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Spring marginal plant favourites ... The Marsh Marigolds (Caltha palustris and all the species and varieties) are still at it. Brilliant. The Water Forgetmenot (Myosotis palustris) is also making waves of blue around the pond. Also there is the Golden Club (Oronitium aquaticum) and in the deep water The old South African stew ingredient, the Water Hawthorn, Aponogeton distachyos, is flowering its socks off. An amazing plants that comes up from unlimited stygian depths to perform at the most ludicrous times of the year. It still thinks its down in the Cape, nestled in the fynbos looking up at Table Mountain. where to buy pond plants
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Fish food understanding what's important ... ALWAYS, ALWAYS look at the analysis of the koi food you buy. The ash, fibre and moisture percentages are worth absolutely nothing. So the higher these percentages the more the money is being wasted. If a 5 kg bag of food contains 15% ash, 10% moisture and 3% fibre then 28% of the bags contents (amounting to a whopping 1.4 kg) is a total waste of money. This means that the R200 you paid for the 5 kg bag actually resulted in your paying R144 for food (3.6 kg) and R56 for rubbish (1.4 kg). Worse still 18% of the food (ash and fibre pass through the fish) now has to be handled/removed by the filter - 900 gms of solid waste has to be removed from the pond. http://www.practical-water-gardens.com/koifood.htm pond pump selection
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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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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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Must the UV be placed before the biofilter? In theory it does not matter at all but in practice if you have a simple box type filter is must be before the filter. Reasons are: The UV works under small pressure - water must be forced through it while the biofilter drains under gravity. In sand filter systems (which I do NOT recommend) the UV light comes after the pond filter because the whole system is under pressure. Not applicable in many cases but you can also split the flow from your pond pump - part through UV light and part through biofilter. all about pond uv and algae
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Pond pumps and "blocked pipes" ... If your pipe from the pond pump does become clogged with algae here's how to clear it out... dismantle the pipe from both ends and rapidly swing the pipe around as though it was a lasso .... just make sure nobody is the firing line because the "muck" will fly out of one end at quite a speed. Opaque rather than translucent pipe are best ... because light allows algae to grow faster, better, bigger .... solar pumps for ponds
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When a person builds a pond it is to achieve the vision of crystal clear water. The vision normally includes a pond full of colourful fish and attractive aquatic plants. Often the reality of a pond is something quite different ... a green smelly hole in the ground. This need not be the case. Before you dig the hole do understand that if you intend to keep fish then a biofilter must be installed. A biofilter can be a fairly simple box shaped container with a suitable biomedia inside it onto which bacteria can accumulate so that they can do the job of purifying the pond water day in and day out. all about water garden fountains
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Winter and garden ponds. Pioneering marginals like Bog Bean (Menyanthes trifoliata), the Spearworts (Ranunculus flammula and R. lingua Grandiflora) and Parrots Feather (Myriophyllum aquaticum syn. proserpinacoides) that seem intent on investigating the outer reaches of their universe should be cut back to home base: show them what youre made of. The same goes for Reed Maces ( Typha angustifolia and Typha latifolia). Feel around the baskets to see which plants have linked up in a firm vegetative bond. A bit of basket busting may be in order to sort them out. marginal pond plants
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This one sounds a bit crazy but works. Your fish will learn to recognise you especially if you feed them. To speed up this process move your hands as you approach the pond (or do something similar) ... just don't let the neighbours see you. Keep the movement the same every time. bio filter review
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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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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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