Re: Pond Care : Tue Apr 10, 2012 6:19 pm  

cod'ead wrote:

There's a place called Fishponds in Bristol but you try finding any fish or even a pond there.

If you saw a bus with DAZ on the side, would you take your washing there?

The Mill Ponds in Farsley definitely exist because I’ve seen it with my own eyes when I went trespassing around there when I was a kid. Plus if you Google earth Mill Ponds Farsley via satellite then you’ll see a body of water very clear.

I once saw a bus in ASDA carpark with some ice cream brand advertising on the side of it. Turns out it was a promotional bus and they had a couple of things inside plus free ice-cream. So on that note if I see DAZ on the side of a bus they might just be a washing machine inside. You never know!

Re: Pond Care : Tue Apr 10, 2012 7:26 pm  

OK thanks so far. Machines all running as I type - pics as follows:

OK thanks so far. Machines all running as I type - pics as follows:

Re: Pond Care : Tue Apr 10, 2012 7:38 pm  

You could leave the filters off, buy a couple of bags of daphnia from your local tropical fish outlet, and once the daphnia start clearing the algae you can sell bags of them back to the shop.

My wild and unfiltered pond always turns green once frogspawn 'hatches', I believe this is a natural process, my daphnia soon clear it.

Re: Pond Care : Tue Apr 10, 2012 7:42 pm  

Looks like a nice set up. If its in full sun, you might want some surface covering plants, like water lilly etc to help keep the algae down and water clear.

Re: Pond Care : Tue Apr 10, 2012 7:57 pm  

Musky wrote:

OK thanks so far. Machines all running as I type - pics as follows:

Somebody has spent a few hundred pounds on that equipment and it will be more than adequate to clear your pond, mine is about the same size and gets by with a single filter box and a similar sized UV tube (or at least it did until SHE blew it up).

Don't ever be tempted to clean out the filters, they are supposed to look disgusting and covered in slime & bacteria, deep cleaning the foam mats or nylon brushes just sets you back two years worth of natural algae easting bacteria, mine is also full of the most disgusting worms that live under water, I don't even lift the lid off these days its like a scene from an Alien film.

Theres nothing much you can do about it now but measure the depth of the pond and hope that its at least two foot deep to give the fish a chance to hibernate without harm during the worst winters, the deeper the better, and as I mentioned earlier just feed them very sparingly during the summer, but start to stoke them up September/October ready for the winter, I have nine Golden Orfe and two Koi that are now all nine years old and I haven't lost a fish in five years (and that one was to a heron) with minimal attention but constant filtering and no over-feeding.

You might consider a net over it if you have local cats, that platform on the left looks ideal for fishing off - measure the depth there too as its a perfect heron perch.

Re: Pond Care : Tue Apr 10, 2012 8:00 pm  

PS - plants - don't buy anything until you've seen what fish you have, Koi will probably eat anything you plant in there and if you are tempted to plant it up then avoid "water chestnuts" or anything that sounds like them, you'll start with two or three in year one, they'll die and disappear during the winter but in year two you'll have five hundred of the buggers all rising from the depths in the first sun, impossible to get rid of.

Re: Pond Care : Wed Apr 11, 2012 6:38 am  

As McLF said, the previous guy has spent some serious money on that set up and it would be a great shame to fill the pond in. If the filter media has dried out completely then it will take a couple of weeks for the bacteria to repopulate in the filters, so don't worry if it doesn't start clearing immediately. Get yourself a simple water test kit to check ph, ammonia & nitrate levels etc but don't be tempted into any commercial "quick fixes", most are designed to clear pond-keepers' bank accounts rather than ponds