Continue reading »]]> It’s the time of year that you should start having plenty of floating pond plants.  The benefits of plenty of plants is as follows:

• They help keep oxygen in your water.  Warmer water makes it harder for your pond to hold oxygen.  Plants help shade the water and keep it cooler.
• Pond plants also aid in the natural filtration of your water and keep oxygen at healthy levels.
• They look nice.  Having plenty of pond plants helps keeping your pond looking good.
• Your fish will like it.  The plants will help give your fish some protective coverage and a place to hide from large birds such as Herons.

You should try and have at least 50-75 percent coverage of your pond for optimal results.  Some pond plants to consider are Water Hyacinths and Water Lettuce.  They float nicely and reproduce very fast.  Talk to you later, Bob

Continue reading »]]> I just want to take a quick moment and talk about your backyard pond water.  I think anyone who has a pond knows that as it warms up your pond water turns green.  This is perfectly normal, however, no one wants to have green pond water.  It just doesn’t look very good and you can’t see anything in your pond.

This is a picture of a Pondmaster-UV 20 Ultraviolet Sterilizer/Clarifier.

Algae is the problem that causes your water to turn green.  The way to combat the problem is with a UV Sterilizer/Clarifier.  By simply placing one in-line between your pond filter and water pump you will clear your pond water up in a matter of a few days to a couple weeks depending on how bad it is.

How it works is as the water passes through the clarifier, the UV light inside of it hits the algae with the UV which kills it, thus clearing up your pond water.  It won’t be long that you’ll be able to see the bottom of your pond again.  Talk to you later, Bob

Continue reading »]]> Well my wife got our pond up and running for 2011.  She did it a couple weeks ago.  This was a pretty bad, long winter up here in northern Ohio.  We noticed that our pond water was really murky and couldn’t see anything in the water.

What she did was hook up my homemade pond filter, along with a UV filter, and a couple water pumps, and within a week, our water was clear as can be.  It’s amazing how well those three things work together to clear your water up.

I’m happy to say that we did not find any dead animals in our pond like we thought may have happened.  For those of you who don’t know, as I mentioned in a earlier post, that we lost our 4 big Koi fish, and we though maybe a cat or something fell though the ice and maybe contaminated the water.  We just don’t know why our Koi died.  The Comets and Shubunkins are doing great.

We have already had our annual visit of the spring peepers.  They were here 3 or 4 nights making all kinds of racket, but enjoyable to listen to.  We’ve just had very few warm nights.

Katie (my wife), is going out today to clean up the bottom of the pond.  Says she’s going to use a skimmer and get up what she can.  There’s dirt, pea gravel, and some dead vegetation that she wants to get out.  She already has some flowers planted around it too.

Well that’s about it for now, talk to ya later.  Bob

Continue reading »]]> Well my wife and I are a bit bummed out.  All four of our large Koi fish have died.  We’re especially unhappy about our very large one which we’ve had for about 17 years, is gone.

We’re not exactly sure what happened, however, we have a feeling that something fell into the pond (possibly a cat) and contaminated the water.  Being the end of winter, our pond water is pretty murky so we really can’t see anything yet.

The small Comets seem to be doing alright as they’re slowly starting to move around again.

This winter has been cold, but I wouldn’t say it has been colder than past winters.  We’re just not sure what happened.  Below is a couple pictures of our fish.

In the picture above you can see our big white Koi fish and also the smaller gold one.

The picture above is another shot of our big Koi fish and the smaller gold one.

If anyone cares to comment on what they think could of happened, please let us know.  It just seems funny that after all of these winters here in Ohio, and our fish coming through them just fine, that all of a sudden they don’t make it this past winter.

I’ll talk to you again later.  Have a good one.  Bob

Continue reading »]]> I wanted to share this picture of our frozen backyard pond which I took after a brief two day thaw that we had here in northern Ohio at the very beginning of January of 2011.

Looking at the picture below, you can see how the ice is forming above the previously frozen pond which began to melt with the two day warm-up we had.  It felt like spring, too bad it only lasted a couple days.

This is a picture of our backyard pond as it begins to freeze over again after a two day thaw.

By the way, I’d like to wish all of you a Happy New Year and hope you all have a great 2011.  Later, Bob

Continue reading »]]> Cyndi from Florida just sent me some pictures to share with everyone.  Below you can see a couple different angles of her pond.  This pond can give you some really good ideas for anyone who wants to make one of their own.

Cyndi from Florida sent in this picture of her pond.

You can tell she put a lot of work into making her pond, however she’ll get plenty of enjoyment from it.

Below is another angle of the same pond.  Great job Cyndi!

A nice thing about a pond is that you can make it however you want it.

If any of you are interested in other pond pictures, be sure to check out my main site at Backyard-Pond-Guide.com.   Thanks for sending your pictures in Cyndi.  Talk to ya later, Bob

Continue reading »]]> Wondering about pond plants?  Well Water Hyacinths are great for your backyard pond.  Not only do they add plenty of beauty to it, they also give your fish needed shade and protection as well as nutrients.

During the summer months, Water Hyacinths are one of the best pond plants you can get for your pond.  You only need a few to get you going because they multiply so fast.

The picture below is a good example of what I’m talking about.  My wife bought five Water Hyacinth plants in about mid May(2010) and at the time of this writing, (about mid July 2010), you can see how they are filling up our pond.  Once they start multiplying, they grow like crazy.

Water Hyacinths are great to have in your pond during the hot summer months.

In a few more days we won’t be able to keep up with them and we’ll have to start getting rid of some.  They get pretty darn big and the fish love munching on the roots of them.  They really are a great plant for your backyard pond.

We are having a great summer this year and everything around the pond is growing great.  The fish are looking good, seem very healthy and growing.  The young Comets are changing from black to orange.

As stated in an earlier post, we tried some turtles again this year.  We got five very small ones and two pretty good size ones.  The two bigger ones were gone the next day, and three of the five small ones didn’t make it.  The two we have left have survived a few weeks now and seem to be doing well.  Hopefully they’ll stick around when they get bigger.

Well that’s about it for now, just wanted to let you know about the Water Hyacinths.  Talk to ya later, Bob

Continue reading »]]> Well from my previous post, I told you how my wife got a new turtle for our pond, well… it didn’t stick around very long.  It stayed a couple days and moved on.  I think maybe it went looking for some companionship.

Someone told us that if you get a male and female together that they would more than likely stick around.  I don’t know, but they are kinda neat to have around.

All of our fish are doing really well and everything around the pond is growing like crazy.  We have been having a cool, wet spring here in Ohio which makes it good for flowers and plants.

My wife bought three Water Hyacinths for the pond.  It cost her 10 bucks, but they’ll grow like crazy and I’ll probably be throwing them out by August.  They are great for your pond and give your fish some protection, so keep that in mind.

I hope I can get some more pictures of your pond.  I would like to put them up on my main site.  There are a lot of people interested in what other people do with their ponds and gives them some ideas.  So send them in to me if you get a chance.  Talk to ya later, Bob

Continue reading »]]> Well we got a turtle for our backyard pond a few days ago.  As you can see in the picture below that it’s pretty good size.  We had one a few years ago and had it for two or three years before it left.  My wife ended up finding it in our front yard under a bush, it didn’t make it.

This is a picture of our turtle in our backyard pond.

Hopefully this new one will hang around for awhile.  It doesn’t seem to be scared or anything.  My wife threw a small piece of driftwood in the pond and the turtle got up on it almost immediately.

They are kind of neat to have.  It doesn’t bother the fish at all and it seems to like the fish food my wife puts in the pond.

This is about the size of our first turtle was before he or she ran away.

They also can stay under water for quite a long time before they come up for air.

This is also another example of some of the different things you can have in and around your pond.