The lights are on and it looks beautiful. The shimmering makes the rock look as if they are on fire. I put a 1/2 qrt of bacteria solution in the tanks and let that cook for a bit before I turn that waterfall on.
I had already ordered some floater plants and just sent in an order of fish: 3 Golden Orfes, 3 Shubunkin and 3 Sarasa Comets from Aqua Mart. They only had $30 koi and I will go shopping for smaller ones at a lower price. They can grow up in my place just nicely.
Now, I had asked earlier about pH levels or anything else I need to do before these guys are released. Do I have to check anything? The pH out of my well was about 6.6 to 6.9. Is that OK by them?
Now to get an automatic feeder. I guess Sweeney is the best?
Fred
My pond has water
Congratulations Fred!!! I know your proud. I take a bottle of my water to the pet shop and they test it for me, free. You said you had well water, does it have chlorine in it? They'll check all that. Wait a day or two before you have it tested and chlorine will dissipate so you don't have to spend money to neutralize it.
We need pictures of the finished product.
Jeri
Pictures will follow in the morning. Night shots are a bit difficult without flash and flash ruins the view anyway.
I didn't know well water could come with chlorine. No, my water only has minute amount of sulphuric acid in it to dilute the alkaline high pH. My water treatment guy said it's safe for fish and plant life.
I just found out that Aqua Mart won't ship until sometime in March for some reason. I thought they were out of Orlando and didn't have the winter season to shut down but I guess they do. So that order is cancelled. I can't wait till March. I'd go crazy with anticpation. I'm ready to jump in the pool myself. It sure looks like a pool.
It's 12:40 AM but Im going out now to see if the autofill has actually stopped. Last I looked it still had a bit to go. I might as well take a night shot too. :-)
Fred
PS all is well but the pictures don't do reality justice. I'll include one anyway. The water looks green. Wierd. But the pond looks huge with the water in it.
another shot showing my island which doesn't have dirt, a tree or plant in it yet with the stepping island which leads to it. Underneath are caves for hiding.
It is daylight and I can see what the water looks like: green.
How come? It just came out of the well. Does the bacteria material I put in there do that?
Fred
That is such a beautiful pond! I am sure that you will really enjoy it! :^)
Water is usually clear and reflects colors around it. It's to soon for algae, I think. Could it be reflecting off a tree or grass?
Jeri
The water is clear but it has a greenish tint to it. The bottom is painted black and brown so that doesn't help but the various plant stations I have under the water are light in tone and that's where the green is visible. I mean ponds shouldn't look like swimming pools and a little green is natural right?
Today I went shopping for trees and plants for the surrounding area. The tonight I stopped at a Petsmart and bought some comets and three small koi. I equalized the water temperature and then let them loose in the top subpool. Two of the koi immediately flushed down into the next lower pond while the comets and one koi stayed up top. The comets seem to know one another and swim together. Then one of the comets got careless and joined the two koi in the lower pool. The whole gang then hung around a protected corner where I left them a while ago. It's fun watching them in the lights. We'll see where everybody is in the morning. I hope they'll all be alive and that the water is OK.
Jeri, I ordered a bunch of tropical lilies from Texas Water Lilies and asked about the Victoria. I'm told they are expensive and will take up an immense amount of space. That scared me. So I'll start with the lilies and we'll see how that works out. If the fish are ok in the present water, I'll get about 20 Koi from Blackwater Creek Koi Farms here in Florida. They'll be 6-8 inchers and be my real test population and they can grow up here if all goes well. I'll need those lilies to provide shade quickly though. It's already in the 80s here.
Fred
Lucky you with the 80 degree temp. We are suppose to reach 70 today. I hope so, I need some outside time. Being cooped up inside is hard on me.
I bought my Victoria for $75.00 last year. It, like so many other things will adapt to the area that it's in. I put the plant in a 3' pond liner tub and then sank the hold thing in my pond. The leaves only reach between 36"-45" top. But with 7 leaves it did take up a large area in my pond. I hope to be able to get another one this year. Loved it.
Jeri
Jeri,
Texas Water Lilies told me they could get me one for about 50 bucks. I'm going to first see what the water lilies do. BTW what is a pond liner tub? Google tells me little but I'm guessing it's an old tub of some kind with a pond liner inside of it. Is that right?
On another matter - my fish. Two of my little koi and one comet are still in the upper pool and seem to be quite chipper. One koi is one pool lower but the two comets who were with him are gone. I can only suspect that they flushed into the big pond and are hiding there somewhere. The main thing is that the fish seem to be doing ok. If the water were bad, how long would it take for them to die or show a deleterious effect?
The biggest shock this morning was the invasion of the pond by the birds. Yesterday there was one bird, a fairly large one with a brown belly sipping on the top of the waterfall. He must have told every other bird in the county as they all came and proceeded to poop all over the place. My what a mess on my brand new pond walls. If this is the result of one morning, I can just imagine what a few months of this will look like. I guess this is problem #1. We've had these birds around our fountain out front but they poop only on three stone benches which I can readily wash off but here at the pond it's a real mess. Anybody have any suggestions?
Fred
Fred, I hate to be the one to tell you this but certain birds eat fish. I haven't had the problem with the bird poop. That's a new one.
Jeri
Jeri,
these birds must eat up a storm of whatever it is they eat. They sure leave a lot of the residuals all around my water. I'll see if they return in the morning. I'll have to hose off the stuff as it leaves stains.
I found the two missing fish. They were in the skimmer basket. One was dead and the other somewhat exhausted but otherwise fine. I couldn't resist and bought 3 more koi (beautiful 3-4 inchers) and three red headed gold fish. I already forgot their names. So now I have some Sarasa Comets, the red headed gold fish and various koi. All are now in the main pond where they hide out most of the time. I have yet to feed them.
At this point any bird wanting my fish will have to dive pretty deep and then crawl into a cave. :-)
Fred
Get use to this obsession because it gets worst. It's like plants but way more expensive.
My fish hid at first but now they follow me around the pond and when I get out of sight they jump up to see where I am. They each one have a personality and I spend hours just looking at mine. I feed mine. I enjoy it. I know if I didn't feed them there would be less waste and they would eat the algae but I have 2 large filters and that's what they are for.
We had a bottom drain put in after the pond was built and have lost some pretty big fish up the pipe. They've even stopped it up once.
Jeri
Ah Jeri, you're the only one talking to me here. I guess it's not yet pond time in the rest of he country. Today I worked on fixing stuff. The contractor left a mess and then there are many trips to Ace Hardware, Home Depot and Lowes to buy this and that and plants. I'm almost finished with the landscaping around the pond. Then we had company and that always kills about 3 hours of the day. More of the same tomorrow. Folks are hearing about my pond and want to come over for a look. Sunday we have to go out for a valentine's party. I wish people would leave me alone so I can get my work done. :-)
Further news on the fish. Another koi wound up in the skimmer. He wasn't quite dead but putting him back in the pond did not help and I gave him a decent burial in my plant island which is still empty of dirt. Lots of work to fill that up across the water. My wife suggest a bucket brigade. Maybe I can use the company? But that would be imposing wouldn't it?
On one of my trips I bought a water tester kit. It's a bunch of strips probably designed for aquaria. If I read it right, the water tests very hard and is highly alkaline. The color charts says add acid. Yeah, how? What? The waterfall makes bubbles in the water which to me says the water is soft but what do I know. I know my well water is bad which is why I have sulphuric acid injected as it flows. When I filled the pond it was set to 6.8 or so. The other day I got a new pump which now produces 6.0 pH. But the water in the pond test at about 7.5-8.0 or higher. I guess this is due to concrete residuals which weren't painted. Like in the cave areas.
The little fish in the pond seem to be quite happy when they do come out to be seen. The scoot all about chasing each other in that wide new world of theirs. I put some small pellets in and they ignored this completely though. It all goes in the skimmer. Do other people have skimmers? I had mine put in to capture leaves and stuff flying in from above. My two bottom drains are covered with granit rock chips and have lots of small holes underneath the rock. I don't know if any fish can get sucked in there. Which reminds me - I was going to use my upper ponds for fry but the flow is too dramatic as even the bigger fish can get swept over the falls. I guess I need a tight net or something to prevent fish from getting swept over but then they'd simply be held against the net. Maybe I need tubs in the pools with nets on top of them. Lots to experiment with later on.
Next week my plants should be arriving which will give me a chance to see how cold the water is as I enter it deeper then my ankles. It seems pretty cold even at the ankles level. :-(
What do I use to plant my lilies? I mean as far as dirt goes. Is kitty litter a good choice? I have black much here in my place. Would that do? But wouldn't that mess up my water pretty bad? Maybe muck topped with gravel (river rock)?
Fred
PS I promise a picture or two as oom as my outside planting is done. I couldn't use big trees as there is piping all around my waterfalls and I only have a foot or so between the wall and the driveway. So the small trees (palms) will have to find their way around the pipes as their roots grow. Problems, problems.
Fred I've heard that people with concrete paint vinegar on the concrete to neutralize the pH. The bubbles are oxygen is what my DH told me and that is a good thing for the fish.
I plant my waterlilies in clay and top with river rocks. I bought some aquatic plant soil @ HD last year that did look alot like cat litter but was much higher priced. I also use the aquatic plant fertilizer from HD. It comes in about 1" tablets that you just polk 2 or 3 down in the soil of the pot and should be good for a month or two. Water lilies are heavy feeders if you want flowers.
Can't wait to see the pictures. I'm leaving next Sunday for about 3 weeks or so. Don't think I dropped off the face of the earth. I'll be back March 7.
Jeri
Fred, your pond looks awesome! I can't wait to see some more pictures.
It took my fish a few weeks to learn to come to the surface for food also. But they did eventually. Until then, you probably know this, but resist the urge to toss more food at them in an attempt to get their attention. Excess food can contribute to water clarity issues.
I have a skimmer also - the first year I had problems with the fish constantly getting into the skimmer. Usually it didn't kill them, but I got tired of rescuing them several times a day. Sometimes they get "smart" and learn to stay away, but there are always some "dumb" ones. Last year, for some reason, I had absolutely no problems with fish in the skimmer.
My DH put chicken wire around the skimmer to try and keep the fish out but somehow they still manage to get in there. There definetly needs to be a better skimmer when used with fish.
A company called Atlantic Water Gardens (located in Mantua, Ohio) has a skimmer product they call the Advanced Pro Series. In their new skimmer design, they have devised a row of brushes that hang from a metal strip/frame across the front of the skimmer. They call it the optional Atlantic Gatekeeper brush panel. I have only seen a picture in a professional pond magazine - PONDKEEPER Fall/Winter 2006. They claim that leaves, etc. will pass between the brushes but that fish will not go through the brushes. It looks in the picture like the brushes almost touch. I have a huge problem with toads getting in the skimmer in the spring. I am going to get aquarium cleaning brushes, bend the handles around a dowel and hang the whole apparatus over the skimmer opening. Any one can subscribe to this magazine. It is for professional pond installers and water garden retail stores. I am not a pro, that's for sure. But it is educational to see what the issues are from the professional side. The magazine offers lots of tips and tricks for installing and maintaining water gardens and pond equipment. www.pondkeeper.com
This message was edited Feb 14, 2007 1:59 PM
Found the skimmer brush guards:
www.atlanticwatergardens.com/prod_parts_skimmers.asp
The fish don't go through the brushes, but if there is even the smallest of space around the brushes (possibly at the bottom), they can go under. I've got a net basket that is suppose to catch the leaves (or fish) that get into the skimmer and have (more than once) had to dig them out of the other side because they were able to get under the small area at the bottom under the basket.
AhHah! caganimalover - I appreciate the information. Spring and toad season will start up here in about 5 weeks. We went away for a four day weekend last spring during the height of toad season. When we came back we had 21 toads stacked in the skimmer basket of a Savio skimmer! Some were alive, many were dead and in various stages of decomposition. It was awful. I was used to seeing one or maybe two, not in the twenties. This went on for days. We had to check the skimmer multiple times daily. I hope the brushes are as effective on toads as they are on fish. We resorted to a hardware cloth screen over the front of the skimmer opening to prevent them piling up at night. I don't know why they were so bad last spring. Somethng about the weather conditions I suspect. Any other tips about making a brush screen and retrofitting it to a skimmer?
My brushes are located behind the net basket and infront of the exit drain and pump that goes to the waterfall. Other words; the brushes are in the middle. The first block is the net that catches the larger items, fish (usually unless they get around it), leaves, twigs, whatever can't fit through the net openings. The particles that get through from the pull of the current from the pump (around the edges or bottom) and next get stuck in the brushes. I still have to clean debri (usually small particles of leaves and twigs) from the bottom of the pump on a regular basis or they clog the pump and slow down the amount of water going to the waterfall. I have purchased some materials to make a finer screen filter that will fit inbetween the other sections to catch fine particles to help keep everything cleaner and decrease the amount of particles that clog the pump.
The brushes we have came with our waterfall set up, but would be fairly easy to create one. Here's a picture.
I can't tell you how much I appreciate the time you took you to take and send a photo and explain the skimmer set up . That picture is literally worth a thousand words! At least the lives of twenty toads!
You're welcome.