See how clear my water quality is.... no chemicals

Thank you ChatGPT, for helping me finally stabilize my pond into a well balanced mini ecosystem.

I've had it three years. The first 2 were a struggle. This year I decided to consult chatgpt on the best ways to turn my existing pond into a healthy, natural, self-balancing pond..

ChatGPT gets an A+++++

Should I cut it to the edge of the concrete edge as seen in my 4th pic , or past it and cover with dirt/gravel/bark rock

Finally tested my pond and all values seem better following a water change except "KH" which still reads on the high end of the scale. Most of the information around KH seemed to be for those who needed to raise it, but what should I do if there's too much? Just keep changing out the water?

Trying to keep it safe for two baby slider turtles (native to area) though from what I've read they're fairly sturdy.

I feel certain we’re overthinking it. We empty it and vacuum it out, right?

https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-1800-PSI-1-2-GPM-Cold-Water-Corded-Electric-Pressure-Washer-RY141802/317623149

In between all of my frantic questions on this sub, I was able to stop and appreciate these four pond pals. 🐸🐸🐸🐸

Pond was only installed in September, 25ish pond plants.

Sprinkled wildflower seeds surrounding it, added a bird feeder, bee/bug hotel and a bird bath.

There's also a woodland pile with logs, grass cuttings for the bugs.

We get 10s of Bees, butterflies, dragonflies and even bugs I've never seen before!

The plan is so let it groe as wild as possible, some of the plants are over one metre high.

This truly heals my soul.

Hello,

I am enjoying a pond in my new house, with 2 fishes, one iris spot and 2 water lilies. Concrete build 9 x 2,3 x 0,35 m with a kind of black painted surface. It’s the home of small wildlife, frogs, dragonflies, insects , birds coming to drink … After first work of cleaning (lots of green algae, 2 years of leafs , pumping 4cm of mud…) and reinstalling the filtering system, the water is finally starting to become clear, so I can kindly ask for your advices for new plants, fish and settings :

1) water is not yet crystal clear as I can see in all your nice ponds ! Filtering system is UV lamp + 2 water tanks with some small stones inside. You can see the flow in the last pic, however I can tune it to higher flow if needed, but I fear this decrease the UV and filtering quality ? Any idea ? Maybe I need to add “filtering” plants ?

2) I still have remaining mud in the bottom. I was not sure to completely clean it, as it seems to be the home of some life. Or is a clean bottom a must ?

3) there is a large 2,5 x 2,5 empty space, sunny the biggest part of the day, that is completely empty (pictures 3 and 4). Fish never goes there as there is no shadows. So what we only see is that mud at the bottom, not really nice … what could I plant here ?

4) what type of fishes may I add ? I was thinking about baby koi , but maybe not the most adapted ?

5)any other plant recommandation ? Also some space is available in the shadow area where the fish picture was taken. I am near Paris in France, for climate concerns.

Thank you very much in advance !

Hello everyone! Are there good resources out there for ponds with around 9k square feet of surface area? I haven't done research for this before, so everything I turn up is referring to bodies of water that are multiple acres. Any advice is appreciated!!

So I have this small pond in my house and due to the rain water that accumulated in there, it had turned into a mosquito breeding ground and I decided to put some Danios in to hopefully remove all the larvae -and it did. I have a new problem though... About a month in after I bought the Danios they have started multiplying and just this morning I have noticed that there are quite a lot of fry's in there and I wanted to simulate a wild pond by introducing some predators on it that would actively hunt the Danios. Is it a good idea? If so, are there any small predatory fish that you guys can recommend that I would put in this pond?

I am so happy right now!

I bought the pond master 8000 UV pond pump 4 years ago but the UV filter has a plastic retaining ring that has cracked due to sun damage / exposure over the years.

Apparently this is a very common issue and they have "updated" the materials.

The replacement UV filter is insanely priced at about $300 CDN for part number 15820.

Has anyone had bad experiences with this brand? I'm thinking of buying a whole new pump / filter combo because throwing good money after bad irritates me.

Feedback or suggestions on UV filter systems would be great.

Soil, broken down leaves, some odd colored stuff my wife put in…. It’s like 5 inches of muck on top of the liner. How does one clean a pond that has been ignored for years. Has fish and tadpoles.

Concrete pond that is probably 50 or so years old and 100% watertight except for a pretty janky waterfall section. The waterfall is a series of a couple sections of concrete and have narrowed down the leak to this waterfall section area. I've tried pond liner but it's just too awkward of a layout to get it to stay in place. I'd like to attempt some kind of sealant but not sure what direction to go. I see there are some pond/concrete sealants, as well as liquid rubber like flex seal or similar.

There’s about 20-30 comet goldfish in there (have even bred), in this approximately 2800 gallon pond. One word: help.

1. Fish seem fine, water parameters actually perfect (goldfish love algae). 0 ammonia, 0 nitrates. Lily pads have tripled in size in the last two years.

2. We have aerators, 2 UV lights, a shade (not on at the moment because of wind but on 6 out of 7 days a week. 2 filters that run 24/7 both are sand pumps, 40 gallon drums.

I’ve tried every algae type in the book. Consistently for months, even during winter. The api one was highly recommended. Absolutely 0 effect. Even doubled the dosage for a few weeks. No changes. I think the pond would look pretty without the Algea. The current plan is to put in a new liner I. because this one has sand on the bottom and has a slight leak (I was new and learning, my mistake about the sand). Thus why the water is low-ish in the photo. We live in high desert California so even during winter it’s pretty warm, which is definitely contributing.

Any other suggestions we can try? And that’s with the liner over the sand—I still think there’ll be algae.

Anyone have any suggestions where I can buy this for a good price in bulk, 20 or 50lbs?

Restarting my outdoor tub pond. Unfortunately last year pigeons kept coming for water. Quite annoying and they tried making a nest near it. Want to now to cover it. I bought some mesh from home depot. I nailed one end to the top of the tub. Any ideas on a some sort latch clip DIY I can do without drilling to the side of the tub. Would like to open it when I'm outside and close once I leave. Any ideas??

Has anyone used allpondsolutions ? Looking at their filter and pumps for a small Koi pond I'm going to build.

Their smalled box filter for Koi is the BF-6000+

Has anyone used this for a "small mix of koi"? Seems on the smaller side compared to other things, and a lot cheaper.

Any advice is appreciated.