Water Gardening: Spring, 1 by Oberon46

Oberon46 wrote:
I really don't know if there is truly an illness or not. so it is probably incorrect to say I am battling illness. I have never lost a fish to illness, only long winters and they die during winter, not in the spring. We only have the biowell and the pressure filter with the skimmer, and two UV's. But they don't seem enough to keep down the algae in the spring. We vacuum thoroughly in the fall, then again a little later in the spring when the fish are less weakened from winter. We start adding bacteria to jumpstart the biowell as soon as it hits about 40 degrees; we use a spring/summer mix then a fall/winter mix with cold weather bacteria. I clean the skimmer daily and Damien cleans the biowell once a month. the water is crystal clear with just a little greenish tint, coming from the remaining algae (very little by now) on the rock walls. It seems like you said you had some rock in your pond? Floor or just walls or not at all? Of course you have three ponds so they may all be different. Everyone said that when we removed the rock it would smell to high heaven due to the putrification beneath but there was no smell at all. So I don't believe that the rocks were hiding horrible things to hurt my fish. Dirt, crud -- yes. But no septicity, anaerobic bacteria (quoting my husband the engineer specializing in water/waste water plants.

the equipment you listed. Is that all on one pond, or for all your ponds? Is each pond separate or do they connect with streams? I appreciate all your comments and information. It seems to be a never ending learning process (energy/financial drain) and not all ponds are created equal. Like bottom drains, rock/no rock, shade, sun, temperature -- and it goes on. So I have to filter out (no pun intended) what doesn't seem to apply to us, like hot weather spikes (some days I could wish for hot weather spikes) or predators. And it is too late for bottom drains. I even considered retroing one, or putting in one that sits on top of the liner with hoses running up the side. Yuk. We settled for putting the 750gph pump in the bottom of the deep end to get circulation clear to the bottom there and to facilitate removing waste and such from there.

Here are a few pictures, before rock removal.

thanks again for any and all thoughts and observations.
Mary