"Tumbleweed" wrote in message
. ..
"Lynda Thornton" wrote in message
...
In article , Iain
Miller writes

"Lynda Thornton" wrote in message
...
Hi

I've had continual problems with my large barrel pond going stagnant
since I got it earlier in the summer - it stinks if bad egg to high
heaven a lot of the time and it is really spoiling the garden!

Its gone "Anaerobic" & there are bacteria in there giving off Hydrogen
Sulphide. The water would be pretty poisonous to fish. The problem is
that
the water is dead and starved of oxygen - you need to find a way to get
it
to circulate. Easy options would be to drop a small pump in the bottom
that
just pumps water from bottom to the top or alternatively an Airpump to
inject airbubbles into the bottom of the water - as they rise they will
circulate the water. A small aquarium powerhead (£10-£15) or a small
pump
designed for water features would be enough. If you wanted to go the
Airpump
route then this would cost about the same but you'd have to find a way
to
keep the airpump itself dry. If you can't get power to the thing then
maybe
you could look at one of those solar powerd pumps.

Hi

Thanks for responding.

The problem with pumps in the barrel is the water lily - I thought they
didn't like constantly moving water and needed it still most of the
time? I know that circulating the water helps because I have a smaller
barrel with a solar fountain in it which doesn't smell at all and I've
had it since early last year.

Circulating the water a bit should cure the problem - you get oxygen
exchange at the surface. Once the water has some oxygen in it then the
Anaerobic bacteria will die back & also you will get other bacteria
growing
that will break down rotting material (without stinking!) - but these
will
only survive in water that is oxygenated.


Having lots of plants can help (in theory) but there is a balance
because
although plants give off oxygen during the day, they actually take it
in
at
night so in some cases plant's growing too fast can actually cause a
problem
themselves - particularly for fish which can suffocate overnight in
some
circumstances.

I have no plans to keep fish in it anyway so that's not a problem but I
think the oxygenating plants aren't going to survive for long from what
you're saying here. I guess I'll have to consider either some form of
pump which doesn't disturb the water too much or abandon it?

Lynda


A little bit of water circulation won't be an issue, I have a reasonable
amount of water movement in my pond and soem very healthy lillies. If I
were
you, and you do install a pump / air pump (an air pump will also give
water
circulation), I'd start by cleaning the whole thing out just to give a
good
start rather than trying to fix the problem you have got now.

FWIW air pumps can be a bit noisy, while you wont be able to hear a small
pump in the water at all. Try and get something for a home aquarium that
has
the ability to vary the output, a pond pump will probably be too powerful
though you can probably kludge this with a bit of plastic tubing niftly
directed anyway.

Finally, given the time of year, I'd start again next spring anway, since
there is probably only another 6 weeks or so of lily growing left.

Finally finally, you could probably get by until then by just refilling
the
barrel with clean water, that will give the lily soemthing better than
rotting gunge to overwinter in.

Surely the most straightforward way of coping is to simply replace a quarter
or so of the water daily until the problem disappears?

Franz