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A tip from Patricia in Ireland. She has a large pond with no fish. It had green algae problems. Patricia tried barley straw which took 6 weeks to work. Her tip is that to prevent the mess floating barley straw can make put it into old (or new for that matter) tights. Thanks Patricia. uv light specification
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The maximum flow through a normal gravity (box type) biofilter is governed by the size of the outlet pipe from the box. Try to pump too much into the filter and you risk pumping your pond completely dry because what cannot come out of the pipe will overflow from the lid. This has happened many times. Where such a possibility exists let any overflow find its way back into the pond (eg by placing the biofilter on a slope above the pond and placing a plastic sheet between the filter and pond where possible. This will allow the water albeit maybe a bit dirty to flow back into pond ... this will save the lives of your fish. using pond filters for clean ponds
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The best biofilter medium by far for conventional box-type biofilters is Alfagrog, a porous ceramic medium specially made for purifying fish ponds. Many people use plastic tubes, hair curlers, plastic coke bottle tops and the like. Be aware that these media need to be used in quite large quantities to be effective at holding sufficient bacteria to ensure clean (biologically speaking) water. You will need 40 times the volume of plastic tubes as Alfagrog to achieve the same biofilter capacity. In the USA Alfagrog is also known as Supra biomedia for pond filters
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Make access to your biofilter easy. If there is a risk of it overflowing and emptying the pond in the process then try to ensure the overflowing water would find its way back into the pond. This risk is real for most biofilters - if the outlet from the biofilter blocks then the pump will cause the water to overflow through the lid. If you are installing a new pond and arranging for a supply of electricity to it then do add any extra power point for possible future use. pond biofilters
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Ponds & Springtime ... Apart from maintenance problems, the main thing is the blanket weed, spirogya, cotton weed whatever. It is the candyfloss type of algae that gets a start on the rest of the plantlife in the pool and just loves that bright sunlight. It also loves water with a high pH. So if you reduce that with proprietary chemicals, although I have a client experimenting with vinegar, you will find that any other treatments are a lot more effective. Most aquatic suppliers have some remedy. Barley straw is effective for certain periods as long as the water is very well oxygenated and the straw is changed at regular intervals of not more than 10weeks water gardens, pond keeping
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Brushes in biofilters. Ask yourself why do you use brushes? Do you really need them ... possibly not. They do add to the cost without creating a major benefit in most small biofilters. Brushes in off the shelf conventional biofilters have such big gaps in them the only purpose they can serve is to remove long stands such as twigs, lengths of algae etc. For this purpose they are obviously fine .... is this what you want to achieve? For any other reason they are unsuitable. They don't do any harm ... they just make you poorer. biological pond filters
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Koi and breeding fish in ponds ... Two key factors that stimulate koi to breed are water temperature and day length (photoperiod). These stimuli work in tandem to influence when koi spawn. Water temperature will fluctuate at comparable dates from year to year, whereas photoperiod is far more consistent. I.e. We know that June the 21st will be the longest day each year but that temperature will fluctuate year on year and is not as predictable as day length (especially up in Lancashire!). The overall effect of these interactions means that koi will spawn at different times all over the country (or perhaps not spawn at all). http://www.practical-water-gardens.com/longkoispawning.htm water gardening and water features
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Oygenators, pond plants ... All plants that live happily under water can be described as oxygenators. Out of these plants there are bound to be one or two that are the best for the job we need them to do. There is no doubt they are specialised. Roots tend to be merely for anchorage and the nutrition absorption and gaseous exchange occurs on the surface of the plant directly to each cell. The plant therefore has very thin walls and thin leaves to allow this to happen. This makes the plants floppy, which in fact becomes an advantage under water as they are able to bend with the eddies in the water. Two plants that have made this a real speciality and thrive in streams are Water Crowfoot, the true Water Buttercup (Ranunculus aquatalis) and Curly Pond Weed (Potamageton crispus). all about garden pond plants
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Use garden pond bottom waste on the compost heap. This organic matter is full of mainly anaerobic bacteria which will catalyze the composting process. Backflushings from the pond filter can be sprayed onto the lawn or garden as a source of nitrogen fertilizer. Use black or opaque pipes in your pond instead of transparent low cost plastic tubing. Since light cannot penetrate the black piping the algae growth inside the pipe will be very considerably reduced. This means less maintenance and also less expenditure on replacing transparent pipe when it becomes clogged with algae. submersible pumps
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Once upon a time all ponds were concrete. Today unless you wish to have a very large or special pond concrete is NOT the material to use. It is simpler, cheaper, better and quicker to use pre-formed ponds ideally made from fibreglass in natural rock finishes with matching waterfalls or streams. If you want a pond whose volume is larger than about 500 litres then it is best and most economical to use a black plastic liner designed specifically for pond building all about ponds and waterfalls
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Never switch off your pond pump for more
than about 60 minutes
Make sure the delivery pipe from the
pond pump is not kinked
Must the UV be placed before the
biofilter?
A waterfall adds oxygen to a pond by
creating a large surface area
Submersible pond pumps can operate
against a closed valve
It is a good idea to pump out about 10%
of your pond water
Lighting in and around ponds creates a
brand new dimension
Sick and tired of looking at debris on
the bottom of your pond?
Do not feed more food than what you fish
can eat
Pond Links and Tips
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