Wildlife pond started to stink...

[Nepen]

So I have this pond about a week now, just changed water 3 days ago. There is this tree above it with some type of green fruits (as big as m&m) that the squirrels love and kept dumping the left overs and droppings to the pond… I put the net over the pond and I have to dump the fruits about twice a day but some of them still gets to the water and it’s really hard to remove them.

There are 3 bunches of hornworts and some rocks in the pond that I brought over from my big pond. This is a small pond so the plants and rocks kind of filled the whole thing already. I ordered several more plants and they will arrive in a few days. But my water started to stick so fast (faster than the rain water collected in the empty plant pots!!) and I think the problem is the fruits!!! This is getting to be very annoying than pleasant.

I’ll have the aerator tomorrow and will start putting some oxygen in there, will this help? Is it better to use a pump to move water around instead? (I have a small pump, but might still be too big for this ~15 gallon pond) Should I change the water again? Should I use the water from the pond so there are some good bacteria?


I’m hoping the squirrel eat all the fruits soon so I don’t have to deal with those droppings and left overs – and hoping that the water would stay fine for longer than 3 days.

 

[Fishylove]

I would use a smallish pump with a filter. They have a few different ones at harbor freight that will work fine. The one I have in my small pond has black sponge filters inside. So what I do is hollow out the foam sponges a bit, put activated charcoal in old stockings tied up and stuff them in the foam filters. You'll replace the charcoal maybe twice a summer or so. Otherwise just swish them around in a bucket of pond water or treated tap water to clean them, so you don't kill the bacteria, same goes for the sponges. The charcoal helps filter the water, but it also takes the smell out too. I know there are lot of people who want just a natural wildlife pond, but truth be told that is very difficult to do in a man made pond. We can't provide even the basic substructure that nature provides as filtration. Which is why the pumps and filters are necessary, and if there are no fish, just a simple set up will work fine.

 

[addy1]

If it was mine, being a lover of bogs, I would add a small bog to pump you water through then back into the pond. Another place for wildlife to live and enjoy. I have a bunch of frogs that call the bog their home. Turtles drink there, birds bath there. All part of my little ecosystem.

 

[Nepen]

Thanks all.

Thanks fishylove, I just got more plants and also the aerator but with it being a solar operated aerator, I wont be getting much use (dont know why I got it that way, stupid me) I'm going to put in my old small pump tonight. But that pump (from harbor freight) doesnt have the place for filter, so I'll have to do some creative thinking of how to add that in there!

Yes I want it to be natural as possible and added lots of plants in but since the plants are not yet established, they dont help much. Also the droppings from the squerrels and the fruits are the main problem in making the water go bad very very fast. so hopefully the pump will help some.

Thanks addy for the suggestion of the bog.. this is supposed to be a bog lol, it just didnt work out as I has hoped. I can, though, put in the little pump, the put the rocks over it for the water to go through the rocks and out on top, will see if that work, for now


The Southern Leopard frog (or could be a Green frog) that's visiting seems to like it there though, I hope that it lay eggs in there

 

[addy1]

My frogs lay eggs everywhere except the big pond, in the bog, in the stream ponds, in the lotus pond, in the shubbie pond, in the deck pond. 1000's of eggs.

 

[Nepen]

I would love that, really and I love their call sound, my neighbors might not though.

 

[Nepen]

So I emptied the pond and rearranged plants and put in a small pump with fountain....man, the water stunk from all the accumulate fruits and droppings (4 days!!!) I put a filter in the pump but after a few minutes the flow dropped quite a lot so I took the filter out, don't really need it anyway for this pond, anyway, I buried the pump under the rocks so at least the water has to pass through those rocks to the pump. I put nets over the pond to catch those fruits too...I hope they are gone soon!

I hope the water flow is enough to make the water stays good for a long while until the plants establish some more. I'll have to go find some dragonfly nymphs so they eat the mosquito larves.

I don't have an outlet for this pump so it's on a long extension cord right now. I can't leave it on overnight or during the time that I'm not home, so hope that's enough to keep the water healthy. Will have to find a way to secure the cord some how.. Urg, I know nothing about these thing...

 

[addy1]

My pond has been running on an extension cord all summer, (hard wiring got eaten by the ground hog, I think, shorted out) Waiting for electrician honey to fix it. If your cord is large enough it will do ok. Mine is 100 foot long., thick wires, think 12/3 I have it plugged into the garage, runs down the hill to the pond, leave it on all of the time.

Just make sure the plug in is protected from the weather, I have mine so it can't get rain into it.

 

[Nepen]

Thanks addy, will this be good enough? http://www.amazon.com/Stanley-39387...TF8&colid=3CU9NICT32KJY&coliid=I1U3JWJ22D4NXU

 

[Fishylove]

That's great! I use a large gauge extension cord also, that I made out of 12g wire I bought at Lowes. You really should have the other end plugged into a GFI plug or ground fault plug,( so that if it does short out, it will trip the breaker at the plug and not cause a fire.) I did this myself NP, it's really very simple actually ( to change the outlet ) I could walk you thru it if would like too I'm not as patient as Addy to wait for hubby Lol! Although your hubby will probably actually Do it Addy, unlike my hubby lol!
Also try using a small bucket to put your pump in and then cover with rock and if you are gonna use activated charcoal u can use a longer stocking to fill to circle the bucket. I would also suggest using ( till the water clears ) quilt batting ( not cotton ) in a basket of some sort, if you can rig it, to help catch the gunk and algae that is bogging down your pump flow, u could actually use this as a make shift filter since you don't need a lot of filtering, just good water flow

 

[Nepen]

Thank you Fisheylove

I think I'll plug the extention cord to the big pond's ground plug that my husband did for me, that way it'll be safer than just the normal house plug. And then cover the connection (exnteion cord and pump) with the weather cover.. that should work.. will run through my husband before I do this.. Thanks for the offer to walk me through though.. it'll really be hard to, since I know of the electric language (english as second laguage here)

I dont think i'll have any filter in the small pond, or may be I will later, but I just changed the water and put the net up so no fruits go into the pond. the filter wont help with the fruits anyway. I will put the activated charcoal in if the water start to stink again after all this I do to prevent it. right now I dont have much space for it.. it's only a small shallow pond.. about 15 gallon

Now I'm going to have see if my aerator is working right... I might put it in my baby lotus tub (with standing water but still clear and good water for 2 months now) so I might have a few guppies in there to eat the mosquitos larvae. Or I'll just return the darn thing... a pretty stupid buy

 

[addy1]

Thanks addy, will this be good enough? http://www.amazon.com/Stanley-39387...TF8&colid=3CU9NICT32KJY&coliid=I1U3JWJ22D4NXU

lol better than what I use, I have my extension cord plugged into a power strip, the power strip covered with a piece of liner, up off the ground, a rock holding the liner over the power strip.

 

[Nepen]

grrr.. went out and got an extension cord and got the eye from hubby so he sent me alone on my way to get the 'proper' stuff at Home Depot, wonder around for 20 minutes without accmplish anything so he got impatient and came in and we got out in 5 minutes lol. I actually asked for help at the store but he asked too many non-human (to me anyway) questions and gave conflicting suggestions to what my husband told me so I got a lot more confused.

Anyway, got all the parts and we are going to put a new outlet so I can plug in my small pump properly. I'm actually like it this way, I dont have to worry about if anything would go wrong or paranoid about the rain

 

[addy1]

I make hubby come in if he needs stuff I am not sure of. Most I can get since we do so much construction work together.

Neat, honey said it was on his list for the summer, still waiting.....................

 

[Neo]

Definitely cover power cords and strips outside even if they say outdoor on them. I learned the hard way last year when I woke up one morning and my pond was not running. After checking the breaker I realized it was flipped so when I hit the switch I didn't know it yet but water runoff from the roof got into the power stake and when the power came on the thing immediately went up in flames almost 3 feet high. I turned the breaker right back off but the damage was done. I lost two uv pumps from lowes, my pond lights, and a small fountain pump. A very expensive lesson but I'm sure it could have been worse and shocked the fish or me I!