Good afternoon and a happy Labor Day for those of us 'mericans here!
Would like to introduce myself and my pond and then ask for some feedback. I figure this might become a longish post so I'll warn y'all 'bout that up-front.
The Intro:Hi! I'm TeeBee, live in SoCal (zone 10?) and have become interesting in ponding (first watergardening, now fish, how quickly we fall). Did it all the wrong way round - started out looking for a garden tub, bought a horse trough, brought it home, and thought... "hey, we probably won't use it as much as we thought, how about a water garden in that area that doesn't have anything yet?" That was about 6 weeks ago; 4 weeks ago I thought "Wow, some fish would be nice here" and now I own goldfish, water plants, and need to re-evaluate my setup.
So my "pond" is an approximately 6x2x3 horse trough that is about 150 gallons of water as per pond calculators online. It's stainless steel, caulked with aquarium-grade silicon, plumbed on the bottom (from back when we thought we were doing a tub, HAH), and lined on the sides with redwood slats to make it prettier cosmetically and help provide some insulation. Inside it's a long oval, sheer sides and rolled top, no sharp corners. It's above-ground. Temperature in the water ranges from 65F - 80F. It's covered with an umbrella and I have water lettuce, pygmy papyrus, and hardy water lillies in it, covering approximately 60 - 70 percent of the surface area. BTW, the lillies are blooming like crazy!
I have a TotalPond mech/bio filter (rated up to 500 gallons) and a TotalPond 210 gph submersible pump running approximately 5 - 8 hrs a day (depending on the day). I have a bubbler fountain which is important - a waterfall is beyond me at the moment but I want the sound of water for m'self. Barebottom (boy that sounds wrong). I did have some mosquito fish running around from the first. My pond was clear up until I added 5 goldfish (all fairly small - 1 comet, 2 shubs, 2 fantails). Now I have algae bloom (which honestly I was expecting before this as it's still cycling, but I'm still tetched that I can't see my fish anymore). It's the suspended algae, pea-soup water, not string.
I should probably note here that I'm not mechanically inclined, nor do I know most of the pond terms (although a few hours spent reading past posts has been extremely educational, but it does take some time to sink in...gah, information overload!)
My Questions/Feedback:I am assuming that I'll likely need to change my setup since I have the gf and I've read that they're a pretty heavy load, but how much change? Also, should I get a UV filter? If so, is there something out there that will fit in with my existing setup (the Google hasn't found me anything except dire warnings that I could end up purchasing something that's not compatible). I'd rather not try and deal with algae chemically; would prefer "naturally" but I know most ponds I see in the wild are "naturally murky" so I understand the desire for clear water is purely human and needs help.
Being that I'm not mechanically or pond-ically inclined AT ALL, these are the items I've looked at (using Amazon links just to highlight, I know lots of other places sell many of them). My assumptions in looking at them were:
-I would need to get a UV light in my system
-Due to fish load, I'm looking at a system rated between 500 - 1000 gallons
-Needs to be fairly easy/obvious to maintain
-Cost is an issue; need to keep this on a budget if not actually ghetto
Option 1:
http://www.amazon.com/Laguna-Clearflo-1-PT1500-Pressure-1-PT340/dp/B000UJZ3UI/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=IED5U0RHU2AS6&colid=1NOVYKJVULL05 Pros - all in one system so no compatibility issues, tells me when to maintain it, backwash system, KISS for noobs like me! Cons - no idea if I can hook up a fountain to this, and no reviews.
Option 2:
http://www.amazon.com/Pressure-Filters-Pondmaster-SUP05425-500-light/dp/B003RYRMPM/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1283808264&sr=1-17 Pros - has UV filter, 1000 gph capacity, backwash capability for my low-maintenance KISS approach. Cons - no pump, no reviews, and I'm not sure my current pump could do anything with this.
Option 3:
http://www.amazon.com/LIFEGARD-AQUATICS-All-In-One-Filter/dp/B000MFGOPS/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=IGXKGRV3LNMY0&colid=1NOVYKJVULL05 Pros - all in one system so no compatibility issues, submersible seems smaller, integrated fountain kit, good (although minimal) reviews. Cons - in all my reading of these and other forums, I've never run across this company name.
Wrapping Up a Really Long First Post:So if any of you have heard good/bad things about the above, have suggestions otherwise, can correct any of my assumptions, have insights or warnings, they'd be appreciated. And anyone telling me to get out of the hobby now before I spend too much money - where were you six weeks ago???
Thanks for reading!
TeeBee, pretty sure I've been bit by the pond bug
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Okay, my next question will be...how do I clean this filter? I should not be rinsing the buckeyballs, right? Just the sponge thing?
