Micro pond fail?

[Whentheydontmeanwhattheysay]

There are some hornwort in there but the ponds has quickly gone green and slimy. I’ve added some more oxygenating plants (water lettuce) to see if that will help.
Any advice?

I recently started a micro pond. I don't have stones in the pond and just have one oxygenator, some marginals and a water lily. The pond seems to be thriving.

I went to this place for my plants and they are clearly experts in their field. If you don't live nearby I'm sure they would give you some advice:

www.aqualifeltd.co.uk/

I have stones as I don’t want to find anything dead in there that couldn’t climb out, we have visiting hedgehogs. I’d feel awful if something drowned in there! Maybe I should have washed them before putting them in?

What type of container do you have, metal or plastic?

Thanks for the link, not near me but I will see if there is a local equivalent or email the place on the link for advice.

You have to have stones, otherwise things drown like frogs

Sorry no help as mine is similar, I think mine gets too much light.

Looks like you could do with a handful of water snails

But not if it’s so tiny that it’ll freeze solid in winter

You need to get some black pond dye.

It's fine, wildlife doesn't need clean water.

I'd add some gravel to the bottom.

I contemplated snails but wasn’t sure if there was enough of anything in there yet to support them.

There is a bit of gravel in the bottom, I’ll Chuck some more in.

I don’t fancy black water tbh

I was wondering about it freezing in winter, I was thinking I’ll have to get a ping pong ball!

Isn't it supposed to have algae? Natural ponds have algae - they aren't crystal clear.

I wasn’t sure if there was too much, as it has only been filled for a couple of weeks.
I’ve no clue what I’m doing & just didn’t want to end up with a bowl full of green sludge that no wildlife can drink out of.
I’ve seen pictures of micro ponds & they just all seem a lot less green. Maybe it will settle.

Black water looks quite beautiful in contrast to the plants and stops the algae but hey ho.

It's just an algae bloom - most new ponds go through it

Things that help control algae long term:

• surface cover; plants covering the surface reduce sunlight getting through to the water. As algae needs sunlight, it does less well when the water is darker

• nutrient hungry plants (e.g. iris, duckweed, water lettuce, water forget-me-nots and many more). They absorb all the nitrates out of the water, leaving less for the algae to live off - so the algae dies back a bit.

• pond snails will move it and they also eat algae off the surfaces underwater

I know someone who has a little solar water fountain in their one. It keeps the water moving a bit so it doesn’t stagnate I love micro ponds!

Thank you @LeafOfTruth very reassuring.
I have water forget me knots growing & water lettuce was put in today to go with the hornwort. I will buy some snails.

I thought about a solar fountain but wondered if it would be a bit crowded, I will see how it goes.

My experience is that the snails will come on their own (presumably as little eggs in the plants) so no need to buy them if you don't want to.

Oh great! -thanks

Green water is totally normal as is algae on the pebbles, the snails eat it and so do other critters. You'll get mosquito larvae soon, and maybe some red wiggles don't panic once you have those then you'll get some other creatures move in that predate them. I built my pond last year and had tonnes of mozzie larvae then the frogs came, frogspawn in March, now I've got lots of frogs and no mozzie larvae.

Its a natural stage in pond development. As nutrient levels decrease and the pond settles, it will go. Aim for a third of the pond to be covered by floating leaves. Whatever you do, don’t be tempted to change the water, that will put you back to square one

Looks good! It takes time to sort itself out.

Black dye might look nice but it’s no good if you want wildlife to use it. There’s a good FB group called Wildlife Ponds UK or similar.

Red wriggles -right, I won’t panic. They sound intriguing.

Thanks for the advice, I won’t change the water!

Yes I’ve seen Charlie doing a pond with black dye, it looked stunning in the garden design but, if snails, frogs etc do appear, I want to be able to see them.

Thanks all, I will try to be patient. Peering at it several times a day is changing nothing but it is interesting, can’t wait to see the first signs of life.

You already have the first signs of life - algae.

Very true!

It looks fine to me. Mine (in a Belfast sink) took a whole year to settle properly. The mini water Lilly is helping a lot as it is covering a good 1/3 if the surface now.
I did used to pull out the worst of the pond weed (and leave in the side for a bit so any critters could crawl back in).
It’s been fab this year though. Lots of frogs, the occasional toad. Loads of small snails / wriggly things.
The cats prefer drinking pond water to fresh, so I’m thinking it’s fine.
I have learned though not to rip it up with tap water even when it looks decidedly shallow. Tap water just increases the algae. If it hasn’t rained for ages, I leave a bucket of tap water out for three or four days before I use it to top up the pond.

Stick with it.

Wow, you have lots of visitors. How exciting! I have a water butt (a new purchase this summer that I love) so I won’t use tap water if it needs topping up. If the water lettuce doesn’t cover enough surface I shall splash out on a mini water Lilly.

@Stillcrikey I wouldn’t use cats as arbiters of water quality. Most prefer drinking out of the toilet pan to drinking out of a dish of nice clean water.

Leaving the tap water to stand will allow the various chemicals to disperse, but I don’t think it reduces the nitrogen level, and it’s the nitrogen level that encourages the algae. But they’re self limiting - once they’ve devoured all the nutrients, they’ll die off - unless you top up the nutrient level.