Winterizing

For all my earlier pond troubles in the year you'd think I'd have been a little more diligent about keeping leaves out of the pond than I have been this Fall. Part of the problem -- besides being busy -- was that I was being deceived by all the teeny Water Lettuce in the pond. When the first leaves began falling they would land on top of the Water Lettuce mat that had blanketed the surface of the pond. I'd see those and was able to pick them off, but what I wasn't seeing was the ones that had already fallen through and sunk to the bottom of the pond.

Several weeks ago I did a about a 50% water change and cleaned out what leaves had collected at the time. The water was fairly dark, looking like well-steeped tea. The reason for the extent of the water change, besides the color, was that my pond testing before the previous water change, a few weeks prior, had indicated that the level of nitrates were again climbing, while everything else, PH, Nitrites, Ammonia and Salt Level were excellent -- which means 0 (Zero) for the Ammonia and Nitrites. This last time around the Nitrates were still very low, but I wanted to get them lower.

Then the leaves started coming down in earnest. Last year I lost my netting, but instead was very dilligent about skimming the pond daily to keep leaves from steeping in the water. I haven't done that this year, and oddly, even though we had a false start Spring and then a very dry Summer, the leaves hung onto the trees a good three weeks longer than they have in a so-called "average year."

So the leaves are down now, though it keeps wanting to rain whenever I want to rake them up, and by yesterday the water was looking as dark as I have ever seen it. I could no longer see the fish. Definitely time for a change. I did a very extensive one. More, I'm sure, then the experts would say is advised, but the pond is crystal clear again, Dreamcicle and Blue appear healthy (and appreciative)and the water test readings were all good.

I've put in a fresh filter and it's got to make it through to the Winter as it will probably be the last change until Spring, barring a long stretch of mid-Winter 80 degree days where it's safe to use the hose.

A Welcomed Water Lettuce Invasion

It's been a while since I posted. August, in fact. I've been up to a lot of things, of which the main thing has been JohnnyGuitars.com.

Meanwhile, the fish, Dreamcicle and Blue, have been doing well, thank you. And after all the earlier troubles of the year -- Keybo dying, Dreamcicle's month long brooding or whatever the hell it was, the mysterious 6 weeks of pond cloudiness and then the even more mysteriously magical clearing on August 6th -- pond mojo appears to be back to stay, at least so far.

The only thing that remained puzzling was a long stretch of time, after the water had cleared, where I was completely unsuccessful at keeping any floating water plants alive longer than about 14 days, and then that too magically stopped happening.

I would buy 3 or 4 Water Hyacinths at Home Depot and put them in the pond, and they'd look real nice for about a week, then they'd start turning brown and slowly rotting away. A couple of times I managed to find ones that were blooming, but even when I drove them straight home (less than 3 miles away) it was hard to keep those blooms from wilting in the plastic bag before I could get the plant in the pond. I went through this a couple of times, replacing the Water Hyacinths and also adding in a single "bunch" of Water Lettuce, but within 2 or three weeks they'd all be looking pretty sorry. In past years I've added one or two bunches of Water Lettuce and the next thing I know I've got 4 or 5, etc. They start off as a tight bunch, then they shoot out sideways rhizomes (not sure that name applies to a water plant since there is no "underground")that become another plant and then eventually breaks away from the original mothership plant. Sometimes I even find them that way in the store, although once the cashier at Home Depot accused me of undercounting the number of plants I had in the bag until I pulled it out and showed them the that the "two" plants were in fact still connected as one.

I can only guess that at that point, having gone through all the earlier roller coaster pond mojo changes that the water was still a bit too "sterile" in nutrients to support plant life. However, finally, after about the 3rd or 4th shopping trip for more plants, one of the Water Lettuce "bunches" took hold and began to thrive and then proceeded to take over. Though I never saw any additional "bunches" that were anywhere near the size of the last original plant I dropped into the pond, I soon had hundreds and eventually thousands of itty-bitty Water Lettuce islands covering the surface of the pond -- looking almost more like that "Duckweed" in the picture, though not all connected to one another -- to the point that I eventually would have to skim some out now and then.

I didn't mind them at all, and the fish needed the shade. Plus, the Water Lettuce was doing a great job competing with algae, and the pond has stayed algae free without the use of any chemicals.

Unfortunately there's no way the Water Lettuce will survive the Winter, and around here I rarely see it on sale anywhere nearby until well into the mid-Summer. So I've got a few samples in glass dish that I'm going to see if I can keep alive indoors over the Winter, and get them back in the pond next Spring as soon as it's consistently warm enough for them to survive, so that they can get a foothold before the algae gets too far ahead of them.

We'll see.