I have a small preformed plastic-type pond that holds 100 gal. and I use a small rectangular filter box with bio balls on the bottom around the pump and 4 foam pads on top (2 fine blue & 2 coarse black). I have been cleaning this out every week and while the water is not bad in the pond, the water in the filter box is always green, as are the pads. My question is, am I doing the right thing in cleaning this out every week? I dump out the water & rinse all the green out of the pads but leave the bio balls alone. The only reason I am wondering if perhaps I am doing something wrong is this morning when I was googling for replacement filters I saw some discussions about this. Some say leave it alone, others say clean weekly and it appears to be a big debate. Apparently the downside to cleaning every week is the water that spills out of the box when lifting it out pollutes the pond? But I am curious, isn't the water that the pump is spewing out the top the same water that is spilling when I lift out the box? Sheesh, I am so confused! LOL
Anyway, my second question is about adding pea gravel to the bottom of the pond. Good idea or bad? I was thinking it would look much more attractive and give the fish a place to lay their eggs, was also thinking that it would help with filtration, but no idea why I think that. I would really appreciate your input on these subjects.
2 questions - cleaning filter & adding gravel
We us to use the same filtering system on our 1500 gal pond. As for the polluting in a way yes you are because that is what the filter is for get the pollutants out so yes you do dump them back into the water. You dont have to clean it every week however. Let it go for awhile. We also cleaned the balls. When we cleaned ours out about a month or sometimes two depending on our schedules. As for the pea gravel you might want to use something alittle larger due to leaning purpose, and the fish can kick (fin) up the little rock causing some to maybe get into you pump. We are going to put river rock in the bottom of our new pond. With the neighbor kid we ended up with both pea gravel and river rock in the bottom of our pond unexpectedly. And it looks very nice and we have had no problem with it. GOOD LUCK.
Good question mudpies. I've been thinking about adding some black sand or small black pebbles to the bottom of my pond. It's has a convex bottom so I thought that might give my pump more stability. I didn't consider it might get into the pump.
Sand is too small for a pump. Many pond people (with fish) tell you not to put anything on the bottom at all....but, in normal ponds in the wild, there's all sorts of stuff on the bottom. Lowes has flat black rock, so it won't puncture your liner, they are smooth stones, and around 3 inches big. I used those, even though it's more expensive than regular stone, but it also lets the fish show up brightly against the black background.
Well, I did it. I had half a bag of pea gravel leftover from when I potted up some pond plants so I went ahead and added that to the bottom in a single layer. There is no way that it can get into the filter, the box is enclosed with just narrow slats on the lid. It looks really good and you are right Mary, it looks more natural. I will be getting another bag to use on the upper ledges. I had a small amount of the smooth stones you are talking about and I had put those in too. I will just mix them together.
Katy, I thought the same thing about stability because my pots rocked a bit. They don't anymore.
Looks great mudpies! I'm going to do it. Both my pumps are encased in old nylon stockings for further protection so I'm not too worried about stuff getting in them. I too have some of the flat black stones ($ store) left over. I'll use those plus some black aquarium gravel as my pond is an old metal satellite dish so I don't have to worry about punctures. Thanks all! ;•)
Katy, what a cool use of an old satellite dish! How creative you are. I hope you will post a pic when you do the gravel, I would love to see it. I was gonna try to finish my gravel this weekend but we are having a heat wave,113 yesterday and supposed to be 115 today. I am not going ANYWHERE! Times like this I wish we had air conditioning. Scoot over fishies...LOL
I can't take credit for it, the previous owner was a great DIYer and very creative. I've really enjoyed his legacies. I'll admit, I've scratched my head over a few of his "creations" though. LOL
KatyMac....What a cool idea though (even if it wasn't yours to begin with!)
One of my small water bowls is actually a fire-pit, but I decided to fill it with water, plant some minature lilies, and add a few fish. It works great!
Mudpies...I also bought some black marble 5 inch balls from Old Time Pottery and put them in my pond, they look good, and with their size being bigger than the stones, it adds a little dimension too. Your fish look happy!
wow, some good uses for unused things, huh? Clever. What is the firepit made of? Metal or stone?
Our fish are really happy. They are so used to us that we can put our hands (or DH puts his toes, lol) in the water and they nibble on us. It was so miserably hot this weekend (115 degrees) that I put up the inflateable pool so we could get some relief and my daughter got the net and caught a couple to swim with us. They were so funny, so curious and not at all alarmed to be swimming with us, and then my daughter said that the others would never believe their story when they went back so she caught 2 more as "witnesses". LOL They wove around our legs and even nudged us out of their way a couple of times. Alot of fun. I think they were unhappy to go back in that hot pond.
This is an interesting thread. I've been thinking of putting stones on the bottom of my pond, too.
My firepit water garden is a clay pottery firepit. I just decided to fill it with water and add a few fish and plants. It's been a happy little place ever since. I saw one at Lowes yesterday for $69, so may go get another one! Some are porous, so you need to paint waterproofer on the inside and let it dry prior to filling.
:)
Remember that the filter has beneficial bacteria which helps break down the ammonia and other byproducts into something that is not toxic to your fish. Looks like you have a pretty large fish load for a 100 gallon pond. I would make sure that your water cycles at least once an hour and I would not clean the filter quite so often.
Thanks rylaff, I appreciate your input. My pump/filter goes on when I get up at daybreak and stays on until the last person goes to bed at about 11pm, so there is a whole lotta filtering going on. :~)
Rocks and/or gravel are fine on a pond bottom - as long as - you don't let excess debris settle in between the rocks or accumulate in the gravel. This creates a breeding ground for the bad kinds of bacteria that cause all kinds of fish diseases. At least an annual vacuuming is required. If you take up a handful of gravel or a handful of debris collected from between or under the rocks and it smells, either rotton or sulpher, then there is an unhealthy situation brewing. If you let the debris accumulate and it becomes anerobic, then suddendly stir it up, the debris will consume all the available oxygen in the pond to become aerobic. Instant fish kill from oxygen deprivation.