A tip from Patricia in Ireland. She has a large pond with no fis

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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
In winter make holes in the ice using a pan full of hot water to remove toxic gases. Do not break the ice - this is not good for the fish as you can probably imagine. These days there are low cost electrical heating devices that consume small amounts of power and maintain a "breathing hole" in the pond. pond pump curves
Winter and garden ponds. Tender marginals need to be removed wholesale. Canna lilies can be potted up and plunged into a bed in cold frames, otherwise keep them cool but frost free and dry along with all the other exotics you have been tempted buy over the last few months. Once upon a time Arum lilies (Zantedeschia aethiopica Crowborough ) and Lobelia cardinalis were treated with the same respect, but now our winters seem quite bearable to them. The more exotic looking yellow and spotty leafed Zantedeschia elliotiana , Z. pentlandii ... Store them under greenhouse staging. oxygenator pond plants
Plants and algae in a pond compete for the available nutrients in the form of phosphorous and nitrogen containing chemicals. It follows that the more pond plants there are then the greater the probability of reducing algae blooms (green or brown murky water). Old well-planted and chemically stable ponds as a result tend to suffer less from algae problems than newly created young ponds. Yes algae are plants and blanket weed is algae. Ponds with lots of blanket weed tend to have crystal clear water. Blanket weed thrives best in alkaline (higher pH) ponds. pond algae and uv
Fish ponds and winter ... Koi keepers know that fish will still come to be fed, if feeding is a routine, way past the temperature at which they are capable of digesting food. Being cold-blooded animals their systems can only summon enough reserves to digest very low protein foods between about 10C (50F) and 7C (45F). So only feed a little winter feed or maybe a wheat germ based food two or three times a week. Below that temperature, feed nothing at all. As the temperature of water in the pool drops to around 5 C (41F) the fish begin to hibernate. Arm yourself with a thermometer that will register these temperatures accurately so you wont have to guess what is going on. water gardens, pond keeping
Oxygen in ponds ... Aeration of ponds ... Aeration of pond water achieves two things both of which are very good for pond water and the fish: Oxygen levels increase and carbon dioxide is "blown" out of the water and this tends to push up pH levels. Aeration also protects against those algae blooms and their dying - when they die they rot and release carbon dioxide by using up the oxygen resource in the water. In summary it is difficult to over-aerate a pond and aeration has all round advantages in a pond. The downside is the cost of a special aerating pump. All top koi keepers' ponds bubble with air as do their filters. filters and uv light
Pond building materials ... Specially formulated flexible plastic non preformed pond liners are also suitable. Look for good guarantee. Do not use ordinary plain black sheeting such as that used by builders. Always source from reputable supplier. For larger ponds (above 600 litres or about 120 gallons) garden pond liners should be installed - preformed liner ponds become too expensive. Rubber (butyl or EPDM) is the material of choice. You can go as big as you like. Even small reservoirs use this type of material. Liner ponds are ideal for water lily ponds. For ponds below this size it would be very wise to choose from a range of preformed pond liners or preformed garden ponds as they are better known. A word of warning: Do not let your dogs swim in water where garden pond liners are used non preformed pond liners are easily damaged by their claws. If you do have dogs go for fibreglass preformed garden ponds. http://www.practical-water-gardens.com/pondliners.htm fiberglass water features
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
Winter and garden ponds. Tender marginals need to be removed wholesale. Canna lilies can be potted up and plunged into a bed in cold frames, otherwise keep them cool but frost free and dry along with all the other exotics you have been tempted buy over the last few months. Once upon a time Arum lilies (Zantedeschia aethiopica Crowborough ) and Lobelia cardinalis were treated with the same respect, but now our winters seem quite bearable to them. The more exotic looking yellow and spotty leafed Zantedeschia elliotiana , Z. pentlandii ... Store them under greenhouse staging. oxygenator pond plants
Pond fish food sticks ... Today fish food sticks are available in all flavours, colours, sizes and formulations but they suffer from a significant disadvantage ... the cost per unit of mass and especially per unit of protein is normally very significantly higher than a similarly formulated floating koi food pellet. One possible reason for this is the incremental freight component (although I doubt this very much) because the bulk density of sticks is lower than that for pellets. I suspect the real reason is that manufacturers, distributors, retailers and any other party in the chain all make higher profit margins on the back of marketing investment going back many years and which still remains today. Next time you think of buying sticks just do a quick comparison. Varying pack weights between sticks and pellets is a well known "trick" of making pricing comparisons very difficult for most busy shoppers pond pump selection

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