Help make pond look better and easier to maitain.

[sar1372]

I moved into a house 3 years ago that had a pond. I believe the pond size is around 350 gallons. The previous owner that build the pond had a large custom made waterfall that splashed water everywhere. Attached to that was a pump that was capable of 2200 GPH. 2 Years ago i ripped the waterfall out and have been piecing things together to keep the pond looking nice. I've also never had any luck with plants, except for one. The Lilly's i had would grow that much and usually the fish destoried them before they reached the surface.

Currently i have the following components in the pond:

Filter: http://www.123ponds.com/tp26592.html
Pump: http://www.123ponds.com/pm02722.html
UV: http://www.123ponds.com/a00267.html
Waterfall: http://www.123ponds.com/spw10.html

With this setup i need to pull the filter and pump from the bottom every week to clean it. So i'd like something that is easier to maintain. Also, I'm not a fan of how the pond looks.

So any ideas to help me out? At this point i'm willing to spend some money within reason to replace the above stuff. Especially if it will be a lasting solution.

Thanks!

 

[sissy]

I looks good but the rocks in the bottom could be keeping it dirty .The money you spend may not get you what you want , a clear pond .But looks pretty clear to me and I see no algae or is it still to early in PA for that .I'm originally from Berwick PA

 

[JenH]

Hi! I think you have a cute little pond there, and some nice big fish too!! I can't even pretend to have a clue compared to a lot of people on here, but you came to the right place, the people here are really awesome!

I could be wrong on my thoughts of your set up and if I am I'm sure someone will let you know. Also, you didn't mention how many fish are in your pond, which will matter. If the links to your equipment are the exact sizes of what you have there could be a few things you could do. I know it's a little frowned upon to completely drain your pond, but if I were you I would put the fish and water plants somewhere safe to hold them and drain the hole thing and clean any muck and rocks off the bottom the best you can. Don't scrub your walls or filters though and don't leave it dry for long (you don't want any good bacteria you have starting to die off) After you've drained it I would fill it back up with clean water, and add water conditioner that removes chlorine, chloramine, etc. I think you're UV clarifier is to small for the amount of water your pump is putting through it. Your link says 700gph for the uv, and your pump is 1200gph, so the water is going through it to fast for it to work at killing the algae. You could buy a bigger one, or you could try placing a barley bale in your waterfall. The barley did wonders for me, and is way cheaper, but it doesn't kill algae only stops it from growing (which is why I recommend draining first) I would also look into the skippy style filter, there is a lot of info here and all over the web as to how to make one, and it is quite inexpensive compared to buying a new filter. But the little filter you have compared to the small waterfall filter may not be providing enough to get your water clean either. Again this depends on how many fish you have, what kind they are and how big they are. But when I had my 300 gallon preform, I used a skippy style filter that I had made. In fact, if you want to just buy some stuff I think you could get a new waterfall filter that is much bigger and fill it with skippy style media or Matala filter mats and see a big difference.

As for aesthetics, I would look for perennial marginal plants and plant them in pots in that little area to the bottom right of your first picture. That looks like a nice shallow plant shelf there and will leave the rest of your pond open to see your fish, the plants will do wonders in helping your water problems too. You could also float some water hyacinth in there, they are wonderful filters as well. You probably don't need very many of them as they multiply really quickly but since they float its easy to throw out the ones you don't want as it grows to big. If you have koi in there it can be tricky to keep them from rooting up your plants or eating them completely, but I have heard that using lava rock at the top of your pots will discourage them from digging around in them.

Depending on what you decide to do with your waterfall. The little corner of space you have there would probably hold one of those bigger waterfall weir/filters and then you could stack rock around it to conceal it and make it look more natural. I know how frustrating it is to have a pond a want so bad just to be able to see through the water and see your fish! It's exactly why we completely rebuilt ours over the last few weeks!!

Good luck!

 

[Waterbug]

With this setup i need to pull the filter and pump from the bottom every week to clean it. So i'd like something that is easier to maintain. Also, I'm not a fan of how the pond looks.

So any ideas to help me out? At this point i'm willing to spend some money within reason to replace the above stuff. Especially if it will be a lasting solution.

Really too massive a subject...so many options, many of which conflict with each other. Here is just a laundry list of things I've found to make things easier and better looking.

I mortar rock over the liner. Gives me the great look of rock, protects the liner and makes cleaning easy. Loose rocks are difficult to clean.

Skimmer. Keeps stuff from settling and keep the surface clear. Dust can collect on the surface and make the water look dull.

Catch basin for waterfall. This collects foam so you never have foam on the surface which can happen and makes people really unhappy. The basin also stops waves so the surface can be like glass which makes water appear clearer. Also adds more O2 to water.

Bottom drain to a sieve filter. Or even to just to the garden which can be opened once in a while to "flush" the bottom, but I'm not a fan.

Or a vacuum system instead of a bottom drain.

I like plants to be outside of the pond for many reasons. I do this by enclosing plant shelves, this could also be called a bog.

UV filter for keep water clear.

 

[sar1372]

Thanks for all the info.

Currently i have about 15 fish. 4 koi and around 10 goldfish. Last year i took 10-15 goldfish to a local pond store as they keep multiplying.

In the past as long as i kept the filter clean the water cleared right up. But if i didn't have the UV then the water would turn green, so I Know that is important too.

I was looking and i'm wondering if it would be smart for me to just get a pressurized filter. I could get the Laguna pressure flo (either 1400 or 2100). Then i could use my existing pump and waterfall. To stop the pump from sucking in large solids i could modify my current filter box that is on the bottom of the pond to only have a screen. This way everything will still pass through except the larger things that could clog the pump. This might not be the best setup, but it might be all i need, especially since i've had decent results with the pond the last 3 years.

I like the idea of putting some plants in that shallow spot. The area is actually a few rocks that i set up for the fish to go under. I think if i got some type of plants there that would look good and it won't take any room away from the fish.

 

[JenH]

I have zero experience with pressurized filters, so couldn't help you there. My new pond has a gravel bog filter, and that is all. So far am I am in love with it. Granted it's only been done a few weeks, but has already proven to be tons better then my old setup.

 

[j.w]

sar

 

[JohnHuff]

"With this setup i need to pull the filter and pump from the bottom every week to clean it. So i'd like something that is easier to maintain."

There is a very simple solution for this. First of all, what you have is a pre-filter attached to your pump in the pond. To clean that, you don't really need to pull your pump out of the pond. Replace the tubing between your filter and your pump with a longer one. Tie a nylon string to your filter. When your filter gets clogged up, just pull up your filter and clean the pads inside. That's the cheap solution.

For a more expensive solution, get a whole new external pre-filter that holds the pump and the pads in a container that sits outside your pond. When you clean it, you just need to remove the lid and won't need to pull anything from the pond.

I agree with the other guys that you'll probably need to do some deep cleaing to clear up the water.