Habitat - Outdoor :: pond clarity

[RES Tampa]

OT72 -How clear is the water in your outside pond. With all of the plants and mud in the bottom, does it stay clear. We have filled our new outside pond up and some silty sand spilled in during backfill. Im wondering if I should drain completely, clean or just partially to remove the real silty water?

[Oldturtle72]

Hi, Tampa,
If you can get it out without going to alot of trouble, fine. You can just leave it if you want and the dirt will settle out. I would add AlgaeFix to it right away to start with and about a week later hit it again. Won't hurt the turts at all. You can add a Green Water Clarifier to it also, if you want. My pond bottom is very clean, thanks to the Japanese Black Trapdoor Snails. They are doing a very good clean up job. I have a scattering of Aquatic Plant Medium that has escaped through the little holes in the underwater plant containers and a half-dozen 2-3 inch rocks I threw in just for the turts. My lillypads are coming up and I threw in about 10 floating Water Hyacinth plants and a big handfull of Romain Lettuce leaves so the turts will, hopefully, leave the plants alone. The pond water has been so cold of late that the big Comet and the Kio have been kind of inactive. The minute I put the turtles in they started to interact with them. Water temp this afternoon was up to 64-air temp tonight down to 45. They are used to fluctuations in air/water temps so their gonna stay in there the rest of the spring, summer and into the fall. Water is crystal clear. George

[RES Tampa]

Thanks George,

I think I will get some more of the silt out of the water for clarity and leave the sand in. I have yet to purchase the filter/pump but the pondmaster line you recommended will obviously work fine. Got to run some power first out to the pond. Need a second job for all this stuff The turts are worth it though.

[Oldturtle72]

Hey, Tampa,
Go to www.azponds.com for a power control center. It's called a Cal Pump Power Control Center. Has a 50' power cord, built in GFI protection, 3-110 outlets and hook up for 12 volt lights. My pond is located in a corner of the yard that that has a 6' fence around it. My unit is mounted on the fence close to the pond. The power cord runs along the fence to the garage then is buried along a sidewalk along side the garage then comes up and goes to an outlet in the garage. I'm running 2 pumps. The 5 lights that I've spaced around the pond fence are on a timer, in the unit, to go off at 11 PM. The unit is $89.95 with free shipping. Scroll down to accessories. scroll down to a picture of the control center and see if that doesn't fit your electrical needs. George

[RES Tampa]

Thanks again George.

I have been wanting to get a low voltage transformer so I guess I would not have to with this setup and 50' of cord would be plenty long to get to my power source. Did you do anything special with the cord where you direct buried it? Jim

[Oldturtle72]

No, Jim, I didn't. I kinda pulled the grass away from the sidewalk edge and stuffed the cord under the grass up against the concrete. I purchased the control center last year. My first thought was to come out of the breaker panel in the garage with UG wire to a 4 by 4 post buried in the ground with an all-weather outlet attached to the post. After figuring the cost of doing that plus the labor involved, I started looking at the various pond supply stores on the web. This control center was exactly what was needed. I had a box of 12 Toro outdoor lights and the center has timed outlets for that kind of lighting. The Toro kit came with day/night sensor and transformer and I just plugged the transformer into a 110 outlet in the center. I'd recommend that set-up for anyone that has an out door pond, be it for turtles or just fish or just a plain garden pond with a pump for a water display. The main reason is the built-in GFI breaker. If, for any reason, an electrical unit in the pond has a short, you or yours won't get electrocuted while reaching into the pond if forgetting to unplug the unit. My older grandkids and a couple of my daughters reach in the pond to get their favorite turt and don't need to get a shock or worse. No matter what the source of electricity is for your pond, you must have that source plugged into a GFI breaker first. George