Water Gardens Gazette number 312

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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. Green water in Florida
3. Algae on sides of pond and other places, emptying your pond
4. More on chemicals
5. This edition's quick tips
6. New articles: http://www.practical-water-gardens.com
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. GREEN POND WATER IN FLORIDA

A person in Florida wrote to me with an interesting observation
which I would like to share with everyone.

Readers who have been with me since the beginning and who have
read my book will understand that it is totally unnecessary to
have a green pea-soup like pond. It is also unnecessary to
keep adding chemicals to kill the algae responsible.

Florida temperatures are very pleasant year round. Apparently
the general advice is to build ponds about 18 inches deep.
This is a bit on the shallow side but OK. The trouble with
shallow ponds is that they go through significant temperature
cycles. They warm up quickly and cool down quickly.

Fish are not fond of change ... they like steady state systems.

In Florida ponds would tend to remain at a relatively high
temperatures.

Goldfish and koi like warmth. Algae also like warm water and sunny
climates. As such ponds would have a tendency to green easily
and quickly in Florida type climates. This is what the reader
and her friends had experienced and had begun to accept
as being normal.

The Florida resident through reading my book learned about UV and
is now well on her way to enjoying her pond the way it should
be enjoyed.

There is no reason why any pond should not have crystal clear water
all year round. The solution is simple, effective and not
too expensive.

I have no doubt this lady will now provide really good practical
advice to her friends and make pondkeeping for those friends the
pleasure it was meant to be.

I remain amazed that so few people are aware of the Blue Light
Miracle Worker.

An UV clarifier or sterilizer as some people call them is an
absolutely essential component of an effective fish pond installation.
I am amazed because most pond keepers have the pea-soup problem year
in and year out. Because they just do not know about UV.

Does the problem lie with us in the trade either retail or wholesale?

Is the reason the preference to sell chemicals (a temporary solution
at best) rather than provide the consumer with the best advice and
good case studies?

Is there just insufficient simple believable information available
out there?

Pond keeping is fun, it is simple, low cost and rewarding if
done properly.......

The alternative is a stinking, expensive green or murky
brown eye-sore.

*** Learn how to benefit, save money and enjoy your pond.
*** Re-read these newsletters.
*** Download my free booklet.
*** Buy my 180 pages book ... low cost worth far more
in practical advice and savings to be achieved but more important
it allows you to realise the vision you intended when you
first started to dig the hole in the backyard......

"A Crystal Clear Pond" with beautiful healthy fish and/or plants

3. ALGAE ON SIDES OF POND IS NORMAL

Two readers on the same day posed the same question. Both were
concerned about algae growing on side of the ponds. They wanted
to know how to get rid of it.

The answer was very simple ... you cannot get rid of it permanently;
and more importantly you do not want to get rid of it either.

All garden ponds develop a growth of green algae on pond surfaces ...
this includes walls, pumps, pipes, stones on bottom of pond and so on.

This algae is up to 1 inch long but rarely more than that.
This is NOT blanketweed or string algae. This miniature
1 inch forest of plants is a haven to natural food sources
in a pond. You will notice fish "grazing" on this underwater
pasture. If you empty the pond and scrub the walls down
it will soon re-appear.

The query however raised another important matter. If you
ever empty a pond what do you do with the fish?

How to empty a pond a care for the fish

Let's say you have a crack or leak in a pond and you have to empty
it to make repairs then it is important to plan ahead. Some people
will arrange for their fish to be kept in someone else's pond but
this can be bad for both parties and should be avoided if at all
possible.

Here's what you need to consider ....
1. Stop feeding fish one week before time to empty pond

2. Get as large a temporary pond on site (above ground kiddies'
vinyl swimming pools could be a possibility) as you can.

3. Clean out the pond using pond water.

4. Arrange to buy, borrow or hire as large an air pump as
you can with a mechanism for distributing the air such as
air stones.

4. On the day you plan to empty the pond pump pond water into the
temporary pond and start pumping air into the water.

5. Do not overfill the pond since fish when stressed tend to
jump and you do not want them jumping out of the pond

6. If the fish are to remain in this new home for a while then
make sure about 50% of the water is replaced every day with fresh
water .... 2 changes of 25% are better than a single change of 50%.

Remember there is no biofilter so toxic ammonia/nitrites
if present will build up. This is why you stopped feeding to minimise
chances of toxic build up.

7. Keep a close watch on the fish ... any signs of unusual
behaviour then change portion of water immediately and make sure air
pump is working

8. People with serious koi collections may well decide to have an
ammonia remover like Amquel available ... just in case.

9. On refilling the main pond it would be a good idea to add a
chlorine removing agent to the fresh tap water and in any case
rather spray the water into the pond .. this will help the
chlorine to evaporate

10. Take advantage when refilling the pond to measure your
pond volume ... see below QUICK TIPS


MORE ON 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

Pond conditioner chemicals for removing chlorine and chloramines
in fresh water being added to a pond are commonly available and
sold in large amounts. In my opinion these chemicals are not really
necessary but at least they do perform a specific function and
do little harm.

Any chlorine in pond water will normally have disappeared naturally
after short time.

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

A. Use black or opaque pipes in your pond instead of transparent
low cost plastic tubing. Since light cannot penetrate the black
piping the algae growth inside the pipe will be very considerably
reduced. This means less maintenance and also less expenditure on
replacing transparent pipe when it becomes clogged with algae.

B. Measuring pond volume in USA .... Burt Ballou pointed out
that in USA most homes have a water meter which can be accessed readily.

This makes pond volume measurement simple if you start with an empty system.
Just make sure that while filling the pond nobody uses then toilet,
takes a shower does the washing up etc. All you have to do is then record
the start and finish readings from the meter to get a very accurate
indication of pond volume.

C. Measuring pond volume using science .. this is worth pointing out
for its simple but brilliant bit of chemistry. Once more I am grateful
to a reader for pointing this out to me. This method depends upon a
pondkeeper using salt in the pond water. By measuring the salt
concentration in the pond water before and after adding a known amount
(lbs) of salt to the pond it is possible to calculate the pond volume very
accurately and easily assuming the salt hydrometer is also accurate.

If you want to know more e mail me by clicking link below
mailto:info@pondsandpumps.co.za?subject=saltvolume
and I will send you a calculator

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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