thoughts on simplifying

[D&RW]

we have had two bouts of fish illnesses. the first or second year a woman sold us some sick fish and i didn't know enough to quarantine then. I fought these diseases for 3-4 months. Lost a bunch of fish. Saved two. since then i've been much more careful.

interesting about the water changes. i have often wondered how necessary it really is. if the water is testing out ok on all parameters why change it? BUT, I'd read any number of places that a person should.

going to cut down to one pump, one UV. no aerators. and as for plants I have a lot of research to do yet. i love the lillies because we can leave them in the pond. have them on plastic tables. our pond is 6 feet deep on one end and 4 ft deep on the other. on one side along the long axis is a shelf about 3 feet down. it occupies about 3/8 of the width. this is where the lillies are. when they are in full swing they cover over 1/2 of the pond.

 

[callingcolleen1]

The answer to a clean healthy pond is lots of weed, good fast growing wowie weed man... ha ha ha. Get a cheap bag of fast growing Hornwort from the pet store, get some growing in jars of water in the window till you got lots, then give the extra to the fish. At first the fish will eat most of it cause the "weed" gave them the munchies, but then pieces of this fast growing weed that the fish don't eat will multiply quickly in the hot summer sun. You can leave it out all winter below the ice, cause it is really a weed, and it will come back thicker and better every year, and you can "wheel and deal" in this "hot" pond weed and sell the extra back to most pet stores or get a really good deal on a new pump to support your growing pond "habit" ha ha ... that's what I do! Seriously folks... most pet stores like to get the nice thick "home grown" Hornwort and resell it to fish aquarium hobbist for their indoor tanks.

Just look at it all in my pond last year, growing with the really big Koi I have!

 

[callingcolleen1]

Lilly Pads do not clean the pond hardly at all. They are mostly for "looks". Get sedges (grass, cat-tails, iris, rushes, etc) these are best for photosynthesis filtration, and a bag of Hornwort too!

 

[callingcolleen1]

. Too many Lilly pads also tend to harbor parasites which are harmful to the fish.

 

[Waterbug]

When I first started I had tons of complicated stuff. Over the years less and less. In seven years I did zero water changes in my San Jose ponds. 900 GPH pump for 7600 gal pond, that's a turn over rate of once per 8 hrs and I sure could have scale that back probably to zero. I had a UV on for a short time once. No filters at all for the last few years, although at the start I built many filters of all kinds.

Fish load is what can make it complex. But I think most keepers think they need this and that, way more than what's needed. I think in many cases the concept of "you can't have too much" can actually make things worst. I did for the first few years anyways.

You won't become attached to feeders? Good luck with that.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Yes that is true, sometimes the more you do the worse it can get. The fish medication is very hard in the pond ecosystem, and I would never treat the pond, just the fish if possible. Cleaning the pond "to death" is harmful to the pond ecosystem as well. It is better to do just partial water changes if you must, than to take all the water out and scrub every rock in sight, as it is also very hard on the pond ecosystem to "clean to death".

Although during a very hot summer, I think you need lots of water movement to keep pond clean and cool, especially the smaller ponds.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

I'm curious what the general consensus is regarding the need for water changes versus the amount of water flow through everyone's pond? For example, I have around 5000gph flow through my pond, which is only 1400 gallons. That's a pretty serious proportion of water flow, and I've never really felt a 'need' for water changes. This makes me wonder if the folks who do regular water changes are also the same people who have very slow water motion through their ponds? Maybe there's a trend here that we've been missing, which could be very important to those who are new to ponds.

 

[gardengimp]

I suspect the folks who do regular water changes are ponds that are more heavily stocked, heavily fed, or showmanship. I don't do regular water changes, but during our rainy season I get automatic water turn over. Then during the dry season I use the pond water to water my tomato plants, and top the pond off with tap water or rain barrel water. My pond is a water garden first, so it is very lightly stocked and I feed seldom to lightly. I do probably have a fairly high turn over of water [pump], don't know exactly between the height of the fountain and now the two ponds connected by way of one 4' 4" pipe.

BTW, what is a weather loach?

 

[callingcolleen1]

Weather louch like a small fat snake with big wiskers! Used to have a weather loach years ago and they can be aggressive and sometimes they like to eat the protective slime off other fish and bug them senseless.

 

[j.w]

Well lets see I don't have a lot of water movement,just my falls hooked to a pondmaster 24 pump and I use a large air pump in Summer. I don't have a filter but we do get lots of rain here and I think I need to do partial water changes once in awhile to keep the water cleaner. Been doing this for years and even when I did have a small filter tub on the bottom w/ pump inside and media all around it I did it then too. Fish are doing fine w/ my procedure and no death's except and occasional scrawny little one that doesn't thrive. I have a few sedges and misc. other plants like parrots feather and creeping primrose, azolla, water lilies, etc. My pond is about 2500 gals w/ 40 -50 fish mostly med to small w/a few over 6-8". Planning on putting in a trickle filter this Summer.

 

[callingcolleen1]

JW your pond water must be very very soft from all the rain. The average PH of rain is in the 3's, way to soft, so if you get lots of rain your PH may possibly fall below 7, or even 6. When the water is too soft the snails cannot rebuilt their shell and if you have snails in your pond, look at their shells, if they look white, show signs of corrosion, little "pit holes" in shell, then your water has long term soft issues. Now some plants love the water on the soft side, but it is better to keep the PH in the 7's for a balance between hard and soft. Just so their is no confusion, soft has a low PH, and hard has a high PH. with a PH above 8, their is a danger of ammonia, and with a PH below 6, fish have problem breathing.

JW sounds like you got a system that works good, and partial water changes are nessarary when PH gets too low. Everybody's has different water coming out of their tap, and our tap water here on the prairies is very hard, too hard, so hard I hardly get any bubbles in my dish water! If the water is soft coming out of your tap you don't need as much soap in your dishwater to get bubbles. I would bet that your tap water is softer than mine up in those mountains!!

Climate, water, and how your pond is set up all plays a big role in your pond. I don't change water cause here on the plains where we are zoned "semi arid" and rain can be scarce some months. The pond can evaporte quickly when we get the warm frequent winds, and our summers can be very hot and dry too, so changing the water not nessary so much as I am always adding water weekly. My very large six foot tall yellow flag Iris is a very large floating mat, and I suspect that thing take a a big drink in the summer to stay lush and green. All my big sedges takes big drinks, so their goes more water in the hot windy summer.

Here is the fish tank in my bedroom that has very low PH, and houses the very old Upside down Catfish, who lives in the caves and his tank mates are all wild guppies. I need to do a small water change, that is all I every do once evey four months or so, no filter to clean, tank has only an undergravel filter and has live angle hair and a endless supply of duck weed. Need to thin out the plants too. Upsidedown Catifsh lives in caves and swims only upsidedown. I got this catfish in 1991!! You do the math!

 

[j.w]

Actually I should test my pond to see how it's doing. Don't do it very often. Fish aren't dieing and plants are fine and I don't scoop or clean the bottom out much, just when it looks like it's getting thick down there. Like I said I don't have a filter so guess the partial water changes are my filter? All I know is so far so good. I think our rain water is in the 5-6ph range from what I gather on the net. Our well water seems to be higher. I've added oyster shells to the pond to stabilize the ph when it read in the 7 range. Going to check the levels now that I'm thinking about all this just to see what it says.

 

[sissy]

ME TOO ME TOO AND JUST HAVEN'T :goldfish: fish hate me

 

[addy1]

We get great water changes when it rains, ow just water adds. Ph in the 5.5 range (well and rain) pond sits 7.8 or so. Well water very soft, pond around 100. I add oyster shells (100 lbs) every spring to the bog.

 

[taherrmann4]

I do the same as addy. Let nature do its thing. If we don't get rain then I will top off but I don't do water changes, the only time water is taken out of my pond is when I vac it out twice a year.