I know what you mean. Over at a Koi forum one of the ladies said that she had her pump running all winter and went out one day to find it had somehow dammed up and all but emptied her pond. I don't see how that could be the case now as we have stopped the pump, and I don't see any sign of water anywhere. Unless somehow it is being pumped under ground and that just can't be. Our ground is frozen solid. That is why I am fearful that it is leaking under the vinyl liner. That ground is probably 32 degrees or warmer. The water at the bottom of the pond runs about that temp. I was sinking a thermometer with a rock attached to test the temp my fish were in so that was the average. Koi have a hard time with that temp over even short periods. Guess the goldfish don't care. Thank heavens.
Pond warmers
Is it possible that your ground has frozen/thawed/heaved and heaving has caused movement in the stone surrounding the pond and created a leak? Of course that would only allow your pond to leak or empty itself out to that level, then the leaking would stop.
It is amazing how much the ground heaves/moves around here, such a nuisance!
Heavens knows we have heaving. Fences are a real challenge. You are right, though, when you say that it will only leak to the level of the hole. but it would cost as much to fix and to build a new pond. They would have to bring in a small backhoe to remove the large rocks, dig out the large gravel, and oh my poor plants. I am really hoping it is not a colder winter and the water has evaporated and/or turned to ice. I will ask my husband about the heaving four feet down. If fences do it, why not rocks.
mstella
You would think that with the ground freezing to 4 feet, that yes, there would be heaving of stone and earth, but in my mind and please correct me if I am wrong - would not the area that is leaking also freeze and stop the water from coming out?
Last winter I lost a lot of pond water to evaporation. So much in January, that we had to get a hose out when it was about 20 degrees, hook it to an inside faucet, ( that was cute!) and get the pond water back up to a reasonable level. We did that twice that month in our smaller pond which stays warmer. There was no leak. Just evaporation from warm water steaming from a deicer evaporaing into low humidity, dry winter air. Heaving comes more from alternate freeze thaw cycles than a prologned hard deep freeze. It's not impossible to have a ground or rock shift cause a leak, but I'm betting in this case its evaporation.
Bless you snapple45! The sounds like what we are going through. I am really praying that it is so. I just can't see that having my husband walking in the pond on top of the gravel, with vinyl liner and felt beneath that, or that being very aggressive with the pond vac could dig a hole in the vinyl. We didn't have as much snow cover this winter up til about two weeks ago so between running two deicers, wind, normal evaporation, etc it could account for it. We have filled 'er up probably four times now. I worry that with the drop in water level I am compressing the gases etc in what water remains and affecting the chemical levels. I haven't checked it this winter for the first time but guess I better. I am hoping with the frequent (in essence) water changes that it is keeping the water and therefore fish healthy.
The shot of the pond was spring 2010. There is a hose in the upper left quadrant pouring water into the pond. Deicer is lower left. You can see a little black spot in the upper right that is the hose curling around the pond and into the dry waterfalls. Sometimes the water splatter would freeze and eventually build a little ice tunnel to the pond but it did keep it open. If you look closely at the straight line of the black area at the top there is a black shovel handle sticking over the pond. We draped the power cord to the deicer on it to try to keep it out of the ice. Otherwise it freezes in and when the water level drops the deicer hangs up above the water. Not too helpful
This gives a better shot from directly above.
This was around August 2010. Fishies eating from a feeding ring. Always act like they are starving.
Last pic. A long low shot from the shallow end toward the falls. Only about 20' long
All your ponds are lovely, I'm counting the days that the snow has melted enough for me to turn mine on...plans to build a secondary one on lower level so lots of work to do..
Love your garden agedgardener..would love to come and sit a spell..
mstella your pond is really beautiful. Perfect. What do you mean it is "only" 20 feet. It is wonderful that you have it !!! I went to the Garfield Park Conservitory in Chicago and there was a pond in there but yours is more beautiful. Very inviting.
mstella
your pond is gorgeous - quick question. How many of the parrots feather do you have planted? I'd love mine to do what yours is doing.....
Thanks for all the nice comments. I belong to a Koi fish site and the ponds there are out of sight. And with winter here I forget how really nice my pond is and how it is reflecting how I want it to look -- natural with lots of flower and plants. Still working on plants that will somewhat hide the hardscape (rock, gravel). This summer I am going to try portulaca and livingstone daisys on some of the longer drops of rock.
The parrot feather was put into three pots, one on the right, and the other two spaced across to the other side. There is a drop there from the ~ 2' level to the 4' level and I put the pots on the big stones that mark the drop off. I love them and they don't take over the pond. Water celery is nice too but boy does it grow. Fish love it though.
mstella
I really like the way yours looks.....
Generally we only get 1 potfull of the parrots' feather each spring. If you look in this picture straight ahead, the green spready up over some of the rock directly in the center is the parrot's feather. I am now thinking that perhaps I should get a couple more and put them in the pea gravel filled shelf to the right. I could still keep some water hyacinths there as well.....
Oh my!! Look at those gorgeous lilies. Mine just sit on the water. I have ordered some hardy lotus this summer that are supposed to stick up out of the water from Texas Water Llilies. I don't get mine in pots. They ship them in ziplock bags fedex. So I get a 'bunch' of each type to try. Would love to have cat tails that really have cat tails not just the tall sword like 'stems.' I bought in a pot last fall and they are sitting in a west facing window still alive. I don't mind reordering each year as TWL is so reasonable and by putting them in baggies the cost is very small compared to some of the stuff I buy. Just found an outfit that will make the special effort to send USPS rather than UPS so I am going to make up a bulk order of MicrobLift stuff like PL, Spring/Summer treatment, Koi feed, etc. Want to make it worth their effort. I am really grateful as most places won't bother.
mstella
I don't know why the waterlilies stand up like that. I have often wondered. These same lilies may not stand up like that the next time. When I first bought them and put them in, they did not stand up.....
One reason water lilies stand up is overcrowding. This is especially true when the leaves start standing up. All these gorgeous ponds. What a treat to look at. Thanks for sharing all the photos. Takes my mind off the freezing rain outside my window and a driveway so slick I slid down it the mailbox. Never had to pick up my feet.
Snapple - haven't heard from you in quite some time. I hope all is well. I hope you didn't fall down by the mail box. We have had quite a bit of ice and snow as well.
I am missing my pond so very much. I was looking back at my pond journals and last year and the year before, we started up 1 pump around the 5th-6ht of March. It won't be that way this year.
Ironic you mention overcrowding of the waterlilies. I had made myself a metal note this year to divide the waterlilies. I think this will be the 3rd spring since the last time I did that...... It is not something I care to do every year.
Good to hear from you.
Carolyn
Carolyn and Snapple.....good to see both of you on here! 2 of my favorite pond people! :)
Mary - I wondered where you were and it is so good to hear from you too. I have been thinking about you and wondering how your ponds were doing? I know you mentioned previously about trying to find a home for some of your larger koi so you could make room for some fry. Were you able to do that?
I'm happy to hear from you guys too! School keeps me busy, plus a new Yorkie pup that's not eager to be house trained. This morning I was out back at the koi pond checking out the fish. They looked good as near as I could tell. The water is a tad green. They were all nicely plump and moving around some.
Dividing water lilies is not my favorite chore. I did them all last spring so I can coast this year, except for one that seems to be a rampant grower. Last year I never had a spawn. We went from too cold to too hot in about two days time and I'm guessing that the koi never got the urge. I also need more plants that they can spawn in. Trouble is some of my koi are over 30" and they are hard on plants. Parrot feather, water hyacinth ect. all just become a koi salad bowl.
I also need to get the pond raccoon proofed pretty soon. Last year was a raccoon disaster. They willl NOT get me this year. Nope! Uh Uh! and No Way! Ditto to the herons. I dont care if they are Federally proctected. They are not fishing in my pond.
Snapple
I'd love to see puppy pictures. I'll bet your new little guy is just adorable. What is his name?
How does one go about raccoon proofing a pond? I have not had raccoon problems (yet), but we did have problems with a muskrat at one time. That was horrible.
I understand being busy....we started a small house rehab that was supposed to be a 4 day kitchen cabinet install.....Shortest story I can put into a nutshell...it's a now 3 months later we are finally just now starting to see the light of day, but still not done. Friday the carpeting was installed (too long of a story to talk about broken pipes flooding the house, yadda yadda yadda...) .....
SO...to answer the 2nd question about my jumbo fish...last week, the GFI on my electical posts for the ponds, for some reason popped while I was sleeping. No oxygen overnight.... In the morning, 15 of my jumbos were dead. I was crushed. One was the personal family pet, Gus. He as a 28 inch doitsu sanke, would eat out of your hand, was a camera hog, and would follow you around. My heart sank. I don't know if it's all the construction, and something was overloaded, or what....
Although I still have more than enough koi...the ones that didn't make it were some of my premier fish I had collected along the years....long beautiful butterfly fins with gin rin scales...etc...And sadly, many were big bellied females full of eggs. Most of them 20 inches or more.
I guess it's part of what ponders go through at one point or another...I just felt like I had been through all the trials and tribulations through the years, to finally have the lessons learned behind me. I guess the real lesson is that eventually...something different will always show up.
And we still go on, because we love it, and because we're a tad nutsy, and because we know when it all DOES go right, it's such a joyous thing!
:)
Oh Mary -
I am so sorry. You must have been heartbroken. I know I would have been. I also know that I am emotionally attached to my fish, so I just cannot imagine. Figures they would have been egg laden this time, as I know you were looking for spawnings that didn't seem to happen previously.
How long before you think the work in the house will be done? It is such a pain to have everything torn up, especially when it is over a long period of time. I know when we did our kitchen over, that was a mess for too long. We had non perishables and dishes stacked all over the place in the dining room. I hope it will be finished soon for you.
Let us know how it goes for you.
when we did our kitchen, tv, dining room over, and all the doors and molding, we lived in the living room. Moved the refrigerator into the entry way, and put the microwave and coffee pot on a little table. ALL SUMMER! Yuk.
Mary, why did your fish oxygen starve over night? I wouldn't have thought that was a long enough time to deprive them. They must have been very big in a fairly small area? You would think they could go to the surface at least for air.
mstella
there is more oxygen in cold water than in warm water. MM is in Florida, so she would be more apt to have these issues than you or I would have. I go all winter without a pump or bubbler because of this fact, however I would not want to do this in the Summer. We have a bubbler system that we have in the deep end of our pond that we turn on when the water temps approach high 80's and into the 90's. This bubbler system is in addition to the 4 pumps that we run all Summer.
In this picture, if you look beyond the hibiscus, you can see the bubbler running.
Yes, Carol at MicrobLift explained about oxygen and temp. But it is such a non-issue for us I hadn't thought about it. That is amazing, and I feel so badly for MerryM. I would have been so crushed, as she obviously was. I would be really tempted to attach a battery backup as I have on my computer. If that is possible. Even if it could only carry on for a few hours, it might be enough to save fish. Thanks for the reminder.
Mary
Hi all...
Thanks for the warm wishes! Yes, we've had a week or so with temps already in the mid 80's. Because my fish are in a temporary large swimming pool (we're rebuilding the pond too) It is about 20x9, but the water is drained down to about 3 feet. I have 2 filters and pumps on it, so the water quality was very good, and the fish were very healthy. But with warm temps, warm water, and no oxygen, fish that large just can't handle it. It was seriously maybe 10 hours at best. I get up every night now, and check the pump around 3:00am.
The carpeting is finally in, which makes me deleriously happy! Now I can finally start putting furniture back in place. We've been living in one guest bedroom for the past month. If I can find my dishes, I'm going to get them washed and maybe even cook something! :) Yay!
Mary, that explains even more. the temp pool I mean. 80 degrees -- now!! Shoot, it's about 15F here. but the snow is melting from the sun. come on spring.
.....and it is snowing here. We are supposed to get a foot! Still can't get over that. Last year at this time we were starting up our pond :(
I hope your weather isn't a harbinger of our spring. My pond wasn't up and running even a little until the middle of April.
I would imagine your season isn't as long as ours...
I suspect so. Even though we seem to be in the same zone, I bet you get a later winter and earlier spring. has long perplexed me why a similar zone seems to have plants and flowers that I can't grow or don't survive our winters. Our average temp must be the same, just different duration.
interestingly enough, my sister is a zone 5 in Chicago. I grow dogwood and she cannot.
According to the Arbor day zone map, I am a zone 6 now, but I have been reluctant to change that on my profile.
Well, it is the Windy City. Sun and desiccation?? Hard to cage and cover a dogwood. lol. works for my woody friends azalea, tree peony, and rhodys
must be the difference - I have all of those plants you mentioned and I don't cover any of them.
I didn't use to but the poor rhody would lose so many leaves. Just hanging there all dried out and brown. The first year I covered it (2 years ago), when the cover came off it was in a foot of snow but the leaves looked like mid summer - full and green. I was soooo thrilled. but I had only wrapped it and the snow load had broken some limbs, plus I couldn't get it clear of the covering quickly. the snow had melted and frozen the material to the ground. Next year I built the cages, then wrapped them. worked well. When you have a short season, every day counts.
We have had rain and freezing rain this weekend.The snow had gone down two feet in the back yard.I still can't see the pond from my window.JOY
Joy
I am right there with you..... we were down to now snow and got 16" of snow last night.
Here is my pond through my back door. I took this picture this morning...
I just went to the back door and took this.
