Pican Pican
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  • Posted on: 4/7/2009 23:25
Help! Advice needed on pump clogging up every week! #1
When I moved two years ago I inherited a garden pond, which holds 7 normal gold fish. The pump works ok, and I bought new filters when I moved.

Problem: I understand about algae constantly appearing, and I bought a new "pad thing" to lay on top of the filters which is supposed to work better than Barley Straw. My nightmare is that every single week the pump stops pumping as it is completely gunged up with what I can only describe as black slimey stuff, and also green algae on the outside.

Basically I dont know what to do. It wasn't like it last year. I am becoming a slave to dismantling the pump every week and giving it a good scrub, which is starting to become a bit of a chore.

Can anyone make any suggestions as to why I am gunging up so quickly? or is that normal and I was just lucky last year?

My filters look ok and I have rinsed them through several times.

One other question, as I am really quite ignorant about this pond. Why do all my fish stay out of sight all the time? I sometimes wonder if they are still there! I was looking forward to sitting by the pond and watching them swim around, but no such luck. I never see them, and they often dont even bother with their food.

A friend told me all hers come up eagerly awaiting their dinner.....not mine, that just dart off and hide. I am beginning to wonder what this pond lark is all about....lol.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Chrissy x
Chrissy
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  • Posted on: 5/7/2009 8:37
Re: Help! Advice needed on pump clogging up every week! #2
Hello Chrissy. Do you have:
a bottom drain?
a skimmer?
gravel?
sludge in the pond?

Fish usually hide because they are afraid of predators. If a heron had been fishing in your pond, you'd probably have lost a few by now. But they might be hiding from a less competent predator, or they might hide because the pond is too shallow and they know they don't have anywhere to go if a predator does find them.
Pican Pican
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Re: Help! Advice needed on pump clogging up every week! #3
Hi! and thanks for replying...

As I "inherited" this pond...and also dont have a clue about ponds either...this could be an irritating conversation for you..ha ha.

A bottom drain?....Hmmm dont know, but suspect I dont. I think its just a bog standard plastic pond liner.

A skimmer?....whats one of those?

Gravel?.....not dont think so.

Sludge in pond?....I would say yes to that. The bottom of the pond is very muddy. If I put my hand in it all swirls around and takes ages to clear.

I know what you mean about a Heron. When I first moved into this house he ate all the fish....the bugger. I re-stocked and have always kept a net on for safety. I just find it upsetting that I dont see them swim around or come up for food. Last week I honestly thought I had lost them all, but then slowly I saw them appear. I do wonder if I would have been better buying baby fish instead of more adult, that way they may have been friendlierZ?
Chrissy
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Re: Help! Advice needed on pump clogging up every week! #4
A skimmer pulls water from the surface of the pond, and with it positively buoyant debris. A bottom drain pulls water from the bottom, and with it negatively buoyant debris and fish waste. Ideally, a pond would have at least one of each. If you have a skimmer with a leaf basket, you might find that lining the basket with fiberglass window screen reduces your pump maintenance dramatically.

The sludge bottom is going to be a problem for your fish. You'll probably wind up getting a pond vac at some point, but in the meantime, you can use a skimmer net to get the worst of muck out. One problem with sludge is that it holds toxic gasses, and if you stir up too much of it at once, the gasses can kill you fish. Hence, you should only do a small section at a time. If it's just silt, though, you could do the whole pond. Silt resembles sand, while sludge resembles mud or pudding. If you have sludge, you could also try something like Microbe-Lift Sludgeaway. This is a concoction of bacteria and enzymes that will dissolve sludge. It will use a lot of oxygen while doing it, though, hence you don't want to try this in hot weather.

How deep is your pond? Fish sometimes cower in a shallow pond because they don't feel safe. If your fish haven't been in the pond long, give them time. New fish almost always hide for a while.
Pican Pican
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Re: Help! Advice needed on pump clogging up every week! #5
Thank you once again for your informative reply. Depending on how long this thread goes on....you will soon come to realise what a dumb dumb woman I am regarding ponds.

The stuff in the bottom of the pond is just thick black muddy stuff that smells horrible! Last year I bought a pond vac, and unless I was using it wrong..it didn't pick anything up at all, so I decided it was a waste of money and threw it away!! Earlier this year I tried skimming a net along the bottom to clear some of the sludge, only to find my pond almost empty the next morning!! This happened two days running, then settled. So you can see, I dont have much success.

I guess it is only really an ornamental pond, and not a "serious" one, nevertheless there are five or more little lives in there depending on me to help them stay alive.

All of the fish have been in the pond quite some time, so I don't think they are hiding due to newness. The pond at its deepest point is about 18" and 6" at the shallowest. I have topped it up this evening in the hopes of making it a big deeper for them, but haven't seen any fish for a few days now......but I am sure they are there as the safety net isn't damaged in any way.

Before I drive you mad, can I just ask one last question please.....if I bought new filters for the filter box do you think that would help with the sludge problem? What is confusing me more than anything is that the pond has been fine for two years, its just now I am having problems. I think the pond is probably about 6 years or more old, according to the previous owner.

Many thanks.
Chrissy
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Re: Help! Advice needed on pump clogging up every week! #6
Quote:
Pican wrote:
Thank you once again for your informative reply. Depending on how long this thread goes on....you will soon come to realise what a dumb dumb woman I am regarding ponds.

There's a difference between stupidity and ignorance. In your case, it's just ignorance, and fortunately, there's a cure for that. Don't feel bad if you feel a bit lost at first. Though they look as simple as an oversized bucket, ponds are actually very complex systems, and there is a great deal to learn. Everyone feels lost at some point, either near the beginning, or after they've built their first pond without doing sufficient research and things have gone horribly wrong.

Quote:
The stuff in the bottom of the pond is just thick black muddy stuff that smells horrible!

That's sludge. In a closed system like a garden pond it can become a serious water quality problem, hence you'll want to do something about it.[/quote]

Quote:
Last year I bought a pond vac, and unless I was using it wrong..it didn't pick anything up at all, so I decided it was a waste of money and threw it away!!

Was this something that attached to your garden hose or a rather expensive machine with an electric motor? The former type is more or less useless, while the latter actually works.

Quote:
Earlier this year I tried skimming a net along the bottom to clear some of the sludge, only to find my pond almost empty the next morning!! This happened two days running, then settled. So you can see, I dont have much success.

The water went out when you disturbed the sludge? How fast does the water go down when you leave the sludge alone?

Quote:
All of the fish have been in the pond quite some time, so I don't think they are hiding due to newness. The pond at its deepest point is about 18" and 6" at the shallowest.

That is extremely shallow. What sort of hiding places do your fish have? They might feel a bit more bold if they were never very far away from safety. Many people put flower pots or bits of PVC pipe (usually painted black to make them less visible) in their ponds to act small fortresses for the fish.

Quote:
Before I drive you mad, can I just ask one last question please.....if I bought new filters for the filter box do you think that would help with the sludge problem

What sort of filter do you have now, and what media do you ahve in it? New media might help a little, but I don't think it will solve your problem. The problem is that debris (fish waste, fallen leaves, dead algae etc) sinks to the bottom of the pond and stays there. You need to first clean the pond up, and then you need to keep it clean. There are various enzyme and bacteria concoctions meant to dissolve debris so that you can remove it with water changes, but what you really need to do is get the debris out of the water before it decays. Hence a good pond vac. But a "serious" pond will be carefully designed so that any negatively buoyant debris will be pulled through the bottom drain and into the filter. In the long run, you may find that building a proper fish pond takes less effort than maintaining the one you have. This is the conclusion I have come to with my own inherited pond. (Actually, it came with the house.)

Quote:
What is confusing me more than anything is that the pond has been fine for two years, its just now I am having problems. I think the pond is probably about 6 years or more old, according to the previous owner.

My guess is that your pond was not in a steady state during those two years, but was slowly accumulating nutrients. It may not have been in very good shape when you acquired it. But it was probably the heat that pushed your ecosystem over the edge. There are many posts from UK ponders this year about unusual algae explosions and fish dying for want of oxygen. Perhaps you could have gone on for several more years without a noticeable problem, but the heat has brought all the flaws in your pond to the fore.
Mitchofmedway Mitchofmedway
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  • Posted on: 8/8/2009 15:39
Re: Help! Advice needed on pump clogging up every week! #7
Hi, wondered how you were getting along?

I noticed in your original post you mentioned rinsing the filter sponges. You should only use pond water for this as tap water includes algae loving chemicals.

Also if the pump is clogging up, it would suggest it is place on or in the sludge. You can simply raise the pump up on a brick.

If the pump has its on sponge, I would remove it and let the filter box catch the dirt.