Hey Karen,

Your plants are probably the reason for your clear water. A good balance of plant material can make it's own bio-system. When you have plants blocking the light in to the water this slows the growth of algae. Also, oxygenators such as anacharis, hornwart, parrot's feather, or cabomba are great for clearing the water. Water Hyacinth are excellent for removing nitrates. I am sure there are plenty of variations that will work. You obviously have a good balance. If you have water lilies, they don't like swift moving water anyway. I have two ponds and they are natural and have been installed for several years. I am in the process of putting a fountain and waterfall on one of them though, just wanted some sound in a sitting area. One does not have fish and the other one is stocked with left over fishing minnows and they seem to be doing fine. lol I just dip out the plant debris from the bamboo and trees occasianally with a pool skimmer.

I agree with gardenmasterjo. You seem to have a good balance. How many fish are in your pond?

Pam

If you have the right balance of fish and plants this year, you won't next year. My goldfish multiply exponentially!! lol

I don't have filtration on my pond, but I do have a waterfall with a UV light attached to the output. That keeps my algae down. I let the plants do the rest of the work, with occasional vacuuming of the sludge at the bottom once or twice a year.

I'm considering setting up an aquaponics system. It's basically a hydroponic system that is connected to the pond. As the water flushes through the hydroponic system, the plants clean the water before it is returned to the pond. Basically using the fish to help the plants, and the plants to help the fish.

The best biological filter I ever had, used plants to filter the water. I keep goldfish, not koi. The system I used pumped the water into a container pond with a spillway. I filled that container with parrot's feather (water hyacinth is illegal to possess in Texas). The roots and plants filtered the water and it returned to the pond via the spillway. Simple and inexpensive, but most importantly clear, healthy water.

Pam

Pam, Sounds interesting, Approximately how many square feet of of Parrots Feather clean how many gallons of water?

Linda

Karen I usually turn off the filter at the end of June because my plants have given me 75& surface coverage by then to cut down algae bloom.The roots to all the plants filter the water beautifully for me.

Karyn I sure would love to see a picture of your pond :-)

You know me, crazy about pictures :-)

Lucy

Pam, your method sounds like basically the same theory as my idea for the aquaponics system. Only if it works for me, I'll be growing my vegetable garden hydroponically with pond water.

I have some algae growing on the sides but the fish are picking at it and I'll buy some Trapdoor & Mystery snails as soon as our temps stop dropping. I'm not quite sure how many fish survived but there's at least 3 big ones. Several didn't survive the winter and floated up during the spring thaw along with some frogs. Kind of like the corpses in the East River. lol

I can barely get to the pond because there's so many weeds and overgrown plants surrounding it. I have all the rain to thank for that. I did start pulling weeds today but I have a lot of plants that need to be cut back.