Hi from Montana!

[mtpond]

Today the pond temp was up to 76 and since my hubby was the one who talked me into putting rocks in the bottom of my pond I was able to talk him into getting in the pond and taking the rocks off the bottom. Now that it is starting to clear I can see a few more rocks on the bottom. He did a good job tho and the rocks might be small enough that I can net them out. I added two more plants in the pond a corkscrew rush and a occidental blue rush. I have two more plants to add an iries and a piece of ribbon grass. After that addition there will be 15 plants around the top of the pond and 14 water lilies. I'm hoping they will start taking all the nutrients and chock the string algae out.

 

[addy1]

That added some water room for your fish!

I see some that have fallen in (in the deep end of course) Knocked in by some critter.

 

[j.w]

Wow those were some pretty good sized rocks! Will make it much easier to scoop the gunk that builds up now and like addy said much more water space. I find rocks on the bottom now and then. Think the Iris's I have planted around the edge in between the rocks get together at night and push them in :lol:

 

[addy1]

lol jw, I blame the green heron it gets mad it can't get another fish and kicks the rocks in.

 

[j.w]

Yep the green heron is mad at you! You took away his sushi bar so he's making you dive for rocks. Soon you will have the g-hog kids mad at you and wonder what they can come up with to bug you?

 

[addy1]

no clue jw! we managed to block them from the deck, so far, time for them to move on.

 

[CountryEscape]

MT, I need to come steal some rocks from your place! I would love to have a truckload of rock like that. You will be so much happier without those rocks on the bottom. My stream is green and greener now. I was keeping up with "grooming" it daily, with my morning coffee, but having company over and then gone for 4 days the green goo took over. Not as much string algae as the spongy type. Got most of it pulled out tonight, along with cleaning out the goldfish pond bog. Wow, do I have plants multiplying in there! But, I keep wondering, why do the hyacinths not do well in my ponds? I wonder if it has to do with the hardness or something of my well water. I seem to recall reading something about hyacinths liking maybe softer water than what I have. I pulled a bunch of them tonight and put them in buckets of Miracle Grow water. Hoping that will help them out. Will put the rest in tomorrow when I toss these back into their nets. In the goldfish pond, they are doing the same whether they are in the netted ring or open ring. Koi pond, doing pretty poorly in the netted ring.
Good luck with your new plants and getting rid of your string algae. After I messed in my stream, I think I would prefer the string over the spongey stuff. At least the string will come off, the spongey stuff pulls up the rocks and everything! I have pea gravel and some river rock in the bottom of the stream ... pretty sure that will be coming out now, too!

 

[j.w]

CE you saying you are going to take the rocks outta your stream?

 

[CountryEscape]

Yeah, I put pea gravel and river rock on the stream bed. Stupid, as now when I'm "cultivating" the algae, the rocks stick to it, and you can't see the blasted rocks anyhow ... live and learn, and I thought I had already learned the "no rocks on the bottom" rule, but guess I thought it would be pretty in the stream. Need to try to control the algae in the stream better next year. May use peroxide on the stream, shut it off and remove the plants, see if I can get it under control that way.

 

[mtpond]

Ce I think my string algae is getting better since I took the rocks off the bottom of the pond. Now I just have to think what I'm going to do with the rocks on the side of the pond. And yes I would give you some of my rocks if we were closer. We have a lot of rocks around here.

 

[j.w]

I just thought you were supposed to have rocks in the stream beds as it provided a nice filtration system for your pond like a Trickle system sort of. Doesn't everyone else have rocks in their streams?

 

[CountryEscape]

Well, good point, JW. If I would have stayed on top of the algae before this heat wave got here, it might have been ok. I'll rethink that issue. It is supposed to be a type of filtration, but right now the rocks are covered in green algae, which is ok, too. Just hate the spongey type that is floating and trying to cover up my parrots feather and hyacinths I have in the stream.

 

[addy1]

I have rocks, pea gravel, small river rocks, large rocks in my stream, but with it running on a timer, it dries up in between runs, kills off any algae that wants to try and grow. So the rocks etc stay looking good. The small ponds are stuffed with plants that love the warm water, algae tries to grow in them but does not have any luck.

 

[CountryEscape]

Good point, Addy. My stream has 3 small "pools" in it, though, as I wanted to try to grow parrots feather and a couple of elephant ears in it see how they did, so I don't want it to go dry, although I may have to rethink that matter for next year, or do something to keep the algae at bay before it gets going.
On a good note, the string algae that was in the goldfish pond bog is pretty much gone. I was pulling it in the couple of spots daily, and now the plants are pretty much shading the whole bog, and have killed off the algae for the most part. The koi pond has no string algae in it, and the koi bog has only some bright green slimey stuff in the end that doesn't get much water movement, so that pond is in good shape! Will work on the goldfish pond next year to keep it clear!

 

[addy1]

I have taro, parrots feather growing in the stream, in the stream ponds have primrose, small lotus, water mint, pennywort, water willow growing lol

All are growing great, I have had to pull parrots feather and move it, growing too well. In the big pond barely taking off.