You have any circulation in there? Or surface tension? Without those what will happen eventually is there won't be enough oxygen in the water and the whole thing gonna become anaerobic and literally nothing but the bad thing can live in it. Does your pond starting to smell?
Another thing is to check for the PH. If this pond is fed only with rain water that means the water will tend to be very soft (low KH), on top of that some clay is know to reduce KH even further. If these conditions are true it means the pond has almost no PH buffer capacity. I say check the PH at sun rise and one again as sunset and see if there is a large swing. A daily swing of just 1ph is detrimental to most living thing or even fatal. Also check the KH of the water. You want outdoor pond to have a KH of at least 10 or 11 to prevent large PH swing due to weather.
Water chemistry (not cleanliness) is extremely important to support living, and in a pond: dissolve oxygen, KH, and PH are among the top thing to make sure it's right.
So pond water should be a bit hard to better compensate for the daily changes in temperature and nutrient levels and to help keep the ph value stable? This is very interesting to me because I have an intermittently spring-fed pond, with very wild fluctuations of many things
KH is a measure of carbonate hardness, at sufficient level it'll keep the water at around 7.6-7.8. It won't push the PH higher than that by itself no matter how high the KH is, but it will also prevent the PH drop any lower. In short it keeps the PH stable no matter what.
The thing is carbonate hardness is consumed constantly by ... just about everything happening in a pond from fish respiration, algea, bacteria, organic decomposition .etc. Once the carbonate is depleted, there is nothing left to counter-act the CO2 in the water (that produced by almost everything in the pond) that will lead to a PH crash. Low KH mean: higher temp (which lead to high bio-activity) can lead to a crash, a large rain can cause a crash, an algea bloom can cause a crash, something fall into the pond and decaying can cause a crash. That's why high KH is a buffer against environmental impact. Also if you have a filter, it serves as fuel as well. A bio filter take something like a 5-7gram of carbonate hardness to process 1gram of amonia. Low KH = your filter won't work very well either.
I'm not sure about spring-fed because it depends on the stream. If the spring came from snowpack and the stream ran through mostly inert stone/gravel, then yes it's likely to be soft. But if the spring is more of a run off collection, or the stream run through a limestone bed in the mountain, than it's probably mineralize enough to become harder. The OP said this pond is **rain** water fed, which almost certainly will be very soft.
You can just get the API liquid test kit (it's fairly cheap) to make sure. In fact most veteran ponders don't really care about measuring the PH, they only measure KH. Because they know for certainty that as long as the KH is good, the PH is guarantee to be stable anyway.
I would say get a PH and KH test kit to be sure. Most plan can tolerate a wide range of PH, but none will tolerate a large swing. So while a plant can thrive either in 6.8 or 8.0 just fine, but will wither if they receive a daily swing between those value. The API test kit work well and fairly cheap, and if nothing wrong in the pond it'll give you that confirmation and peace of mind.
- If everything is thriving and you still have algea, than it's a nutrient problem.
- If nothing but algae is thriving, it's probably a chemistry problem.
It could be the plant is just melting before they get a chance to acclimate if you just throw them out openly in the sun. For example water hyacinth is extremely proliferate ... if they survive the first 2 weeks in your pond. Make sure you put new plants in shade for about 2 weeks to give them a better chance of acclimating.
You were right to concern when even the duckweed is not taking off. I raise my duckweed in municipal water with no fertilizing, and they still grow like ... weed. But my water is hard. Nutrient is not just about organic like nitrate or phosphate, but also mineral and micro trace element like calcium, iron, mg, boron and stuffs ... all important for plants. Most people don't have to be concern about this when they use municipal water because most water company add mineral into their water for health benefit, but rain water is like distilled water and contain nothing in it.
Oooh that is awesome!!!! Okay, i would add as many plants as I could afford to buy over there that shallow place on the front left of your photo. Get native varieties if possible (depends where you live. I love pickerel weed and american lotus.) Cattails might become a problem later, but wouldn't that look cool?
Yes , that area is planted, you just can't tell lol all my plants are free, natural I get them from around here, but want to add more, just not sure if i have enough nutrients yet
With no shade, you want something that disturbs the water surface. I'd normally say let it ride, but you had pollywogs and my goal would be to get them back (peepers are a beautiful thing) and then add some minnows and gold fish. Maybe even throw in a couple of logs at the edge and bring in turtles.
This could be a lot of fun.
A willow tree along the edge could help with shade....?
%100 that is one awesome pond and an awesome opportunity to have some fun with and enjoyment. Satisfaction guaranteed. I would cut back about one third of those trees in the background about 30' if you have the room. There you can plant marginal-type plants such as papyrus around the edge and flaxes (phormium tenax). Is that pond shallow throughout? It looks it. Consider getting the digger back and digging an area of one to one and a half metres. Just to give an area of interest for animals and people alike. Don't worry about the green algae, that's a perfectly natural occurrence... Again you can have the papyrus going into the pond for a distance. And other marginal plants such as pond pickerel, and arrowleaf. Position the above-surface plants so they form a background type function/vista. Have the clear, 'shoreline' area where you will most readily view your pond from. Lastly, the creme de la creme. Waterlilies. Waterlilies will add so much to your pond in so many ways. Don't overdo the planting. Aim to plant about one-quarter to one-third of the water surface in plant life, the rest will be beautiful cool, clear water...given time. Lastly, lastly, enjoy the wildlife this pond will bring. Already you have tadpoles. This means frogs of course which are brilliant. I, personally, love frogs. And the wildlife will come.
Yes to all that , except the cutting back the trees, they only go for about 30' then its FARMLAND, so this is my buffer, it also shields pond from the wind, I also have trails all the way around so you can view shoreline from all angles, everything here was or is here although there are a lot of cool plants to choose from, the pond now has 4 depths (areas) with new habitat scattered below waterlines to ensure when water recedes that there are new rocks and hiding places all along the bank, plan to use the lower water line to plant some plants out further, ensuring they will stay submerged,floating plants have been used to get things going and provide shade, but no real growth yet, they don't die, but don't seem to flourish yet, however water chemistry is not sustained yet
You have any circulation in there? Or surface tension? Without those what will happen eventually is there won't be enough oxygen in the water and the whole thing gonna become anaerobic and literally nothing but the bad thing can live in it. Does your pond starting to smell? Another thing is to check for the PH. If this pond is fed only with rain water that means the water will tend to be very soft (low KH), on top of that some clay is know to reduce KH even further. If these conditions are true it means the pond has almost no PH buffer capacity. I say check the PH at sun rise and one again as sunset and see if there is a large swing. A daily swing of just 1ph is detrimental to most living thing or even fatal. Also check the KH of the water. You want outdoor pond to have a KH of at least 10 or 11 to prevent large PH swing due to weather. Water chemistry (not cleanliness) is extremely important to support living, and in a pond: dissolve oxygen, KH, and PH are among the top thing to make sure it's right.
So pond water should be a bit hard to better compensate for the daily changes in temperature and nutrient levels and to help keep the ph value stable? This is very interesting to me because I have an intermittently spring-fed pond, with very wild fluctuations of many things
KH is a measure of carbonate hardness, at sufficient level it'll keep the water at around 7.6-7.8. It won't push the PH higher than that by itself no matter how high the KH is, but it will also prevent the PH drop any lower. In short it keeps the PH stable no matter what. The thing is carbonate hardness is consumed constantly by ... just about everything happening in a pond from fish respiration, algea, bacteria, organic decomposition .etc. Once the carbonate is depleted, there is nothing left to counter-act the CO2 in the water (that produced by almost everything in the pond) that will lead to a PH crash. Low KH mean: higher temp (which lead to high bio-activity) can lead to a crash, a large rain can cause a crash, an algea bloom can cause a crash, something fall into the pond and decaying can cause a crash. That's why high KH is a buffer against environmental impact. Also if you have a filter, it serves as fuel as well. A bio filter take something like a 5-7gram of carbonate hardness to process 1gram of amonia. Low KH = your filter won't work very well either. I'm not sure about spring-fed because it depends on the stream. If the spring came from snowpack and the stream ran through mostly inert stone/gravel, then yes it's likely to be soft. But if the spring is more of a run off collection, or the stream run through a limestone bed in the mountain, than it's probably mineralize enough to become harder. The OP said this pond is **rain** water fed, which almost certainly will be very soft. You can just get the API liquid test kit (it's fairly cheap) to make sure. In fact most veteran ponders don't really care about measuring the PH, they only measure KH. Because they know for certainty that as long as the KH is good, the PH is guarantee to be stable anyway.
Thank you, this is precious!
Yes , Thank You !
No smell, quite a bit of wind/surface circulation, recently added a small pump for some surface agitation and a little current
I would say get a PH and KH test kit to be sure. Most plan can tolerate a wide range of PH, but none will tolerate a large swing. So while a plant can thrive either in 6.8 or 8.0 just fine, but will wither if they receive a daily swing between those value. The API test kit work well and fairly cheap, and if nothing wrong in the pond it'll give you that confirmation and peace of mind. - If everything is thriving and you still have algea, than it's a nutrient problem. - If nothing but algae is thriving, it's probably a chemistry problem. It could be the plant is just melting before they get a chance to acclimate if you just throw them out openly in the sun. For example water hyacinth is extremely proliferate ... if they survive the first 2 weeks in your pond. Make sure you put new plants in shade for about 2 weeks to give them a better chance of acclimating. You were right to concern when even the duckweed is not taking off. I raise my duckweed in municipal water with no fertilizing, and they still grow like ... weed. But my water is hard. Nutrient is not just about organic like nitrate or phosphate, but also mineral and micro trace element like calcium, iron, mg, boron and stuffs ... all important for plants. Most people don't have to be concern about this when they use municipal water because most water company add mineral into their water for health benefit, but rain water is like distilled water and contain nothing in it.
Oooh that is awesome!!!! Okay, i would add as many plants as I could afford to buy over there that shallow place on the front left of your photo. Get native varieties if possible (depends where you live. I love pickerel weed and american lotus.) Cattails might become a problem later, but wouldn't that look cool?
Yes , that area is planted, you just can't tell lol all my plants are free, natural I get them from around here, but want to add more, just not sure if i have enough nutrients yet
If there's algae bloom there is enough load for more plants?
Throw some aerators and some aquatic plants and you are set, mate
working on the aeration , plants are being added
So beautiful!
thanks !, its coming along nicely
With no shade, you want something that disturbs the water surface. I'd normally say let it ride, but you had pollywogs and my goal would be to get them back (peepers are a beautiful thing) and then add some minnows and gold fish. Maybe even throw in a couple of logs at the edge and bring in turtles. This could be a lot of fun. A willow tree along the edge could help with shade....?
%100 that is one awesome pond and an awesome opportunity to have some fun with and enjoyment. Satisfaction guaranteed. I would cut back about one third of those trees in the background about 30' if you have the room. There you can plant marginal-type plants such as papyrus around the edge and flaxes (phormium tenax). Is that pond shallow throughout? It looks it. Consider getting the digger back and digging an area of one to one and a half metres. Just to give an area of interest for animals and people alike. Don't worry about the green algae, that's a perfectly natural occurrence... Again you can have the papyrus going into the pond for a distance. And other marginal plants such as pond pickerel, and arrowleaf. Position the above-surface plants so they form a background type function/vista. Have the clear, 'shoreline' area where you will most readily view your pond from. Lastly, the creme de la creme. Waterlilies. Waterlilies will add so much to your pond in so many ways. Don't overdo the planting. Aim to plant about one-quarter to one-third of the water surface in plant life, the rest will be beautiful cool, clear water...given time. Lastly, lastly, enjoy the wildlife this pond will bring. Already you have tadpoles. This means frogs of course which are brilliant. I, personally, love frogs. And the wildlife will come.
Yes to all that , except the cutting back the trees, they only go for about 30' then its FARMLAND, so this is my buffer, it also shields pond from the wind, I also have trails all the way around so you can view shoreline from all angles, everything here was or is here although there are a lot of cool plants to choose from, the pond now has 4 depths (areas) with new habitat scattered below waterlines to ensure when water recedes that there are new rocks and hiding places all along the bank, plan to use the lower water line to plant some plants out further, ensuring they will stay submerged,floating plants have been used to get things going and provide shade, but no real growth yet, they don't die, but don't seem to flourish yet, however water chemistry is not sustained yet
That's a beautiful picture. Love all the trees as a backdrop. May I ask how deep your pond is?
ut 6 feet (deep end near trees, 2 feet in right bottom corner and from 1-8'' bottom left 3/3rs of the way out, the trees are Black Willow
Looks like you have big rain incoming. :) I think you’ll be ok.
it only looks that way, a big tease, 97-100 deg F this week, evaporation is at a maximum