Water Gardens Gazette number 309

Water Gardens Gazette May 5th, 2003 - Number309 You are receiving this newsletter because you requested it, bought my book or downloaded the free water garden booklet. You can unsubscribe at the bottom of this newsletter. _____ Sponsors ______________________________________________ This Issue sponsored by ... Focus Garden Products Pty Ltd ****** SPECIAL OFFER GAZETTE SUBSCRIBERS ONLY ****** Most of you will have noticed that I normally sell my unique book "Your Pond Crystal Clear Water - Guaranteed" by direct download at US$8.50 or GBP 5.90 or AUD 17.00. In Rands it normally sells for R75.00. For a limited time and with Spring in mind I want to offer my book at US$6.90 but only to Gazette subscribers. The book will put all you need to know in a single convenient easy to access and read place. You have my unconditional personal guarantee that your money will be totally refunded and no questions will be asked if you really believe you were not able to benefit from reading my book (in pdf format which means you need Adobe Acrobat reader to view). Here's the link. http://www.digibuy.com/cgi-bin/order.html?Weblux+104783013961 You will be taken directly to the ordering page Place your order and provide the details requested. You will receive an e mail from Digibuy with a special unique download link. All very simple and quick. With this offer you do not get calculators downloaded automatically so if you want them then you will need to send me a seperate e-mail including the purchase reference number. _____________________________________________

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About Water Gardens Gazette
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Feel free to pass this Gazette as a complete document to friends you may have
whom you think would like to improve their pond keeping hobby.

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This edition includes ....................

This edition includes ....................

1.Free pond calculator as promised (all calculators are
in Microsoft Excel .xls format).
2. Readers' queries
3. Industry criticism
4. This edition's quick tips
5. New articles: covers all kinds of topics related to water gardens
Address where all editions can be found and where you
can ask questions we will try to answer
6. Subscribe and unsubscribe information
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1. FREE POND CALCULATOR ...............

As promised when you subscribed you will be able to get a
free calculator by going to the following web address.

Free pond calculator one of a series of 12 pond calculators to collect

This edition's free calculator will allow you to work out the volume of many
regular shaped ponds. By combining shapes you can turn most
irregular shapes into a series of regular shapes. If this does not
work for you remember the free calculator for irregular shapes
is freely available at the above link.

New subscribers can access these previous calculators at Free pond calculators

INSTRUCTIONS TO DOWNLOAD:
All you need to do is go to the web page above and click the link. The calculator will open up in Excel automatically. Save the file to your selected folder.

You can learn about what each calculator does by visiting:

Learn about all the water garden ponds calculators here

Of course you can get all 12 calculators free in one go by
buying my book "Your Pond: Crystal Clear Water Guaranteed."
Read more about it here:
Receive all 12 FREE water garden ponds calculators when you buy my book

Free pond calculator go to this page to download the pond calculator
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2. Readers Queries ... related in ways

Solar pumps with capacity
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I got two queries about solar energy in terms of pond keeping last
week so I thought it might be beneficial to provide my thoughts on
solar energy in a pond environment.

The concept is great especially if you live in sunny climates like I do in Johannesburg (my queries were from Hawaii and California by the way) but if you live in the UK type of average climate such products are probably not for you.
Even in my type of climate my experience with a fountain pump was very poor.

The first query I got was asking for advice on solar powered pumps with
"humph .." or power. To the best of my knowledge powerful pumps in terms of head or volume are just not available. The reason is the largish amount of electricity required for such an operation.

Solar power is capable of supplying the power ... you just make sure the panel collecting the sun's rays and converting this into electricity is big enough.

However the problem arises when the sun sets. Power generation stops and unless you have a very large battery (charged during sunlight hours) any equipment will stop working. A battery with sufficient power to run a pond pump delivering say 500 gallons per hour would quickly use up the power stored in a small battery and that assumes the device came with a
rechargeable battery in the first place.

Solar equipment with rechargeable batteries do exist but the cost for most pond keepers would be prohibitive.

This first query lead onto a far more interesting one from Hawaii. This
reader lives in a remote part of Hawaii and had already built a fairly large pond before he bought my book.

Only have solar power and a biggish pond
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When the reader read my book he noticed very quickly my stance on
biofilters for fish ponds .... ie they are absolutely essential. He had a dilemma because he could not run a pump to feed the biofilter 24 hours per day for the reason he relied totally upon solar energy and an emergency generator.

He contemplated filling the pond in because he wanted to keep fish as
well as plants. He had built a pond of about 5,000 gallons (20,000 litres).

In the case of this situation the inability to install a biofilter was best overcome by the following advice .... which does apply for a smaller pond too.
However it is NOT a substitute for a biofilter in small garden ponds.

DO NOT FILL THE POND IN ... you can still enjoy it

1. Only stock a few fish at the max rate of about 1 inch per square foot of
pond surface. As the pond develops and matures a few more fish can be added.
Try to mimic what you would see in a natural pond of similar dimensions.

2. Very important .... do not feed the fish unless done very sparingly and
only once a week or so and preferably a small amount over a long period
rather than all at once.
The food happily fed to fish is the source of many problems.
Fish are able to survive quite nicely on the natural larvae etc that will
quickly appear in the pond. They can do this for ever ... the fittest survive just as in nature.
When fish are fed with synthetic food there is a sudden release of ammonia which without a biofilter could create problems ... hence the advice to feed small quantities regularly rather than a larger quantity all at once.
The risk is higher in small ponds.

3. The fish should be introduced slowly and not all at once

4. Plants of all sorts and especially oxygenators should be planted as
soon as possible

5. If a pump could be run for parts of the day to improve circulation this
would help but a biofilter outside the pond would be a waste of money.

6. When or if the pond goes green then be patient and allow the system
to attempt to correct itself which it will possibly do if the nutrients added to the pond are absolutely minimised so that the plant material in the pond is sufficient to absorb the natural build-up of nitrates and phosphates.

7. If possible pump out say 10% of the pond volume every week or so
especially in the beginning. This will assist reduction of nitrates and
phosphates also.

Mosquitoes in ponds
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A 3rd query related to the above was from a lady who was concerned about mosquitoes and their larva building up in her pond and then hatching.

If a pond is well cared for - ie good circulation, good biofiltration and if it holds fish there will be very few mosquitoes at all. Quite simply mosquito larvae are a prime source of natural food in ponds and natural watercourses.

The larvae spend 99% of their life beneath the surface - ask any trout fly
fisherman and are always at high risk of being eaten.

In my own pond I have never seen any larvae

The problem ponds as far as nuisance mosquitoes are concerned are those with poor circulation or stagnant features such as barrel features and NO fish.

Every pond should have at least a couple of small gold fish if for no
other reason but to keep the larvae numbers down.

Planting directly into a sand base on the pond bottom
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A reader asked if a 9 inch level of sand placed on the bottom
of the pond to facilitate planting was a good idea ............

The answer is NO ...... why?

This layer of sand over a period of time will become mixed with organic
excesses from feeding and the daily toilet habits of the fish. In additon
oxygen will not be able to reach these organic products and they will
rot to put it bluntly.

In rotting oxygen will be extracted from the pond water to the detriment
of the other inhabitants of the pond. In addition ......

There will be a build-up of anaerobic bacteria (survive without oxygen). Many
of these bacteria are responsible for fish disease problems.

Have you ever lifted a bullrush or similar plant from the margins of a natural
pond?
If so you will almost certainly have come into contact with the
products of anaerobic bacterial action ... gases that stink.

The challenge in any pond is to keep the bottom totally clean. This is
the reason for installing bottom drains in larger koi ponds especially.

INSTRUCTIONS TO DOWNLOAD:
All you need to do is go to the web page above and click the link. The calculator will open up in Excel automatically. Save the file to your selected folder.

You can learn about what each calculator does by visiting:

Learn about all the water garden ponds calculators here

Of course you can get all 12 calculators free in one go by
buying my book "Your Pond: Crystal Clear Water Guaranteed."
Read more about it here:
Receive all 12 FREE water garden ponds calculators when you buy my book

Free pond calculator go to this page to download the pond calculator

3. Industry Criticism
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In this section I will not mention any names of course.

It is that time of year when sales of consumable pond products increase
in the Northern Hemisphere. There is nothing wrong with selling .. all
of us are in business to make money when all is said and done.

What concerns me is the advice given to encourage people to add
chemicals and other concoctions to their ponds.

I came across this To Do List because Spring was here:

1. Order new filter pads (BUY THESE) ... maybe not a bad idea if you rely upon these for biofiltration but I got the idea these were things floating about
the pond surface in which case they are a bad substitute for a biofilter.
It is cheap to build a biofilter yourself - see how to keep your garden ponds clean.

2. Empty the pond and add some PRODUCT X (buy PRODUCT X here)
when you refill the pond... should be totally unecessary to empty the
pond unless you do want to clean bottom. It is wrong to remove
algae on sides of pond. Nothing positive is achieved but there is
a negative reaction... less holding places for bacteria and
natural food for fish

3. Add beneficial bacteria (BUY .......) you may as well just spit into the
pond for what good these thing do

4. BUY Barley straw ... bad advice and creates a mess in your pond.

5. And the list went on BUY THIS, BUY THAT, BUY BUY BUY......

The message was we can sell you lots not .... how we can really help
you to help yourself and thus become a loyal lifelong customer for the
right reasons for the right products...... genuine help, genuine assistance

The sad part is that none was necessary for the well being of a pond.

I am always tempted to repeat Nigel Caddock's very sane advice in these circumstances

In any pond there should be 3 things ..............
Water and Oxygen and Fish

(in actual fact Nigel says koi not fish but he is a bit biased towards koi)

He is perfectly correct.
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QUICK TIPS QUICK TIPS QUICK TIPS QUICK TIPS
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Today's quick tips ..........

1. Many gold fish are born black and not gold ... they seem to appear
from nowhere when they are about 1 inch long. In fact they have been
hiding from the larger fish who would have eaten them along with many
others that did not survive hatching from the ova. Because they are
black they can be difficult for us to see. Gradually they start turning
gold until they do become little goldfish - what a delight they are too.
All your own work at that.

2. Do not feed more food than what you fish can eat in about 5 minutes.
Remember your fish can survive almost indefinitely without food from you.
Any excess food should be removed ... there even devices sold that confine
the food to an area to enable excess to be removed.

3. As water temperatures increase the appetites of fish increase
and the oxygen holding capacity of water decreases. Getting the balance right
between feeding and overfeeding is important. If you find your fish gasping
at the surface and are not sure why start changing portions of the water
immediately ... ammonia is the likely cause especially early in the season
when you may have overfed and the biofilter is not yet working efficiently.
Stop feeding.

4. Make access to your biofilter easy. If there is a risk
of it overflowing and emptying the pond in the process then try to
ensure the overflowing water would find its way back into the pond.
This risk is real for most biofilters - if the outlet from the biofilter blocks
then the pump will cause the water to overflow through the lid

5. If you are installing a new pond and arranging for a supply of electricity
to it then do add any extra power point for possible future use.

6. Avoid spreading fertilisers around the pond area and do your best to
prevent water run-off from the garden into the pond. This is often the source
of high phosphate content in a pond and the cause of bad algae problems

A list of quick tips is maintained at

http://www.practical-water-gardens.com/tiptrick.htm
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4. Expert Articles .............

In case you are not aware of the articles we publish by leading
experts in the water gardening field take a look at:
http://www.practical-water-gardens.com  where you will see the list.
 

A leading contributor is Peter May, one of the leading UK water gardens landscapers

He is just starting his own website and maybe you would like to see what he has to say there. This is his web address where you will find the details:
of the Perfect Pond Detective He would appreciate your visit.

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Web address where all editions can be found and where you
can ask questions we will try to answer ..............

Our water gardens gazette index page is here

We will try to answer personally but if this proves to be not
possible because of large volumes of e mail we receive we will
certainly answer in future Gazettes.

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Copyright: The Water Gardens Gazette and its contents are
Copyright: Tony Roocroft, 2003.

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