spring cleaning

[sissy]

I know when I built my pond all the pond builders here kept saying you need rocks on the bottom and I had some delivered and put a few in to see if it made any difference and in a month they were covered by muck and looked black and slimy and I pulled the 2 buckets of them out that I put in .Glad it was only 2- 5 gallon buckets I put in because just after a month the smell was kinda getting bad already and they were really slimy and black and hard to pick up .The ones I ordered I used under the stairs to my front porch so they came in handy anyway .They look much prettier there .

 

[Lisak1]

I will add the dissenting voice here on having rocks in the pond bottom. There are different schools of thought on whether or not you should have rocks on the bottom of your pond. You will find reasonable arguments on both sides. I recommend you research both approaches and see which makes the most sense to you. I will say this - we have rocks on our pond bottom. We have just enough large gravel (I don't know the technical size - larger than a pea, smaller than a grape!) to cover the liner on the bottom. The rocks stay clean. Muck does not build up on or under the rocks. I get in my pond about every other week during the summer to trim my lilies and other plants and move the gravel around with my feet, so I am not just guessing what's under there. Some people say "you can't see them anyway because of the algae growth, so why bother". I can tell you that I can look straight to the bottom of my pond and see every individual rock that's down there. I don't know if my pond is different in some way than others, but that's been our experience. We do subscribe to the theory that the rocks give the helpful bacteria more surface area to cling to, so we do believe they serve a purpose in the ecology of our pond. And we also like the way they look!

We don't use a pond vac. We scoop as many of the leaves as we can with a net as they are falling - we don't have many, just one tree near the pond and a few that blow in from neighboring yards. What ends up staying in over the winter we scoop out by hand in the spring. We don't worry about getting it all out, as we've heard that tadpoles and dragonfly nymphs love the decaying leaves. We try to keep our pond as close to nature as possible, but we also realize it's a manmade system and our expectations are a bit different than they would be in a natural pond - we want to be able to see our fish! So we do as much as we have to but as little as possible to keep it clean... if that makes sense!

I think every ponder will tell you that it's a learning experience. Every pond is different and every season is different - do what works for you and you'll have many years of enjoyment!

 

[sissy]

yeh but if you are in there all the time that is why your rocks are cleaner .You are constantly cleaning them and some would not do what you do (most) .I know I would not have the time .Mine were larger river rocks about the size of a coffee cup .I have seen one pond here that has them and he has a pump going to pvc pipe under them and the pipe has holes drilled in it and he also has aerator pads under the rocks .Looks nice but the aerator and pads were not cheap .Pvc he did was the cheapest part and his rocks are clean and you can see the bottom and he only has koi .I have tried a simple set up of his with the pvc to see if it will work in my pond ,the aerator and pads are out of my budget .So far the pvc is keeping the stuff off the bottom and it seems to be going to the filters .I want to see how it will work when the warm weather gets here and my plants are back in the filters .

 

[micaaronfl76]

Shdwdrgn interesting is that all the pieces u need for the vacuum?

 

[Lisak1]

Well, I wouldn't say I'm in my pond "all the time". Every other week or so isn't all that much time spent really, and if I weren't IN the pond I would be AROUND the pond doing something or another. Or just sitting pond side, watching my fish and "pondering" what to add, change, replace or re-situate. My pond, like the rest of my garden, is my relaxation, my stress relief, my exercise, my daily communion - I enjoy every minute. Getting in the pond with the fish is enjoyable - they're so curious about what's going on that they swim all around me and peer up at me from under the water. It's quite hilarious. I should also say we designed our pond to make it very easy to get in and out safely, both for us and for any one else - human or otherwise - who may find themselves in the pond, either on purpose or accidentally.

I do think larger rocks would be a bit more problematic. My gravel is small enough that the fish pick it up and move it around. I think that helps keep it clean as well. Whatever works!

 

[Shdwdrgn]

@micaaronfl76 - Yeah that's it. The white thing is a mesh bag that ties to the back of the tube, so all the bigger stuff is supposed to get blown into it. It doesn't take long for the bag to fill up with crud though, so you have to clean it out every couple of minutes.

Regarding rocks in the pond, here's my setup... I use large (6-10") river rocks on the sides of the upper ledges of my large pond, and have irises growing heavily in these. The plants feed off the sludge, so it doesn't cause any other problems. In the open areas, I do have to clean the rocks occasionally, but the minnows also clean up the rocks during mating season, so that helps.

The bottom of the large pond is covered in a couple inches of white pool-filter sand. This gives my lilies somewhere to get their roots into, but it also makes cleanup easier. I have a net where the mesh is large enough for the sand to fall through, so I can just scoop up a pile of leaves off the bottom, shake out the sand, and throw out the muck.

I use pea gravel in my river bed. My 'river' is about 16" wide and 6" deep, and I have two pumps for a total of around 5000gph of flow. This keeps the water moving fairly quickly through the river, plus the gravel gets stirred up a couple times a year, so not much builds up underneath the rock. As Lisak1 mentioned above, I also believe this gravel bed is helpful in providing bacterial filtration, but it also gives a more natural look to the river bed. I wouldn't recommend using pea gravel anywhere except areas where the water moves fast or you'll have a mess in no time.

At the end of my river is the small pond which is completely bare, except for a few plants around the edges. I have two underwater pumps in the bottom, and I keep this area clear of rocks so that anything swept down to this end of the pond can be picked up by the pumps and sent through the filters.

When I designed this pond, I wanted to be able to provide a large variety of areas where I could do different types of filtration. So far this has been working great for me. I haven't lost any fish, and the plants grow like mad. Make your choices in rock based on how your water flows, and it won't cause any problems.

 

[Dave's pond Indiana]

My pond was installed 9yrs ago, when I built this pond I did put gravel in the bottom. I do believe this gravel will help establish a new pond. I also believe it can supply food for your plants that are planted in this gravel because it will go septic with time. I started removing most of my gravel last summer but I will be leaving it in the areas were lilies are free growing. I do believe the larger your pond and water movement will allow you to use some rock and gravel. I am pumping 17000 gph in a 19000 gal. pond with 3waterfalls, 2skimmers, a 16ft. stream and a lot of Lava rock. I will be building a trickle tower this summer because it will be easier to maintain and it will increase the efficiency of the Lava rock by keeping it wet and not submerged. I have never had a problem with algea and I never have or never will add any chemicals to my pond. My goal was to keep it natural. I will never install a UV filter because it will also kill the good with the bad. I do get my share of hair algea but I believe it serves as a good filter.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Dave, do you have any pics of your trickle tower? I've never heard of this before, but you gave just enough details to peak my curiosity.

 

[Dave's pond Indiana]

Dave, do you have any pics of your trickle tower? I've never heard of this before, but you gave just enough details to peak my curiosity.

I would like to but I have to learn how to download pictures onto my computer so I can post them on GP. If you do a web search on trickle towers or Bakki shower this may help you.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

I did a search shortly after that and found enough pics to understand the concept. I wonder if I could make a structure sitting on top of my skippy filters that would do the same thing? It would be a nice way to 'hide' the top of the barrels, I'm just not sure if I can effectively split the water from my pump to serve both purposes.