Pond Chemicals

Question:
I use Interpet also know as Blagden chemicals in my pond. I just wanted to know whether I can use several of them at a time, like can I use chlorinate when I refill my pond then also add some plant fertilizer (flora boast)?

Answer:
You need no chemicals in your pond except dechlor to remove the chlorine. Never ever put chlorine in it. It will kill the plants and fish. If you have an algae bloom, you can use an enzyme - Microbe Lift PL if need be. If you fertilize too much at once, your pond will turn green.


Growing Lotus

Question:

I have a water lotus that is rooted and growing in still water but I am wanting to add running water that will agitate the water around my lotus plant. Will this water movement disturb the plants growth? I know plants like the water lily do not do good with water movement.

Thanks

Answer:

Neither lotus nor water lilies like moving water. If you can put the lotus far away from the moving water, you will be OK.

Floating plants

Question:
Are there any plants that float entirely on the water,with roots hanging down?(except duckweed & water sprite)?

Answer:
Mosaic is one. Parrots feather can float without soil as well. Certainly water lilies and lotus need to be in pots or in soil.

How to get a pond clear fast!

Question:
My pond has been murky for about a month now. We put algae killer in but it is still the same. we have fish and frogs in there. what can we do to make it really clear and FAST ?

Answer:
To get your pond clear FAST, you can rig up a quick filter. Put a large plastic pot on top of something in your pond. Be sure it is out of the water. I have used a lawn chair. Put 4" of foam rubber in the bottom of the pot. Run the hose from the pump into the pot. Hold it down with a brick. Be ready to clean the foam rubber every couple of hours or when the water spills over the top of the pot. Your water will be clear in about 48 hours.

To find more pond information, go to pondlady.com

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Swimming Pool Liner

Question:
Can i make a pond with pool liner?
I bought a 12'x12' pool last year and now it's in the basement put away -
those inflatable pools
Can I reuse it to build a 8'x4' pond with this same liner?
I'll put those rolls you have to put before the liner also.
So do you think it will work? Like I wouldn't see why not and how long would it last? How long would a normal pond liner last?

Answer:
They get brittle when exposed to the sun usually within 2 years. Use a butyl rubber liner - they come with at least a 20 year guarantee. You could use your pool liner for your underlayment.

Concrete pond problems

Question:
How do I keep pond water from going away?
I cement the pond with 3 layers and Im not going to do another one. I have 2 roots in there that I cemented, but Im not sure if there taking in water still. I have 2 layers of brown paint in there and still, the water keeps going away. Help please.


Answer:
Concrete is awful material to use for a pond. It is just too brittle. You need butyl rubber and not bought from a big box store. Google pond liners and have it shipped to you. It will be less than the retail stores sell it for. I would break out your concrete first tho so water does not get trapped between the new liner and the old concrete. And use an underlayment to protect your liner. Roofing felt works very well.

Taro

Question:
I think these plants are like little elephant ears. I need help?
I dont know what they are called but they are little bulbs they looked like little elephant ears but they are red and maybe black? Dark purple, something like that. I would like to know what they are called and also when I should plant them... any help would be awesome, I'm only 21 and im not the best at gardening yet. Thanks


Answer:
It's taro. You can get it in dark dark almost black, striped, or solid green. I have them in the pond. They do have a tendency to jump out of the pond and travel far, so watch out.
The bulbs can be fermented and eaten as poi. Not by me, understand, but by many.
Plant them now if it's spring where you are, but they do come back after a winter....and back and back and back....

How to bid landscaping

Question:

How do I bid some landscaping?
I have some work that a friend wants me to do. He needs a couple flower beds put in with some brickpavers, top soil, and mulch. Should I bid by the square foot or figure out the cost of materials and then estimate the amount of hours it will take?

Answer:
Cost of materials +10%
Labor + costs of insurance and other benefits. Usually 35% of labor costs will cover that.
Other overhead: Cost of gasoline, truck insurance, office costs, paper, pens, computer, etc.
Any other costs included in the job.
Add it up and add at least 15% profit.
That should do it for you.

Natural Pond

Question:
How to revive my natural pond?
We purchased a house about 2 years ago. The people who lived here before us did not take care of the property and left the place in pretty bad shape. There is a natural pond in the back that is scummy, full of all kinds of plant life, and during the summer can be pretty stagnant. It is a large pond about 5500 sq ft. There are lots of frogs and turtles and toads in it but really no fish. It is natural so there is no liner concrete, rubber nothing, just a dirt bottom. The tributeries leading away from the pond dry up and are just a hunk of scum during late summer. We were told that the people before us rerouted waterways dealing with this pond, but we do not know for sure. We really have a lovely piece of property and would like our pond to be clean and pretty. What can I do to fix this problem? I have searched on the web and only found things dealing with man made rubber bottom or concrete ponds.

Answer:
Start by raking out all the old plant material. Wash it off and put back about half of it. After that, put in a floating pump to circulate the water. Plant around the edges with natural bog plants. If you put fish in, use goldfish only and do not feed them.

Growing calla lilies

Question:
How to grow calla lilies?
I'm going to try to grow some calla lilies this year...I already have the bulbs...and I was just wondering if you can give me some tips...

Answer:
Put them in the ground as soon as you can work it. They love filtered shade and even more love to have their feet wet. I use them in shade ponds when possible. The flowers are incredibly gorgeous. Good luck.

Pond pumps

Question:
Do I need a pump for a pond?
I am using it to grow lotuses, but I also want to add a few goldfish to it to make it more interesting. Would I need to buy a pump for the fish, or would the plants provide the oxygen needed?


Answer:
You don't need a pump for your pond. If you add goldfish, you must add submerged vegetation for them to eat, but never feed them anything else or the water will get foul. The submerged vegetation (anacharis, hornwort, cabomba) will add enough O2 for the fish.
Add a few mosquito fish to keep mosquitoes away.

Cal Pumps

Question:
Does a cal pond pump make noise when on?
We have a pond and bought a cal pump for the filtration of the pond and was wondering if we'd know that it was on. Does a cal brand pond pump make any noises, such as a running noise? Also, how do I work it? how to turn on, keep on, and how to get it working.

Answer:
Calpump makes one of the finest pond pumps. It makes no noise at all. You can feel it humming if you touch it, but that's it. To work it, drop it in the water, and plug it in. Hook it up to the hose you want it to pump water through before you put it in the water. I would use a prefilter to keep debris out of the impeller.

Koi and filters

Question:
Is it possible to turn a pool filter into a filter for my Koi pond?
I know i can't use the sand in it, I will take that out. What type of media should i use?



Answer:
Yes it's possible, even recommended. If you want to take it out, use lava rock, beads or bioballs instead.

Fishing pond

Question:
Can i put a pond in my backyard? (for fishing)?
hello. i live in ohio and i want to put a pond in my backyard but i want it for fishing. what can i do to have the pond without hitting any lines of pipes?

Answer:
It can be done, but it's not easy. First call your local utility company and have them mark where their wires and pipes are.
After that, find a local aquaculture place and ask for help as far as how deep it has to be, and what you can stock successfully, etc. Usually a local community college can help as well. Another resource is your local extension service.

To find more pond information, go to pondlady.com

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Wetland Gardens

Question:

How do I create a wetland garden?

We live on a lake in Michigan and I want to start planning a wetland garden. We have an area by the lakeshore that is always mushy, so I'd like to embrace mother nature and plant a wetland garden in this area that will look better than muddy grass. And I would hope this area would improve drainage in my yard. How much maintenance does this type of garden require? What mulch or other bedding material would be best? The area is probably 30 ft long by 5-8 feet.

Answer:

Here's an article I wrote about building a bog garden.

http://www.pondlady.com/Articles/bog_garden.html

In Michigan, my home state, I would use cattails and hardy rushes. Drainage would indeed be improved and the area would look nice. Maintenance would be very little. I mulch mine a couple times a year.

To find more pond information, go to pondlady.com

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Ponds and pumps

Question:
Is it possible to have 2 ponds running off 1 filter & 1 pump?
i want to add a second pond ,but i would like to know if it is possible to use just 1 filter & 1 pump ? if so how do i do it or do i need to use 2 pumps & 2 filters i should also say that i want to run a waterfall flowing down into the bottom pond from the top 1 any info would be much appreciated many thanks

Answer:
I suppose it is possible. You would have to use an inline (out of the water) pump and somewhere in the hose put a Y so each pond could have water moving. To get two waterfalls, you would need a HUGE inline pump, but they are made, I know. You could use one bead filter that was also out of the water. You are looking at lots of dollars. It would be cheaper to use two pumps, I think.
That idea of having one pond flow into another one is very very difficult to do. I built ponds for 20 years and when doing that sort of thing, I made each pond a separate entity, each with its own pump/waterfall.

To find more pond information, go to pondlady.com

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Oxygenating grasses

Question:
Can you plant just regular grass seed in a fish pond? Will it grow? Will it take oxygen from the fish?
I own some land in which I have started building a fish pond. If the grass doesn't grow, is there a special type of underwater grass to use?


Answer:
Regular grass will not grow in water. Use anacharis, hornwort or cabomba and your fish will love you. All three give O2 to the fish and they, in turn, fertilize them.

To find more pond information, go to pondlady.com

And to meet a great community of gardeners, join us at Gardeners Gumbo

Terra Cotta Fountain

Question:
What type of pump do you suggest for a terra cotta pot fountain?
It is going to be made of three pots staked on top of each other with a saucer on top.

Answer:
You can buy a tiny one at some place like Hobby Lobby that costs less than $20.00. You will have to replace it often because those little ones don't have a long life. But anything bigger will send the water into your neighbor's yard. Have fun with your garden art.

To find more pond information, go to pondlady.com

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Koi pond filter

Question:
I have read a lot about building a koi pond but i am unsure of where to put the skimmer, filter and pump?
Does anyone have a diagram of where to put all the stuff, preferrably the pond would be L shaped. or can you tell me please because videos on youtube dont really say where the filter, etc. goes.




Answer:


You don't need a skimmer at all. You do need a filter tho, but it doesn't matter where you put it. Put it where it is easiest to hide and to clean.
• Here's an article that I wrote about how to build a koi pond.
• http://www.pondlady.com/Articles/koipond…
•
• Oh, and thoughts about skimmers:
• http://www.pondlady.com/Articles/filters…

To find more pond information, go to pondlady.com

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How to build/buy a small raised pond?

Hi I bought my partner two goldfish and a fishtank for Christmas last year, one is your average goldfish (Betty) and the other a Sarsha comet (Bob) They have been living in a 10 gallon tank this whole time and as a random surprise I want to build a raised bond in our back garden. It has to be raised as we have nephews who visit and we own a lot of rabbits.

The garden has mostly been taken over by the bunnies but was planning on putting it near the patio part. Is there any like metal tub/plastic tub ponds that I can put there? And what sort of size should I be looking for and what sort of filter?

Thank you


You can build or buy most any size pond for the back yard. Here's one made of cinder blocks and fieldstone. Or you can use a circular horse trough, bury 24" of it and camouflage the rest.
Here's an article with photos for the cinder block pond.
http://www.pondlady.com/Articles/above_g…

And here are some smaller and cheaper ones:
http://www.pondlady.com/Articles/inexpeTo find more pond information, go to pondlady.com

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Koi question

I live in miami fl. im building a 175 gal waterfall pond but can go only 20 inches deep. I have morning shade?
Question: I am concerned about the temp for goldfish or koi in summer. I have a concrete pond I bought as a foundation. It's only 45 inches round and 8 in deep, so I plan on dropping it under ground 1 foot and adding 1 foot around the circumference. This should take its original size of 65 gallons and add about 100 gallons more making it about 165 total make any sense got any ideas?





Answer: Your fish will be fine at 20". I would stick to goldfish rather than koi, tho, because koi need at least 3' of water depth. Cover 60% of the top of the pond with floating vegetation and put in one bunch of submerged vegetation per square foot.


To find more pond information, go to pondlady.com

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Koi and pumps question

Can I turn off my pump in my koi pond in the winter?

I have a leak in my pond liner. I think it is at the bottom because a windstorm moved a large plant and my water level started to drop after that. The temperature where I live is from high 30's at night to 60's during day. Can I turn off my pump and let my water level drop without depriving koi of needed oxygen? Also, when I remove koi to completely drain pond, how long can they survive in small holding tank w/o pump

If your temps stay under 55F, you might be safe turning off the pump, but I would probably throw an airstone in the water. Frankly, I suspect you will not find a leak at all. First turn off your pump and watch the pond overnight. I'll bet the water level will not drop and you will find that same wind moved hoses around and the water is dripping off the back or side of a waterfall.
With an airstone, the koi will survive in a kiddy pond for as long as you need, especially in cool weather.

See my article on leaking ponds: http://www.pondlady.com/Articles/pondlea…

Make your own pond vacuum cleaner

One of our readers made his own pond vacuum cleaner. He reports it works great and was cheap to make. He graciously shared how to make it with the readers of pondlady.com. I though it would be nice to post it here as well for readers who do not get to pondlady.com regularly.

Thanks for sharing, Darrel. We all appreciate it.

From Darrel:

Here's a list of the parts I used:
(1) Utilitech 0024840 Lawn Pump or Flint & Walling/Star Water
#HSPJ100(any 1hp utility pump with 1" intake/outlet)
(1) Culligan HD-950 Whole House Water Filter
(2) Union 1" slip X slip
(4) 1" male adapter, 1" slip socket by 1" NPT
(1) 1" 90º elbow slip
(1) 8 ft. of 1" spa flex hose
(1) 10 ft. of 1" PVC pipe
(1) 1" coupling
(1) Circular brush attachment from a vacuum cleaner to fit the PVC pipe.

Procedure:

The filter is attached to the inlet side of the pump.
(1) Screw a male adapter into the pump inlet.
(2) Cut about a 2-1/4" piece of PVC pipe.
(3) Glue this into the male adapter.
(4) Glue one side of one union to the pipe.
(5) Screw a male adapter into the filter outlet.
(6) Cut another 2-1/4" piece of PVC pipe.
(7) Glue the pipe into the adapter.
(8) Glue the other side of the union to the pipe.
(9) Screw another adapter into the filter inlet.
(10) Cut another 2-1/4" piece of PVC pipe.
(11) Glue the pipe into the adapter.
(12) Glue one side of the other union to the pipe.
(13) Glue the other side of the union to the spa flex hose.
(14) Glue the coupling to the hose.
(15) Cut a 6' length of PVC pipe.
(16) Glue the pipe into the other side of the coupling.
(17) Screw an adapter into the pump outlet.
(18) Cut a 2-1/4" piece of PVC pipe.
(19) Glue the pipe into the adapter.
(20) Glue the 90º elbow onto the other end of the pipe.
(21) Glue the remaining PVC pipe (approx. 2') to the elbow.

You want the filter on the intake side of the pump so you're not sending crud through the pump. There's also the possibility that if you suck up something living, you may be able to rescue it from the filter housing.

The pipe for the wand should not be more than about 6' or it bends too much and is difficult to control.

Lawn pumps need to be primed. They have a port for priming. You can also fill the pump/filter/pipe with water from a hose, or by scooping it from the pond. Just know that the pump, to begin with, will not suck the water up by itself.

You may notice that I used two additional male adapters, one on either side of the filter. This was only because the store had only one slip union. I had to buy one 1" slip union and one 1" NPT union. I then mixed the two halves of the unions so that each one became a 1" NPT X 1" slip union. The additional adapter then screwed into one side of each union.

When glueing the flex hose to the union hold it for a long time. The glue does not seem to set as fast as on the PVC pipe.

I've included a picture to help.

Darrel 

BIG fountains

I often get questions about huge fountains.  People try to put a fountain in a large pond, usually a natural bottom pond and find that the pump clogs up fast and the fountain stops working.

You will see fountains like the one in the photo at shopping centers and casinos.  This one is near a shopping mall near my house.  If you look closely, you can see that the fountain floats.  At no time can a huge fountain like this one be on the bottom of any pond or it will try to suck up debris and burn out quickly.

If you have a huge pond at home and want to use something like this, watch that the wind does not blow the water out and cause the level to drop to dangerous levels.  Sometimes you have to give in and install a float valve to keep the pond full of water.

Turtles in the pond

We haven't talked about turtles in awhile. Don't get them for your pond. 

Nuf said? No?  OK, turtles eat everything in the pond. They start with your most expensive plants, like tropical water lilies and eat their way through every last plant.  And they do it fast.

You can have turtles in a pond if you have nothing else in the pond. You have to feed the turtles and make a little island and/or ramp so they can get in and out. Turtles do not live underwater.

In the winter, they burrow in the leaf mold and under the rocks and stay there undisturbed until spring when they wake up with a voracious appetite for more water lilies.

Turtle on a turtle?  Yup, it is.

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Another kind of pondless waterfall

Most pondless waterfalls are holes in the ground filled with rocks or a box that makes the sound echo.  All nice and all with their own problems.  Yesterday I decided to make my own pondless waterfall in the front yard.

It could be a pond with fish and plants, but it is really small, so I now have my own mini pondless waterfall.

Here's how I did it:  I bought a 3' in diameter x 2' deep Rubbermaid horse watering trough at a feed and seed store.   It cost about 40 bucks.  I had a pump lying around from my active pond building days. It's a 700 gph Little Giant submersible.  I also had rocks in the yard, saved from my pre Katrina pond and moved to this house from the one that we had to bulldoze.

First was a hole in the ground. I did not bury the horse trough all the way, but left about 6" above the ground. It's easier to deal with that way, easier to keep level and doing it like that avoids any run off.  Also with our water table so high, digging a 2' deep hole would find me in the water before I got all the way down.

After you dig the hole, put in the horse trough and fill it with water.  If you don't it will rise like the phoenix while you are leveling it.  Add kiddie play sand around the edges to give a solid surface to hold the trough.  Use water to pack down the sand. As you doing that, get the trough as level as you can.  You will cantilever rocks over the top later, so you don't have to be perfect here.

Start piling up flat rocks to hide the sides of the trough that is above ground. Doing this will make the pond look natural.  Save a spot for the waterfall.

Attach flexible tubing to the pump and then T off with a hard plastic T fitting  like plumbers use.

Put the pump in the water.

Now build your waterfall on one edge of the trough.  Use a large flat rock for the bottom, put a few thicker rocks on top and add another rock on top of those.  That's about as high as you can get because you don't want water splashing out.

Place the two hoses on the top of the waterfall.  Maybe one hose on each level.  Whatever pleases you.  Put rocks the same thickness as the hoses on either side and a rock on top to keep them where you put them.

Now arrange the hoses so no water slides off the back or over the sides and out of the trough.

Hide the hoses in the back of the falls with rocks or plant material.

Use swimming pool chlorine to keep the water clear.

There, you have it and it only took a few hours.  This one took me about 5 hours yesterday.  I am moving a bit slow this morning.

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Winter Pond Care - Plants and Fish

Winter Pond Care - Plants and Fish

Reposted for those of you who missed it the first time.

Water Lilies in Winter

Hardy water lilies will survive the worst winter you can imagine.  I have seen hardy water lilies in Rocky Mountain National Park at about 11,000 feet.

 Remember water lilies are only pretty weeds, invasive and obnoxious if left to their own devices.  If you have planted them on the bottom in the bottom of a natural pond, you will regret doing that because they will cover your pond in short order. BUT they will survive. And survive. And survive.
You can tell the difference between hardy water lilies and tropical ones easily. The tropicals have stems that raise the flower far out of the water. The hardy lily flowers sit very close to the water, sometimes even touching it.

All water lily flowers live for about three days and then die. Another opens and so on, so you have flowers throughout the spring and summer.

If you have tropical water lilies, you must protect them in the winter.  If you have a deep pond, you can lower them to the bottom and keep your fingers crossed.  Here in South Louisiana, that's what I do.  Our freezes are relatively short and rare, so our lilies are safe.

If you live where your pond may freeze solid, you can remove your tropical from the pond, remove its leaves, rinse the corms off and pack it in damp sand.  Put it in the garage or somewhere that does freeze. You have about a 50/50 chance of saving your tropical. In the spring, simply pot them up again and place them in the pond.

 Of course, the ideal way is to have a green house and store the lily in it.  You can cobble together an 8' long box made of 1' x 12' lumber, line it with butyl rubber, fill it with dechlorinated water and your lilies will love you for it.  You will have blooms early in the spring.

No matter where you live in the US, your lilies are dormant by now. They react to the length of daylight and dark as well as temperature changes.  Don't worry, you will see them again in the spring.

To find more pond information, go to pondlady.com

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Ponds, men and women

Have you noticed? I know I have.

When men build ponds they want technical, complicated things like automatic water levelers. Women just use a garden hose to top off the pond every couple or months.

Men will run PVC pipes from the house hose bib and put a faucet near the pond. Women: See above.

Men plumb a waterfall with that same PVC pipe, so if it needs repair, you need a saw, sandpaper, more PVC pipe, fittings and that blue glue. Women use flexible tubing. If it breaks, they get a new piece for a couple of bucks.

Men hard wire a pump into an electrical box, so when the pump burns out, an electrician is needed to install a new one. Oh, and hard wiring the pump voids the warranty. Women just plug in the pump. When it burns out, they just plug in a new one.

Men love concrete. They use it to cement down rocks around the pond and try to glue waterfall rocks together. Women simply balance the rocks properly, so no concrete is necessary. That way, if rocks need to be moved, they can be picked up and  moved.

Anyone else find this strange?  Or is it just me?

Pond Vacuum Cleaners Redux

I get questions about pond vacs all the time. People want to use a pond vac or a wet vac to clean the bottom of the pond and not have to do a total clean out.  And will that work?  In a word, no.

A pond vac sucks up water.  It sucks up the junk at the bottom of the pond, but it sucks more water than junk.

The other big problem with pond vacs is that they do not have enough suction to reach from the top of the pond where they must sit to the bottom of the pond where the junk is.  Wet vacs are better at this, but still not the best.

 If you want to clean the bottom of the pond and not pump all the water out of the pond first, try this: Go to the swimming pool supply store.  Find a gadget that looks like the picture in the link above.  Do not buy the mesh bag that the salesman wants to sell you. It doesn't work because the mesh is not fine enough.  Also, if you don't already have a telescoping pole for your fish net, buy one of those as well.
When you get the saucer/vacuum cleaner home, attach your garden hose to the fitting on the saucer and a leg from an old pair of panty hose over the hole in the middle of the blue saucer.  You now have a water pressure powered pond vac that will (sorta) clean the pond bottom. At least it will do a better job than the ones you pay lots of big green dollars for.

Put the saucer on the bottom of the pond.  Turn on the water.  If you turn the water on first, you will start the job wet.

Using the pole, which also has a handy place to attach, start vacuuming the bottom of the pond.  The panty hose will fill up fast with all that pond scum on the bottom.  You will quickly have a panty hose leg full of decayed plant material, fish waste and other unspeakable stuff that drops to the bottom of the pond.

When the panty hose leg gets heavy, turn off the water and empty the panty hose leg.  Repeat until the bottom of the pond is as clean as you want it.

By the way, I put a water shut off valve at the saucer end of the hose so I can turn off the water without having to walk back to the hose bib every time.

This is a dirty, messy job.  Wear old clothes and be prepared to shower immediately after.

Pond still losing water

You are pulling your hair out trying to figure out why your pond is still losing water.  Do you have a fountain in the pond?  If so, make sure the fountain is not too close to the edge and water is splashing out.  Check your waterfall as well. If water is splashing on the rocks near the edge of the waterfall, it is splashing out.  Falling water must have an area twice as wide as the water is high for the water to stay contained. So if your waterfall or fountain is pumping water 2 feet above the pond, the pond must have 4' of surface for it to fall into.  
One more thing:  If you have a fountain with some sort of nozzle or a spitter that sends water far in the air, the wind can blow the water out of the pond.  Watch your pond water level when the wind is blowing. You might want to turn off your pump if it's windy.


The holes in a nozzle can get clogged up and pretty soon you have one thin stream of water shooting out. It is hard to see because it is so thin.  Check it. You may wish to remove the nozzle completely.   Or clean it lots and lots. With a toothpick. And a brush. In the water. With your boots on.  Frustrating.

Help, My Pond is Still Leaking

You have checked everything. There are no liner holes, the waterfall water is falling in the pond and not sneaking off the back, all hoses and hose connections are tight and secure, but your pond is still losing water.

Do you have a spitter? A spitter is some ornament, often a statue of a frog or bird that has a hole in the bottom and spits water out of its mouth.  I am not a big fan of spitters, but you are and you have one.  First disconnect it. If the pond water level stays put, you know that your spitter is the cause.  Often as pumps get clogged up or hoses get full of algae, the water flow slows down and the spitter drools. When that happens the water sneaks out of the pond, sometimes only a drop or two at a time.  If you don't think that is very much, let water drip slowly out of your inside faucet and see how much your water bill goes up.

To repair a spitter drool, you can move the spitter so it sits totally inside the pond or prop it up next to the pond with a serious tilt into the pond so water can't escape.  Watch out for this method because the thing can fall into your pond and puncture the liner. Then you have bigger problems.  My solution. Disconnect the spitter and let it sit wherever you wish minus the water coming out.

How to Patch a Liner

I always recommend using a 40 mil butyl rubber liner when you build a pond.  Unless you walk on them with golf cleats, they survive most anything.  But occasionally, they get a leak.  If your lab loves to play in your pond, those toenails could cause a leak.  One time I had to deal with a client who put sharp rocks in the pond and put plants on top of them.  If you must put huge, sharp rocks in the pond, put an extra piece of liner underneath and don't move the plants around by just sliding them. Pick up the plants and the rocks if you must move them.
The hardest thing to do if you have a hole in your liner is finding it.  See http://www.pondlady.com/Articles/pondleaking.html for hints on finding the leak.
After you find it, be sure the liner surrounding the hole is clean and dry.  If you are not in blinding hot sun, you may need a hair dryer to get it totally dry.
The 40 mil butyl rubber liner is the same material as an inner tube, for those of us old enough to remember those.  You can use a tire patch found at any automotive store or you can buy patching material from an aquatic nursery or online from any pond supply store. It doesn't' cost much. You simply cover the hole with the patching tape - it's sticky on one side. And you are done.  I have had patches last for over 10 years so far.
So find the hole, slap on the tape, make sure it's dry,  refill the pond with water and  you are good to go!

Catching Goldfish

I have had a few questions about ponds freezing solid.  What to do with the goldfish?

You have to catch them and bring them inside.  I have heard that goldfish can freeze and survive, but have never seen it happen, so bringing them in is best.  But first, how to catch them?

Try this:

1)Fill a container with pond water.

2)Get a bucket of very warm, even hot, water.

3)Pour it slowly into the pond. The fish will come toward the warm water.

4)Use a net, catch the fish and put them in the container full of pond water.  Water is heavy so don't make the fish container too big or you won't be able to carry it.

5)Let the fish warm slowly in that same pond water before you transfer them to their winter home.

By the way, if the pond does ice over, do NOT  hit it with a hammer to open a hole.  The blow could kill the fish. One way to open a hole is to put a pan of hot water on top of the ice and let it melt.

Leaky liners

I know we have talked about liner leaks before, but the question keeps getting asked: How do I fix my leaking pond?

First of all, your pond is probably not leaking. I always tell people that when they call to tell me their pond is leaking.

"Hi Jan, my pond is leaking."

"No, it probably isn't."

"But it is losing water every day and anyway how can you know that if you haven't seen it?"

"I have seen thousands of ponds and am all knowing.  Chances are about 99% your liner has no hole in it. Let's troubleshoot.  If I have to come over there, you will need to get out your checkbook, so if we can do this over the phone, my advice is free.  Which do you prefer?"

"Over the phone."

"OK, turn off your pump, fill up your pond and let it sit over night.  If the water stays put, your water is falling behind the waterfall.  If you have a spitter, the water is drooling down the spitter and out of the pond. Check your waterfall rocks. Chances are one of them has tipped and water is not going back in the pond, but falling off the back.  Look at the water level in the morning and call me back."

I usually get no call back.  The pond owner has learned something.  Liners rarely leak. They rarely get holes in them unless raccoons have been marauding through the water in search of tasty morsels.

The pond owner finds the wayward rock, tips it back into place and all is well.

Concrete Pond Leaks

I get questions all the time about leaky ponds. Since there are so many kinds of ponds, so many kinds of leaks and so many ways to repair them, I want to spend  a few days talking about leaks.

Let's start with concrete ponds. I do not recommend building ponds with concrete because it is not watertight and is brittle, but many people use concrete, so I get to fix their leaks.

Concrete ponds crack.  It's inevitable. If you have a concrete pond, it will crack.  Plan on it.  I don't care if you use concrete 6 inches thick and 6000 psi. It's gonna crack.  So, now what?

If the crack is hairline, you perhaps can fix it. Maybe. For a short while anyway.  Get some plumbers' epoxy.  Not plumbers' putty. Epoxy.  Make the crack bigger. Dig it out so there is a bit of a V shape, like the dentist does when he fills a cavity in your tooth.  Now make sure the crack is dry and clean.  If you have to, use a hair dryer to dry it completely.

Now mix the epoxy. Put gloves on first because the epoxy sticks on your hands just like it sticks on the concrete. Epoxy comes in a tube and looks like a big stick of chalk.  So unwrap as much as you need and start pinching and rolling it - gloves on, remember.  In a couple of  minutes, the epoxy will get warm. A minute or so after that, it's ready to use.  Smush the epoxy in the crack. Notice the technical term, smush. It's important. Make sure the epoxy is pushed into the crack and smoothed out both in the crack and along the edges.  Wait for it to dry.  The directions on the side of the package will tell you how long that will take.

When the epoxy is dry, refill the pond with water.  The epoxy will not hurt your fish or plants.

I have had some repairs last for several years, some for only several months.  I never guarantee a concrete repair.  Often I will do it free if the pond belongs to a steady customer.  If the customer pays for the service, he expects some sort of warranty and this repair is not good enough for that.

If you can see through the crack in your concrete, you cannot repair it. I don't care who says you can, it is not possible. Find a waterproofing company and have them put a new coating on your pond.  Or just drop a butyl rubber liner inside the concrete pond and start over.

Ponds and the Frost Line

Because I live in the Deep South, I do not have to bother about a frost line because aside from some chilly weather occasionally, we don't have to deal with frozen ponds.  But those of you who do, need to know what the frost line is in your area. You can find out by calling your local extension office if you don't already know.  Oh, the frost line is the depth of soil where it no longer freezes.  For some of you, that is really deep.  When you are building your pond, know your frost line and dig the pond deeper than that.  That way, your pond will never freeze solid.  Your fish have a chance of survival even if the top of the pond freezes over.  I do advocate keeping a hole in the ice, but sometimes that is not possible.  Fish are in torpor, a form of fish hibernation all winter, so they just lie around at the bottom of the water in suspended animation, if you will.

Digging below the frost line will mean less chance of damage to your liner as well.  You have, of course, removed all your pond equipment already and stored them safely. Right?

Check http://www.pondlady.com/Articles/winter_pondcare_2.html  for more winter pond care tips.

Did I mention pond plants?

Cut back your tropical pond plants now.  If you plan to overwinter them, bring them in the garage or the greenhouse.  Most of them will do fine if not frozen solid. If you have anacharis and your pond will freeze solid, bring it in too and put it in a washtub in the garage. (Garage getting crowded?)  Put your goldfish in there too if your pond is not below your frost line

Cut back your hardy plants as well. I cut mine back to about 3". The pond will look dreadful all winter, but the plants will come back green and healthy next spring when the plants put out new growth.

To make the fall pond into something besides a gray hole full of water, add some mums around the edge for fall color.  Put a few painted cinder blocks in the pond to raise decorations out of the water and put some Halloween decorations on top.  Or a few more pots of mums.

Winter is coming

From questions I have been getting, it seems as if some spots in the country are headed into winter. We, of course, are still in the last throes of summer waiting for the 90 degree heat to finally give up and go away. So for those of you in cooler climes, here's a great article on how to deal with your pond equipment during the winter.  Remember if your pond depth is below the freeze line, you do not have to remove your fish. You just need to keep a hole open in the ice.

Winter Care for Pond Equipment

T

Pond Fish in Winter

As the nights lengthen and cool, you may notice your fish becoming less active and lying around near the bottom of your pond.  If you do feed your fish, stop now.  


You can kill them if you feed when the temperatures are below 55º F.  


Even if you have a day or so above that temperature, do not feed. For tips on winter fish and plant care, read this article I wrote about fish and plant care during the winter: Winter Fish Care

Fish are cannibals

I get questions at my pondlady.com website and occasionally share them here.  Here's one that you may not know or have forgotten: Question: I have goldfish. So, do the alive fish eat their dead? I've actually never seen a fish eaten like this is my pond. Sure, I have found plenty over the years, in all seasons, die and float to the surface, but never eaten like this. I will take your advice and resist the temptation to feed them even in this warm spell. Answer: Yes, all fish will eat other fish. In fact, fish will kill a sick or weak fish. I think it is a way they have of keeping the school hardy. Your goldfish will be just fine if you never ever, feed them, even in the summer. Just balance the pond ecologically with submerged vegetation and make sure your bioload is not too high and you can just relax and never have to clean fish poop out of your pond except in your yearly cleaning.

More about irises

I forgot to mention yesterday that it's time to cut back irises.  Many people do it in the early summer right after the plants bloom, but I like to enjoy the foliage all summer, so I wait until fall to cut them back.  Remember the iris blooms on new growth, so divide and cut back. That way all growth next spring will be new and you will irises to share and irises to enjoy.

Irises and Cannas

Here in the South, it's time to start dividing pond plants.  For blooms next spring, divide Louisiana irises and cannas now.  They are all crowded, so for a good show of flowers next spring divide not.

Bet you didn't know that irises bloom on the new growth, so if you leave them growing on the outside of the pot, only the outer ones will bloom. One of your friends will ask for a cutting and you will break off an outer clump and happily give it to your friend.  Next spring you can listen to her brag about her beautiful iris bloom and you will be looking at green irises. Pretty, yes, but enjoy the blooms, not just the foliage. Divide now. Don't put it off.

Pond liner problems

I have a website at pondlady.com
People ask and answer pond questions there. Occasionally I get an common question and share it here. Here's one about liner suddenly rising from its floor:

Questions:

We have an in ground, 8' fish pond that was built 4 years ago. We buried an 8' stock tank and laid the pond liner over that and put about a billion rocks around it. This year, water has started getting between the stock tank and pond liner and rising the liner up out of the pond. A recent 5 " rain really has brought the issue to a crisis point. I see no obvious leak in the liner and we really don't want to move all those rocks to lay in a new liner...what should we do? We have pumped it out a couple times, but water keeps getting between the liner and stock tank.

Answer:
You have methane between the tank and the liner. No amount of rocks will keep it from rising. Try to make a place where you can pump out the water that has gotten between the two. That will help until it happens again. The only way to stop it from happening is to raise the entire pond, tank and all. (Shudder.) Or you could build up the sides, make the pond bigger and use the weight of the water to keep the liner in place, but if you do that, you might as well just start over with just a liner and no stock tank. You have a big job ahead of you.

To get more pond information, head over to pondlady.com

From my inbox

Dear Jan,
I don't know if you remember me but I wrote to you last fall and we talked about Gregg Wittstock and Aquascape and their CAC's. I have now been fighting them for 10 months to get the pea gravel out of this man-made waterfall and stream because I found pea gravel clear up in the biofalls and my pump failed because it was pumping gravel instead of the water. To make a long story a bit shorter, they have finally decided to finally get the gravel out of the basin and put in AquaBlox. They will do this for free. But do you know anything about these glorified milk cases? They are only warranted for 1 year. After that who knows, another fight. Do you feel this is needed? They are supposed to give the basin more water volume. ????

Also, I have two plants in the water of my pondless......my contractor put them in. The second season of running our pondless, we noticed tons and I mean TONS of string algae. I have used the NON-guaranteed algaecides, barley straw, bleach, chlorine tabs and nothing has worked. Should I take OUT the two Sweet Flags I have in the water? Are they causing the algae to form? Any information would be greatly appreciated. OR is there something the contractor did that would lend to this production of algae? Like, not making the biofalls level or something like that. I was told to put in bleach, but how much and how often? My pondless is 4' by 12'.

Without bad luck, I would have no luck at all..............after spending over 20 hours getting the pea gravel out of the basin and stream........I would say we were able to get at least 90 percent of this stuff out........now Dreamscapes call and say they will take out all the pea gravel.........I am sure my husband and I got more out than they would have, so although it was really hard work, I now know what is in and around the centipede......and it is not pea gravel!! My husband is 68 years old and he must really love me to do all that work because he knew how I was fretting over it. I just didn't want to put in a new pump and have it ruined by all the pea gravel. Also, could you tell me again what pumps you would choose to put in the skimmer that have good guarantees? You told me before but I must have misplaced your information. Thanks.

If I could just get rid of the string algae..........I did put barley straw in the biofalls in March a couple of years ago. We live in PA. It worked for a while but then seemed not to do anything except muck up the stream bed.

I wish there was a way to really blog about Aquascape Design, Inc.-- I really can't stand them or their products. They are crooks in my book.

Thanks for letting me vent again. Hope to hear from you soon.

Pondlady sez:

Try Microbe-Lift for your string algae.
I don't know a thing about Aquabox.
Ya know, you could remove the irises, plant them next to the pond and use swimming pool chlorine and your pond water would stay crystal clear. The irises are not causing the algae, nor did the contractor. Sun + water = algae. Use more chlorine than you have before and you should be fine.

As far as pumps go, I like Oase brand pumps.

Filter question

The first canna of 2009 starts to open in my bog garden.


I get email with pond questions. I got this one a few days ago and thought I would share it with you.

Question: I would like to put a 25" round by 15" deep tub. If I put in a bunch of grass, 1 drawf lily, 2 regular goldfish with a pump hooked up to a spitter will I have a successful little pond? Do I need a filter? What size pump would I need. The spitter will be place on some flat rocks at the edge of the pond. I don't plan on feeding the fish but will feed the lily.

Pondlady sez: Yes, you will be successful and need no filter. Don't feed the fish and put a couple of bunches of grass in the water. Feed the lily one tab a month. Use a pump that will pump about 140 gph depending how high the spitter will be. The spitter cannot exceed 12" in height or the water will splash out.

Koi and Goldfish eat their babies

Question I received lately: I have Koi and Goldfish. I feed them daily. Why don't I have babies?



Pondladay sez: Chances are the fish are eating their babies. They are not good parents.
You must feed koi. Goldfish can exist and live well eating off the plants in the pond....unless you have koi who will eat them all.

The more you feed them, the bigger they get and the hungrier they get. Sooner or later your bio-load will be too heavy and your biggest fish will die, but in the meantime, your fish will eat every baby they catch.

Tea Colored Water

Often we try dozens of filters to try to get tea colored water clear and nothing works. The water is turned that color by leaves usually from oak trees, but other leaves/pollen do the same thing. Here's how to fix it: Use activated charcoal. Do NOT use charcoal briquets like you use for barbecuing! Go to the aquarium store and get a box of activated charcoal. Often it comes in a box that looks like a half gallon milk carton. Put the charcoal a cut off panty hose leg and put the resulting tube in your filter. The charcoal 'washes' the water and you will have clear water soon. It is a bit expensive, but worth it.

Irises mean spring

Louisiana irises are starting to bloom. This one is in my front garden today and more bloom stalks are evident and about to burst. Callas in the pond are blooming. Spring, maybe not officially, has arrived. Get ready to see your fish become active and your pond plants begin to bloom. It was a long winter, wasn't it?

Fish Feeding in Winter

Question:
I was wondering what one should do with the fluctuating temperatures in coastal NC right now....last week or so the pond water was below 50 and I did not feed the fish. Now, the temp is back up to 56 and I found a partially eaten fish at the bottom of the pond when I cleaned out some debris. Are my fish starving to death and resorting to cannibalism? Should I feed them for a few days, and then stop when the temps. start to drop again??


Answer:
Your fish are not starving to death. Your half eaten one was probably eaten by one of your famous NC flying predators like an egret, heron, or maybe even a walking and furry one like a raccoon. Do not feed them. They are still hibernating and will not be able to eat until the temps are above 55 for a long time.

Question, continued
The pond is covered completely with chicken wire. No predators can get in now (although the reason it was covered like Fort Knox is because of a heron, who I caught in the act, and a raccoon, who polished off my biggest fish, and left some droppings. We had it covered with a net, but the heron broke through the net, punching in a big enough hole to gobble up some fish. The raccoon came a few days later and took advantage of the hole, which we did not realize was there.)

So, the fish left are VERY active right now, not listless at all, hanging around the top of the pond right now with our warm weather. They are quite still and deep when the water is really cold. I did feed them today.

So, what do you think about the dead fish now? My guess is a heron or raccoon would not leave anything behind. This fish (about 4 inches long) had its middle eaten away....

And what do you think about the hibernation theory, given the activity of the fish? It's a very confusing weather pattern we have right now, with the temps in the low 70s, and not getting too far below 55 at night. Next week, who knows?

Answer, continued
I understand your wish to feed your fish, but please don't. It could be that the dead fish was sick from getting something to eat and not being able to digest it, so he died. Feeding fish in the winter can kill them quickly. If you want to double check, go to koivet.com and have a look. You will find that fish cannot survive being fed in cool weather. Do you have goldfish or koi? Neither needs feeding in the winter, but koi need to be fed in the summer.

Question, continued
I have goldfish.

So, do the alive fish eat their dead? I've actually never seen a fish eaten like this is my pond. Sure, I have found plenty over the years, in all seasons, die and float to the surface, but never eaten like this.


Answer, continued
Yes, all fish will eat other fish. In fact, fish will kill a sick or weak fish. I think it is a way they have of keeping the school hardy.
Your goldfish will be just fine if you never ever, feed them, even in the summer. Just balance the pond ecologically with submerged vegetation and make sure your bioload is not too high and you can just relax and never have to clean fish poop out of your pond except in your yearly cleaning.

Ten Laws of Pondkeeping

This should give you a few ideas about keeping your pond balanced so your fishies stay healthy. Sounds like you are doing a good job.

Edible pond plants

In case you are ever stranded while camping or otherwise in need of survival food, the pods of yellow hardy pond lilies and pickerel rush are edible. You can bake or boil them like potatoes. They certainly are not gourmet food, but would probably taste pretty good if you were hungry enough.

Your UV Light in Winter

If you live where the temps drop below 40 degrees F in the winter and use a UV light, you can remove it until the weather warms again. Algae die off in the winter plus you can save electricity if your UV is not running. Be careful, those bulbs are fragile. And expensive.

Epoxy Pond Liners

Epoxy pond liners were around when I started building ponds back in 1987. There was not a market for the epoxy for the small residential contractor or do-it-yourselfer yet because there was not much of a pond market yet. The epoxies made then were for large commercial applications where waterproofing was necessary and huge machines were available for mixing and spreading. We tried to mix it using a paint stirrer on the end of a drill, but the results were disastrous and getting the epoxy off whatever it got on was almost impossible.

In recent years epoxy pond liner makers have made great strides in research, development and application. Building a pond using epoxy can be done by the small contractor or the homeowner. It is easily mixed and applied. But do be careful. Getting on your hands or clothes means living with it the rest of your natural life.

One of the most wonderful uses for the new epoxies is for patching concrete ponds. I have told my concrete pond owners when they called with a cracked leaking pond that there was nothing that could be done. I would put some plumbers' epoxy in the crack and tell them just to keep on doing that every time the pond cracked again. And concrete cracks in tropical climates where most of the land is below sea level. Now a crack can be patched just like patching dry wall. Use some cloth made just for epoxy use, insert it in and over the concrete crack and then float the epoxy over it. Most installers proceed to coat the entire concrete pond because it looks better and will stop further and inevitable cracks.

PVC liners came first in the pond building business. They were all we had, so we loved them. Their biggest drawback was not standing up to sunlight. PVC liners cracked like visqueen and needed replacement if the pond wasn't built so water covered every bit of the PVC liner.

Rubber liners were next and will undoubtedly rule the industry for years to come. If you want to know what a rubber liner is, just think about a huge piece of inner tube material. That's a rubber liner. Firestone makes them. I am sure many other companies do as well. A 45 mil thick liner comes with a 40 year warranty. They run about $1.00 a square foot, although you can get them online for cheaper. The biggest drawback of online buying is paying the shipping, but often you can still save money. The next biggest drawback with rubber liners is weight. If you buy a 45 mil rubber liner 20' x 20', you better have a couple of strong guys to put it in place for you. I still love rubber liners and after they were widely available, have used them exclusively. Rubber liners withstood anything Katrina threw at them. My customers and I were happy to see them whole after seeing everything else destroyed.

I think epoxy is coming into its own. It may well be that it will be the liner of choice one day. As far as I am concerned, the ability to patch a concrete pond is reason enough to love it.

Isn't it great that we have another liner choice now. We can apply epoxy to the sides of a hole and have a waterproof hole. Now that's nice.

How to Build a Koi Pond

Koi and goldfish? There's a difference?

Koi? What are koi and why must I build a koi pond differently than any other pond? Can't I just put koi in my pond? One would think so, but one would be wrong.

First of all, a koi is a carp, just like a goldfish, but it is from a different family. Goldfish are descendants of crucian carp and koi are from common carp. Koi usually have two whiskers like a catfish and goldfish don't, so they are easy to spot if someone wants to give you one.

And there are other differences as well. Goldfish dart around more in the water and will eat your submerged vegetation as they fertilize it. Your pond will be a relatively maintenance free ecosystem with plants and goldfish. Koi, on the other hand, swim lazily around eating everything they can get their mouths around. They love your most expensive water lilies and will dispatch with them first. They work their way through every piece of vegetation you have in your pond and look for more before you even realize you must feed them.

So a koi pond is a special outdoor aquarium made just for koi. Koi will pull plants down from outside the pond just for sport. They also have a awful habit of jumping out of the pond where you find them stiff and dry when you come home from work. The jumping out is often a sign of foul water. A goldfish pond is a water garden with goldfish swimming around behaving themselves.

Before you even think of building any pond, think long and hard: Do you want a koi pond or do you want a water feature with plants and goldfish? For goldfish pond building see How to Build a Pond

You have decided you want a koi pond because you want koi as pets.
A koi pond must be deeper than a goldfish pond. Koi need more room to move around. They like to swim up and down as well as back and forth. They also grow and grow fast, so make your pond at least 3' deep, deeper if you can and as big as you can afford. Try to get your koi pond dug below the frost line or you will be trying to figure out how to over winter them in the house when it freezes outside.

A koi pond should be built up above the ground. I like to do this with goldfish ponds as well to keep run off out and therefore avoid chemicals that may run into your pond. If you can get your koi pond edges up at least 6", you will be safer and possible keep your koi in the water instead of lying on the ground. I have known professional koi keepers who build their ponds at least 18" above ground, usually using concrete for the entire pond rather than a butyl rubber or EPDM liner.

Koi ponds must have filtration. As much filtration as you can afford. Do you get the idea that koi keeping can be expensive? In the past koi keepers used swimming pool filters. Now bead filters are popular. If the bead filters are just too expensive, a quality biofilter will do. It should be big enough for your pond. Most biofilter manufacturers will help you pick out the one that will work best for your pond size.

Using a UV light sterilizer, usually called a water clarifier is necessary for your koi pond. It will kill algae microorganisms and keep the water clear so you can see your fish.

Koi are hungry fishies. You must feed them. You will find scores of koi foods available. I make no recommendations about which one to buy. I suggest finding a koi club in your area and see which ones their fish like and following their examples and suggestions. One thing I know koi love to do is play with a half of a red cabbage. Don't shred it. Let them play with it like a basketball.

The water chemistry must be perfect. Any radical changes in pH, nitrate, nitrite, ammonia must be corrected immediately or your fish will get sick.
The biggest difference

Don't forget one basic difference. When you build a koi pond, you are building a special house for your pets. When you build a goldfish pond, you are putting a water garden in your landscape.

And you will name those koi, I know that. Because you named your children and your other pets. Koi can get sick and die of the strangest diseases before you are even aware they are sick. I suggest not naming them.