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Hopefully your tadpoles will start to eat the algae.
So, the tadpoles 😬
Despite all sorts of attempts to protect them from the late frosts, interfering with nature and all that, I'd overlooked the fact I have 9, inch-long, fish of unknown origin.
Apparently fish like tadpoles.
It was a massacre.
However I've spotted two tadpoles today that are now too large to be eaten by the sodding fish. Survival of the fattest.
I also have dozens (if not hundreds) of snails, which are fascinating in their own way - especially when they're floating about on the top of the water, upside down. Weirdos.
8 frogs
9 fish
circa 100 snails
2 tadpoles
Thousands of really weird insect things that come out at night.
And all I did want put some water and plants in a hole. It's brilliant, can't recommend it enough.
One of the two lone survivors:
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One of the sharks (God knows what they actually are)
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One of the hedonistic snails, getting high on algae.
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That's nothing.
I was out with my nephew looking at my parents pond. It was like the Marsh scene in lord if the rings all these massive dead frogs floating beneath the surface.
Apparently it can all get a bit gangbangy and so many boyfrogs latch on the female drowns! And the dark part? Some of the males don't even realise and were still hanging on... Explain that to a 5 year old.
Tadpoles in my pond are eating me out of pond and home.....
We have have to feed them cucumber on the odd
days it's like watching orcas on a feeding frenzy. Some are just getting back legs so they look like Deadpool.
and I've got ram's horn snails in eating alge.
No fish allowed.
And for the first time little outer skeletons of damson fly or caddis fly left on the pond plants oddly as I redid my pond last summer so not sure where they came from.
So far a success. Will just have keep an eye on the crow population when the frogs get bigger
If you build it, nature will come. :0)
Nature's a bitch.
Just fished a dead fledgling/bird teenager out of the pond. Think it was a house sparrow.
God knows how it drowned, possibly landed without anything to stand on, but my soft-**** mode is fully engaged - really sad.
Frogs don't give a shit, obviously.
Upsetting update warning:
And tonight, after being away for a few days, I've had to scoop a dying frog out of the pond.
No idea what's caused it, but after taking it out of the pond (floating nearly lifelessly) and putting in a safe, damp and dark, place and watching over the bloody thing to make sure neighbour's cats didn't get it- it's gone and died.
Stupid really,but I'm quite gutted. I was watering the whole area before I went away as growing wildflowers around the pond and didn't want them to die in the impending heatwave whilst I was away. Now wondering if I upset the chemical balance with too much tap water, although the other frogs appear fine.
Ponds - wonderful givers and sustainers of life or, seemingly, deathpools"
*Comment not sanctioned by Ryan Reynolds.
Frogs can drown, I have to extract one a year out of our pond. We have lots of frogs in the garden which given where we live is odd (right up on the moors) but they live in the flower beds not the pond.
So a more cheerful update; pond's been in for just over a year and it's getting a 'natural' look at last. You can kind of tell where it gets enough sun for flowers, so more rotten logs etc needed to fill the gaps. Battling the stringy algae, but that's my fault for not fishing the leaves out enough.
I still have lots of frogs, **** knows how many fish (and they keep growing in size and having babies, despite me not feeding them) and the hedonistic snails. Everything is becoming a little bit harder to spot, and I've not seen the tadpoles since they morphed into frogs (3 made it that I last saw) but that's fine - I guess they probably prefer it that way.
Also, the once a year pond lily flower has just opened today.
Easily one of the best things I've done; lovely to sit there of an evening and watch the bees snorting pollen and pond life, well, just being weird.
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Beautiful.
Our native water lily (small yellow flowers) produced a couple of blooms last year. This year it's kept producing many flowers and for weeks on end.
The Hedgehog has been drinking from our pond, leaving its calling card, birds use it as a bath, many new baby pond skaters and baby frogs all around the garden, but so far not a single damsel fly and I think the snails are hiding. At least 40 - 100 pond skaters. Nature is wonderful.
That's probably the best bit actually - the amount of birds that use the pond. Just sip from or bathe in.
Looking out and seeing a bunch of house sparrows, especially the youngsters, losing their shit in the shallow end on hot days is fantastic.
Not had a hot day for about month now though, mind you 🤔
[b]WOO-HOO![b]
All that bloody trouble I went to trying to protect the sodding tadpoles from the frost, then watching them get eaten by the effin' fish (that I never put in) and finally seeing three tadpoles that were too big for the fish to eat....
..look what I've just spotted!
I'm chuffed to bits.
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It's an unglamorous location the little bleeder decided to pose in, so have another wildflower pic (Wilko, £3 for a box - that covered this area - and don't listen to what the internet tells you about they must have low nutrient soil etc; for these it was just MP compost, raked, sowed and regularly watered)
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blanket weed....any tips??
horrible stuff that I want rid of!
@jimfrandisco add a bale of barley straw. Sink it into your pond and let it sort of rot down. Worked wonders on mine. You can get small bales for little ponds.
brilliant - thanks @stwhannah - had heard rumours about that, but assumed it was for big ponds only. Will look into it.
The problem with wildflower (even mini) meadows is that they may not look as good as that next year. You'll definitely need to take the nutrients out of the soil and maybe re plant or re seed.
Cute little fog. I was weeding our strawberry patch and a teeny froglet jumped out of the leaves so high, it hit my leg, gave me a wee fright, but so good to know it's in there eating the mini slugs, snails and pests.
Bit late this year again but 2 frogs where doing the wild thing on my path the other day and now we have a small amount of spawn so YAY .
How are your ponds
I was out at 3am the other morning (don't ask) and I heard some lone frog making his mating call. Fingers crossed!
...and his mating call appears to have worked!
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Bizarrely, last year's spawn were also after a Saturday night.
Yay.
my pond if full to the brim with spawn now, they have been having a good time of it by the looks of it.
We have nesting birds too a bit of light releif in a crappy March.
Just need a hedge pig to visit and thats me happy.
I Miss the ponds my parents had when I was growing up, remember helping to build them.
I remember them freezing over in winter and will always remember when one of our dogs was standing on the frozen pond then suddenly, the ice breaking and watching her go through the ice with a big yelp and then jumping out and standing at the pond barking at it as if it was the ponds fault.
Does anyone else suffer from something eating their frogs?
We had a wonderful population of frogs and since last year they've all been killed. Lost the final female last night. 😔
Over 50 frogs killed (that we've found) same pattern every time, happens overnight and they/it only eats the heads.
Any ideas? We're in town so realistically it can only be foxes or cats. Can't be herons as it happens overnight and I presume they would actually eat them.
going to net the pond and see if I can save the last few frogs.
Mine is a seething mass of frog-sex, followed by post-coital sunbathing.
There is a local cat whose kink is apparently watching them, and maybe eating a few. Thinking about fitting a hinged board at the edge which drops it into the filth if it gets too close.
Things have kicked off this week. Lots of shagging frogs and maybe a dozen newts.
@pictonroad
That can only be cats I would say a heron would just take the lot.
And mogli has newts I'm not jealous at all 🙂
After a bit of pond TLC a few weeks ago (mainly pulling out lots of algae and leaves) and sorting out the water level, I thought it was pretty dead in there. I was pleasantly surprised then when I was having a tidy up yesterday and saw three frogs out and about! Closer inspection revealed quite a lot of insect action, a load of tiny snails, some tiny shrimpy jobbies and some wiggly larvae things. The few plants I managed to pick up when I dug it last year are doing well, so it's given me a bit of a nudge to get a bit more planting done around it and keep on top of the leaf fall a bit more regularly to keep it clean. Waiting for a sunny afternoon to try to get some pics.
I've neglected my pond due to the arrival of daughter no. 2, but looking to get it back on track.
I've got two main problems, 1 the water is green, 2 there is a tonne of sludge so I have to keep taking the filter to bits and hosing out the foam every 2-3 days.
UV bulb in the filter had failed so I replaced that.
Are any of the anti-greenwater or anti-sludge products worth using? I've looked through quite a lot on Amazon and they all seem to have a good chunk of people saying they don't work.
We’ve used barley straw to keep the algae under control. Won’t reduce the sludge though, so I raised the pump off the bottom of the pond so it wasn’t clogging up the filter.
I have been scooping some of the sludge out gradually by hand. Looks great now.
We've got far too much pond weed & algae!
We dug ours out in lockdown
Plenty of tadpoles though and a few frogs, we have a problem with crows dropping bits of scavenged food in to soften it up, like discarded KFC!
Anyway last month we had 3 dragonfly larvae crawl up and make the leap to their next stage
Kimbers - we have the same problem with a crow softening up stale bread. I have to dig the sodden mess out, but then the rat comes along and scoffs the bits left.
The tadpoles are turning nicely into froglets. The tadpoles seem to be eating anything and everything now, evening devouring water snails.
The barley straw has done its job and I can just keep clearing the weed by hand.
Hoping for some dragon flies or similar in the next few years.
Found hedgehog poo by the pond edge, very chuffed.
I have been inspired by this thread to put a tiny (very tiny) container pond in our small garden. The container was an old rectangular bucket from work that we used for applying PVA with a large roller. I've got some gravel and some rocks so there is an escape route for accidently swimmer. I'm going to fill it with water from the water butt. I was going to get a couple of oxygenating plants and stick them in too. Any suggestions? Hornwort? Needs to be readily available and, ideally, cheap.
You can actually buy the plants off eBay believe it or not. Cheap as chips
Good call.
multi21
Free MemberI’ve neglected my pond due to the arrival of daughter no. 2, but looking to get it back on track.
I’ve got two main problems, 1 the water is green, 2 there is a tonne of sludge so I have to keep taking the filter to bits and hosing out the foam every 2-3 days.
UV bulb in the filter had failed so I replaced that.
Are any of the anti-greenwater or anti-sludge products worth using? I’ve looked through quite a lot on Amazon and they all seem to have a good chunk of people saying they don’t work.
Just a quick followup, I used Tetra Algorem and it cleared the green water up a treat.
Need to fix all the other problems and remove the net from over the top, but at least we can see the fish now!
For reference, the depth where the filter is, is about 20-24 inches.
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I was inspired by this thread myself. When I redid the garden I bought a very very small pre-made pond liner and have planted around it. Not much activity at the moment but it’s probably only been left to develop for maybe two months. We have put in a dwarf iris and a dwarf reed, forget-me-not, dwarf lily, three bunches of oxygenators and a horse tail. Apparently, dragonflies may use the iris to lay eggs.
It is still quite fascinating to see the bug population develop but nothing glamorous yet.
Sadly my pond seems to be a death trap for baby sparrows. I'm guessing they fall in and get too wet and cold to be able to fly away and get fed. At least the magpies are thriving.
While we are on the subject what's a no chemical way of getting rid of duck weed the more you pull it out the faster it grows.
Its all getting a bit low ... deep part just behind the ship.
Hey all
I actually bookmarked this thread a couple of weeks ago and forgot to come back and seek the collective wisdom of STW.
To be honest I was completely blown away by how clear some of your ponds are!
We moved in to a house a couple of years ago now, most of the focus has been inside the house but we've turned our attention to the garden more this year.
The previous owners had two ponds, we emptied and filled one pond and retained the other.
Last year we emptied, cleaned and re-filled the remaining pond but we can't seem to keep the water clear all we have is a thick green water.
So far we have:
- Installed a water blade to oxygenate (runs for an hour or so a day)
- We've added water lilies and other plants in.
- Earlier this summer we added a UV filter which is on the same timer as the water blade (so ran for an hour or so each day).
Last week I've set up the UV filter to run seperately and have had this running for a week 24/7, at the moment I've noticed very little improvement in the water clarity.
What would be your next steps?
Last week I’ve set up the UV filter to run seperately and have had this running for a week 24/7, at the moment I’ve noticed very little improvement in the water clarity.
What would be your next steps?
I know you said it looks green in the pond but this can be misleading. Take a pint glass and fill it with pond water. Is it brown or green?
Green is algae, you need to kill it with UV or clump it together with something like Tetra Algorem I recommended earlier in the thread and remove it with your mechanical filtration.
Brown is detritus, bacteria, etc. You need to improve mechanical filtration (for example sponges).
Yellow tinted is tannins, ensure leaves do not rot in the water.
Generally 'cloudy' but not obviously coloured could be a bacterial bloom, especially if it's a new pond. Check ammonia level with a test kit. If over zero, add a bacteria product to your bio-media (assuming you have some, if not add some)
Thanks for the advice.
I checked the water in a glass as you suggested a couple of days ago.
As you say the water is in fact a cloudy yellow rather than green.
We have trees close to the pond so it suggests more a bacterial issue.
We added Pond Klear in to the pond the other day and the water clarity is improving.
In terms of filtration we don't have anything currently, without any fish we didn't think this was necessary but it looks like it is.
Would a flat filter box be sufficient? We don't have any fish in the pond.
I'm sceptical of chemical or mechanical solutions. A pond should reach a natural equilibrium. A bit of patience may be necessary, plants will help once established but a couple of little things probably won't be enough. You may need a large part of the surface to be covered. I can hardly see my ponds right now for vegetation, will prune back the growth at some point. But the water is lovely.
To be honest I’d much prefer going down the natural route with plants rather than adding my devices in to the system.
We’re not interested in keeping fish in the pond, we already see a lot of nature around the pond I guess out frustration is looking at murky pond so looking for a solution to improve the water quality y.
Happy to throw some cash at establishing more plants - neither us have much of a clue!
Would something like this do the trick: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161653029876?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=ObC7BRNYT62&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=-HIW4HgORWy&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
Foolishly, we dug this during the first 40° heatwave.
20ft x 11ft and 4ft where they are standing. Ledges are 3ft deep as we have had problems with herons before.
It's finished now, but problem with the UV means water is not clear, there are 13 koi in there, the biggest couple are about 2ft long.
Just back from 2 week holiday some hopefully be able to sort out UV and see the fish!
Do any of you Pondies have dogs too? i am also inspired by this thread but im fairly sure my dogs would massacre all the frogs and newts giving the opportunity!? 🙁
Not a great expert on pond plants @mikehow but I'd be looking more for floating cover with spreading leaves rather true marginals that may mostly stick to the edges and/or grow upright (eg reeds). You need to absorb a lot of the light and heat hitting the surface. I have something that I can't remember the name of, unfortunately, and also water mint has taken off well. Water lilies of course. And that frondy stuff that floats under the surface (usually described as an oxygenator). Basically I also bought a lot of random things off ebay and chucked them in, one or two vanished but most have settled in.
Marginals are fun and often attractive, of course - round the edges of my ponds I have a growing collection of pitcher plants which are fully hardy, also a couple of sundews, and various other flowering things. With an accompanying bog garden area (in theory, fed by pond overflow, but not so much right now!) that hosts some candelabra primula and a Chilean gunnera, which is restricted in size by the root space. I made the bog garden by digging a hole and lining with pierced pond liner.
@mikehow
Free MemberTo be honest I’d much prefer going down the natural route with plants rather than adding my devices in to the system.
We’re not interested in keeping fish in the pond, we already see a lot of nature around the pond I guess out frustration is looking at murky pond so looking for a solution to improve the water quality y.
Happy to throw some cash at establishing more plants – neither us have much of a clue!
Ah okay, with no fish then @thecaptain 's approach should work nicely. Bacterial blooms will resolve in time and without fish there's no need to hurry particularly.
A question though, how did you have UV running with no other devices in there? Or did you mean you just had it hooked up to a plain pump with no mechanical filtration attached?
thecaptain
I’m sceptical of chemical or mechanical solutions. A pond should reach a natural equilibrium.
Mechanical filtration is simply removing waste before it can break down into ammonia/nitrate/phosphate (aka algae food), plus the benefit of physically straining things out of the water making it clearer.
TBH It's right to be sceptical of pond/aquarium chemicals in general, there is a lot of snake oil about. However the one i referred to (AlgoRem) is simply a flocculant plus phosphate binder and it works very well for green water.
Your approach is a good one for low nutrient input ponds but if you have any decent amount of fish (and therefore fish food) in there, you'd need a metric buttload of plants covering the water to stand a chance.
@sc-xc looks great, similar size to ours. The UV/mechanical filters plus a bit of clear pond treatment in the summer means I can see my fish. But it means the Heron can see the fish too remember. Have you built any caves on the bottom for them to hide in?
Don't know what happened to our water lilies this year. Most didn't shoot at all 🤔
Do any of you Pondies have dogs too?
Yes, and she loves swimming too but has never bothered with the pond, other than drinking from it. She'll sniff any frogs or toads but leaves well alone. I think they can actually be an irritant, so maybe she tried it once and learnt it was a bad idea.
Today this happened and I am chuffed!! https://twitter.com/darwendashers/status/1560953086100836352?s=21&t=Dtdh1B-XB3i4MIWRSAMITA
UV starting to work, here's ours tonight..
Have we all got frog spawn/mini tadpoles yet?
Our frogs have almost filled the pond this year. There was a frost for a couple of nights this week, which luckily hasn't affected the wriggly things in the pond.
I need some more pond plants, as Mrs, Blackbird keeps taking out the soil around some of the smaller plants (in baskets) to help build her nest.
Yup had 12 frogs this year in a pond that's roughly 1mt2.
Lots of spawn of 2 different types definitely not toad spawn
One lot floating and the other about 100mm below the surface and a bit cloudy looking.
No taddys yet.
Have you tried leaving a small tray of mud for the blackbird. We did this and it saved some of the damage to the existing plants.
Bruce - great idea. Will try that thanks.
Bunnyhop
Full MemberHave we all got frog spawn/mini tadpoles yet?
Nothing this year, a heron or a cat killed all but one frog and two fish. 😔
Gonna nab some from my friends pond I think.
On the subject of herons/cats, are there any solutions which don't involve having a net over the top?
Possibly mentioned this before but I've never bought a fish, and yet I have half a dozen that absolutely love to sunbathe. They're getting bigger too.
Also spotted a froglet a few weeks ago, so there appears to be some kind of agreement in place.
bearnecessities - I love your pond.
Our tadpoles are getting legs. The other day I saw two waterboatmen take a large tadpole and start to eat it.
The hedgehog drinks from it, as do many other insects.
To everyone that has a pond, its worth going into the garden at dusk, the area around the pond will have many moths and if you're lucky visiting mammals will come to drink. Last night I was watching 2 woodmice, and several hawkmoths.
Thanks! Funnily enough I was sat out there last night and a moth flew straight into the water, so I scooped it out.
It then flew straight back in.
And a third time.
Our 'poles were legged up and jumping round the garden a long while back. Which is a bit unusual, in previous years we've had some stay as monster tadpoles all year.
Am a bit disappointed to never have had dragonflies or newts in our ponds, but maybe there just aren't many of the latter around locally. We did get a brief visit from a family of ducks (inc. small ducklings) a while back, they must have had a fair walk from wherever they came from. It's all drystone walls and fields round here, a bit of a mystery where they came from and went to! I'm particularly pleased with the pitcher plants though (sarracenia and darlingtonia), will try to take a pic once they are fully grown again. They seem to thrive on complete neglect and a miserable climate.
Six weeks ago, we decided against building a greenhouse, but putting in a pond on a spare bit of ground. A busy weekend digging down a metre, then forming some shelves. Liner, water, plants and we left it. No fish, and unless they make their own way in, there won't be any. Leaving it now to see how it develops.
No photo, will try again!!
Where do people go to to get plants for a wildlife pond? We're thinking of getting bare rooted plants off the internet to try and keep the cost down. Using our local garden centre will put the cost pretty high and we've got a fair area to cover. 14' diameter.
I am not an expert, but you shouldn't need too many plants, they grow, ask friends with ponds, also here, where are you located? Last year I had to remove lots of plant life as the roots had taken over, literally had to cut the roots out thought we had a pond liner leak but just the plants taking water (smallish pond 5x3' very approx) we have frogs, they were happy enough and life came back to pond OK, we also have shade now and lost very little water with our recent drought conditions i.e. hot weather!
I have bought some assorted pond plants through eBay. The pitchers came mostly from a stall at a local flower show but that company also does mail order which is how I got the darlingtonia.
It’s probably a good idea to get a variety as some might not like your environment for some reason (or you might not like them! Eg while the pitcher plants have flourished, I can’t get sundews to survive - even native ones peg out after a season or two.
Note also they all start small but some of the ones that settle in will soon fill the available space!
Where do people go to to get plants for a wildlife pond?
We got a lot of ours from Waterside Nursery when we built our pond - https://www.watersidenursery.co.uk
Pond specialists, Online only, lots of good advice on their site to help. Not the cheapest - good quality and would recommend though.
As others have said - don’t go mad putting in loads of plants - they will fill out quickly.
Thanks very much for your help. While I was contemplating where to get the plants my wife had already gone to dobbies and bought a load! Tbf the discount for the bulk buy meant that prices compared quite favourably with what I've seen online. Here in Suffolk rain isn't that plentiful so I built a fairly large pond with a decent depth in the sump and plenty of shallow area for the main marginal and emersive planting. Hopefully there is still enough time left before autumn for them all to establish and spread a bit. We had the pleasure of seeing a first wildlife since filling the pond, swallows diving down to take a drink. Marvellous!
Our native waterlily isn't doing very well this year, it's spread but not flowered yet. I think the very warm June has affected a lot of plants. Ducks coming into a small garden pond always bring a smile.
If the pond is big enough Daubenton's bats will pick up midges and other insects from the top of the water.
Our waterlilies have done well, I think a warm June here is basically tolerable weather for a change compared to the usual bleak windswept hillside 🙂
Possibly also helped by renovating that pond over winter and making more space.
Can I just second the "don't get too many plants".
I've had my pond three years now and have pulled most of the plants out. I'm no expert so won't comment on specifics but so many spread it was ridiculous. One that was a kind of mint was a particular sod. The 'reed' type thing pictured was tiny when I bought it, and it's still in its basket, but it spreading like a bugger - I'm leaving it though as the frogs love hiding in it, but an example of how something initially about 5" wide and a few fronds can spread.
Forgive the liner/general appearance - I've done some remedial levelling and clearing of wild flowers around the pond, which were a bloody terrible idea in hindsight - I've realised wildlife/wildflower areas are for those with fields or huge gardens they can allow to neglect.
Six weeks ago, we decided against building a greenhouse, but putting in a pond on a spare bit of ground. A busy weekend digging down a metre, then forming some shelves. Liner, water, plants and we left it. No fish, and unless they make their own way in, there won’t be any. Leaving it now to see how it develops.
Ours has generally settled in quite nicely, we've had a couple of visits from (I assume anyway) a heron that has reduced the fish population from 5 to 3, but other than that all ok. Birds love it, insects love it and it generally brings us a lot of pleasure 🙂
Agree about planting too much. We've only got 1 water lily, 2 oxygenaters and 2 flowering pond plants. But ine has gone beserk.
I've had to dismantle the covid infinity pond to make way for a kitchen extension. Not very happy about that. Kept the, plants, liner and pump and we have tons of stone and the wood from the original project so hoping to create a new pond somewhere soon. This thread is great - inspiring stuff, and lovely to see the early projects maturing.
Fairly new to this pond lark. We've put two in this year. The one that gets the most sun went a bit "milky" during the May/June heat wave and is starting to clear a bit now. Would this have been caused by excess UV?
Pond is full of life BTW. Frogs, snails, plants, bugs etc. There is a pump too to keep the water moving.
Harry_the_Spider
Full MemberFairly new to this pond lark. We’ve put two in this year. The one that gets the most sun went a bit “milky” during the May/June heat wave and is starting to clear a bit now. Would this have been caused by excess UV?
Pond is full of life BTW. Frogs, snails, plants, bugs etc. There is a pump too to keep the water moving
I posted earlier in the thread about identifying different causes of cloudiness. Depending on the colour it could be bacterial blooms, algae blooms, or even just dust/detritus that's getting stirred up.
Milky white. Seems to have subsided a bit over the last week or so.