Garden pond filter. Biofilter mantenance clean healthy ponds
Garden pond waste - control it effectively.
The nitrification cycle in your garden pond
THE MUCKY MYSTERY OF GARDEN POND FILTER WASTE
The accumulation of dark slimy gunk in the bottom of your garden pond or filter system seems pretty evil stuff, and one of the most evil things about it can be its smell.
In fact its presence and the way that it does smell is a pretty good gauge as to the health and welfare of the occupants of your garden pool or water garden. Not only that, once you get it out of the garden pond it could have its uses in the garden too.
GARDEN POND NASAL KNOWLEDGE
For those of you au fait with the aromas of garden pond bottoms and filter filth will know that there are some pongs little worse than a good honest workman's armpit sort of smell, or silage on a bright frosty winters morn; sweet and reassuring.
Others are so pungent your head involuntarily flicks back at the slightest whiff and you explete "Ewwphh!" Your instincts do not deceive you. That really smelly stuff can be as harmful as it smells and it is certainly no good for any fish in the garden pool, nor is it any good for going straight onto the garden.
The material that you have possibly scooped up in your hand is more alive than any sci-fi alien gloop from outer space that is threatening to engulf the whole of New York State. This garden pool putrescence is in fact a mixture of millions of bacteria and the organic matter that sinks to the bottom of the garden pond (and or gets pumped up into the filter system).
Those bacteria are busy digesting the organic matter, which in the process gets broken down to its constituent chemical parts. Originally it would have been plant material, dead algae or fish waste. Fish waste equals fish faeces and uneaten fish food. Both of these consist of large amounts of Hydrogen and Nitrogen linked in compounds and the process of breaking them up into elements that are not toxic to the environment creates a heavy load on the eco-system of the garden pool environment.
This means that a lot of bacteria and microbes need a lot of resources, and those resources are available oxygen atoms. If oxygen is limited, you get the wrong bacteria down there attempting to deal with the problem and they tend to create a bit of a smell. It may not be as sentient as 'alien gloop' but it does tell you something. If there is a faint hint of sulphur with a hefty ronk of ammonia or perhaps a waft of methane, then you've got a population of bad guys.
Well they are not really bad guys..... They are anaerobic bacteria that have their rightful place in the great tapestry of things, but they are best kept at the back end of the process of breaking up all this organic matter, that is, when most of the job is done. The guys you really want first at the "Eat up All my Organic Waste Party" are aerobic bacteria - they need 'air' (as in 'aero') to be there.
WHY ME?
If your garden pond stinks and your filter is foetid and you feel that you have been inflicted with the wrong sort of 'gate-crashers' to your microbe ball, make sure:
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the filter system or the activity in the bottom of the garden pond has had time to get going before being overloaded with fish. It may need a biological 'starter'.
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Clean out small garden ponds regularly. Check filter systems every month and back-flush them on well-stocked garden pools. Have a major cleanout every six months. Do not use chlorinated water.
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Large garden ponds may only need attention every four years at the most. It depends on the balance of fish and plants or fish and filtration.
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Ensure there are not too many fish and they are not overfed especially when the temperature of the water is dropping.
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Ensure the water is well oxygenated with a pond fountain, pond waterfall or venturi.
WHAT TO DO WITH THE GARDEN POND WASTE?
The process of organic matter in the bottom of a garden pool effectively being digested starts with a metamorphosis in part (especially the fish food and fish excreta) into ammonia and ammonia compounds.
Ammonia is particularly toxic to Koi, as you know, which ironically exude the stuff from their gills during metabolism anyway. Oxygen dependent Nitrosomonas bacteria are hopefully there in the bottom of the garden pool or in the filter medium breaking this down as quickly as possible to nitrites.
Nitrites unfortunately are toxic too, but nitrobacter bacteria move in to build these up to nitrates. The resulting nitrates can be taken up and used by plants or can further broken down. This is when anaerobic bacteria could come in to play by breaking up the nitrates and releasing the oxygen and nitrogen.
Now if you haul this stuff out of your garden pond at any stage in the process, it is either going to continue its natural break down outside, or if it has reached the nitrates stage of the process, it will be the equivalent of vegetable rocket fuel.
Most plants don't want rocket fuel, and if it is not rocket fuel but still muck continuing its decomposition, there is a danger that it will leech out goodness from the soil to aid the decomposition.
So the best place for it is the compost heap. Here it can be diluted and watered in or, if it is thick heavy sludge, it can be mixed in layers between very fibrous and straw types of material. Because this keeps the collection of material open, oxygen is available to complete the rotting down process of the material from the filter and it all rots down to a moist friable compost.
As far as the compost heap is concerned, if the compost needs an efficient 'starter' for the rotting down process, nothing can be bought that is any better that garden pond gunge with its mixture of bacteria, organic compounds and nitrates.
IF THE WORST COMES TO THE WORST
If you have nowhere else to put it and it does not smell too bad, spread or water it onto a bed of fairly vigorous shrubs or perennials. Disperse it as much as possible and as it begins to dry, gently 'prick it in' with a garden fork. This ensures that you haven't created a suffocating pan over the surface of the soil and opened it up to the air.
In bulk, it is on the acid side of neutral. This would make it unsuitable for the vegetable patch without being diluted by garden compost, but may by a nice fillip for an azalea or rhododendron bed.
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Important Fish Pond & Water Garden Articles to View... - Learn how to choose a fish pond pump ... pond pumps circulate oxygen enriched water to keep fish and pond filter bacteria alive. Fish pond filters make sure water gardens remain clean and healthy for you and the pond fish. Learn how to choose a UV light for your fish pond... UV sterilizers make sure backyard ponds remain crystal clear and green algae free. Water garden plants help to keep garden ponds in balance by removing nutrients on which pond algae feed. Most fish ponds and water gardens are built from flexible pond liner. If your fish pond ever suffers from blanketweed this is the page to view.
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