Today is the seventh day after I filled my pond and the water finally has become crystal clear. The bog filter was ready and added on the second day. Now I will add even more stones. Thank you.
It depends on what you want out of the pond. If you want a clear and minimalist pond, you keep anything away that can sustain algae, bacteria, and small critters. If you want a natural pond that sustains local wildlife, big and small, then you *want* those rocks and grav, because they provide a habitat for creatures and plants at the bottom of the food chain, that other animals will eat.
I just saw that video myself but was thinking about Ozponds and how nice they look. There’s a reason I am subscribed to this channel and not the others. 😂
It’s always great. I’ve applied most of your helpful tips even though my pond is small. I have large Koi in about 350 gallons. Gravel and water lettuce did so well in the biological filter with waterfalls.
Good video. For my ornamental wildlife pond, I've come to realise that the addition of cobbles and pebbles actually seemed to help trap decaying matter and enable algae to grow faster; 'products' had little if no effect and probably contributed to more of the same. At least, that's what I believe at the moment :) This bank holiday weekend, I'm going to drain the pond and remove as much of the accumulated waste, pebbles and cobbles as I am able.
No pebbles certainly makes it easier to keep clean of waste, the thing is a certain amount of waste, decaying material is good for the fish. These areas provide habitats for the micro organisms that the fish or other animals can feed on.
I was wondering if I could put my plants straight into the rocks, thanks. Do you know which plants are best with only a few hours of sunlight? Your ponds really nice too. Brilliant job of it mate. 👍
Thanks mate. Here’s some plant ideas for you ozponds.com/40-awesome-pond-plants/ most plants will do alright with only a few hours sunlight. If it’s very shaded I like elephant ears, canna and zantedeschia and if you want some colourful flowers impatiens are great! Hope that helps.👍
Hey kev thanks for another great video, adding pebbles really helped and made my pond clear but the pebbles are turning green and pond looks black from the top. The water is still clear but the background is black as pebbles are turning black, how to avoid this please advice
It’s the biological processes at play that are keeping your water clear. The waste, bacteria, algae need somewhere to live and that’s all that surface area you’ve provided.
This is specific to turtle ponds so i get if that's not exactly your area.. I've been recommended against pebbles as pond substrate for them, reason being the ammonia and waste buildup. I can't find a lot of information on ways around it but it would make sense to me that it should be fine as long as the pump and filtration can handle the load, and if settled debris is disturbed (manually for e.g) when needed to get pulled through the filter. I'm looking into this as the AU turtle resources I've looked into recommend sand or bare bottom, both of which I'd prefer to avoid. I'd love your opinion as you're well versed with water chemistry from what I've seen.
G’day Charlotte. I don’t have turtles but that’s more because I don’t have a suitable turtle proof fence. I would be comfortable keeping a turtle in my ponds if I wasn’t afraid of a walk off. Just oversize the filter to be able to process the additional waste. A bog filter and skimmer, give it a vacuum every now and then should be fine.
@@Ozponds great! I've got a variable 3000lph pump on a 500l stock tank, just using matala sheets and activated carbon in the filter (bog filter for my other pond, will probably experiment with a bog for the turtles once it warms up). I don't have a proper vac but was thinking of hooking up a spare pump with inlet and outlet thread to some hose and fine filter material to vac the bottom when needed. Thanks for the input!
At the moment I like 20mm (3/4 inch) rock. It has plenty of surface area and it creates good little void spaces for muck to accumulate. This means it needs less maintenance. If the rock is smaller the muck sits on top and needs removal more frequently. Hope that helps 👍
Also, pls advise on the bog filter. I shall be making a bog filter in a masonry wall enclosure, topped by a liner. Is it advisable to have a flush out valve, in the bog filter, I would have to puncture the liner for flush out valve to work. It's an hdpe liner
It’s important to have some kind of way to flush it out. Take a look at the big bog filters I built on my dream pond. These are cleaned by dropping a sump pump into the bottom of the bog and then flushing the rock and pebble until the water is clean. This means no need to put holes in the liner 👍
Hi, thank you for the video, I was searching for the downsides of putting rocks and gravel in a pond? Some say its a nightmare to clean the pond out, but is it necessary to clean the pond out, with the filtration, plants and fish? I'd prefer rocks and gravel, the pond looks more natural that way.
I have never fully drained the water in my ponds to do a clean out. I find if I stir it up as often as possible the small particles all get sucked up into the pump and deposited in my bog filters. I like to just have a flush out valve on the bog filter so I can release the captured waste from time to time. If you get the filtration right there is very little maintenance.
I always asked myself that, and I've been adding them as much as I can, and I agree with Kev, it looks so much better... And the bog I added last week, have been amazing...
We have a tree that drops small skinny leaves that do not break down. It’s very hard to get them out with the gravel. Our pond is a small 300 gallon plastic drop in. We run to pumps in filter boxes. We stir it up and skim it a lot but still so many leaves. Any suggestions or should we give up on the smaller gravel and use flagstone pieces and big rocks that we can remove to clean those leaves out in the spring?! It’s making me crazy.
I would add a layer of river sand beneath the liner. But if I add rocks directly on the liner, wouldn't it be torn off? Is it a good idea to add some cleansed river sand on the liner and below the rocks?
Water lilies and lotus prefer soil. But if you want to use soil it’s better to use pots or planter bags so you can repot in the future. I prefer to plant everything into the gravel/pebbles.
I’ve only used HDPE once and it was pretty tough. I used it in a grey water wetland. Lots of plants, lots of rock and pebbles. Still holding water 7yrs on.
How do you feed the fish tho all the food will go to the bottom and rot fish won't be able to get the pellets at the bottom with all stones at the bottom
@Ozponds oh ok I thought you had to feed them at least once a day I've got a 500 litre stock pond above ground it's a bare bottom could I put a layer of pebbles at the bottom and how would I clean the pebbles if I did have them at the bottom I've got two fantail goldfish two sponge filters and canister filter
If you are worried use very small pebble, like in an aquarium. The food won’t sink into that. Every now and then stir up the pebbles so any debris gets pulled into your filters.
Mate! Can't ya mount that little solar panel somewhere else outa view & run the cable a little longer? Your pond looks so natural then you spit on it! Get to work! 😏 Oh, wait. the laziness factor... um, do that someday when ya bored. 😉
Today is the seventh day after I filled my pond and the water finally has become crystal clear. The bog filter was ready and added on the second day. Now I will add even more stones. Thank you.
Great to hear 😊👍
I literally just watched a video that said "Why adding Gravel, Stones to a pond can be a HUGE mistake!" LMAO
I’ve watched videos like that. I don’t agree.
It depends on what you want out of the pond. If you want a clear and minimalist pond, you keep anything away that can sustain algae, bacteria, and small critters.
If you want a natural pond that sustains local wildlife, big and small, then you *want* those rocks and grav, because they provide a habitat for creatures and plants at the bottom of the food chain, that other animals will eat.
I just saw that video myself but was thinking about Ozponds and how nice they look. There’s a reason I am subscribed to this channel and not the others. 😂
Reason 6: I can finally see my black butterfly koi.
😂 love it!! If I ever do an updated version of that video I’ll put it in.👍
It’s always great. I’ve applied most of your helpful tips even though my pond is small. I have large Koi in about 350 gallons. Gravel and water lettuce did so well in the biological filter with waterfalls.
Great to hear 👍
Good video. For my ornamental wildlife pond, I've come to realise that the addition of cobbles and pebbles actually seemed to help trap decaying matter and enable algae to grow faster; 'products' had little if no effect and probably contributed to more of the same. At least, that's what I believe at the moment :) This bank holiday weekend, I'm going to drain the pond and remove as much of the accumulated waste, pebbles and cobbles as I am able.
No pebbles certainly makes it easier to keep clean of waste, the thing is a certain amount of waste, decaying material is good for the fish. These areas provide habitats for the micro organisms that the fish or other animals can feed on.
Amen!
I was wondering if I could put my plants straight into the rocks, thanks. Do you know which plants are best with only a few hours of sunlight?
Your ponds really nice too. Brilliant job of it mate. 👍
Thanks mate. Here’s some plant ideas for you ozponds.com/40-awesome-pond-plants/ most plants will do alright with only a few hours sunlight. If it’s very shaded I like elephant ears, canna and zantedeschia and if you want some colourful flowers impatiens are great! Hope that helps.👍
@@Ozponds Oh wow thanks alot mate that helps heaps. Cheers!
Hey kev thanks for another great video, adding pebbles really helped and made my pond clear but the pebbles are turning green and pond looks black from the top. The water is still clear but the background is black as pebbles are turning black, how to avoid this please advice
It’s the biological processes at play that are keeping your water clear. The waste, bacteria, algae need somewhere to live and that’s all that surface area you’ve provided.
This is specific to turtle ponds so i get if that's not exactly your area.. I've been recommended against pebbles as pond substrate for them, reason being the ammonia and waste buildup. I can't find a lot of information on ways around it but it would make sense to me that it should be fine as long as the pump and filtration can handle the load, and if settled debris is disturbed (manually for e.g) when needed to get pulled through the filter.
I'm looking into this as the AU turtle resources I've looked into recommend sand or bare bottom, both of which I'd prefer to avoid.
I'd love your opinion as you're well versed with water chemistry from what I've seen.
G’day Charlotte. I don’t have turtles but that’s more because I don’t have a suitable turtle proof fence. I would be comfortable keeping a turtle in my ponds if I wasn’t afraid of a walk off. Just oversize the filter to be able to process the additional waste. A bog filter and skimmer, give it a vacuum every now and then should be fine.
@@Ozponds great! I've got a variable 3000lph pump on a 500l stock tank, just using matala sheets and activated carbon in the filter (bog filter for my other pond, will probably experiment with a bog for the turtles once it warms up). I don't have a proper vac but was thinking of hooking up a spare pump with inlet and outlet thread to some hose and fine filter material to vac the bottom when needed.
Thanks for the input!
Sounds great 👍
Wow it will also use for fish babies to hide
I've got a vibreglass pond I'm i to believe that gravel can harbour old fish waste and sharp stones can pierce liners also
I’m not sure I understand the question.
For the bottom is there a certain size stone that works best or has more advantages? Fist size, egg size or smaller pebbles? Thanks again
At the moment I like 20mm (3/4 inch) rock. It has plenty of surface area and it creates good little void spaces for muck to accumulate. This means it needs less maintenance. If the rock is smaller the muck sits on top and needs removal more frequently. Hope that helps 👍
Also, pls advise on the bog filter. I shall be making a bog filter in a masonry wall enclosure, topped by a liner. Is it advisable to have a flush out valve, in the bog filter, I would have to puncture the liner for flush out valve to work. It's an hdpe liner
It’s important to have some kind of way to flush it out. Take a look at the big bog filters I built on my dream pond. These are cleaned by dropping a sump pump into the bottom of the bog and then flushing the rock and pebble until the water is clean. This means no need to put holes in the liner 👍
Hi, thank you for the video, I was searching for the downsides of putting rocks and gravel in a pond? Some say its a nightmare to clean the pond out, but is it necessary to clean the pond out, with the filtration, plants and fish? I'd prefer rocks and gravel, the pond looks more natural that way.
I have never fully drained the water in my ponds to do a clean out. I find if I stir it up as often as possible the small particles all get sucked up into the pump and deposited in my bog filters. I like to just have a flush out valve on the bog filter so I can release the captured waste from time to time. If you get the filtration right there is very little maintenance.
I always asked myself that, and I've been adding them as much as I can, and I agree with Kev, it looks so much better... And the bog I added last week, have been amazing...
But I confess that I'm a bit worried about fall/winter/spring... Let's see when we get there
We have a tree that drops small skinny leaves that do not break down. It’s very hard to get them out with the gravel. Our pond is a small 300 gallon plastic drop in. We run to pumps in filter boxes. We stir it up and skim it a lot but still so many leaves. Any suggestions or should we give up on the smaller gravel and use flagstone pieces and big rocks that we can remove to clean those leaves out in the spring?! It’s making me crazy.
@@barbaramudge can you put a net over the pond with small holes to stop most of the leaves getting in?
I would add a layer of river sand beneath the liner. But if I add rocks directly on the liner, wouldn't it be torn off? Is it a good idea to add some cleansed river sand on the liner and below the rocks?
I like to sandwich the liner between geotextile. That’s worked well for me 👍
Hi Kev, would you ever put pond soil under the rocks and gravel? Or do most plants grow in the pebbels?
Water lilies and lotus prefer soil. But if you want to use soil it’s better to use pots or planter bags so you can repot in the future. I prefer to plant everything into the gravel/pebbles.
@@OzpondsThank you for your answer. You have no idea how much you helped me desingning and building my own first pond!
I’m glad I helped you. I think everyone deserves a pond in their life 👍
Hi, in India we have HDPE liners readily available than the EPDM. I am afraid, wouldn't the rocks and pebbles tear off the liner?
I’ve only used HDPE once and it was pretty tough. I used it in a grey water wetland. Lots of plants, lots of rock and pebbles. Still holding water 7yrs on.
Ok thank you
How do you feed the fish tho all the food will go to the bottom and rot fish won't be able to get the pellets at the bottom with all stones at the bottom
I hardly ever feed them. 3 Reasons why I hardly ever feed my pond fish
czcams.com/video/g2A3cOYgcU8/video.html
@Ozponds oh ok I thought you had to feed them at least once a day I've got a 500 litre stock pond above ground it's a bare bottom could I put a layer of pebbles at the bottom and how would I clean the pebbles if I did have them at the bottom I've got two fantail goldfish two sponge filters and canister filter
If you are worried use very small pebble, like in an aquarium. The food won’t sink into that. Every now and then stir up the pebbles so any debris gets pulled into your filters.
@Ozponds okay pal thanks for the advice 👍
Mate! Can't ya mount that little solar panel somewhere else outa view & run the cable a little longer? Your pond looks so natural then you spit on it! Get to work! 😏 Oh, wait. the laziness factor... um, do that someday when ya bored. 😉
😂