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- Sep 30, 2024
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Hello!
20 years ago, my son won a little feeder goldfish at a school fair. We housed Goldy in a small glass bowl on our kitchen counter. It was one of those cheap 1 gallon dollar store bowls, complete with a plastic sprig of cryptocoryne weighted into a layer of ghastly fluorescent multicolored gravel at the bottom. When tiny patches of white fuzz appeared on the tips of Goldy’s fins, I scoured the internet to find the cause and solution: I discovered that in order to thrive, Goldy the Goldfish needed a bigger abode and a proper filtration system. I switched out the bowl and its garish décor for a 10 gallon tank, the smallest Penguin bio-wheel waterfall style filter, a bag of slick black florite, some cool twisted mopani wood, and a couple of those Top Fin brand tubes of live plants planted in clear gelatinous granules. And that is how I was lured into the world of the Low Tech Planted Tank.
Little Goldy grew big and strong as I upgraded to larger and larger aquariums filled with plants. I learned about how natural ecosystems clean themselves, and how beneficial bacteria and other organisms break down organic waste and excess nutrients in the water. I developed hopes of getting Goldy a beautiful well-planted natural pond some day.
Goldy lived many happy years in an ever-enlarging forresty water wonderland aquarium, but never actually got his pond. Years later we moved to a house with a neat old pond in the side yard, and although Goldy had gone to the big tank in the sky, I was excited about finally having a proper pond. Based on the quality concrete work and the weathered lava rock surround, I estimate the pond was built some time in the 50s or 60s.
The pond was frozen over when we moved in, but by the end of that first summer in the house, the pond was a disgusting mess. A janky old plastic fountain peaked out of the thick, greasy layer of duckweed, English ivy was everywhere, its wretched tendrils piercing through the porous lava rock and choking trees to the point of killing one of them. Getting eaten alive by the mosquitoes was bad, but the worst was that Steve the Dog couldn’t resist taking a refreshing plunge into the putrid green sludge. My husband had left by early summer, and I was in no shape to make my natural pond ecosystem dream a reality.
After a few summers and recent trauma therapy, I’m finally ready to get the pond in order.
That was an awfully long intro as to how I came to this point in my ponding, but I hope you will stay tuned as I share my progress. I made some bizarro discoveries over the summer, and based on the weird thing I found in the middle of the pond when I emptied it, I’ve hatched some ideas for natural filtration. I’ve got a few questions and I’ll post more photos separate from this intro. I am pretty excited to have found this pond forum. Thanks!
20 years ago, my son won a little feeder goldfish at a school fair. We housed Goldy in a small glass bowl on our kitchen counter. It was one of those cheap 1 gallon dollar store bowls, complete with a plastic sprig of cryptocoryne weighted into a layer of ghastly fluorescent multicolored gravel at the bottom. When tiny patches of white fuzz appeared on the tips of Goldy’s fins, I scoured the internet to find the cause and solution: I discovered that in order to thrive, Goldy the Goldfish needed a bigger abode and a proper filtration system. I switched out the bowl and its garish décor for a 10 gallon tank, the smallest Penguin bio-wheel waterfall style filter, a bag of slick black florite, some cool twisted mopani wood, and a couple of those Top Fin brand tubes of live plants planted in clear gelatinous granules. And that is how I was lured into the world of the Low Tech Planted Tank.
Little Goldy grew big and strong as I upgraded to larger and larger aquariums filled with plants. I learned about how natural ecosystems clean themselves, and how beneficial bacteria and other organisms break down organic waste and excess nutrients in the water. I developed hopes of getting Goldy a beautiful well-planted natural pond some day.
Goldy lived many happy years in an ever-enlarging forresty water wonderland aquarium, but never actually got his pond. Years later we moved to a house with a neat old pond in the side yard, and although Goldy had gone to the big tank in the sky, I was excited about finally having a proper pond. Based on the quality concrete work and the weathered lava rock surround, I estimate the pond was built some time in the 50s or 60s.
The pond was frozen over when we moved in, but by the end of that first summer in the house, the pond was a disgusting mess. A janky old plastic fountain peaked out of the thick, greasy layer of duckweed, English ivy was everywhere, its wretched tendrils piercing through the porous lava rock and choking trees to the point of killing one of them. Getting eaten alive by the mosquitoes was bad, but the worst was that Steve the Dog couldn’t resist taking a refreshing plunge into the putrid green sludge. My husband had left by early summer, and I was in no shape to make my natural pond ecosystem dream a reality.
After a few summers and recent trauma therapy, I’m finally ready to get the pond in order.
That was an awfully long intro as to how I came to this point in my ponding, but I hope you will stay tuned as I share my progress. I made some bizarro discoveries over the summer, and based on the weird thing I found in the middle of the pond when I emptied it, I’ve hatched some ideas for natural filtration. I’ve got a few questions and I’ll post more photos separate from this intro. I am pretty excited to have found this pond forum. Thanks!
