Pondkeeper's How to...

Water Gardens Gazette number 313

Contents
1. Water lilies and pond aquatics
2. Pumps, pipes, uv's, biofilters: use them effectively
3. Quick Tips
4. Admin Section

1. Water lilies make any pond special.

I "discovered" a little book some years ago and bought it for the princely sum of R8.95 "on sale". It was called "Water Lilies and Pond Aquatics". Unfortunately there was no author nor publisher attached to the book and I therefore have no clue who the writer of the book was.

It is such a gem of a book in my humble opinion that I have taken the considerable trouble of re-publishing it ...

In the hope I can find the real author

As a source of practical information that can be shared with true pond keeping enthusiasts

It also identified for me that there was a need for useful, low cost organized, uncomplicated reference information on aquatic plants. This prompted me to compile the pdf and Excel list of some 90 plants which some of you have already received. This list will be considerably enlarged enhanced with photographs and improved over the next number of weeks and will then be made available through my web sites and the Gazette.

This is a bit about what the author had to say about water lilies which he placed into his Type 1 (of 7 types) list ...

Type 1… water lilies and similar species root strongly into the mud at the bottom of the pond. They have long extending leaf stalks and leaves which float on the water. The flower is also above the water level.

The genus Nymphaea includes all the water lilies in the world, distributed as they are in every country and continent except New Zealand’s. Because colour is often the most important factor in our choice of which cultivar to use; lists are normally divided into groups of similar colours. Other relevant features are size, scent and water depth which suit the various varieties.

Nymphaea capensis is the blue water lily indigenous to South Africa. It has been used as parent in many fine tropical hybrids. The hardy hybrid groups descend mainly from European and American parents such as Nymphaea alba odorata and Nymphaea tuberosa. Yellows and apricot colours owe their existence to the semi-tropical Nymphaea mexicana and other wild species.

Their manner of growth is somewhat like an iris with thick rhizomes or tuberous rootstocks which creep 15cm or more annually across the mud on the pond floor. Allow for this when planting in a large pot or tub by placing the tuber right back against the edge with growing point inwards. Hardy plants should be at an angle; tropicals upright!.

Nymphaea react to depth of water, i.e. from crown to water surface. Each cultivar in the book is rated with an a, b or c to indicate the relative vigour. Some plants are strong growing and their surface cover is proportionately more. Obviously the less vigorous varieties cover less. The following divisions are used as a guide only as many will prove satisfactory in various depths of water other than that indicated.

a) strong growing forms for water 30cm deep (about 1 foot)

b) medium varieties 20cm-45cm (from about 8 inches to 18 inches)

c) smaller kinds from 12cm-30cm ( about 5 inches to 1 foot)

Before making the unknown author's book available totally free to purchasers of my book "Your Pond: Crystal Clear Water Guaranteed" I checked out the contents with a well known northern hemisphere expert on water gardening who vouched for its contents being relevant and useful to any water gardener anywhere in the world. The book is in pdf and about 60 pages long with valuable lists and descriptions of many water garden plants from all classes. If I can locate the author I will consider offering the book for sale some time in the future. For now you can only get it by buying my pond book opposite.

I will be sending a free copy of this new book automatically to all the very many Crystal Clear book purchasers over the next week or so. If you have previously bought my book and do not receive the copy within 1 week please contact me since your name may just have slipped off the list somehow.

New purchasers will be provided with the download link in a seperate e-mail from me directly within 48hrs of purchase.

2. Pumps, pipes, uv's and biofilters and how to effectively use them

There is a relationship between these components in a pond system and it can be a little confusing as to what goes where and what size is required. The first thing to bear in mind is the wrongly sized pump or uv or biofilter or even the pipe can create significant problems or I should say hassles for you.

The pump is normally placed in the pond itself. Do not place it right at the bottom. It is a good idea to place it on a brick so that the "muck" sucked into the pump is minimized. You will have to remove the pump at times to clean it .... this can be frequently if the pump has a foam strainer. So make sure you can get it out of the pond without pulling it by the cable. Many pumps have a handle ..... tie some strong transparent fishing line to this handle if you have deep water so you can pull the pump up using this and not the cable.

Select the widest diameter pipe you can easily fix to the pump and place the pump so that the length of pipe is short ... in a small pond circulation is not helped to any significant effect by placing the pump at the opposite end from the waterfall as some would say.

I think I mentioned this last week ....

ideal pipe for ponds

Do not use transparent plastic pipe if you can avoid it since algae grows well inside such pipes and can block the flow ... the picture shows the best type of pipe to use. In the worst case this could cause you to pump the whole pond dry. This would happen if the outlet pipe from the biofilter becomes restricted and you are still pumping away into the filter ..... I promise this has happened on countless occasions.

In placing a biofilter try to locate the filter such that the overflowing water will find its way naturally back into the pond if this overflow does happen.

Next in the circuit is the UV .... ie before the biofilter.

UV clarifiers are normally weather resistant but NOT waterproof to the extent you can submerge them. The main reason for the UV being before the biofilter is that they need some pressure to get the water through the UV and keep the quartz tube full of water for maximum radiation impact. If your pump is too strong for your UV or pumps too much water into your biofilter (you can tell this is the case if your biofilter tends to overflow out of the lid) beware.

You can do a couple of things to overcome the problem. You do not need to buy a new pump...

At the pump outlet install a valve with 2 outlets as in the picture.

pump valve

Many pumps come with this fitting as standard. Position a pipe on one outlet to the UV and another either directly back into the pond or route it to the waterfall (in fact you do not even need a second piece of pipe if you don't have a waterfall ... just leave the valve open under the water's surface. Adjust the position of the valve(s) so you still get enough water flow to the UV and biofilter.

Take a clamp and squeeze the outlet pipe ... this will reduce the flow.

If you have not got a clamp then "kink" or bend the pipe or put a heavy stone on top of the pipe. You could even tie a stout ribbon around the pipe if your pipe is flexible enough.

Instead of a valve you can use a simple 'Y' piece or even a 'T' piece.

The idea is to create a restriction which will automatically reduce the flow. This will do no damage at all to your pump .... not even if the restriction completely stopped the water flow.

The ideal place to restrict the pipe is after the UV and before the biofilter but not critical.

If your UV quartz tube is not running full then you run the risk of the tube getting a film of dirt on the inside of it. This can significantly effect the alage-killing power. It is not a bad idea to occasionally check your quartz tube for cleanliness if you suspect a drop off in efficiency. If you do find your tube is dirty and scaled up use a dilute acid solution to clean the scale away.

If you have a habit of closing down the UV and by passing the water flow completey to prolong the life of the light itself be aware that the quartz tube will almost certainly become "fogged" up as solids in the water deposit onto the tube surface and harden (following water evaporation)

Now for the biofilter ...... the biggest problem faced by most pond keepers is to hide the ugly box or other contraption and especially so since often the biofilter is at the highest point in the circuit .... because the outlet of water is under gravity flow conditions.

The next consideration to recognize is that the amount of water you can safely pump into a biofilter is determined by the size of the OUTLET hole in any gravity filter.

To minimise the risk of overflow you do as suggested in the UV section above ... you might not have an UV of course. Do not be scared of by-passing some water around the biofilter as some folks are. This will not have any impact upon your biofilters performance (within reason of course). This by-passing trick allows you to reposition the biofilter at some other point lower than the top of the waterfall making it possibly easier to hide with plants and the like.

By selecting highly efficient biomedia for your biofilter you can reduce the physical size of the box dramatically. This makes hiding even easier.

Prevent biomedia finding its way into the outlet thereby blocking this pipe.

Quick Tips

Tip1 Sick and tired of cleaning the pump's sponge ... I bet?
The real solution is to buy a pump which does not need a sponge. Since most of you already have a pump with a sponge this is nonsense of course.

You need to understand why a pump has a sponge ...... it is to prevent particles getting into the pump's works and creating problems. It has nothing to do with filtering the water. Sshhhh but listen carefully, if it was me then I would consider doing the following:

Raise the pump as far as possible off the bottom so that it far away from any likely solids and then take the sponge out. If you have a good make of pump it is highly unlikely that damage will occur .... just don't say Tony told you to do this if you mess up the rotor. Be aware that your guarantee may be nullified.

Tip 2 If you cannot get Alfagrog what do you use?
Many readers do not seem to be able to get the marvellous Alfagrog biomedia in their country. Other good alternatives (by good I mean better than plastic tubes and similar) are the following ...

Ceramic rings

Lava rock

Open cell foam

You can read more about these if you want at http://www.clean-garden-ponds.com

I spoke to an enterprising reader the other day who had a filter chamber of about 10 cubic feet filled with plastic coke bottle tops .... he must have drunk a lot of coke.

Tip 3 Pesticides in and around a pond
Pesticides once they get into a pond by run-off from rain water for example of by indiscriminate spraying (as reported by a reader recently who had been subjected without warning to municipal spraying) can do great damage to the fish .... and what people may not be aware of damage to the bacteria in a biofilter making the biofilter under-perform. Be careful and avoid fertilizers and insecticides getting close to the pond water

4. Admin section

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