Can water testing become a compulsion?

[Gazzas pool]

I'm not knocking those Ponders out there whom start up a new pond and instantly buy a test kit, well I am if they get addicted lol.
I was about to purchase a kit to test the ppm parameters and still might though I am concerned I'm only doing it to fulfil a drive to make the new home I created a totally stress free habitat for the aquatic inhabitants.
But hay, I did put some thought into the very modest layout of this thing, and tried not to introduce any harmful or dirty stones, I'm aware of the hardness in our local water therfore I only did a gradual fill and relied on a rainy top up, lucky maybe. I think the pond hadn't cycled much though before I finally put fish in, naughty me, as the rocks around the edges were turning a reddy colour, like on some bird baths, a lot of birds do take baths in it but nowadays no red has returned. I have a suspicion the reddinous may have been down to a nearby conifer shedding dead spinnals, I fished a few out from the edges and pruned the tree plus vaccumed the sheddings. All I'm saying is as fun as testing could be, if I don't allow the fish n. o. s to harm the toxicity of the pond could I not just sit back and observe? Ps, I did get the card test from my local aquatic store, so I'm not totally irresponsible ;-)

 

[addy1]

It can be, I used to test now and then and now have not tested in around 6 or more years.

Nice fish!

 

[Gazzas pool]

Thanks, not from my pond though ;-p

 

[addy1]

I tend to be a lazy ponder, fish fine, frogs living, tads doing fine, = pond water fine. So far it has held true. I am not over stocked, tons of filtering plants, don't do water changes it just exists almost without me.

 

[Mmathis]

It can be, but at least, in the beginning it’s the best way to learn about the nitrogen cycle and to appreciate the relationship between everything that goes on in a pond.

 

[GBBUDD]

tried not to introduce any harmful or dirty stones

Many flip out and say your irresponsible if you don't constantly test your water and i say poppycock. I have not bought a test kit of any kind literally in 30 years and i have had fish every one of those years. The kits you can buy at the pet stores are the most inaccurate money can buy. In stead i keep an eye on my fish there habits there speed in which they swim do they rub against items. Do they jump out of the water . or do they seem to play together. if i see a sudden change in there habits if i see the algae change then i will take a sample to A quality pet store. Don't forget these kits are not for ever the go bad over time and the more accurate the shorter the life span as a rule. So they buy the kits i get my water tested with a better kit then i would have for free. Well free as in i spend a lot of money with them every years in plants or fish.

 

[Jhn]

Testing my Pond water isnt high on my priority list (not even on it really). As @GBBUDD said never have tested my water in all the years I’ve kept ponds, rely on my pond inhabitants to tell me when something is going on.

@Gazzas pool that pic looks like you got caught pilfering fish from the neighbors pond. New abbreviation FP (fish pilferer)…book it.

Also, @brokensword I notice when you use abbreviations you put what the abbreviation is abbreviating in parentheses, doesn’t that kinda defeat the purpose of the abbreviated abbreviation thus making even more work for the abbreviaterer. Instead just type the abbreviation and telling the newbs to look it up…but I digress.

On a Side note got to wrestle a great blue heron out of my pond today as it’s simple self got stuck in the netting. I was feeling generous today so it got released back into the wild.
ok back on topic…carry on…

 

[brokensword]

Also, @brokensword I notice when you use abbreviations you put what the abbreviation is abbreviating in parentheses, doesn’t that kinda defeat the purpose of the abbreviated abbreviation thus making even more work for the abbreviaterer. Instead just type the abbreviation and telling the newbs to look it up…but I digress.

The abbreviated instances and hitherto following delineations of said abbreviations are only an abbreviated attempt to instruct, alert, indemnify, and instigate such understandings such that the abbreviator (that would be me, in this case, and you, in others) isn't beholden to remediation for those of lesser experience populationg information threads with posts that are contrarian to what the abbreviation's abbreviate in the first place.

There, that explain my maddness? Actually jhn, ya gots ta walk 'em back slow, work the line a bit, until you know they're on the hook. THEN you can reel them in! But there'll come a time I'll just drop the explanation and just whip out the acronym! (I'd insert some smug smilie but apparently, they got losted! Forsooth this development has become a crime!

( @addy1 ; dayum, where did the smilies go? Don't see 'em in the editor? Should I be yellin' @Ian ??)

 

[brokensword]

I'm in the 'never tested, the inhabitants will let me know when the wine's gone sour' category. But like others, I've had aquariums for a long time, so...

 

[GBBUDD]

Testing my Pond water isnt high on my priority list (not even on it really). As @GBBUDD said never have tested my water in all the years I’ve kept ponds, rely on my pond inhabitants to tell me when something is going on.

@Gazzas pool that pic looks like you got caught pilfering fish from the neighbors pond. New abbreviation FP (fish pilferer)…book it.

Also, @brokensword I notice when you use abbreviations you put what the abbreviation is abbreviating in parentheses, doesn’t that kinda defeat the purpose of the abbreviated abbreviation thus making even more work for the abbreviaterer. Instead just type the abbreviation and telling the newbs to look it up…but I digress.

On a Side note got to wrestle a great blue heron out of my pond today as it’s simple self got stuck in the netting. I was feeling generous today so it got released back into the wild.
ok back on topic…carry on…

They are pretty close to the dumbest bird i know i found a blue stuck way up in a tree some how he got his head twisted between two branches and choked himself to death as i could do nothing for him i drove by a week or two latter and it was still there jus no longer standing on the branch.

Your ok @Jhn i dont care what @brokensword said about you . ... oh wait that was me ...

 

[Gazzas pool]

Testing my Pond water isnt high on my priority list (not even on it really). As @GBBUDD said never have tested my water in all the years I’ve kept ponds, rely on my pond inhabitants to tell me when something is going on.

@Gazzas pool that pic looks like you got caught pilfering fish from the neighbors pond. New abbreviation FP (fish pilferer)…book it.

Also, @brokensword I notice when you use abbreviations you put what the abbreviation is abbreviating in parentheses, doesn’t that kinda defeat the purpose of the abbreviated abbreviation thus making even more work for the abbreviaterer. Instead just type the abbreviation and telling the newbs to look it up…but I digress.

On a Side note got to wrestle a great blue heron out of my pond today as it’s simple self got stuck in the netting. I was feeling generous today so it got released back into the wild.
ok back on topic…carry on…

Ha ha, if I had a large property with copus amounts of room to excavate, blah blah blah,,, then I may concider acquiring such beauties, every fish I caught in that Brickhouse Farm UK lake was in superb condition, even the little skimmers were so healthy n vibrant, The water gets channelled from another lake when it rains heavy, so the water temp is sometimes lower than usual and the carp put up a heroic resistance, whatever size.
Fish bottom feeding keep the water colour honest, and my pond is turning again, as small as it is

 

[addy1]

( @addy1 ; dayum, where did the smilies go? Don't see 'em in the editor? Should I be yellin' @Ian ??)

They are there

 

[addy1]

On a Side note got to wrestle a great blue heron out of my pond today as it’s simple self got stuck in the netting. I was feeling generous today so it got released back into the wild.

Good for you! They are neat looking birds, have not had a visitor in years, they fly over look down and keep going. Rather than stopping to fish every day like they used to.

When I tried fishing line, I had one go through it and it had to fight to get back out of the pond. Got wrapped up in fishing line but managed to get out.

 

[brokensword]

They are there

hmm, they WEREN'T yesterday! Trust me! Had to remember which punctuation does which smilie! I sees dem now!

 

[brokensword]

Your ok @Jhn i dont care what @brokensword said about you . ... oh wait that was me ...

You sure it wasn't ME?? I CAN be acerbic, ya know! (just in acronymistic format, is all! )