We had some really nice weather today and I decided to dig out the various pumps and filters and hook them up to my top pond. I had stored the pumps in water in the house and was very pleased to see that all of them started right up. The pond water is really ugly looking though. I hope that by starting the filters up the water clarity will improve pretty quickly. It will still probably get pretty cold here but should last only a few days at a time rather than weeks. I did not see any fish in the top pond but saw an abundance of goldfish in the bottom one. WOO HOO spring may be coming after all.
I got a camera for Christmas that has only been used once to take a pic of Tessa cat. I will try to get some pics to put up. My ponds do not even come close to the great ones I have seen on this forum but I really enjoy them anyway. :^)
Started up the pond stuff today
Yaaaaay for spring! I got out yesterday during our lovely but strange 70 degree weather. The pond had completely defrosted! First time all winter. I saw no signs of fish, which I had feared due to 2 failed deicers. I began to poke around at the bottom to clean out dead leaves with a net and DART, a fish zoomed around in a big, fast circle and back to his hiding spot. I may not have killed them after all. What a relief!!
I am not brave enough to hook up my pump yet though. Of course, fast and random as the nice weather came yesterday, so did the snow and wind today...30 was the high. Blah. Yesterday's weather will surely tide me over for a few more weeks. :)
Good for you for getting out there, can't wait to see your pics!
I don't turn my pumps off in the winter at all. The pond may freeze over but the pumps keep a spot open in the ice for oxygen exchange. As long as the water is not diverted out of the pond I let it go. If you have a power outage that is another thing. Last year my pond spent most of the winter frozen but the pumps did great.
We're out cleaning all of the bazillion bits of media in our huge filter today. Here in AZ, we have to do this twice a year. This is not a job for the faint of heart. It takes literally hours and hours to remove the gunk from all the media, and that is after about an hour and a half of disassembly and emptying all the bits out! What is annoying is that this is a very expensive filter system, and was supposed to be relatively maintenance free, because we backwash it regularly... but the reality is, it gets clogged up, and after calling a pond store (where we didn't buy this filter) they said, yep, in AZ you gotta clean the media twice a year. However, I got all of my new water lilies and marginals from the Texas Water Lilies coop in the pond on Thursday, getting lots of new growth on the older plants and lilies in the pond, and once we get this done, we (hopefully) don't have to do it again until September or so! Hooray for spring!
Brenda
Can you guys keep your exuberance down just a little please? We are under a ft of snow here, it's still snowing and the high winds are supposed to begin the blizzard shortly. I cant hardly see my pond, let alone put any equipment in. Sheesh!
Sorry, Snapple. I grew up just outside of Buffalo, NY, so I know what the snow and cold in March is like. Soon enough, it will be beautiful where you live, and we'll be roasting at 114 degrees!
Brenda
I bow to anyone who has survived the snow around Buffalo. Those people are hardy snow pro's. It is supposed to get up to 48 here by mid week. We'll flood, but at least the snow will melt.
Snapple,
I feel your pain. We didn't get all the snow that you received - most of it was in the form of rain. However, I too cannot wait for things to get going weather wise. I know there have been years, where we have opened up the pond in late March and there have been years where it has been early April. I am hoping this is one of those years we open up in March.
I just took this picture. If you look closely enough, you can see my oldest koi, The General, sitting at the bottom of the pond amongst the pots of waterlilies.
Carolyn
I'm with snapple....buried. I think I started up my pond in mid-March last year. This year I've still got a foot of snow and the pond is completely frozen....boooo
We got my pond back into operation Friday.
Nice Jeri. I'm surprised you even shut down in zone 8...
It wasn't because of the weather. LOL!!! Althought I do hibernate below 50. My DH has had alot of heart problems and just couldn't keep up with everything so that was one thing I didn't do. It has done well since last October with no attention at all. I think I must do an overkill when I'm tending to it.
Mostly likely that's a sign that your pond is balanced and well-designed. It sure is pretty too. I think sometimes we "overkill" because we just love to be around our ponds - they don't really need all that tending if they are built properly. My first pond was a maintenance nightmare. I was constantly fiddling with it and only making it worse. After one year of that, I dug it all up and rebuilt with better filtration. Now I don't need to do anything, except hose down the filter pads when they get really black. But I'm still always out there trimming, tidying and counting fish :o)
Thanks SOJ!!! I know what you mean about counting fish!!! Right now mine are starting to multiply so I'm a mother hen with them. I wear myself out checking on them!!!
I have a bead filter with a blower to aid in the cleaning process. The blower won't work and I'm not sure if it's the blower or the electic. Something else to worry about. LOL!!! I'm gonna check the electric today and then I'll know who to call.