Pond Update

[MitchM]

There's been only 1 pond vacuum that I've found in North America, Priscilla. The Pond-O-Vac.
http://www.amazon.com/OASE-Pondovac-4-PondOVac/dp/B003GPWVUI

The UK uses 240 volt power, North America uses 120 volt.

 

[Dave 54]

There's been only 1 pond vacuum that I've found in North America, Priscilla. The Pond-O-Vac.
http://www.amazon.com/OASE-Pondovac-4-PondOVac/dp/B003GPWVUI

The UK uses 240 volt power, North America uses 120 volt.

True mitch you have to take that into consideration , what does your electric run at the same as the US Priscilla ?

Dave

 

[MitchM]

The units you posted, Dave, seem to be the same manufacturer, so they're probably both good units.

 

[sissy]

I just used a small wet dry shop vac I had bought years ago an may use it again because i see poo on the bottom of the pond .But I will wait to see what tadpoles will do to clean up the pond .I saw several frogs down by the creek the other day .I guess they think spring is here already

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Priscilla I'd really have a good look into it, as some vacs arent what they are cracked up to be and thus are a waste of good money so do your homework well

Dave

I have to agree with Dave somewhat. Most Pond-Vacs are designed for general recurring maintenance NOT general clean-outs. Debris holding capacity on these units is very limited, as are the filters, and will require frequent emptying and cleaning. They will eventually do the job, however. There is one Pond-Vac on the market that is designed for major clean-outs but I suspect that it is out of your price range. It is certainly out of mine at $5,000.00.

 

[Priscilla]

I have to agree with Dave somewhat. Most Pond-Vacs are designed for general recurring maintenance NOT general clean-outs. Debris holding capacity on these units is very limited, as are the filters, and will require frequent emptying and cleaning. They will eventually do the job, however. There is one Pond-Vac on the market that is designed for major clean-outs but I suspect that it is out of your price range. It is certainly out of mine at $5,000.00.

Ha! Yeah, the husband is not going to see that as a necessary expense!

 

[Dave 54]

I have to agree with Dave somewhat. Most Pond-Vacs are designed for general recurring maintenance NOT general clean-outs. Debris holding capacity on these units is very limited, as are the filters, and will require frequent emptying and cleaning. They will eventually do the job, however. There is one Pond-Vac on the market that is designed for major clean-outs but I suspect that it is out of your price range. It is certainly out of mine at $5,000.00.

Ouch , the only other thing I can suggest is buy a cheaper pond Vac then maybe to look into upgrading your filtration as well as looking into why this is occuring Priscilla

Dave

 

[Priscilla]

Yeah, I need to upgrade my filters for sure.

The water is more of a brown color than green now.

What do you guys think about a few big water changes with my RO water (no nitrates)?

I'm getting in the pond today, so I plan to drop the water level by about 50%, trim my lilies and clean the bottom as good as I can with a net.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Yeah, I need to upgrade my filters for sure.

The water is more of a brown color than green now.

What do you guys think about a few big water changes with my RO water (no nitrates)?

I'm getting in the pond today, so I plan to drop the water level by about 50%, trim my lilies and clean the bottom as good as I can with a net.

When doing that large of a water change, it is important to avoid any major shift in any water parameter- temperature, pH, Dissolved Oxygen, etc. Especially Temperature and pH. Any major shift will put severe stress on the fish and may result in physiological problems.

 

[Priscilla]

When doing that large of a water change, it is important to avoid any major shift in any water parameter- temperature, pH, Dissolved Oxygen, etc. Especially Temperature and pH. Any major shift will put severe stress on the fish and may result in physiological problems.

Yes, my PH seems to match up, pretty good between the pond and the RO. I'm not going to say identical, but pretty close. Same with the temp. I have no idea on the dissolved oxygen. I ended up emptying more than I wanted because I got distracted dealing with the lilies. The pond got down to about 1/3.

I ran the hose pretty slowly for just over an hour to bring it to the halfway mark.

I've now stopped the hose, the pond is about half full. I was thinking about leaving this over night. Letting everyone adjust and also giving my UV time to deal with any algae and my filter to hopefully clear out as much as it can.

Tomorrow morning I will clean the filters and add more water to fill to about the 3/4 mark and leave that for several hours then add in the rest in the late afternoon.

So the bottom is pretty clean, as clean as I could get it, without a vacuum.

The fish weren't digging out the soil from the lilies, they were all root bound, there was very little to no soil in the pots. I wasn't sure how to deal with that, so I loosened up the roots and put them all in bigger pots and added lots of rocks on top.

This is my last ditch effort before I go on vacation.

AND to top the crazy busy day off the green heron showed up right at the end. He was HUNGRY, he was just sitting waiting on us to leave, so I securely netted the pond and laughed at him!

 

[callingcolleen1]

Priscilla, did you try large concentrations of Laguna Liquid Pond Peat? My little front yard pond would not balance no how this summer, and I would change more than half the water and still it would just go green and brown. So I used a some liquid pond peat, and that made the water dark amber for about ten days or so, and then it just went crystal clear and I never had trouble again!

 

[Priscilla]

I've done lots of large water changes before, with no issues for th fish but also no improvement on the pond water color. The difference this time is I plan to leave it at half full to turn the water over more in my UV. I know my RO is pretty 'pure' - its less ppm than bottled water. So I don't think I am adding anything to the pond.

 

[Priscilla]

Priscilla, did you try large concentrations of Laguna Liquid Pond Peat? My little front yard pond would not balance no how this summer, and I would change more than half the water and still it would just go green and brown. So I used a some liquid pond peat, and that made the water dark amber for about ten days or so, and then it just went crystal clear and I never had trouble again!

I'll check the bottle out, if it doesn't seem too harmful I'll give it a try. I bought a bottle of something a while back and it had warnings on it that it was cancer causing. So I returned it.

 

[Priscilla]

So far so good on the pond. No fish seem to be suffering in anyway. All looks normal, unfortunately still a lot of stuff floating around.

I have access to one of these cleaners, is it worth the effort? Has anyone used this before?

http://www.amazon.com/Laguna-PT831-...F8&qid=1423487085&sr=8-1&keywords=pond+vacuum

 

[Meyer Jordan]

So far so good on the pond. No fish seem to be suffering in anyway. All looks normal, unfortunately still a lot of stuff floating around.

I have access to one of these cleaners, is it worth the effort? Has anyone used this before?

http://www.amazon.com/Laguna-PT831-...F8&qid=1423487085&sr=8-1&keywords=pond+vacuum

At this point, considering what you just finished, the use of a vacuum is not indicated. Continue the mechanical filtration that you have been using.
Do a single jar test. Let it sit overnight and see how much settles out of the water and how much remains suspended. This can also give you an indication of water color, which will indicate the level of tannins et.al. in the water.
The device that you pictured is not really a vacuum but a siphon. The pond water is not recirculated but lost.