Water Gardening: Spring, 0 by Carolyn22

Carolyn22 wrote:
MS

You are correct - two of the uv lights are in the pressure filters. The other 2 are each 18 watt Tetra Pond UV2's. We have found changing the bulbs every ponding season goes a long way to the water clarity.

The reason the grist mill was too labor intensive was that as all products that are made from wood, soak up the water, so did the waterwheel we had made. The waterwheel became so waterlogged it became quite difficult for the wheel to turn. We thought if we were going to do that again, we would use one made from pvc or some type of plastic or fiberglass. I have seen places that sell them, although they tend to be quite pricey.

We have a small pump - 700 gallons/hr that pushes water through the bog, which is loaded with pea gravel and plant matter. I do think this pump goes a very long way towards filtering the water of fish waste and other little cruddies. Then, in the skimmer, is the big pump that goes to the main falls. This pump, I believe is 2900 gallons/hr waterfall pump and is an Easypro. We have found that we like the Easypro pumps the best. The other two falls are 2400 gallon/hr and a 2250 gallon/hr pumps and these are the standard pumps - not waterfalls pumps. We are more than turning over the volume of the pond in an hour, but I think it goes a long way towards the water quality.

We do not run our pumps in the winter. Our understanding is that the water is in layers when the pumps are turned off, with the layer at the bottom at about 34* and this is where the koi stay for most of the winter. They move around some, but not alot. All the pumps come in one by one in the late fall with the last pump coming into the house generally the week between Thanksgiving and the first week of December. We put two deicers into the pond with one on either end.

In the Spring, the pumps are brought out and turned on, one by one. Usually this is sometime in the first week of March. This past year, it was later than that. According to my Pond Journal for this year, it was March 17th. Typically, DH will put one of the deicers into the skimmer to melt the ice that is in the skimmer.

I would love to have a koi cave. How did you go about putting that in? Was that something that was built or purchased? My smaller fish are about 10 inches or so and there are 18 fish. DH and I have talked about putting in some type of koi cave, but haven't done anything along those lines.

This is a picture of my pond 12/21/10 - Hoping this next winter isn't as long and snow filled as the last one.