***The Pond Discussion Thread****

So with the new net:
Pros - magpies have gone (cheer), turned off the new ginger cat from attempting to fish the pond.
Cons - seems a lot of mayflies in the skimmer but witnessed a one managing to go through the net back and forth so it must have been the end of their lifecycle. I noted this damsel fly couldn't get through so I managed to lift the net and it got out:

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Pulled some blanketweed, added some blanket answer, and tested out my new protein skimmer temporarily to check it would work. I think it will but it needs some adjustment.
 
We’ve also had heron visits recently, eating the frogs. Not sure how many it’s had, but we’ve seen it eat at least 6 over multiple visits.

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VaderDSL said:
We’ve also had heron visits recently, eating the frogs. Not sure how many it’s had, but we’ve seen it eat at least 6 over multiple visits.

aoFaI6Tl.jpeg
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They are fantastic looking birds, I just wish they'd stop trying to eat my fish.

NickK said:
Pulled some blanketweed, added some blanket answer
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Does that work well for you? I had a load last year and couldn't seem to shift it, this year I've tried Aqua Source Resolve for the first time a week or so ago and it seems to have cleared it all up already.
 
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Caught the ginger cat on the sill of the pond window. It attempted to escape but under the netting, then proceeded to get caught up, panic and spent it's time jumping around trying to get up the fence and tree etc, almost ended up in the pond and then let me provide a gap which it shot out. It's own dumb fault.

Let's see if it's quite as confident and comes back.

There's no law for koi or predating cats other than no suffering etc.. so as long as the cat is ok but slightly ruffled then no harm done.
 
Cleaned out the filter today and noticed a slight increase in Nitrate with a test......so will do a few water changes to right it.
Must be as the filter isn't into full speed ahead yet, all other levels absolutely fine.
 
Modified the skimmer, and tried it in the afternoon:

jn8TZPb.jpeg


It's a simple reverse flow style where water comes in the top, it drops down through media, then exits at the bottom. The spout then maintains a water level in the main body that results in the airstone bubbling up. So the airstone causes the frothing, the media allows for more contact time down the body. There's a plastic spider in the tube that stops the media from sitting in the base joint and keeps the airstone raised off the top - it's located just above the brown plastic - main body connection. This also attempts to prevent the foam from going up the spout.
I may tune the level of media at the top so that the foam isn't broken up on the media above the water level. What seems to be good is that the foam is small bubbles and quite damp so it should rise up more.

You can see the foam appearing:
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This morning the airlifts had clouds on them (big foam!), so this project is becoming pressing.

I will do some adjustments to make a foam trap so the foam can overflow into a container. This essentially removes the DOCs (which case the foam) from the pond.

When I'm happy this works I can simply plumb this is in - possibly using a T in to the return down pipe for the spout return.
 
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New house we may be purchasing (if all goes through) has a small pond in the garden. It measures around 1.5m x 3m I'm guessing. Are ponds easy to maintain as I'd love to bring it back to life but maintaining it is my main concern. I know jack diddly squat about ponds/gardening in general.
 
e36Adz said:
New house we may be purchasing (if all goes through) has a small pond in the garden. It measures around 1.5m x 3m I'm guessing. Are ponds easy to maintain as I'd love to bring it back to life but maintaining it is my main concern. I know jack diddly squat about ponds/gardening in general.
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Photos would answer a lot of questions. I had a 1.5mx3m approximately with my house, it's since been replaced and repositioned with a large pond.
 
Will update with pics if the purchase goes through. Generally speaking though, would be interested to know the time and costs required to maintain a pond with some fish in there. The slightly annoying thing is that the pond is slap bang in the middle of the garden, would have preferred it being in a far corner or something.

NickK, how difficult was the job of repositioning?
 
e36Adz said:
Will update with pics if the purchase goes through. Generally speaking though, would be interested to know the time and costs required to maintain a pond with some fish in there. The slightly annoying thing is that the pond is slap bang in the middle of the garden, would have preferred it being in a far corner or something.

NickK, how difficult was the job of repositioning?
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If it's at ground level then you can get issues with water run off and things like lawn treatments etc.

Digging ponds is a ball ache. It may be better for a raised pond using pinned and locked sleepers with a liner. You can make a separate section that is a water fall and also acts like a water filter with water plants so any fish won't destroy them. A raised pond also means nippers and dogs don't take a bath.

Nature pond is cheapest, a small number of gold fish would need some additional filtering but koi need 3-4x that filtering capacity due to the amount of food and the waste they produce, they also get large.

Being smart with the pond layout with 1/3 as a planted water filter will reduce the amount of manual filtration maintainance you will need todo.

The sky is the limit.. but a large pond really needs to be plumbed into the water for cleaning and the waste to wash any automated cleaning away.

Lastly - electricity cost is a constant operational cost. Water pumps cost to run, UV clarifiers keep the water going green but cost to run.

Ponds tend to be in bands, and the cost of operation goes up..
< 5,000 litres - you'll find a lot of options for kit
5-10,000 litres - you'll find the cost goes up and less options exist
10,000 litre+ - you'll find the cost goes up further and fewer options exist (and you start DIYing ideas to keep costs down).

A 10,000+ litre pond sounds good but a 20,000l/h pump is 190W.. then add a UVC for that size and that's 40W.. so it's like leaving ~250W of light bulb on..

Mine is 14,000 litres but I use airlifts so the system only takes 58W then 20W+80W for my UV. I switch the UV off out of season and sometimes when the weather is colder (so 58W operation). So you can see - design it right from scratch and you can reduce the operational costs.
 
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If you're after a wild life pond, don't put Koi in it. They eat *everything*.

Biggest issue with a small pond is to circulate the water, else it becomes stagnant. If you introduce a filter/UV line it helps, but will require a clean out once a month or so in the summer. The rinse and waste can go straight onto the garden, it'll be high in Nitrates. Something like this. These can be found cheap on ebay second hand, you'll want to replace the UV tube every other year (and if you buy a second hand one, straight away). I used one of these for years at my previous house with no issues on a pond around the size of yours.

Plant out some Irises etc (again check ebay for people selling cheap) as they help with the Nitrogen cycle. They need pulling out every few years, as they are a bit of a hooligan.

If this sounds all a bit 'too much', remember these are enjoyable tasks which reward greatly. My day starts with feeding the fish, which I get a real kick out of.
 
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Nigel Kingdon said:
If you're after a wild life pond, don't put Koi in it. They eat *everything*.

Biggest issue with a small pond is to circulate the water, else it becomes stagnant. If you introduce a filter/UV line it helps, but will require a clean out once a month or so in the summer. The rinse and waste can go straight onto the garden, it'll be high in Nitrates. Something like this. These can be found cheap on ebay second hand, you'll want to replace the UV tube every other year (and if you buy a second hand one, straight away). I used one of these for years at my previous house with no issues on a pond around the size of yours.

Plant out some Irises etc (again check ebay for people selling cheap) as they help with the Nitrogen cycle. They need pulling out every few years, as they are a bit of a hooligan.

If this sounds all a bit 'too much', remember these are enjoyable tasks which reward greatly. My day starts with feeding the fish, which I get a real kick out of.
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Took ages for my iris plant to get going...now it's almost taken half the pond up !

Never knew they grew that much...
 
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