Rocks and gravel on the bottom of the pond?

[sissy]

I always wonder how do they clean a pond with pea gravel bottom ,do they just pressure wash the stuff and suck the muck out .I sure would not want that job .See my neighbor clean her fish tank until she got that under gravel thing that keeps the dirt from settling under the gravel .

 

[sissy]

good point addy .wonder how we would ever know .

 

[addy1]

My house tank is bare bottomed, figured the overwintering shubbies did not need gravel, keeps the bottom nicely clean, everything goes up into the filters.

 

[CliffandJoann]

We have a 200 gallon shallow bio pond with rocks on the bottom (no fish)
the ponds water flows through this bio pond, (via underground tubing)
getting scrubbed by the rocks and vegetation in its path before traveling
back and re-entering the main bare bottom gravity fed BD pond.

We also have a 4 X 5 foot rocked shallow beach section that we hose about
every 2 weeks...A tremendous amount of muck is loosened and expelled
from these rocks and it travels down and out through the BD. The rocks
are then clean and sparkly after the cleaning. ( I know I showed you guys the video
of the beach cleaning, and the clean rocks afterwards.)

Getting back to the bio pond, it is cleaned only once in early spring, it stays clean
for the rest of the season... remember there is no fish in the bio pond.

BTW...We do not use a UV light or chemicals, and our pond is always clean
and balanced.

Having said all that, I believe you can maintain a clean and healthy pond with rocks,
but it's a lot more work and a lot more expensive, if the pond is large.
I myself rather not spend endless hours vacuuming and emptying our pond yearly
for cleaning maintenance...
It takes the fun out of the hobby.

 

[sissy]

I would not want to put my fish through that either .

 

[texmaster]

I had rocks in the bottom of my pond for 10 years. Recently I had the waterfalls redone forcing for the first time in a decade that the lower pond where the fish lived was cleaned out. I had over a foot of sediment at the bottom. I did have 2 dead fish over that time without an obvious cause so its possible I guess that something was released from under. But the real reason imo after I saw the evidence not to put rocks down there was trapping debris if you dont have a bottom drain.

 

[addy1]

I had rocks in my arizona pond, a retro fit bottom drain that worked pretty well. Even with the bd, the muck built up in and around the rocks. I ended up pulling them. Trees of string algae grew out of the bottom muck, nicely anchored among the rocks. I love the look of rocks, but no thanks.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

I always wonder how do they clean a pond with pea gravel bottom ,do they just pressure wash the stuff and suck the muck out .I sure would not want that job .See my neighbor clean her fish tank until she got that under gravel thing that keeps the dirt from settling under the gravel .

I have sand in the bottom of my main pond which rarely gets stirred up, but I have pea gravel all throughout the river bed. The fast-moving water helps break down some of the muck, but I also stir up the gravel by hand a couple times a year. It makes a cloudy mess for the rest of the day, but once the filters clear it up, there's no further problems.

Some areas get stirred up more often that others. Usually I move around a lot of gravel when I'm setting in new plants or moving old ones. This prevents a large amount of muck from getting stirred up at one one time. However the stuff that does come up looks to be fairly well broken-down already -- even more so than what I drain out of the filters. I guess the water moves through the gravel more than anticipated, which is actually great because I was hoping for the entire area to act like a low-efficiency bog, what with all the plants in the gravel. Seems like it must be doing something, my fish don't seem to be complaining.

 

[Jason]

I have Pond Pebbles from Home Depot in My pond for 6 months now and they started to get dirty last month, I transferred my goldies to a 60-80 gallon preformed pond, then drained my bigger pond and pressure washed the rocks and the gunk came off easily! I think it also has to do with the amount of flow your pond has, think of a lake and how nasty the bottom is, then think of a creek that is a much cleaner bottom, and then a fast river that is almost spotless lol.

 

[Event Horizon]

Flo only helps so much I think. Our river is fed by a 8,000gph pump. There is a fair amount of head so I really don’t know the true output. We put river rock in our river, and most of it is been taken out. You couldn’t see the muck on the top, however it was underneath. I LOVE ROCKS, but it hurts just to think how much I have moved to finally move them out of my pond. I do keep some in selected areas, like under my waterfall and where my river enters the pond. I consider these high photographic areas, so I am willing to deal with the fallout of the rocks. With that all said my river flows under a 50 foot spruce tree. It drops needles and cones which make a huge mess.

 

[mariobrothersleeve]

i run pea gravel and am completely happy with it. there is live healthy good bacteria in it and i will keep it. if i do disturb it, i simply take all of it out and start over again. same with salt water. i want it to look "natural"

 

[CliffandJoann]

It come down to how much maintenance you want to do to
maintain your pond, a lot or a little? Rock bottom ponds require more
maintenance. as I previously stated we only have a shallow 4 x 5 foot
rocked area to maintain, the stuff that accumulates in that area is
about as much as we would want to handle.

 

[CliffandJoann]

It come down to how much maintenance you want to do to
maintain your pond, a lot or a little? Rock bottom ponds require more
maintenance. as I previously stated we only have a shallow 4 x 5 foot
rocked area to maintain, the stuff that accumulates in that area is
about as much as we would want to handle.

 

[CliffandJoann]

It come down to how much maintenance you want to do to
maintain your pond, a lot or a little? Rock bottom ponds require more
maintenance.
As i previously stated we only have a shallow 4 x 5 foot
rocked area to maintain, the stuff that accumulates in that area is
about as much as we would want to handle.
This is an example of before
cleaning and after cleaning. Note in the before photo, the only rock
that is clean is the imagine rock.

 

[mariobrothersleeve]

If u grow prized koi, i could see it. I have turtles in mine and i have it lined. They burry in the gravel during the winter months. Its really silly what everyones talking about the clean bottoms. Either you have o.c.d. or retired. I do like the comment of beginner fails of having rocks on the bottom, funny stuff. This is the dumbest discussion ive ever seen. For newbies out there, youll be just fine. Witch ones run rodi? Who cares