My goldfish pond

[CountryEscape]

Interesting info, Colleen. Our winter last year was pretty much non-existent. Everyone in this area (IL, MO, IN, ...) had very mild winter. My pond did freeze a few times, but not very thick, and I opened it with a heater couple of times a week. Water was crystal clear with nothing running but pump shooting water straight up to keep opening in the pond. But, when I turned on my filter waterfall, things started getting murky and within about 2 weeks the water was murky, could not see 1.5' down.
What I don't understand is on my goldfish pond, which I just dug this past March, it was murky, then got crystal clear one day, and I thought it was finally cycling, and would be good, but by evening that day, it was murky again. Not pea soup green, just cloudy or murky is best way to describe it. I have lots of floating stuff in the pond, making visibility bad.
I do have the water striders here, too! Frogs probably remove most of them but have seen several this year already.
I never did water changes last year (first year for a pond) except adding water when the level got low. I have well water, so no worries about chlorine. I wonder, though, if my well water is somehow causing the murkiness. I know my KH/GH levels are high on both of my wells, but PH is low, about 7.2. All other levels were zero (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate) and PH in pond is 8.2. I'm just waiting out the murkiness and hoping that it will clear up with this warm weather. At least no string algae is growing again, but my peroxide episide did that in, may have also caused murkiness problems, too. Did do a partial water change, about 4-6" worth (pond is 4,000 gal). After water change on goldfish pond, is when the water was clear next morning, but only lasted 1/2 day.
Keith, I added 5 or 6 of those lilies from Menards last year and didn't notice the white particles. I wonder since they were white and floated, if they were perculite or whatever that stuff is that is like foam, to aerate certain types of plants?! Also, I left my lilies in those little pots, but you will wish you took them out if you left yours in the pots, as by next year, they will have outgrown the pots and going everywhere. Might want to repot them into larger shallow wide pot with kitty litter clay.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Your pond is still very new, so things can take a while. The first couple of years "I had to work out the kinks" to get things good. Sound to me like the pump you used was much smaller than your usual waterfall pump, so when you fired up your "big pump" it most likely disturbed the bottom. How are your plants coming from last year? I saw your picture of your blue iris from last year, is it growing again? They tend to grow very quickly. I had a blue iris like 18 years ago and I planted it beside my yellow iris cause I though the blue and yellow would be pretty together, but the yellow took over and never saw the blue iris again.

About the pond that cleared up one day and murky the next, I think I recall the same thing a real long time ago and I too was stumped. Then I sat by the pond one day, many years ago, and I wondered what the heck? As I studied the pond it had occurred to me that the fish were spawing in one of my plant baskets, stiring up a muck storm in the pond. If this is the case, then either raise the plant up higher so that they can't get in and "muck things up or place small rocks on top of the soil, preventing the fishes from spawing there.
I am thinking this may be your case, or they may be swimming up into your marsh and mucking it up there. Take a look and see what's going on. If that is the case, this silt that they stir up should settle on its own once you address the problem.

 

[CometKeith]

Hey CE, you might be right about the white particles, but usually the ones I see in planting soil are larger. The pots must have had some fertilizer in them because I had almost no string algae and then it practically exploded the very next day after I put the new lilies in. I put in a few snails and tadpoles recently and the string algae is going down now. I was able to watch one of my tadpoles today and he/she cleaned all the algae off the baby leaves of one of the lilies in just a few minutes.

 

[sissy]

perlite is used to make the soil lighter and give the plants more room for rooting .I use it in all my start up pots of plants .Makes them a lot lighter to pick up and saves soil .I know use a lot of kitty litter to root my cut offs or starter plants .I always take the lilies out clean the roots good in a peroxide and water solution and trim them then repot and put fertilizer in them and then into the stock tank .Peroxide seems to be a staple for me .lol I buy it buy the gallon bottles at a pharmacy because it is a stronger solution and i can water it down more so it lasts longer .

 

[callingcolleen1]

I have kind of neglected by lillys and they are still in the same basket of river muck that I put them in many years ago. They stay out all winter below the ice. I know I should divide them, but now they have sent roots threw the basket and baby's are growing all over the place. I have gave some away. Someone is coming today to get one of my big giant yellow iris and them I will have room and repot them and put a lily in the middle pond maybe.....

 

[CountryEscape]

Colleen, I saw my koi spawning for the first time this morning. Found out for sure that my gold one is a female, as she was being chased by several fish, including the little koi that are only about 5" long! Goldie is at least 10" I would say, and 2 years old. That may be the problem and the fish spawning in the lily pots, but when I repotted them all this spring, I specifically went an put river rock covering all the dirt. I know that's smallish rock, but thought it might be enough. If not, then it will be murky until they get done "messing around". The goldfish were spawning about a week ago but they can't get up into the bog, I've purposely put a rock in the way so if they try, they will run into that and come back into the pond. And besides dirt and dust that may have blown into the pond, there should not be much on the bottom at all. My koi pond has a 4200 gph pump, but it's not on the bottom, it's up on a milk crate, so about 12" from the bottom. The goldfish pond has a 4200 gph pump running, too, and it IS on the bottom so far, but will move that one as soon as I remember to get another milk crate! That pump runs the bog. Then I have a 2400 gph pump running the skimmer, so now the skimmer is doing it's job very well. That outlet goes up the hill and feeds the top of the stream, so the water recirculates from the goldfish pond through the stream and back. It looks like it is flowing from the koi pond, but I wanted to keep the water (and fish) separated.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Sounds nice. That's was most likely the problem. Hope everything clears up for you soon

 

[CountryEscape]

Keith, maybe that's when I got my algae last summer, after I put in the lilies from Menards! Never thought of that. Next time I will remove them and repot them in kitty litter clay.

 

[CometKeith]

CE, I went from zero string algae to an incredible amount in only 24 hours and the only change in the pond were the addition of the Menard's lilies. I looked at the label and they come from Wisconsin, but whoever is packaging them is obviously more concerned about the lilies doing well than any aquatic environment they are going into. Just when you think you have everything figured out something else happens you don't anticipate. To make matters worse I go to Lurvey's Garden Supply a lot now and should have bought them there. They have a great pond selection including fish and plants. A friend of mine recently won a 24" koi from them in a raffle. If you are ever in the Chicago area you should check them out.

 

[CountryEscape]

Wow, that would be fun to win! And, I think I told you that at the Garden Show I was up there at in I think March, if I lived close, I would have put my name down in a raffle for ALL the koi that they had at the show. Every single one of them was going to be raffled away, only thing was that you HAD to have a pond already up and running. Some of them were pretty sad looking, in way too small a container, but others were gorgeous! I would have loved to have had a few of the big butterfly fish, and they were 10-16" long, too! But, I came on a bus trip and didn't plan to come back on the weekend to pick up possible winning fish. I think I came home and posted on here that you should go up there and sign up for the koi raffles! But, I did see a few of the big koi flashing, so wondered if they were in a bad environment and that's why they were getting rid of them. Never know! Again, add one fish and make all your fish sick is NOT worth getting a "free" fish.

 

[CometKeith]

Here are some pictures I took the other night. It was really amazing because there were giant patches of fog rolling into the park from the 5th inning on. You can probably guess the location. Some of the last few were during the 7th inning stretch. It was really a fun game because there were not a lot of people there because it rained all day. We moved up our seats and as soon as we sat down the Cubs hit two consecutive home runs. At that point we envisioned them hitting consecutive home runs for the rest of the night all because we changed seats! The third batter in a row almost hit one out also but made an out. At that point we settled back into realty. You have to be a little crazy to stay a Cub fan after all these years!

 

[CountryEscape]

Great pics, Keith! So, did they win while you were there?

 

[callingcolleen1]

Day off today, was going to do stuff in yard, feels cold, like only 45 degrees outside, looks like rain is coming. :-(

 

[sissy]

game called fog in lol .Well rain is finally gone here and boy did we need it .I have lots of nice fruit on all my trees and they need that rain .

 

[herzausstahl]

nice pics keith, but I would think snow falling at a bears game would be cooler!