In article , MattR
writes:

It's more complicated than that. I put in lots of plants and only had a
few fish, just like everyone says, and the water was green and the
plants yellow. My fish are much bigger and the green water is gone.
(We'll see about the plants.) The difference is the filter I added.


I don't know if it's all that complicated, your pond has found its balance,
Your fish have grown and multiplied thereby producing more waste that's then
turned into fertilizer for your plants. That's my problem right now, not
enough fish and too many plants that I need to fertilize to keep them green and
growing while I wait for my babies to grow up.

You basically have 3 types of filtration, mechanical for junk like flower
petals, leaves, grasses etc, biological for converting ammonia (fish waste)
into nitrates that fertilize your plants, and plants which remove excess
nutirents from the water thru roots. In an artificial pond you are trying to
mimic nature, but the ecosystem you are creating still has to find it's
balance, once it does, it pretty well takes care of itself thereafter.



Karen
Zone 5
Ashland, OH
http://hometown.aol.com/kmam1/MyPond/MyPond.html
My Art Studio at
http://members.aol.com/kmmstudios/K....M.Studios.html
for email remove the extra extention