I had to clear out my mini pond - after about six years - because a third of it had silted up. Because it's so shallow (about 20cm) with rocks and plants in it, I need all the water volume I can get. I make a point of fishing out all the bits that see fall into it - petals, sticks, leaves. But detritus still builds up over the years. I made a huge effort to try and clean out the blanket weed from the pond edges, but I failed dismally. The pond lasted two days before it grew back. Ho hum.
@Fire oh dear! Will have to look into that then. I wish we had some frogs or newts in the garden as I heard mozzies would make a good snack for them 🤣🐸 haven't had any visitors yet though!
@Fire if i am not mistaken i believe it gets rid of the chlorine and other chemicals in the tap water
It's the chloramine I bought it for. I read up loads on tap water in ponds and some water suppliers put chloramine in it. It's a disinfectant and won't go away of its own accord like chlorine will. Apparently it harms the good bacteria as well as the bad. I double checked on Severn Trent Water's website and they use it so I added a little tap conditioner when filling the pond.
@februarysgirl how many oxygenators did you put in your barrel pond? We put 3 bunches of hornwort but not sure how many is enough!
I started out with just the one but ordered a couple more. Due to a combination of me misreading one of the listings and the seller being over generous with the other, I received 5 bunches today 😬 I've put them all in the pond for now but really don't know whether I should be leaving them in there.
I started a half-barrel pond earlier in the year, I think in late Feb or early March, and it doesn't seem to be doing too well.
It has a dwarf lily, and three marginal plants (can't remember the name), as well as some hornwort and another type of oxygenator, I think 3-4 bunches total.
The lily and marginals were planted in aquatic compost in the aquatic baskets and planted as per the instructions I was sent. A couple of weeks after filling the pond it turned milky white and was covered with what looked like an oily film. After a few weeks of this it completely cleared and looked great for a week or so. Then, everything under the surface became covered in a reddy-brown slime, and two of the marginals have died over the past couple of weeks. The lily-pad still appears to be growing but has never got past sending up a few tiny leaves that then seem to struggle.
It is now absolutely brimming with fly larvae of some sort, which doesn't surprise me as our garden is always full of tiny flies anyway, but they're the sort that seem to disappear when you actually get close and are so small you can't notice them. I've looked online and apparently fly larvae are usually the first thing to move in anyway, and their population usually balances a bit over time. I have ordered a couple of new marginal plants to replace those that died. I am hoping the new ones don't just immediately die too, and will just have to wait and see.
I have researched loads and just can't fathom what I'm doing wrong, so if things don't improve over the next little while I may just have to sack the whole thing off and use the barrel as a planter for a small tree or something.
Posts
I started out with just the one but ordered a couple more. Due to a combination of me misreading one of the listings and the seller being over generous with the other, I received 5 bunches today 😬 I've put them all in the pond for now but really don't know whether I should be leaving them in there.
It has a dwarf lily, and three marginal plants (can't remember the name), as well as some hornwort and another type of oxygenator, I think 3-4 bunches total.
The lily and marginals were planted in aquatic compost in the aquatic baskets and planted as per the instructions I was sent. A couple of weeks after filling the pond it turned milky white and was covered with what looked like an oily film. After a few weeks of this it completely cleared and looked great for a week or so. Then, everything under the surface became covered in a reddy-brown slime, and two of the marginals have died over the past couple of weeks. The lily-pad still appears to be growing but has never got past sending up a few tiny leaves that then seem to struggle.
It is now absolutely brimming with fly larvae of some sort, which doesn't surprise me as our garden is always full of tiny flies anyway, but they're the sort that seem to disappear when you actually get close and are so small you can't notice them. I've looked online and apparently fly larvae are usually the first thing to move in anyway, and their population usually balances a bit over time. I have ordered a couple of new marginal plants to replace those that died. I am hoping the new ones don't just immediately die too, and will just have to wait and see.
I have researched loads and just can't fathom what I'm doing wrong, so if things don't improve over the next little while I may just have to sack the whole thing off and use the barrel as a planter for a small tree or something.