Ponds, Gardens and Goldfish

We've finally hit a solution to the algae problem! As well as putting some preventative into the pond, we decided that it was warmth and light that caused the algae to grow.

Last week it was over 30C almost everyday, and the pond was, well,...... murky, to say the least. I went to the local hardware store, and purchased a couple of metres of good quality shadecloth.

The shadecloth is only loosely draped over the rocks by the pond, and is held down by bricks at the moment, pending a more permanent solution, but the difference in water quality is amazing! I wouldn't have thought that such a simple solution would cause such a change. Now we can actually see the fish moving around in the pond.

We've thought of sinking four pieces of wide pipe into the ground about half a metre from the pond edges, attaching the shade cloth to thinner pipe, and placing the smaller pipes into the ground pipes. The distance from the pond should make sure that even in the early morning and late afternoon, the pond is still shaded to a certain extent.

We'll let you know hot it progresses, and will add a photo of the finished cover. It won't be pretty, but it will help with the algae, and will even stop the goldfish being cooked this summer.

We've been away for a while, having a holiday, and since our pet and plant carer wasn't happy about cleaning the pond filter, we switched it off for the duration.

The water certainly turned a darker shade of green in those few days, and now that it's getting warmer, the algae will be growing even faster.

This Summer we are planning on building a shade over the pond to see if this helps to keep the water a little clearer. It should certainly help keep the temperature in the pond down, so we don't get cooked fish! Hope so, anyway, as we are expecting the Summer to be even more hot and unpleasant than last year.

No matter what we try, we just don't seem able to get rid of the algae from the fish pond.

It's making the water very murky and dark. I'm told the fish will eat it though, so maybe it's not all bad, but I'd really prefer clear water. The tablets we're using aren't working too well, so guess it's time to try something else.

We do have a decent filter in the pond now, at at the moment, it's running 24/7, but the algae still grows. Any suggestions, please let me know! :-)

Well, we thought that with the new smaller filter, there would be no problems from now on, especially since it was too low in the water for the cats to knock it over.

Maybe we're just not meant to have a filter in the pond, because the new one ran for about 36 hours, then quit.

We turned it off and left it for a few hours, then tried it again - still no go. A few drops trickled from the fountain and that's all.

Looks as if more research will have to be done, not to mention more money spent, if we want to have a decent filter pump in the pond. Maybe it will be third time lucky? :-)

My partner and I were just about to go out on Saturday morning, when he called me over to the fishpond........There was only about two inches of water in the bottom, and the fish were sitting there looking somewhat upset. The filter was lying on it's side, whirring away at nothing.

We put the fish in a bucket while we removed the pond to find the leak, but when we'd done all the work, couldn't find one at all. Head-scratching time.

A little later, my partner had the solution - one of the neighbourhood cats must have been drinking at the fountain, and knocked it over, and it had fallen with the head over the edge of the pond, pumping all the water out, until the inlet was above the remaining water level. Fortunately, it had fallen with the inlet on the higher side, so the fish were left with survival level water.

After filling the pond again with rainwater from our tank, back went the fish, and we tried to get the filter running again. No joy - the motor ran for a couple of seconds, then gave up forever.

This, of course, meant getting a whole new filter/pump system for the pond, and we'll have to dig up all the conduit again to get the wiring in underground. Lots of work to be done next weekend.

We've now got a smaller system, with a shorter fountain, and hopefully the same thing can't happen again. We don't want to lose the fish, after all the work that went into this pond!

It's only about the same size as the other pond, but should suit the fish better, because it's deeper. Also we've decided to have less plants in it, just a couple of fixed plants, and the floating water lettuce, given to me by a neighbour, who couldn't use them.

The fish wouldn't cooperate and come to the surface, so you can't see them. When I get a fishy picture, I'll put it on here, of course! If you look carefully, there is a fish near the left hand water lettuce.

As with the other pond, we now have to wait for the plants to grow around and over the pond, so that next summer it has some shade from the 40C heat. We don't want cooked fish! If it gets too bad, we may even have to put shade cloth over it, even if it does look ugly.

Of course, the first thing we had to do was find a suitable pond - this entailed lots of visits to online retailers, and quite a few visits to local garden centres. We couldn't find anything we liked at all.

One Sunday, we were walking around a local market, and came across a vendor who had just the thing! We'd never thought about the market as a supplier, but there they were. Problem - not enough cash with us. Solution - go to nearest ATM. That done, home we went with the new pond.

It was midsummer, so working out in the front garden in full sun wasn't exactly what we wanted to do, so we waited until there was a cooler day.

First, we had to decide where to put the old pond, and dig the hole for that. With the drought we're in, and having clay soil, it was a pretty tough job for my partner, but he did it.

The hole was lined with sand to make a smooth base, then we emptied the old
pond into buckets, and separated the fish from the plants, before lifting the pond out of the ground and cleaning it. When placed in the hole, it fitted very well, so
in it went. After some backfilling around the edges, it was surrounded by rocks, and the old water and the plants went in. We decided to keep the fish in a bucket while working on the new pond placement.

Since we were unable to get the water clear in this little fishpond, we added a small fountain to it. That helped a little, but there was still far too much alge in the water, although the fish didn't seem to mind.

We also had a cat problem - some of the area cats seem to think our pond is a great place to drink from, and even try to catch the fish. We've lost quite a few over the years.

Anyway, we decided to get a pond which was about the same size, but deeper, and replace the old one. We also decided to move the waterlilies and use the older pond as a water garden, in a new spot.