My goldfish pond

[CometKeith]

CE. I found this info on Water Hyacinths. I think it would be interesting to look at the roots. If your well water is too acidic then that could explain the problem. I found the following excerpt from a nursery that grows floaters. http://www.woodbridgeponds.com/echo-nurseries/

Water Hyacinths are also a great indicator of your pond pH conditions. Have a look at the roots that dangle underneath the plant. They should be white with multiple hair roots.
If they are soft and brown then the pond is too alkaline, if they are black and hairless than the pond is too acid. A nylon stocking filled with crushed Oyster shells is a cheap and easy solution to buffering the pond. The Calcium Carbonate in the shells only dissolves the presence of acid so as the pH dips they naturally raise the pH until the environment has turned neutral and they stop dissolving.

Also it was interesting that I was able to see a steady stream of bubbles coming from my oxygenator plants today. We hit 101 degrees and the sun was really hot so I didn't know if that had anything to do with it.

 

[Shoestring Ponder]

Wow CK, very interesting! Thanks for the info! Mine are doing Gr8 but tomorrow I am going to check my roots! Super cool! :bowdown:

:goldfish:

 

[CometKeith]

CE, Here is someone else' s remarks on well water. http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/420/420-011/420-011.html My guess is it is your water.

Springs, wells, and ground water provide the best sources of pond water. Ground water usually is of the best quality to support aquatic life. Some well water contains excessive carbon dioxide or nitrogen and must be aerated before being suitable. Some ground water may also contain excess minerals which are harmful to fish and other aquatic life. All waters should be analyzed before pond construction to assure that they are harmless to aquatic life.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Good information Keith! I see lots of fine bubbles coming from my Hornwort when the sun is hot. It's kind of amazing to see this fine stream of bubbles coming from the bush of hornwort, deep in the water. Hornwort grows under the water surface and fish like to swim in it, and does very well in my pond. Sometimes you just got to go with what grows well for you.

Oh, I got next to no roots on my hyacinth, fish ate lots.

 

[addy1]

My hyacinths grew in the big pond, not real fast but did grow and bloom, in the stream ponds they grew great and bloomed constantly, still water, just moving when the stream ran.

We are well water, soft, acidic, pond is around 7.6, hardness in the 100 range in the pond with oyster shells, full hot hot hot hot sun lol.

 

[taherrmann4]

Where does one buy oyster shells??

 

[j.w]

I get mine at our local co-op feed store and it's the crushed kind they give to chickens.

 

[CountryEscape]

Hmm ... maybe I should put some oyster shell in a nylon sack in the ring that has the hyacinths in it, but not sure that would help them really. I took some of the better looking ones out of the pond and put them in a bucket where it will get sun just until about noon, then shade the rest of the day. The roots are black on my hyacinths, but still very long. When I got them, OMG, those roots were thick and long and some of them were 2' long! I feel like a failure with them, but Colleen, you're right ... sometimes you just have to go with what works for you. I think my water is not suitable for the hyacinths, or combination of my well water parameters, and the full sun, or who knows what. The fish cannot get to the roots, except for the one ring, and that ring is doing as well (dying) as the others that are protected. These are in the goldfish pond. The koi pond, the ring of plants is the deadest. So, something in that pond is worse than the goldfish pond. Ho hum ....

 

[addy1]

tmann............tractor supply has a 50 lb bag for 9 bucks. I toss in the whole 50 x 2 each year into the bog

 

[ididntdoit99]

Hey all, i knwo this was a while back, but I was finally up on the roof yesterday cleaning out the gutters, so i snapped a couple of pictures of the pond from above, well and the rest pf the back yeard and front yard while i was there.

Ignore the giant white tarp under the swing... I'm not even sure why its there, i dont know if my fiance thought she was killing grass or what.

these two are the front yard




the the back yard and pond.

 

[CometKeith]

Nice pond pics ididntdoit

 

[j.w]

Good shots 99! Can't even tell that's a tarp so no worries,lol!

 

[ididntdoit99]

Yeah i was looking at the pictures thinking it looks like a huge slab of weird shaped concrete or something,

That is the plan for the near future, not a huge slab or weird shaped conctrete, but once I get that cement mixer made, some handmade faux flagstone pavers for that whole area under the swing is coming.

 

[taherrmann4]

tmann............tractor supply has a 50 lb bag for 9 bucks. I toss in the whole 50 x 2 each year into the bog

Do you just throw it on top of the pea gravel. I guess I could toss it in the creek as well? What effects do oyster shells have besides reducing the acidity.

 

[j.w]

I put mine in a bag in my waterfall bowl w/ rushing water coming all around it. I didn't think that it reduced ph or raised it. I thought it just kept your ph steady once you got it where you wanted it but I could be wrong.