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- Jul 10, 2024
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I inherited responsibility, years ago, for a public goldfish pond near my house. Approx 1500 gallons. The pond is shallow (about 1 foot deep overall), but with 2ft X 2ft refuge/planting holes, below the concrete bottom, in four places. It has never been stagnant, as (I assume) the breeze keeps the shallow water moving enough for oxygen exchange, & the balance of a few fish & a few plants was working fine.
After many years of being satisfied (but not thrilled) with the same old hardy water lilies, and being somewhat worried by deepening sediment & a spotted 'fungal' problem with the plants, I arranged for some volunteers to help me get most of the sediment out (assuming that was where the fungal problem came from). Of course, while I supervised pumping the sediment out to the surrounding flower beds (150ft away or so), some vigorous scrubbing was going on & large areas of the pond bottom (concrete) were stripped of bio-film. Two large areas of the pond were NOT scrubbed, & I hoped that those would help restart the nitrogen cycle after the pond was re-filled with water. There is no electricity available for a permanent filtration system (historic house & grounds plus no budget for equipment/installation). Never had it, never gonna get it.
Now, six weeks later, (starting with half city water & half rainfall to fill the pond) with some new plants added, & one old-growth original water lily still in there, undisturbed, the water slowly turned a creamy, tan-colored opacity, & now has a definite dark-green coloration. This was my worst fear, that a huge algae bloom would take over, & so I was dosing the pond with nitri-fix bacteria, (~ 6oz per week) as well as dropping in as many other (temporary/bare root) plants as I could, to try & take up nitrogen. Regular Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate drop tests all show ZERO nitrates in the pond(!?) I've even ordered new testing reagents, just to make sure I'm correct on this. I have barley straw ready to suspend in there, & even more bare-root plants available for emergency nitrogen mop-up, but I would really appreciate any thoughtful comments on what's going on, & what more I can do to get this little body of water back to the good-old-days when it was clear & healthy, due to near-total neglect!! How can there be green color without nitrogen? How long until the green stuff dies, gets converted by the good bacteria (into good old sediment!), & the water looks clear again?? Do I just need to be patient, or is there something I haven't realized that I can correct for?
I thought I knew enough to keep all this from happening, (& everyone around thinks everything's just lovely, because (most of) the plants have been blooming normally!). There were very few fish in this pond after last season (blue heron), but the surviving two dozen 4" replacement goldfish looked healthy in the weeks after cleaning (until the cloudy water started closing in, so now I can't see them). Same for the Gambusia, who have prospered since before my time, & still cruise around in there like nothing happened. I have notes & photos of our history with re-potting plants, etc, but to keep this short on introduction I'll just post it & see if anyone wants to comment.
Thanks in advance here . . . ..... Muckman, Astoria, Oregon.
After many years of being satisfied (but not thrilled) with the same old hardy water lilies, and being somewhat worried by deepening sediment & a spotted 'fungal' problem with the plants, I arranged for some volunteers to help me get most of the sediment out (assuming that was where the fungal problem came from). Of course, while I supervised pumping the sediment out to the surrounding flower beds (150ft away or so), some vigorous scrubbing was going on & large areas of the pond bottom (concrete) were stripped of bio-film. Two large areas of the pond were NOT scrubbed, & I hoped that those would help restart the nitrogen cycle after the pond was re-filled with water. There is no electricity available for a permanent filtration system (historic house & grounds plus no budget for equipment/installation). Never had it, never gonna get it.
Now, six weeks later, (starting with half city water & half rainfall to fill the pond) with some new plants added, & one old-growth original water lily still in there, undisturbed, the water slowly turned a creamy, tan-colored opacity, & now has a definite dark-green coloration. This was my worst fear, that a huge algae bloom would take over, & so I was dosing the pond with nitri-fix bacteria, (~ 6oz per week) as well as dropping in as many other (temporary/bare root) plants as I could, to try & take up nitrogen. Regular Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate drop tests all show ZERO nitrates in the pond(!?) I've even ordered new testing reagents, just to make sure I'm correct on this. I have barley straw ready to suspend in there, & even more bare-root plants available for emergency nitrogen mop-up, but I would really appreciate any thoughtful comments on what's going on, & what more I can do to get this little body of water back to the good-old-days when it was clear & healthy, due to near-total neglect!! How can there be green color without nitrogen? How long until the green stuff dies, gets converted by the good bacteria (into good old sediment!), & the water looks clear again?? Do I just need to be patient, or is there something I haven't realized that I can correct for?
I thought I knew enough to keep all this from happening, (& everyone around thinks everything's just lovely, because (most of) the plants have been blooming normally!). There were very few fish in this pond after last season (blue heron), but the surviving two dozen 4" replacement goldfish looked healthy in the weeks after cleaning (until the cloudy water started closing in, so now I can't see them). Same for the Gambusia, who have prospered since before my time, & still cruise around in there like nothing happened. I have notes & photos of our history with re-potting plants, etc, but to keep this short on introduction I'll just post it & see if anyone wants to comment.
Thanks in advance here . . . ..... Muckman, Astoria, Oregon.
