# pond plants



## clint24 (13 Apr 2011)

Hi to all. I was given a kidney shape pond last year. It is now ready to be filled (after a lot of hard work), so would like your help to recommend the best place to buy plants from & a good filter kit (pond is about 1500 litres) please. Cheers.


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## Steve Smith (14 Apr 2011)

Sounds like a nice project   I'd love to have a pond.  Some day...

Not really sure about plants to be honest.  How deep is it?  Does it have terraces to give different depths for planting?


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## Ed Seeley (14 Apr 2011)

Good plants for a small pond are marsh marigolds (double and white ones especially), blue iris (I.laevigata) (the variegated one is superb), Water forget-me-not, Pickerel weed (Pontederia cordata) and Arrowheads.  You can also try Arum lilies (though they get huge) and water lobelia (though it isn't totally hardy).  There are loads of other ones too but they have been reliable and not too invasive for me.


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## clint24 (14 Apr 2011)

Hi Thanks for the replies.Hi Steve the pond is one & a half metres deep with 2 marginal shelves.The pond is buried in a raised rockey bed which will have a waterfall to it.Has been hard work to do, but when pond is up & running the kids can choose the goldfish they want.Hi Ed ,Thanks for the advice on the plant choices, will check them out tomorrow on my day off.Did you get your plants online or from a local aquatics shop.What do you think will be a good filter kit for my pond.Thanks again.


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## ghostsword (15 Apr 2011)

I think that it all depends if you want to have the pond to be a year round thing or just spring and summer.

If just summer and spring why not use hydrocotyle, rotalas, cyperus, dwarf bamboos and some hygros?

I have found that most grow on our weather during spring and summer.


.


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## clint24 (16 Apr 2011)

Hi. It will be a all year pond.


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## Ed Seeley (16 Apr 2011)

What fauna are you planning for the pond?  If it is just planted with wildlife in then I wouldn't bother with a filter.  If you're only planning a few goldfish then you might be ok without a filter too.  If you want a heavy fish stocking then you will need a filter and I'd use a DIY k1 filter as I hate cleaning out filter foam.  You can DIY one of these for about £300 including the water pump, air pump for cleaning the filter, media and all the pipework.


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## clint24 (16 Apr 2011)

Hi Ed,how would i go about making a K1 filter as this is new to me.


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## Gill (17 Apr 2011)

Ed Seeley said:
			
		

> Good plants for a small pond are marsh marigolds (double and white ones especially), blue iris (I.laevigata) (the variegated one is superb), Water forget-me-not, Pickerel weed (Pontederia cordata) and Arrowheads.  You can also try Arum lilies (though they get huge) and water lobelia (though it isn't totally hardy).  There are loads of other ones too but they have been reliable and not too invasive for me.



I was thinking along the same lines for plants. I love the marsh marigolds.

if you are wanting to buy pond plants and not pay garden centre, then have a look at the pond plant section on ebay. have bought some excellent quality plants from there and the variety is sooo much better than in garden centres.


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## Ed Seeley (18 Apr 2011)

clint24 said:
			
		

> Hi Ed,how would i go about making a K1 filter as this is new to me.



Basically you can convert any fish safe, water holding container into a K1 filter.  Pictures speak louder than words so I'm just looking for a couple of web pages about how to do it.  

http://www.koi-uk.co.uk/mechanical_filt ... ble_of.htm
http://www.koi-uk.co.uk/jap_matting_to_ ... _media.htm

http://www.koiquest.co.uk/forum/viewtop ... +K1+filter

http://www.koiquest.co.uk/forum/viewtop ... +K1+filter

The first two are done by my friend who runs a koi farm (and who came up with this idea!) and use the whole chamber and I've built DIY ones like this for friends - I built one for a mate that runs a 1,500g planted pond with a few fish in and it's working great.  And, when he wants to add more fish, he can just add an extra container and fill it with media left to boil all the time which is called fluidised media and works as an excellent biological media.


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## Ed Seeley (18 Apr 2011)

I've been sent a pm asking for extra details so thought I'd post it up here for everyone.

Not sure I can do a much better explanation than the link from Maurice's site I'm afraid but I'll try and explain some of the basics a bit better.  If this is still confusing then keep asking and I'll try my best!

Basically, to start with you need to get the water in and out of your container.  If your barrel is above the pond height then you need to pump up to it through 1.5" pipe and have 4" pipe allowing the water to fall back into the pond.  If your barrel is at pond level then you need a 4" pipe feeding into it and can suck water out with a pump through 1.5" pipe.

You then also need a 1.5" fitting in the base of the container (at the very lowest point) to drain the waste out onto the garden or down the drain (I put all my waste water onto the garden as it's an excellent source of plant food, as well as saving wasting water).

So if that makes sense you've got an inlet, outlet and waste outlet.

Then the issue with K1 is that is floats and it's terrible at escaping!  So you need to put some kind of screen to stop the K1 escaping.  I prefer drilled or slotted pipes on the inlet and outlet and a large mesh screen on the waste pipe.  K1 will escape through any hole larger than 8mm and I use 4mm slots if using them as that's how wide my circular saw cuts slots!

As K1 floats you need your outlet at the top so the K1 collects around it and strains the water as it leaves.  That's why Maurice's converted vortex has that slottted pipe coming up through the centre to the top of the water.

The final key of the design is the air ring in the base.  I use 8mm air pipe or speedfit pipe fir this and just drill 2mm holes in the pipe very couple of inches.  This air pump is only turned on when you're cleaning the K1, the rest of the time it's off so you can use a cheap, noisy piston air pump if you want.  If you want a great biological filter then link two or more of these units up and leave air running in the other chambers, only leave the first still to remove all the waste.

To clean a pump-fed version all you do is turn the pump off and leave the extra water in the filter to drain back to the pond.  Once the water stops trickling out you then turn the air pump on and the media will start to turn over and over and this releases all the waste from the static media.  Once it's mixed for about 10 minutes and the water looks horrid I open the waste valve and let that water drain out onto the garden.  I then turn the water pump back on to fill the container again and clean again.  Repeat this until the water comes out as clean as it went in!  Once it's clean then turn the air off and restart the pump and it's working as good as new again!  K1 filters need to be regularly cleaned so please don't leave them for weeks!  They are best done at least weekly and even better twice a week as then they will only need one or two cleaning cycles and all the waste will have gone from your pond water!


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## Ed Seeley (18 Apr 2011)

Forgot I'd posted this thread on here too;
viewtopic.php?f=25&t=6284


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## clint24 (20 Apr 2011)

Wow! Thanks ed,great stuff. Looks looks like i have a new project cool!


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