I think we’ve found the formula. I’ve ordered more of one and am going to go after the other.
Meanwhile I’m proofing for Jane, and the pond is requiring less and less care. It went all night with the filter in place and didn’t clog.
What I’m using, for those of you who have ponds: Interpet Pond Balance, at recommended strength (binds a nutrient that hair algae needs, but other plants don’t, plus helps condition water) and Microbelift Sludge Remover, which makes the pond look like peatwater for a couple of days, but sets bacteria to noshing down on the bottom crud. I have no UV filter any more; and nothing but regular circulation, the filter pads which take out debris and particulates, and these 2 things. The fish are ever so much happier. If we can maintain it with this alone, life will be good.
it’s so much better when you and your tank/pond can reach equilibrium. But, it’s you doing the learning and changing.
At a certain point, I was having to wash out that filter every half hour.
THIS looks as if it’s going to work.
For the first time today, instead of washing filters, I got to sit on the garden seat at the top end of the pond and feed the fishes, in clear water.
That’s the way it should be.
If this works, friends, I will be SO happy!
Clear water is good – but it’s neat every now and then to be able to *see* the water. You used some low tech flow visualization, which looked great on Jane’s slideshow. There’s a creek down behind our neighborhood, and I’ll just go down there with the dog and sit on a rock out in the middle (in the glorious sun), and watch the various flotsam show me the eddies and whorls in the flow (and also guess at what happens underneath – one of the perils of being an aerospace engineer is that I try to solve the flowfield in my head all the time) (flow viz geekery time: centrifugal force throws objects to the outside, right? Try this – take pyrex measuring cup, or a large glass bowl, or something that you can see through and fill it about 3/4 full with water. Next use a spoon or other utensil to swirl the water around at a good clip until you get a good vortex going. Now dump a good bit of pepper into the bowl, and see where it goes, as it is entrained by the water – centrifugal force should throw it to the outside, right? Right? (you can keep stirring from time to time to keep it going) 😉
We’ve got constant flow in the pond. That 950 gallon-per-hour pump (if it isn’t larger) sucks water from the pond and pushes it up the waterfall—it’s no stream, but like you, I enjoy watching the occasional bubbles that come from the splash make their trip around the pond and back again to the skimmer. The bubbles make stars on the bottom, one star to a bubble. And of course the fish get to racing, especially with food in prospect, and stir things up.
Running water is good for the soul, I’m convinced, unless it involves a plumber. 😉
I like running water when it is running off the eaves, as it has been here intermittently lately. We’ve gotten a series of slow rains that can soak in, and temps have been in the 70s, which has been heavenly. Not enough rain to kick us out of the drought but I, for one, have greatly appreciated it. Some of the surrounding communities have been getting their rain in big chunks and are not too pleased about that, understandably, but the moisture has been literally heaven sent. The poor folks in England have been having a monsoon, but here in Tx panhandle, it’s been nice. The landscape has been greening up fit to kill. My “falling water” is limited to a plug in pet fountain. Our water is so hard that you have to use distilled or the thing calcifies as you watch.