Help Needed with Pond Rehab - 05/26/15 04:46 AM
Hi, all -
I’m new to the forum, but I'm in need of some help and guidance.
My wife and I moved into a place here in VT about 5 yrs ago. The previous owners had a 60' x 80' x 5' avg (8' max) pond dug into clay soil. They had it dug with steep sides, supposedly to control cattails, so it provided no shallow breeding habitat. On top of that, they threw in a bunch of danged goldfish. With the help of an uncontrolled population of crawfish, it looks like the goldfish ate every speck of vegetation, leaving algae to fill the void and creating an ugly brown/green cloudy water condition. I’m wondering how typical this situation is. Does anyone else have experience with a goldfish infestation? Is the demolition of vegetation expected? What do they normally do to water quality and pH?
Anyway, over the past couple years, I've been working on restoring the pond to a balanced ecosystem. I've trapped, fished with, and eaten over 100 lbs of crawfish. I put in a bottom aerator. I've drained the pond and created some shallow breeding areas. I've added some SMB, BG, YP, and one 18" catfish to help control the crawfish! I've tried to replenish the vegetation, but most of that has been eaten - with the exception of some healthy bulrush and a couple water lilies.
After all that, this spring, the water quality was the worst it‘s been, so it was pretty clear I wasn't out of the woods. A couple weeks ago, I bit the bullet; I put on my waders, rigged up a 50' seine, slogged twice around through the muck, and trapped out over 70 goldfish - some up to 10" long. With any luck, I'm hoping I finally may have gotten to the root of the problem.
The big question is where do I go from here? After nearly 5 years trying to sort this out, I'm hoping this could be a pivotal year. I'm figuring I need to add a hefty biofilter to correct the algae and water quality issues, but I'm not clear on filter sizing and flow rate. Most sites are making recommendations for smaller ponds and are recommending turnover in a matter of hours. What's an appropriate minimum turnover rate for a pond of this size and nature? As far as filter designs go, I’ve looked at a whole pile of bio filter plans online, and they seem to come in a lot of styles. Does anyone have any favorite filter designs?
From there, I'm also considering the need for UV filtration and the power source for driving everything - wind driven pump, wind electric generator, or solar. Ideally, I'd prefer to avoid having to bury 110V AC lines, as I'm sitting on a lot of ledge. I'd love to hear from anybody with firsthand experience on any of these fronts.
Another critical step will be replacing the plants that the crawfish and goldfish munched last year. Seems pretty easy to find water lilies and things like that, but I'm more interested in deeper water plants for habitat and oxygenating plants, especially ones that will do well up north. Can anyone steer me towards a good online source of plants? There's a local guy here in VT, but I've had mediocre luck with him. We're at the beginning of our growing season here, and the pond is still about 2' below full level; I'm thinking that makes this a good time to work on that piece of the puzzle
Beyond that, I'd love to hear any other suggestions for rehab – things like adding forage fish, . Obviously, the de-facto ecosystem (almost exclusively goldfish, crawfish, salamanders, cattails, and algae) was stable, but I wouldn't call it healthy. The pond is right outside our door, so we’re really shooting to have it as natural and balanced an ecosystem as possible. I know your time is valuable, so any help is hugely appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
uj
I’m new to the forum, but I'm in need of some help and guidance.
My wife and I moved into a place here in VT about 5 yrs ago. The previous owners had a 60' x 80' x 5' avg (8' max) pond dug into clay soil. They had it dug with steep sides, supposedly to control cattails, so it provided no shallow breeding habitat. On top of that, they threw in a bunch of danged goldfish. With the help of an uncontrolled population of crawfish, it looks like the goldfish ate every speck of vegetation, leaving algae to fill the void and creating an ugly brown/green cloudy water condition. I’m wondering how typical this situation is. Does anyone else have experience with a goldfish infestation? Is the demolition of vegetation expected? What do they normally do to water quality and pH?
Anyway, over the past couple years, I've been working on restoring the pond to a balanced ecosystem. I've trapped, fished with, and eaten over 100 lbs of crawfish. I put in a bottom aerator. I've drained the pond and created some shallow breeding areas. I've added some SMB, BG, YP, and one 18" catfish to help control the crawfish! I've tried to replenish the vegetation, but most of that has been eaten - with the exception of some healthy bulrush and a couple water lilies.
After all that, this spring, the water quality was the worst it‘s been, so it was pretty clear I wasn't out of the woods. A couple weeks ago, I bit the bullet; I put on my waders, rigged up a 50' seine, slogged twice around through the muck, and trapped out over 70 goldfish - some up to 10" long. With any luck, I'm hoping I finally may have gotten to the root of the problem.
The big question is where do I go from here? After nearly 5 years trying to sort this out, I'm hoping this could be a pivotal year. I'm figuring I need to add a hefty biofilter to correct the algae and water quality issues, but I'm not clear on filter sizing and flow rate. Most sites are making recommendations for smaller ponds and are recommending turnover in a matter of hours. What's an appropriate minimum turnover rate for a pond of this size and nature? As far as filter designs go, I’ve looked at a whole pile of bio filter plans online, and they seem to come in a lot of styles. Does anyone have any favorite filter designs?
From there, I'm also considering the need for UV filtration and the power source for driving everything - wind driven pump, wind electric generator, or solar. Ideally, I'd prefer to avoid having to bury 110V AC lines, as I'm sitting on a lot of ledge. I'd love to hear from anybody with firsthand experience on any of these fronts.
Another critical step will be replacing the plants that the crawfish and goldfish munched last year. Seems pretty easy to find water lilies and things like that, but I'm more interested in deeper water plants for habitat and oxygenating plants, especially ones that will do well up north. Can anyone steer me towards a good online source of plants? There's a local guy here in VT, but I've had mediocre luck with him. We're at the beginning of our growing season here, and the pond is still about 2' below full level; I'm thinking that makes this a good time to work on that piece of the puzzle
Beyond that, I'd love to hear any other suggestions for rehab – things like adding forage fish, . Obviously, the de-facto ecosystem (almost exclusively goldfish, crawfish, salamanders, cattails, and algae) was stable, but I wouldn't call it healthy. The pond is right outside our door, so we’re really shooting to have it as natural and balanced an ecosystem as possible. I know your time is valuable, so any help is hugely appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
uj