Garden Pond

Pond maintenance – it needs it.

The pond pumps (waterfall, fountain and bamboo water spout) are cycled through most of the day (every day x 365) off a timer which is connected to a RCD (AKA GFC).

Every two weeks I treat the pond with Aquapro/Aquatec Bionatural Feature Clean Treatment

which keeps everything looking pretty good all year round.

However over winter what was one a thriving water lettuce died off and seemed to contaminate everything so time for some TLC.

I’m using the fountain pump to pump water out and the garden hose with flow rate adjusted to bring in fresh water.

I clean the pond with a small fish net and dust pan brush and let it run for about three hours so we have a few complete water changes. After this I treat the water with the pond cleaner and we are done.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahxesGX-FB8&w=670&h=413&hd=1]

Pond maintenance.

Had one of those kids clam shell sandpit/pool play things lying around so decided to do something with it – a pond.

Construction photos to follow:

Above: Hot weather lately with 30+ temps so put up a tarp for some shade.


I already had most of the supplies needed behind the garage like sand, rocks and pebbles.Only had to buy some slate for the waterfall.

The clam shell only holds about 150l of water but I need to drive the waterfall so purchased a Aquapro AP1050 18W/1050lpm pump with flexible hose and a fountain kit. The pump capacity worked out well with the flow control set to about 75% – reserve in hand.

Above 3 photos: Fooled around for a while trying to come up with a suitable diffuser and here the pump hose is taped to the U shaped handle of a plastic dust pan.

However the 2nd and final version was a old Shop Vac plastic hard floor nozzle turned upside down and the pump hose (with some purlin tape wrapped around it) pushed into the end (nice squeeze fit) and then sandwiched between two pieces of slate – happy with the result.

More to come…