Water Gardens Gazette number 311

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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.
We received 453 new subscribers since last edition.

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

1. Get all the calculators in a single file (all in Excel .xls format).
2. Biomedia basics revisited
3. More on chemicals
4. Large ponds ... a few words
5. This edition's quick tips
6. New articles: covers all kinds of topics related to water gardens
7. Subscribe and unsubscribe information

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1. FREE POND CALCULATOR ...............

The free calculator offer has come to an end ....
I have made it easy for subscribers to receive the whole series
in a single file

Click this e mail link and I will send within 24 hours
of receiving your special request ... do not change the e mail in
any way. Just send it as is .....
 

Please send all calculators in a single file

New subscribers can access all the previous FREE calculators at

You can learn about what each calculator does by visiting:

Learn about all the water garden ponds calculators here

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2. BIOMEDIA REVISTED

I get more queries associated with biofilters than anything else.

This is not surprising since a biofilter is so important in
any fish pond .... A biofilter for a fish pond is essential,
it is not just a nice-to-have item.

Selection is much simpler than you think especially for small
to medium sized garden fish ponds. The following points are
important even if you build your own biofilter.

Specification is based upon pond volume with consideration
given to quantity of fish if you really overstock the pond.

The size of the biofilter box or container is almost totally
irrelevant .... many people will tell you that the filter
should be a certain percent of the pond volume.

This is quite simply WRONG.

Such advice will cost you more money than necessary and
will not help you.

The biomedium used and the flow rate through the biofilter
are important to determine the size of the box or container.
As far as flow is concerned see the end of this article since
many people misunderstand and believe all water must flow through
the filter at the same time.

In simple terms the biofilter contains media on which a
large amount of specific bacteria grow. These bacteria are
required in order to digest the pollutants created by
fish bodily wastes building up in the pond water.

Think of the bacteria as clinging to all possible surfaces
in the biofilter box. This means the more surface there
is then the greater the space for the bacteria to cling to and
the more the amount of bacteria there can be ... simple
as that. The surface comes from media with rough porous
surfaces (not smooth plastic or stones) and this is what
creates large areas of surface. We talk of SSA ...
specific surface area... Look for biofilters which
contain biomedia with high SSA.

To really push this home take the situation of two different biomedia

The first has an SSA of 5, the second an SSA of 10.

The box for the first medium will have to be twice as large as the
second one in order to hold the amount of media that will do the job
of biofiltration adequately.

Please take a look at biomedia for pond biofilters and
tips for making your own homemade biofilter

Here you will find information on different biomedia and
also tips on how to build your own low cost biofilter.

Many commercial units are very overpriced and no better
than a home made one. From what readers tell me Rubbermaid
make some great low cost containers you can use.

By the way it appears Alfagrog is NOT available in USA. It is an UK
product. We have it in South Africa ... I have
been putting it into all my biofilters for years.

NOTE IMPORTANT.... If you are pumping more water around
your circuit than stipulated as the maximum flow for any
biofilter then all you have to do is split the flow so
some goes into the biofilter and the rest by-passes
the actual filter box and goes to your waterfall for
example.

All the pond water eventually goes through the biofilter.
In fact this will happen about 12 times a day for most ponds.
The more serious koi keeper would prefer that all the water is
passed through the filer 24 times per day.

If you want to calculate how many times your water is flowing
through the filter every day just divide the flow through the
filter into the ponds volume. For example if you are pumping
500 galls per hour and the pond is 2000 gallons then all the pond
water if filtered every 4 hours which is the same as 6 times per day

3. MORE ON CHEMICALS .. should be I hate Chemicals

The first point to bear in mind if you succumb to the temptation
to add something to your pond is ...... you MUST know and know
ACCURATELY the volume of water in your pond which includes the
volume in the waterfall, filters (if large) and streams etc...
in other words ALL the water in your system and not just the pond.

You must then be able to measure the dose based upon the total volume
and the instructions. This can be difficult for many because of poor
instructions and mixed units on the container.

If in doubt ..... seek advice

Malachite Green is actually a dye which is used in treating parasites,
and fungus diseases in a pond.

By overdosing you would tend to kill off your biofilter which is very
dangerous. On the other hand it can be totally ineffective if dosage is
not right. Are you starting to see what I mean about adding
chemicals to a pond?

It is probably best to turn off flow to the filter before adding
but only for an hour or so.

Most dyes are broken down by air and sunlight so best time to treat is
late in the day. This is another reason your supply might not be what
you think (ie it has deteriorated in the container). This creates
more complexities.

Once added it cannot be added again for a period of time.

Like I said last time treating a fish outside pond is almost
always better than treating in pond.



IF YOU WOULD LIKE YOUR POND CONCERNS OR QUERIES TO BE ADDRESSED DO PLEASE SEND THE QUESTIONS IN.
TO MAKE THIS EASY just click the link below - DO NOT CHANGE THE SUBJECT LINE just add your query to the body of the email and then just send. I will try to reply personally if I can. Just click below

I have a query

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QUICK TIPS QUICK TIPS QUICK TIPS QUICK TIPS
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Today's quick tips ..........

A. If you have very young fish in danger of being eaten by
larger fish you can separate them until they are a bit bigger
as follows .......
Create a fine mesh bag about 2 feet deep. Attach the bag to
pieces of foam (or maybe polystyrene) that float creating
a ring or square. Add a bit of weight to bottom of net ... eg stones
and let it float around the pond.
Of course you must catch the fish first and then put them
in their safe floating environment.

B. This one sounds a bit crazy but works. Your fish will
learn to recognize you especially if you feed them. To speed up this
process move your hands as you approach the pond (or do something
similar) ... just don't let the neighbours see you. Keep the
movement the same every time.

C. A tip from Patricia in Ireland. She has a large pond with no fish.
She had green algae problems. She used barley straw which took 6
weeks to work.
Her tip is that to prevent the mess floating barley straw can make
put it into old (or new for that matter) tights. Thanks Patricia.


A list of quick tips is maintained at

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


6. 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.
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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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seeking written approval from Tony Roocroft at
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