Mini-pond

[InbetweenDreams]

So I thought I would do a little update on the mini-pond. So all the floating plants I had seem to work out. I did have duckweed in the pond but I have removed almost all of it. I thought it covering the entire surface didn't look good and so on. I have primarily frogbit and some water spangle. The water quality has been pretty good. PH has been around 8.4 and hardness has been around 150 ppm on both GH/KH. The interesting thing which almost never happens in a seasoned aquarium is that I have 0 ppm nitrate. I cannot do anything to get any and therefore the plants are starved of nitrogen. I have added fertilizers, I have added more fish, I have fed heavily....Nothing. It is a bummer because I don't know if the lilies will ever bloom if their leaves are going yellow, so not sure what will go on there. If anything it means I need more fish or some nitrogen source that will help the plants.

All the fish I have put in the pond have done very well. I have about 6-7 guppies and 6 platys. I could easily double it but I don't want it to be over crowded for space. The other cool news is that the guppies have finally had some fry. Looks like there were 6 fry, hopefully most will survive. There's also a frog that has made itself home.