Tropical Fish Forums

[invertaman]

I was given some floating hearts, parrots feather and water lettuce. I am planning to get umbrella palms and large water lilies. but I had never thought about substrate should I use any in my pond? I didn't know you had to have anything
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I n v e r t a m a n

[anonapersona]

If you can avoid it, do not add any substrate to a pond. You want to be able to clean it from time to time. You'll have to use a pond vac of some sort, the least expensive uses a water hose to run the vacuum and it will suck up everything on the bottom of the tank. No way to run a Python sort of thing when there is no lower area to flow water into to run it.

In my pond there are always bits of leaves and sticks, and plant parts that have decayed, and rocks the fish have moved off the plant pots when they are searching for algae or worms or roots or whatever they are doing. It is a real chore to "muck out" the pond and I have to do it once or twice a year, a 5' diameter 300 gallon pond is not that hard but it is enough!

Ponds that have rock bottoms tend to suddenly go toxic when the filth in the rocks is disturbed.

[invertaman]

OK good but the problem is they did not come in pots. what should I do pot them
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I n v e r t a m a n

[dale]

Hey invertaman,
I don't know about the umbrella palms (aren't they terrestrial?) but the water lilies are easy.
Use either a black plastic plant pot (nice alliteration) or a perforated aquatic basket. The perforated pot lets more water in to the roots but a normal pot works just fine. Buy some aquatic potting soil and pot it up. Use a pot slightly larger than the lily roots. lightly tamp the soil around the roots and place it gently in the pond so that the water doesn't become murky. Don't worry if the pads don't reach the surface, they'll stretch.
You can repot / divide every year or you can go two or three years if you are lax like me.
Hope this helps,
Good luck.
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Intelligence is not having all the answers; it's knowing how to think!

[nonamethefish]

Just a thought on the umbrella palms.

IMHO I would skip these. My neighbor has them planted beside the pool right next to the fence. The fence has been fixed once already due to these plants pushing through to get to our garden. Also they seem to produce lots of seeds and we are always getting them in our yard even though we did not plant a single one!

[honmol]

I have a pond and I put river rocks in it. They provide a good hiding spot for any fish who wants one but are easy to remove if need be. If you're interested you can usually find them either at the pet store or a nursery.

[Oscer]

I
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Years of fish keeping = Good advice