Support our Corporate Members

Whoa, Nelly! June is Ponditat™ For Humanity Month!

We are going out west to Lincoln, NE and the New Covenant Church.

Even around the Pond Dragons’ lair there are ponds that need help!

Beside Ponditat, what could be going on in Nebraska in June? The College World Series in Omaha. Did your college team make it? Come out early for the series and work the Ponditat! Win, loose, or draw in the series, it’s still a win for a trip out west and the Ponditat™.

Contrary to what the rumor is, it isn’t the edge of the World here, but if you look just a little further to the west you might see the edge J. Not to sound like a travel brochure, if you’re driving across I-80, there is Boys Town as you come through Omaha. At exit 426 is the SAC (Strategic Air Command) air museum. It has a lot of hands on stuff for kids and an SR-71 Blackbird (the fastest jet ever made) at the entry.

So pack up stuff and head out west this year to the wide open spaces of Nebraska. See the State capital and our one of a kind event - a Unicameral state government – that’s what they call it!

We are staying at a recently renovated Inn and you’ll find it’s across the street from many local shopping areas and night spots.

As far as the local weather, I have to mention that Dave, the Executive Director of IPPCA, came out to visit last spring when the local chain of Ace Hardwares became an IPPCA Corporate Member. I mention that because when Dave made that trip it was in the negative teens and an ugly wind chill! Good news for all the southern Top Guns, you’ll love these temperatures in June…this years it’s 60 in the a.m. and 80 at 10 p.m.. Last week of May it was mid 40s in the a.m. with mid 60s in the p.m.

It is a pleasure to be able to host one of our events and I hope to see “Y’all” here June 24th-26th.

Rocke Huntington
President IPPCA
Aka Pond Dragon

On June 24, 2010 the IPPCA Top Guns will converge on Lincoln , Nebraska to rework an existing pond at the New Covenant Church at the fifth annual Ponditat™ for Humanity event hosted by the IPPCA. IPPCA Contractor members who attend this event, known as Top Guns, will add bog filtration along with a face lift and a waterfall. The existing pond was built by a local congregational member and business owner several years ago to greet the congregation as it enters the facilities for worship services. Work will also be done, time permitted, on another pond-less water feature on the premises that is leaking badly.

IPaWGS member (the hobbyist side of IPPCA), Danny Keelan, member of the New Covenant Church, nominated his church for the Ponditat™ For Humanity 2010 project. IPPCA President Rocke’ Huntington is also an IPaWGS member and assists Mr. Keelan from time to time on his personal pond. Both gentlemen were picked by Ponds USA as Midwest Pond Contractors in January, 2007. Rocke’ agrees that the New Covenant Church was a great choice for the 2010 Ponditat For Humanity recipient, as it is in dire need of filtration and a face lift.

The New Covenant Church helps the community with their many services such as Celebrate Recovery, Community Corrections Ministry, Royal Family Kid’s Camp, Step Out and Serve (SOS) and We Love Lincoln Outreach.

On Thursday, June 24 IPPCA Top Guns will begin the revitalization of the New Covenant Church pond and will finish up the project on Saturday, June 26. The IPPCA has once again negotiated a lower than normal room rate for all IPPCA Top Gun Attendees. Please contact IPPCA for the special code to book your room in the IPPCA block. All rooms must be booked by June 12, 2010 to receive the special discount.


                        If you membership has expired or will be expiring soon, you can renew online NOW

Need to Upgrade your membership

UPGRADE NOW

Not a member yet Register NOW

Max Phelps, owner of Rock Castles, has a background that includes accounting, beekeeping, farming, landscaping, garden center management, factory worker and freelance writer. He is a graduate of Somerset Community college and University of the Cumberlands in Kentucky (where he received the Outstanding Senior Award in 1978), and he operates using honest Christian values in his business. "Waterfalls Are Our Specialty" has been Rock Castles’ slogan for a decade now. The client gets hands on attention from the owner who loves what he does, (building some of the very best and most natural looking waterfalls and ponds) and not a bunch of seasonal workers who may not care. Rock Castles Landscaping has Certified Aquascape Contractor certificates on file for 2003 through 2008, and Max Phelps has Firestone Certification for liner installation. We have customer references in Kentucky, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, and Florida. If you want an awesome job on that DREAM WATERGARDEN, you have found the right guy for the job. Using rustic stones, beautiful plants, naturalistic designs, and top quality equipment for a carefree pond and ecosystem, we can create a beautiful pond, stream, waterfall that will please you and be the envy of the neighborhood. (Mortared professional stonework an option if you don't like rustic) Call Max (606) 416-3911 in Kentucky, (865) 360-6951 in Tennessee, (704) 477-7435 or (828) 460-1043 in North Carolina or (863) 257-4068 in Florida,... or email rockcastles@gmail.com for a free phone or computer consultation. In person consultations may have a small charge (with credit against final payment on the job). Max can do most things with stone and water and plants, so if you need a landscape makeover to go with your dream pond, we can do that too!

Ponds and water gardens are the fastest growing segment of the outdoor living industry. There are many new products available to help you create natural, low-maintenance water gardens. Ewing offers a complete line of pumps, filtration, liners, aerators, and water chemicals from major manufacturers. Ewing also offers complete pond kits and underwater lighting, as well as Microbe Lift’s® all-inclusive water garden maintenance kit. Ask about our upcoming pond-building seminars in your area.

Editor of water garden industry's news magazine.

So, you’ve got a case of Green Water Syndrome? Cheer up, it’s not as bad as you think! With a little thought, education (which we’re supplying here) and detective work, your obviously complete ammonia-nitrate cycle can be put to use to give you clear water.

Why is the water green? Whenever there is a surplus of available plant food (nitrate), Mother Nature steps in and supplies something to use it, in an attempt to achieve “Balance”. Balance is the key to clean, clear water. With-in normal pond water Ph perameters (6.8 – 8.0), having enough “regular” plants to take up the excess nutrients is usually all that’s required to achieve balance. Your water is green because of an explosive growth of small algaes and phyto- and zoo-planktons. In a balanced pond, they are still there, just under control and not multiplying until the water is “green”. These small nutrient consumers can TRIPLE their numbers in one day during summer type conditions.

SOLUTION: There are several things to check, but it boils down to having something growing, ie “real plants” to consume this food (Lilys, marginals, floating plants) and starve the green stuff back to its balance point. NO, CHEMICALS AREN’T THE SOLUTION!!!!!!

THINGS TO CHECK:

1) OVER FEEDING FISH: How much are you feeding your fish? Think of each handful of food as being a handful of fertilizer thrown out on your lawn. The more fertilizer, the more lawn it needs to be spread over. Excessive fish food = excessive fertilizer = not enough plants to use it = green water. With a green water problem, the recommendation would be to stop or radically reduce the amount of food given to fish until you’ve reached balance. Once you’ve balanced, you can slowly increase your food amounts. Maybe not back to pre-balance levels if your water starts to green up again, but you’ll find your balance point usually within 10-14 days after stopping the food to the fish AND adding sufficient plants to make up the difference. Your fish will not starve to death in this amount of time, and will benefit tremendously from the clearer water by having more oxygen available to consume. (See #5 also).

2) TOO MANY FISH: If you have too many fish in too small of an environment, you may have to thin them out, or enlarge their environment to handle all the fertilizer they produce. In nature, they are spread out over thousands of cubic feet of water per fish. With good circulation and filtration of a pond, we can get away with a denser population, within certain limits. The more fish, the more oxygen they require, thus more frequently circulated and oxygenated water. A waterfall or fountain nozzle radically increases the amount of available oxygen in water versus un-circulated, stagnant water that has a low level of oxygen. There is still a balance point involved (See #5). Once crossed, bad things start to happen, to your fish and to your water quality and clarity, not to mention your enjoyment of the pond and fish.

3) NOT FEEDING FISH- WATER STILL GREEN: If you’re not feeding your fish, but your water is green, you either have too many fish, or not enough plants to achieve balance. Also think about the circulation rate of your pump compared to the volume of water your pond holds. On a pond under 5000 gallons of volume, your pump should be moving the total volume of water of the entire pond (called “turnover”) through a filter and over a waterfall or through a fountain nozzle at least one or more times per hour. The smaller the pond, the more frequently you can economically “turnover” the water. This keeps your oxygen levels high, thus making it easier to achieve balance (see #5 also).

4) NO FISH–GREEN WATER: Having no fish in a pond doesn’t mean the fertilizer isn’t still going to happen. Any organics, like tree leaves, plant stems and dead flowers all start to break down the second they die. This is part of the circle of life. As they break down, they convert eventually into, you guessed it, plant food. See #5. Having good circulation and adding oxygen to the water will help the existing plants optimize their nutrient intake, as well as it possibly being necessary to add even more plants to achieve balance.

5) BENIFICIAL BACTERIAS: Adding a bacteria blended to eat and convert these organics can’t hurt, and usually helps. A liquid blend, like Aqua-one™ will get into action faster than a powdered form that is usually a freeze-dried blend. Liquid goes to work immediately, while powdered takes 3-5 days to get “resurrected”. Powdered has a longer shelf life. Liquid should be used with-in a year of packaging, not purchase, (Aqua-one™ date stamps their product to expire 9 months after packaging, so you know how fresh it is. I know of no one else who does this) while dry may last 2-3 years.

6) UV CLARIFIERS: Some people swear by Ultra Violet clarifiers. That you’ll never have clear water without one. I disagree. With BALANCE, (plants-moving, oxygenated water- beneficial bacterias and adequate filtration) you’ll have clear water every time. GREEN WATER ONLY OCCURS IN AN UN-BALANCED POND!!! A UV might help clean up a green water problem initially, but long term, with out balance, it’s just a band-aid™ or crutch. Learn and establish BALANCE, and Mother Nature GIVES you that clear water for FREE. UV clarifiers (the term sterilizer is often incorrectly used) will damage the cell wall of the green-water causing organisms that pass through its exposure chamber. As long as you don’t pump the water through too fast, and the bulb is new enough to maintain the proper spectrum of light necessary to do this. Even if still glowing, after 6-8 months, the bulb degrades, and is no longer giving off light in the proper spectrum to do its job. This necessitates a bulb change every year. When it does function properly, it damages the organisms passing through it enough to prohibit their ability to reproduce, causing them to eventually mature and die, without reproducing. The down side, if not trapped in a proper filtration system that is frequently cleaned, the dead algaes lay there and rapidly decompose, releasing their nutrients into the water to feed more algaes, or create a rapidly degrading water quality, that while possibly clear, may be sucking oxygen out of the water faster than you can replace it. I prefer BALANCE for a pond, feeling that UVs do have their place in specialized Aquaculture, not in a properly balanced and maintained pond or watergarden. A UV clarifier could be used to assist with balance, but should not take its place. Thus a balanced pond doesn’t really need one.

CONCLUSION:
These are the primary clues and reasons of classic green water syndrome. I hope the information you found here helps you to resolve your problem, and as a result, increase your enjoyment of your pond or watergarden. REMEMBER, it takes time to achieve balance. Be patient, and let nature and knowledge take over.
<
Be sure to check out the rest of the “IN” websites (IPPCA Internet Information Network). With any specialized additional problems, call the IPPCA Pond Hobbyists Hotline at (770) 592-9790.) A pond and watergarden specialist will be able to help you.

Dave Jones
The Pond Professional

Register your PONDITAT™ today and receive the following valuable gifts:

•A ONE YEAR FREE membership in IPaWGS (A $30 value).
•POND CARE kit by American Pond™ ($75 value).
•An "Certified Wildlife Ponditat™ plaque. Perfect for outdoor mounting. •A Monthly Pond Industry newsletter filled with valuable pond articles and maintenance tips.
•Access to unadvertised Manufacturer Pond Supply Discounts, close outs and monthly specials.
•Entry into the Ponditat™ of the Year photo contest.
All this for a one-time fee of $20.00.

Yards to Paradise

Lovely Landscaping Begins With Great Game Plan

Check out some landscape idea books, tour a neighborhood where the yards look like your dream yard.

Fantasize a bit. Before undertaking major projects, you want to have a plan. Drifting along on a whim through life won't get you where you want to be, nor a great landscape. So get yourself some plans for your place—get a pencil and some drawing or graph paper—or get someone with experience to help.

What key items are missing from your current landscape? Do you need a complete new landscape, or some adjustments? Do you want practical and easy-care, or do you want gloriously lovely gardens, blooming trees, upgraded paving, more pretty grass, less grass and more shrubbery or woods? Would you prefer random and informal, or ordered and formal? Where would you like to take your landscape this season, and long-term?

Make time to think and plan. No need to be hasty. A trip to the library, an internet search, a walk through a lovely neighborhood, could all serve up some new ideas for you to work with. You don't have to have a perfect scale drawing. Take a quick line drawing of the home's foundation and the perimeter of the yard, and sketch a few circles and ovals. Then put names on the paper of what these might represent.

The fine tuning can be done later over time.

You home's architecture should be a starting place for your design. Then, the size and slope layout of your lot. No matter how much you like a row of trees, a short foundation planting, or a circle driveway, you may have to adjust to fit your home (unless you really want to go all out and give your whole house a facelift or an addition!) You should keep the curb appeal out front, even if it nixes a couple of your ideas.

Have the “hardscape” planned and in place first. Driveways, patios, decks, fences, etc. should be installed before the trees, shrubs and flowers.

Proper drainage must be maintained away from the home at all times. When making a new planting bed, putting in a fence, building a patio, you need to know how a heavy rain impacts the plan before you start digging, not afterwards.

Plan new drives, parking, outdoor living areas. Plan retaining walls, fences, berms. Then move to the smaller details. Trees, shrubs, maybe a dry creek or a pond, perennial flowers, some annual color. And do you reduce or expand the area you'll have in grass?

Screen undesirable views, color coordinate things (use a color wheel if you're challenged in this way),

Keep curb appeal in mind, but also make your yard (especially the area you spend the most time) suit your tastes and be a place you can relax and enjoy.

There is added value with good landscaping. Typically you'll reap more than you invest in landscaping.

Not only will you enjoy it, it will help with value should you decide to sell your place. Is this the year for your new landscape? Depending on your budget, get moving towards making all or part of your new plans become reality. Proceed towards transforming your place into the paradise you dream it could be.

Max Phelps
Rock Castle Landscaping