My greenwater finally died off, but now I have brown water.

I built one of those "milk crate" submerged filter, driven by our large pond
spitter pump, but noticed this am, the fish all in a cluster, doing the air
sucking thing.

Does the dead algae reduce oxygen levels? I turned the bubblers on again, to
add more oxygen in the water.

Wonder how long it'll take the filter to clear the dead algae?

--
Gareee's Homepage:
http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine.../mainframe.htm

Remove Delicious spam to reply

My greenwater finally died off, ...

By itself?

Does the dead algae reduce oxygen levels?

Aerobic bacteria suck down oxygen like no tomorrow.

Do you circulate your bottom water?

If not, leave that bubbler on all the time.

C//

"Courageous" wrote in message
news

My greenwater finally died off, ...

By itself?

Yep. I suspect lots of overcast rainy days, and increasing the number of
plats to it.


Does the dead algae reduce oxygen levels?

Aerobic bacteria suck down oxygen like no tomorrow.

And, um, Aerobi means?


Do you circulate your bottom water?

Nope. At least I haven't.

If not, leave that bubbler on all the time.

Will do.

--
Gareee's Homepage:
http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine.../mainframe.htm

Remove Delicious spam to reply

"Gareee©" wrote in message
...
My greenwater finally died off, but now I have brown water.

## A partial water change would probably help.

I built one of those "milk crate" submerged filter, driven by our large
pond
spitter pump, but noticed this am, the fish all in a cluster, doing the
air
sucking thing.

## Now THAT doesn't sound good.

Does the dead algae reduce oxygen levels? I turned the bubblers on again,
to
add more oxygen in the water.

## I would leave them on ALL THE TIME!

Wonder how long it'll take the filter to clear the dead algae?

## No one can answer that one.........
--
McKoi.... the frugal ponder...
My Pond Page http://tinyurl.com/cuq5b
~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o

Aerobic bacteria suck down oxygen like no tomorrow.

And, um, Aerobi means?

Air-breathing. Your pond is alive with them, they break down
waste. But they need oxygen to live.

If not, leave that bubbler on all the time.

Will do.

The bubbler forms a small current, moving water from the bottom
of the pond to the top. The top of your pond aerates the water
very well, but the bottom of your pond is very low in oxygen.
So you move the low oxygen bottom water to the top, it gets
oxygenated.

The air bubbler itself adds a little oxygen also, but really
plays second string to the circulation/top of your pond thing.

Some folks pull water out of the bottom of their pond, pump
it to a waterfall or something.

A well designed pond will often have two pumps. One to power
the skimmer (to get floaters off the top), and one to circulate
lower water, to oxygenate the pond.

You don't really need a bubbler, if you have the right set up,
but it will work okay if you don't.

How big is your pond, how many gallons per hour is your current
pump?

C//

Gareee wrote
Aerobic bacteria suck down oxygen like no tomorrow.
And, um, Aerobic means? .

Requiring oxygen
Went cruising google, my favorite activity when the dishes call and
found:
*Aerobic digestion of waste is the natural biological degradation and
purification process in which bacteria that thrive in oxygen-rich
environments break down and digest the waste.
During this oxidation process, pollutants are broken down into carbon
dioxide (CO2), water (H2O), nitrates, sulphates and biomass
(micro-organisms). By optimising the oxygen supply -with so-called
aerators- the process can be significantly accelerated*

So lots of oxygen in the water is a goooooooood thing, as Martha would
say.

kathy :-) www.blogfromthebog.com
this week ~ the rat-tail maggot!

Pond 101 page for new pond keepers ~
http://hometown.aol.com/ka30p/myhomepage/garden.html

So lots of oxygen in the water is a goooooooood thing, as Martha would
say.

Yes.

In my current pond construction, I'm putting bubblers in the bog
filter's cleanout tube (which is otherwise sealed). I'm aerating the
bog. I have no bubblers in the main pond otherwise planned.

This is partly to keep a die off from happening in the even the
pump is shut down, partly to accelerate the aerobes.

C//

"Courageous" wrote in message
...

Aerobic bacteria suck down oxygen like no tomorrow.

And, um, Aerobi means?

Air-breathing. Your pond is alive with them, they break down
waste. But they need oxygen to live.


ah, ok.


A well designed pond will often have two pumps. One to power
the skimmer (to get floaters off the top), and one to circulate
lower water, to oxygenate the pond.

You don't really need a bubbler, if you have the right set up,
but it will work okay if you don't.

How big is your pond, how many gallons per hour is your current
pump?

Not sure of the exact size, but it's 13x13x, 1.5-3 feet deep.

The spitter is a 2-3 foot tall gargoyle, and it pulls from the homeade
plastic milk carton furnace filter I built from recommendations here.
(Though it doesn't seem to be doing much of a job at all of removing the
floating dead algae.)

This is the first time I've ever seen the fish all together doing the gaping
thing.. maybe it's some common group behaviour as well?


--
Gareee's Homepage:
http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine.../mainframe.htm

Remove Delicious spam to reply

"Courageous" wrote in message
...

So lots of oxygen in the water is a goooooooood thing, as Martha would

Well, I had shut the bubblers off in march or so, after the possibility of a
freeze over.

The pond is in full sun, and it's taken some time this year to get any major
kind of plant growth in the pond.. I have one large lilly, with over 40
pads, a smaller one with about 10 2 inch pads, and 3 large water hyacinths.

I had added 6 bunches of watercress, but the fish decided they proffered it
for lunch instead of shade. they've literally devoured it all now.

I recently added a bunch of water lettuce from one of the group members, but
it's too early to tell if it'll "take" or not.

--
Gareee's Homepage:
http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine.../mainframe.htm

Remove Delicious spam to reply

Not sure of the exact size, but it's 13x13x, 1.5-3 feet deep.

Okay, I'll assume an average depth of 2.25 feet. Your pond is
13 x 13 x 2.25 x 7.48 = 3,160 gallons.

The spitter is a 2-3 foot tall gargoyle, ...

Hrm. A "spitter" is your only water flow? That doesn't sound like
it could be very much...

You should move about 3,000 gallons of water per hour. I'd look
into a Sequence 750. Lots of gallons moved, low watts consumed.

This is the first time I've ever seen the fish all together doing the gaping
thing.. maybe it's some common group behaviour as well?

Almost always means not enough oxygen in the water.

C//

"Courageous" wrote in message
...

Not sure of the exact size, but it's 13x13x, 1.5-3 feet deep.

Okay, I'll assume an average depth of 2.25 feet. Your pond is
13 x 13 x 2.25 x 7.48 = 3,160 gallons.

The spitter is a 2-3 foot tall gargoyle, ...

Hrm. A "spitter" is your only water flow? That doesn't sound like
it could be very much...

Here's a pic link to give you an idea.. the gargoyle can be lifted by 1
person, but it's easier with 2. For scale, the large boulder to the right
cannot be lifted or budged at all... it is about 4-5 ft square, and the
sundial near the spitted is a foot tall, maybe a tad higher. Our old
Christmas tree behind the pond stands about 7-8 ft at the top tip.

http://webpages.charter.net/gareee/Pond.jpg


--
Gareee's Homepage:
http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine.../mainframe.htm

Remove Delicious spam to reply

"Gareee©" wrote in message
...

"Courageous" wrote in message
...

Not sure of the exact size, but it's 13x13x, 1.5-3 feet deep.

Okay, I'll assume an average depth of 2.25 feet. Your pond is
13 x 13 x 2.25 x 7.48 = 3,160 gallons.

The spitter is a 2-3 foot tall gargoyle, ...

Hrm. A "spitter" is your only water flow? That doesn't sound like
it could be very much...

Here's a pic link to give you an idea.. the gargoyle can be lifted by 1
person, but it's easier with 2. For scale, the large boulder to the right
cannot be lifted or budged at all... it is about 4-5 ft square, and the
sundial near the spitted is a foot tall, maybe a tad higher. Our old
Christmas tree behind the pond stands about 7-8 ft at the top tip.

http://webpages.charter.net/gareee/Pond.jpg


Nice pond, but I think Courageous is right. You need much more water flow.
My puddle is only 500 imperial gallons and I have about 1500 gph split
between the water fall and the fountain.


--
Gareee's Homepage:
http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine.../mainframe.htm

Remove Delicious spam to reply

"Courageous" did the calculations and came up with:

Okay, I'll assume an average depth of 2.25 feet. Your pond is
13 x 13 x 2.25 x 7.48 = 3,160 gallons.

Having done my own figuring and fellow ponder's figuring of their own ponds
and then running a water meter, or salt calculator, we've found all to be
off by 20-50%. All those folds, curves and I wouldn't be surprised plant
containers (if it is an older pond) take up space.

http://webpages.charter.net/gareee/Pond.jpg

So with the math and the picture above I'm betting she has something over
2,000 gallons, and the only way that little filter is gonna work is to mass
plant the pond. My lily pond of 1,000 gallons has 12 water lilies, 2 lotus,
4 baskets of iris, 2 baskets of arrowhead, 1 lizard tail and a few water
hyacinths, plus bunches of anacharis.

It looks like you have the starts of a water fall to the right? Do you have
anyone mechanically inclined to help you do an out-of-the-pond filter
perhaps? I'm thinking plumbing similar to what my guys did for me (see
diagram on webpage under *My Filter*) where you go over the side and use
siphon effect. www.jjspond.us ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

"~ janj JJsPond.us" wrote in message
...
"Courageous" did the calculations and came up with:

Okay, I'll assume an average depth of 2.25 feet. Your pond is
13 x 13 x 2.25 x 7.48 = 3,160 gallons.

Having done my own figuring and fellow ponder's figuring of their own
ponds
and then running a water meter, or salt calculator, we've found all to be
off by 20-50%. All those folds, curves and I wouldn't be surprised plant
containers (if it is an older pond) take up space.

http://webpages.charter.net/gareee/Pond.jpg

So with the math and the picture above I'm betting she has something over
2,000 gallons, and the only way that little filter is gonna work is to
mass
plant the pond. My lily pond of 1,000 gallons has 12 water lilies, 2
lotus,
4 baskets of iris, 2 baskets of arrowhead, 1 lizard tail and a few water
hyacinths, plus bunches of anacharis.

It looks like you have the starts of a water fall to the right? Do you
have
anyone mechanically inclined to help you do an out-of-the-pond filter
perhaps? I'm thinking plumbing similar to what my guys did for me (see
diagram on webpage under *My Filter*) where you go over the side and use
siphon effect. www.jjspond.us ~ jan

Yeah we'd talked about a waterfall on the right. I'm thinking it would be
better to have a lower one, and incorporate the rock on it's side, then to
drop totally off that boulder.

What I can probably do, is get a larger pump, and place that inside the in
pond filter as well.

I'm kinda in the boonies (Our city has a total population of only 6,000), so
pretty much what I can do is what I me myself.

I've seen some pumps in the chicago tools catalog that look like they might
do a waterfall.. or any online inexpensive alternatives would also be good.

BTW, we thought there were some larger baby fish in the pond, and it's
turned out they are salmanders or newts that have decided to visit!


--
Gareee's Homepage:
http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine.../mainframe.htm

Remove Delicious spam to reply

I've seen some pumps in the chicago tools catalog that look like they might
do a waterfall.. or any online inexpensive alternatives would also be good.

You really need to look at the unit cost of water moved. Cost of operations
can really get ya. The Sequence 750 is one of the most cost effective gallons-
moved-to-watts-burned pumps on the market.

C//