a lot of PVC pipes buried. Also I have set up an auto fill located in my Skimmer. This is a project to be considered.

 

[taherrmann4]

Can't you just T off right before your water filter and then tap back into the water line you are currently using, just bypassing the water softener and filter?

 

[kougs]

My apologies. I didn't mean to take over this thread. Should have started my own. taherrmann4, Doh! That's a more sensible plan than what I was thinking. Thanx.