thoughts on simplifying

[addy1]

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.

Even if we have a dry summer and the pond just gets topped off I never have issues with the water tests. For me rain water changes works great. When we get a good rain the pond gets a good flush!

 

[callingcolleen1]

So it sounds like very few of us do actual regular water changes on a regular basis, and those of us who don't change the water too often appear to have less problems. AND it is true that most "new" pond people with fresh so called clean ponds have the most trouble. I would say that that is the trouble, pond not supposed to be that clean, pond not supposed to be a "sterile" hole in the ground. What most people say is clean is really not good, as too clean can kill the good bacteria or prevent the natural beneficial bacteria and other good aquatic life, from colonizing the pond. Pond water should be "teeming" with an abundance of diverse life in order to be properly established and balanced, Trouble is that does take time, but evently it will happen, if you don't constantly change and the water or "clean the pond to death".

My brand new fish tank is all set up and now "teeming with life" . So how did this happen so quick?? Well for starter's, the gravel was old, from the old tank, and the fish ornaments we're old, not cleaned or rinsed, right out of the old dirty tank. Then the big string of floating Hornwort was dirty, had pieces of leaves, pond "sludge dust" stuck to it, so it was not clean. But the fish are all happy and no one dead yet? I got lots of new Platty fish from this pet store and that pet store, some were not in the best health and thought some would die off. But they are doing well, eating the fresh pieces of super green soft lush pond algae that I gave to them, and picking at things in the hornwort. Then the new Plattys were mixed with the old wild guppies, and all is good, cause even though tank was new, I put in some of the old fish tank water, and the dirty old gravel that I just gave a quick rinse too and ornaments, so all is good

 

[sissy]

I used to do them but was just a hassle and with drought I don't want my well to go dry

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Yeah I hadn't factored that in... I have a lot of evaporation year-round, plus the occasional overnight water loss, so I'm dropping a hose in the pond once or twice a week anyway. I guess that counts for water changes.

My tap water comes out at 8.4. I would have thought with all the plants, that my pond would settle out closer to 7, but it never seems to come down.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Tree leaves will help lower the PH of your pond.

NeWs FLasH! Just NoW...... Patty fish just gave birth to live little plattys, and I watched the whole event!! Other fish came and ate the afterbirth, and still other fish tried to eat the babies but they ran for their life and hid in the bushy Hornwort!!

Now I am the proud baby platty's Momma, cause real mom a tired to eat them!!

 

[j.w]

Congrats Colleen :banana:

 

[callingcolleen1]

JW ... don't know how to tell you this..... but I see little creatures jumping up and down on your screen, and they are very cute and they follow you eveywhere! Ha ha

 

[Shdwdrgn]

@Colleen - I get a LOT of leaves and pine needles in my pond at all times of the year. Can't be helped because the pond is directly under a LOT of trees. Unfortunately they never seem to help bring down my pH. I don't know, maybe it has something to do with all the river rocks or white sand in the pond, but the pH is stuck.

Congrats on the platties! We just uncovered our shrimp tank tonight after doing a blackout all week (had a bad case of string algae), to find that at least one of our shrimp had finally had her babies. We only had a dozen shrimp to put in this tank, but four of them were carrying eggs recently, so we're hoping for a population explosion.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Humm, maybe you need certain types of trees. I have many different types of trees and they are always dropping something in my pond. The crab apple trees are dropping half frozen little crab apples into pond, the Brich and choke cherrys are also above my pond, dropping things too....

 

[j.w]

I 'm watching Honey Boo Boo right now..................it's so stupid it's funny!

I only do partial water changes a couple times a year, it's my filter and I have no other so it's all good

 

[callingcolleen1]

I tried to get freshwater shrimp to live in my bottom marsh/pond that I had years ago, think they hung around for the summer but never seen them after that, maybe fish ate them one by one.

 

[D&RW]

it's easy to consider re-homing when you don't visit for awhile. our weather in the NW is foul this time of year and so we stay inside a lot. yesterday went out and visited. watched some of my goldies lounge/swimming in the current from the Sequence pump return. (I set it up so it is on one side with a thrust accelerator so it generates a nice circular current. right by where the "exhaust" is the fish love to hang out and swim in the current.)

my plan had been to reroute this "exhaust" out of the pond and over to the filter falls, i.e. have one pump powering the whole system. this would eliminate the internal current, of course. this will not be an issue if i rehome the older, larger fish. but being out there visiting made it harder. of course, really it's not a problem at all. fish prefer a current, but don't have to have one. i really do want to reduce cost this year so goodbye current. on with phase 1, i.e. reroute primary out of ground pump to the filter falls and restart the falls. i'll guess i'll take each issue one at a time. one down.

one concern re: rehoming is the darn herons and the net. i really don't like the net nor do i like worrying about the heron. i might be able to "stomach" the heron eating a smaller fish now and then, but if that rascal tried to get a big koi and stabs it in the attempt, it'll die and that is unacceptable. this happened year before last when the heron tried to get a comet. stabbed it, but didn't get it and i found it dead on the bottom with the classic triangular stab mark on it's back.

so rehoming is the next decision point.

 

[callingcolleen1]

D&RW, big blue heron problem here too, but I fixed it so he could never come back into my yard, and there is a much better way to protect pond than an ugly old net right over the pond!!

blue Herons are big bird with large wing span, can't land cause I took out his"runway"! I strung twine very high above the pond from house to trees, cross crossed the twine here and there, now he cannot land and he will not land, cause it will be too hard to make it threw the twine. I also tied thin strips of old pillowcase to hand on tiwne here and there so the big bird will "get the message" and it worked! Big heron never came back again!!

 

[D&RW]

very cool idea with the twine. i had tried the twine around the pond and it didn't work, but this idea will be tried. little birds will probably love having the landing spot. specifically what kind of twine did you use?

progress to date: rerouted sequence pump to power waterfall. moved Aqua UV filter closer to reduce as much pipe and fitting drag as possible. ordered a diverter valve to plumb in a way to divert the water from the waterfall in the winter. took the net off. removed remaining in-pond piping. put new mesh bags with bead media back into filter falls and cleaned it out beforehand. left the old media in it's own "soup" to protect beneficial bacteria during this process. so nearly done. may take pics but i don't think they'll show much

 

[callingcolleen1]

I used just regular garden twine. Then took an old pillow case and ripped thin strips of cloth to tie on to the twine every couple feet, that would blow in the win. The garden twine was hung high above my head from the trees to the house.

Attached picture you see I hung a Halloween ghost last fall to one of the strips of twine.