Pond Temp in Socal
- Thread starter kendragon
- Start date
I put these HomeDepot plants in the pond filter a little less than a year ago. Today they're 6 feet tall.
It's elephant ear/taro
They grow wild in the creeks here. It can get a bit out of hand but they're mostly in distrubed/urban creeks.
You eat the bulb. Basically a potato.
Yep, taro. In Hawaii, they grow them in shallow ponds or small running creeks.
When I first put them in the pond, I submerged the whole pot in the pond. Didn't do so hot. I next placed them on the waterfall. Did better but got top heavy and the wind blew them down. Where I have them now is in the bog filter filled with lava rocks. I opened a section of deck and let the pot sit on top. Only their feet are wet. Water is flowing like a creek. Pots are busting open from the growth.
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I used fractionation to remove free floating algae, and nitrate precursors in my couple of ponds, in conjunction with heavy plantings.
koi pond fractionation
As you can see, in the video above, fractionation removes everything from free floating algae, to fish waste, to invisible chemical compounds, as foam, that fall on the ground.
I also always figure (as in nature) the ratio of plants must exceed the fish load.
https://youtu.be/uyb3z-V1Rsg
The pond in the videos above was only above 500 gallons, and contained only about 5 fish
Beside aquatic plants like lilies and hyacinth, placing semi aquatic plants like Papyrus in shallow shelf areas around the edges also use excess nutrients the algae need.
The pond below was between 1500 and 1700 gallons, and was the summer home for about a dozen Uruguayan cichlids and their spawns
I also liked using elephant ear, but in WI, the short season kept it small.
The pond above used a similar foam fractionation.
koi pond fractionation
As you can see, in the video above, fractionation removes everything from free floating algae, to fish waste, to invisible chemical compounds, as foam, that fall on the ground.
I also always figure (as in nature) the ratio of plants must exceed the fish load.
https://youtu.be/uyb3z-V1Rsg
The pond in the videos above was only above 500 gallons, and contained only about 5 fish
Beside aquatic plants like lilies and hyacinth, placing semi aquatic plants like Papyrus in shallow shelf areas around the edges also use excess nutrients the algae need.
The pond below was between 1500 and 1700 gallons, and was the summer home for about a dozen Uruguayan cichlids and their spawns
I also liked using elephant ear, but in WI, the short season kept it small.
The pond above used a similar foam fractionation.
Koi in this pond did not spawn for ten years. Last year, I dropped three stocks of papyrus in a 5 gal bucket. This year there were at least two baby kois. I didn't trim the papyrus hoping to give more places to spawn this coming spring but it got top heavy and tipped. Too heavy to left so gave it a hair cut.
