u/Jostain

I pulled the trigger on getting six blue ramhorns and I don't understand why they are considered pests ,they are lovely. I quickly found out that they really don't like the sharp gravel at the bottom so I had to lay down some rocks and I added an airpump in the back to make sure the water circulates properly. The guy in the 3rd image is called floaty. I thought he was dead but I've seen him crawl on the glass and nibble at the frogbits so I think he is fine. I'm starting to worry that he might be unable to empty his floating bladder but we will see.

The three bottom ones will definitely go before the top two and that is already a record for this pond but my hope is that they will manage to overlap.

I also want to know if they will be able to climb the big plants for grazing.

Lots of trial and error went into this but the biggest game changer was the nutrient pellets for the lily pads that someone put in a drawer and didn't tell me about.

My pond is in a really good place right now. Crystal clear water, The lily pads are fucking huge and the first lily arrived perfect with more buds on the way.

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The second and third picture is monkey flower and water cress that I grew from seeds. I am really happy with the monkey flower because things looked grim for a while. Due to it being the first time trying to Germinate seeds, I killed most of them and this was the only surviving plant.

A month ago the whole pond was slowly being devoured by algae but suddenly all the algae turned brown and after a natural water change from rain and a freshly flushed Bogfilter things just cleared up.

Designed in blender and 3d printed with PLA and glow in the dark filament. The hooks are surgical steel.

I've replaced it with a weak grow light and will do some aggressive water changes to bring the bio activity quite low until a better lamp arrives in the mail. The new one is a proper 7w aquarium lamp with 10 settings so that I can slowly ramp things up.

I am fine with them bathing but they also pull up my plants to get more space. My first plan was to put in a bunch of heavy rocks and give them their own separate birdbath but they would rather push down between the rocks than use my premium bath. I think it's the sound of running water from the outlet that is attracting them so now I have designated a bathing pool.

It is an 8 liter jar and it is 1 1/2 week old with one water change. I've read that bacteria bloom is expected for new jars as it tries to equalize but they don't say how long you are supposed to wait before doing something.

I guess the question is if 1 large plant grows faster than several small ones.

I was going to prune it but now I want to see what happens when it reaches the bottom.

The plan is to manage this for a couple of months and if the plants doesn't die I'll try and add a couple of ramshorn snails.

The plan was to have watermint planted and ready for the season but I tried to grow them from seeds and they all died and I had to order a plant. My hope is that the creeping jenny and watercress will be able to hold the fort until the watermint really gets going.