Last year I posted about the value of my stream, but I didn�t know how to post pictures. I thought that I would repost it now that I have learned how to post pics and I will include a couple from last year.

I love my stream.

I�m not sure exactly what I have learned from the last two years of ponding except that my 24 foot stream has been wonderfully beneficial to my pond & stream. However, I thought that my observations might be of interest. I have mostly been lurking on this site. I�m in zone 7a in North Carolina with winters down to 15 and summers to 100. I have a 2400gph pump in a roughly 5x10� at top, 4x9�x2� pond (700gal?) with a mini-me (20gal skippy with media and supplies originally from skippystuff) that receives approx. 25% of the flow.

My pond water has almost always been clear except that both the pond and stream have often had a heavy load of string algae. In my second year I added 3 goldfish mainly to see movement deep in the pond to check for clarity.

I originally added pieces of one bunch of watercress from the produce section under rocks in various sections of the stream. They all grew and survived the winters and produced large root systems. I found that these (and other plant) roots would trap the fine crud circulating from pond and stream. On occasion I would yank out excess growth and gobs of crud would be removed with it. Admittedly this also stirred up more crud but it was almost immediately removed by other roots and perhaps the filter. The actual cress and fallen leaves etc. would catch the algae that I would grab out with my hands. I recently had the sense to use a toilet brush.

I have recently had a dramatic decrease in algae, especially in the pond where it had been collecting on an impressive growth of underwater pond plants making them look like green/brown cotton candy. Unfortunately, I have recently made several changes so the source of improvement is unclear. First, it is a new spring. I had also removed half of the pond plant algae tangle. I had been out of fish food and the fish had been subsisting on algae and snail eggs, frog eggs or whatever but that stuff seemed to be declining so perhaps the fish were focusing on algae, and most interestingly to me, I suspected my mini-me was leaking and I first diverted flow away for a week (indicating a 10gal loss/week and a larger nearby waterfall spillage loss), then pulled it out, removed the sponges which were clean with no crud or stinky smell in the bottom, eventually sealing the leak and reset the filter after at least two weeks of no filter. Soon thereafter, the algae almost disappeared so that for the first time in two years, the underwater plants looked like they were in an aquarium.

I suspect that the long stream with plants is my major filtering agent. I was surprised that the mini-me seemed to be completely clean. I am pleased that my water has always been clear and that my fish, frogs, tadpoles, snails and lilies are (and always were) apparently healthy. I highly recommend a stream.

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I have a lot more than 3 comets now, (ya think).