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Online Tutorial - 1 |
| Troubleshooting Your Pond |
Add more underwater vegetation. Without enough the pond will turn green. The fish love to eat it and occasionally in the spring, the fish will eat it faster that it grows. Excess fertilizer will turn the pond green. Stagger your fertilization schedule if necessary. Change 25% of your water weekly until pond clears.(Don't forget the dechlor.)
My
Plants/Fish are Dying
Check the following possibilities:
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Are grass clippings or other debris getting into the pond and decaying?
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Have you or your neighbors sprayed fertilizers, pesticides or insecticides?
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Has the local government done any spraying nearby lately?
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Is someone painting or scraping a house or car in the area?
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Has cleaning been done on surrounding driveways, decks or walkways and run off into the pond?
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Did someone feed the fish too much or the wrong thing?
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Did you use a new concrete block to prop a water plant up? Use bricks or aged concrete blocks.
If any of these events have occurred, change the water immediately.
My Lilies are not Blooming and Look Funny
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Lilies and other aquatic plants begin to go dormant about the first of September. If they stop blooming in the summer check fertilization schedules and amounts. If the leaves are getting smaller they are not getting enough fertilizer.
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A tropical water lily bloom lasts about three days until a new one takes its place. Pinch off the old flower and discard it. Do not let it rot in the pond.
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Your lily will be happiest if the top of the pot is at least 6" below the surface of the water....deeper if you can. I place them on the bottom of the pond (18").
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Water lilies like to be fed every 10 - 14 days with Pondtabbs or other aquatic plant fertilizer. They also like to have the tops of their pots at least 6" below the surface of the water and are happier even deeper. And remember, the outer ring of leaves gets yellow and needs to be pinched off periodically so the new leaves can grow. Same with the flowers.
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If water lily leaves begin to disappear, check your pond for visiting wildlife.
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If you have installed a new piece of statuary, it may be made of an metal or concrete that is toxic to fish or plants. Purchase statuary from a reputable dealer.
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If you gather plants from the wild, you will bring in parasites and diseases.
Do I need a pump?
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A pump will never keep the water clear. A pump moves water and provides oxygen for the fish if you feed them and the pond is overpopulated. If you have a natural ecosystem there will be no overpopulation and therefore you will not need any pump if you don't wish to have one. Most folks like them because we all like the sound of moving water and waterfalls.
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If you have a waterfall, use a pump that moves at least 1200 gallons per hour. I use a 3000 gph pump, tee the output into two hoses and have great results. No pump has to be turned on all the time unless you feed your fish or have koi.
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And if you live in a climate where you have freezing weather, turn the pump off in the winter. Most pumps do not function well in freezing water. If you are worried about your pond freezing over, throw an empty plastic gallon jug or several in the water during the freezing weather. In the morning, remove the jug and there will be a hole in the ice so gases can move freely during the day. Be sure to put some more jugs in the water when the freezing weather returns at night.
My Anacharis Keeps Dying
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If you have a concrete pond that has not been properly sealed or is new,lime will leach out of the concrete. Empty the pond, scrub it with vinegar or a mild solution of muriatic acid (one part acid to 4 parts water). Refill, test the pH. (It should be around 7.0). Let the water sit for a day or two and test again. If the pH remains about 7.0, you may replace your anacharis.(Don't forget the dechlor.)
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Anacharis likes to be in the shade some of the day. If it is in full sun, it may turn yellow and die. Shade the pond with floating plants and emergents.
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Make sure you have one bunch of anacharis per square foot of surface area of water. If you have less, the fish may be eating it faster than it grows.
Algae Bloom
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Do not use any of the algaecides that are available commercially. Most of them severely decrease the oxygen level in the pond and that will kill the fish.
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Remember that anything that will kill algae will kill other plants. Fish will tolerate green water--they will not tolerate toxic (albeit clear) water. For green water use more submerged vegetation (Anacharis) and make sure at least 50% of the water surface is covered with floating vegetation to provide shade. This floating vegetation can be water lilies, water hyacinths, water poppies, etc.
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If you must get rid of your green water use a mechanical filter. I use a large black pot that a plant has come in--10" or bigger. I put 2 inches of foam rubber in the bottom of the pot and suspend it over the surface of the water. I usually use a lawn chair or upturned 5 gallon bucket. Next I run a hose from the pump over the top of the pot so the water runs through the foam rubber. I hold it down with a brick. This makeshift filter looks awful and must be cleaned every 2 hours or so, but it will clear up your pond in a day or two.
There is a filamentous algae, called blanket weed, which form cotton-wool-like masses on the sides of the pond or over the submerged aquatic plants. Algae are not hazardous to animal life in the pond, but blanket weed looks awful. It can be removed by using a forked stick much like a spaghetti fork and twisting it out of the pond. Barley straw has been used for hundreds of years to combat algae in ponds, lakes and waterways. With warm, moving water and sunlight, it increases the biological filtration of the pond, which in turn becomes an organic algaecide in reducing string algae and plankton (the thick, pea green soup looking water). It doesn't affect the growth of other aquatic plants and is totally harmless to fish. It takes a while for barley straw to become active, so start them early in the season and you'll have better results. Each bale takes about 3-8 weeks to become active and 1-2 bales are required for ponds up to 1,000 gallons of water. Tie a string to each bale and attach a rock at the other end and place it in your pond with the bale half way up in the water so it can get good circulation. The bale will slowly decompose and will be effective in combating algae for 6-9 months. For those who live in warm temperatures year round, you can add another "dose" of barley straw bales to your pond after about 5 months and remove the old ones about 2 months after that, thus overlapping doses of barley straw. This will ensure you a continual treatment of organic algaecide from your barley straw and you won't have to wait the 3-8 week period before the new bales become active (For those who live where there are harsh winters, place your barley straw bales in your pond once the ice melts so you can get a head start on reducing the algae blooms.) Place your barley straw in your pond when water temperatures are about 40F (or higher) so they can start to become an active algaecide early. One thing you want to make sure of is that the barley straw bales you buy are organically grown. Make sure that the bales are devoid of any harmful chemicals, pesticides, insecticides, etc. while the barley straw was growing and before it was harvested or else you will be putting all of those chemicals in your pond and your fish and other aquatic life may die because of it!
Do
I need a filter?
If you have Koi or if you feed your goldfish, you MUST have filtration
of some sort. There are many filters on the market from a plain sponge
type to biofilters with UV lights. I have used them all and find that
the very best is a biofilter installed outside the pond with a UV light
installed in conjunction with it. (A UV light is not effective with
blanketweed or String Algae.) So if you are going to feed those fish
or have Koi, think about using this filter.
If you wish to build your own filter, it is quite simply using a container of some sort and filling it with some sort of filtration medium like lava rocks, sand, gravel, etc. I use the coarser material at the top of the filter (where the water goes in) and the finer material at the bottom. Much of the time lava rock or bioballs are sufficient. You must get the water into the top of the filter- pretty easy if the fliter is in the water and suck it out of the bottom with the pond pump. This can be accomplished with a simple tap that attaches to the intake of the pump.
If you do not feed your fish, you need no filtration at all. BUT you must provide natural filtration. The best way I have found is to use Anacharis as a submerged plant. The anacharis grows faster than the fish can eat it, so the pond becomes a natural ecosystem. And you must keep about 60% of the top of the pond covered with shade. You can do this with floating plants like hyacinths, water clover, water poppy, parrots feather or water lilies. If your pond is in the shade already, you do not need so many floating plants.
Many chemicals are sold that promise a clear pond if you add the chemicals. Some of the time they work. For the most part they do not. They kill algae. The dead algae sinks to the bottom where there is then no available oxygen for the other plants. They die and so do the fish because there is no oxygen for them to breathe. If you do not use chemicals, this problem can be avoided before it starts.
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Online Tutorial - 1 |
