Maintenance of a small "pond"

[Lance Takara]

Anyone try maintaining a small "pond?" It's actually so small (about 5 - 6 square feet of surface area) that I wouldn't actually consider it a pond.

Obviously, a filtration system and skimmer system would be way over kill for something like this.

Any ideas for keeping the green algae out of this. Would a small "ecosystem" of a few small fish and some plants work with period addition of bacteria to outcompete the algae?

[SCL]

You could put a few goldfish in it, but if you just want to kill out the algae, put a UV sterilizer on it.

[Lance Takara]

thanks, scl

Is that the one and only? solution to this situation? I was sure there would be other responses.

[Stonehenge]

I hate to tell you to run a search, but run a search. There's a thread or two in here somewhere about how to create a filtration system for really small water features. It involves taking a plant pot, putting your pump in there, and filling around it with stone.


Because I hate being constrained by anything when designing, I'm trying to figure out a way to do something like what Aquascapes and others are doing in filtration systems. Something with little 300gph pumps, 1-3 gal pots, 1/2" hose.

[Lance Takara]

Stonehenge

My bad. I look at so many posts daily (trying to catch up to all of you) that I thought that I had already run a search (I usually do, by the way). Guess I missed this one.

Anyway, thanks, I did find some good archived information that will head me in the right direction. However, I did not find the particular post about the small skimmer and filter for small ponds. No problem.

I will check out aquascapes design (again, for the ???? time - I can't even count already) I must've missed something that I could scale down for this small scale pond.

Great to hear that you are also attempting to set up a system for smaller ponds. Not every one has those larger ones.

By the way, I saw a note about recommended reference books for water features. I didn't notice any follow up reading list. Did you ever get any references?

[David Gretzmier]

basically, take a large water plant basket, put gravel and a small-300-600gph pump in it and whatever nozzel you want, put in water and plug in . daveg

[Lance Takara]

I assume your small basket description is basically a skimmer. A set up that would trap the debris might work a little better. Thanks for the suggestion anyway.