Last year was a disaster in trying to maintain this pond, and was tempted to get rid of it. But, after a lot of comments and some persuasion I decided to give it another chance. For better or worse I am going to make this pond look great. Had a party last Friday (6/3) and so I went up to Drummers (a local garden shop that has pond accessories) and pleaded my ignorance about ponds. I ended up with 3 flyers and a standard lecture about keeping algae down and what to use to maintain a pond.
What I learned is as early as you can do a spring cleaning of the pond. Drain the pond completely and wash down rocks and the liner to get rid of any algae and other waste that accumulated over the fall and winter months. This resets everything and it is a lot like keeping a fish tank clean. After that is complete you need to work on the 5 spokes of keeping algae under control.
First Water Change, need to change 20% of water every 2 to 3 weeks. This 20% is at the time you change the water not over all.
Second Plants, they use the same nutrients as the algae so having between 40-60% of the water surface covered with plants by mid-July. I am guessing this is to keep the heat and sun light from getting to the algae which helps the plants as well. I am hoping to look into this more. Also they say DO NOT USE SOIL with the plants as it isn't needed and causing other issues and grows algae.
Third Fish, fish help eat some of the algae but can also help grow algae. So far I am not sure about adding fish. They say keep the number of fish low so as to not create more algae. So may be worth adding a few. Reading on-line a bit some say you might be able to keep fish in the pond over winter if it is deep enough, from their calculations I can't do that as my pond is only about a foot deep.
Fourth Biological filters, this is where we get to play with BACTERIA :-). They apparently are like pacman and eat algae as well. Do use just any bacteria, use what you buy in the stores, we don't need an epidemic on our hands :-) Beside the liquid or powdered stuff, you will need something to grow it on. They apparently like porous things to grow on. So like Ammo-Rocks or very porous filters. I am also told not to like the filter or the pump dry out as it might cause some issues with that as well.
Fifth and final is algaecides, this is more for emergencies. Until you are able to balance everything out you will want to add this. Thing is with this is that it kills it and drops to the bottom of the pond which add nutrients, which adds more algae. So get the above to help balance things and it might make for an easier time spring cleaning I hope.
It is a lot of data and I will be adding more to this as I learn more too for the year. Below I am going to have a journal of what I did and what things look like. I might even try to add pictures also. What I have is a 76" X 72" x 13" pond with a smaller 12" X 12" x 12" pond that water fall starts from. From what I can guess at I have about a 452.29 gallon pond.
| Date | Depth Before | Depth After | Bacteria | Algaecide | Mosquito Tablets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 06-02-2011 | 0.0" | 13.0" | 110 ml | One in upper and lower pool | |
| 06-05-2011 | 45ml | ||||
| 06-06-2011 | 11.0" | 13.5" | 110ml | ||
| 06-09-2011 | 11.0" | 110ml | |||
| 06-11-2011 | 11.5" | 45ml | |||
| 06-15-2011 | 11" | 12" | 45ml | ||
| 06-26-2011 | 11" drained to 8" | 11.5" | 50ml | ||
| 06-(27-29)-2011 | 8" lowest | 12" | 40ml | ||
| 06-30-2011 | 10.25" | 13.25" | |||
| 07-10-2011 | 10" Drained to 7.5" | 12.5" | 40ml | one in lower pool |
The pond looked alot better than last year. Got a bit bad in August, mostly because I put off some maintence that month. Over all I think it was a pretty successful year. Next year, I will do a clean out about April and I will have a few more plants to work with and be able to put them in sooner.