Spring Plans

I have spring fever bad!!! I blame it on the seed catalogs that start arriving the week after Christmas:)

So, I've been looking through my old pond mags and have started making plans. Anyone have any pond projects in the works? I'd love to hear about them.

I still have to figure out the plumbing on my external pump. I ended running everything of an internal last summer and my bottom drain is still manual. Plumbing is hard for me. It requires too much math;) I also need to sink my skimmer lower, which shouldn't take too long. It is on the shallow side so I was going to drain the pond down by a 1/3 and dig a few inches deeper. It is too noticable and I'd like to put a flat rock on top of it.

I'll also be reworking my waterfall a bit(aren't waterfalls always works in progress?) and am hoping to get a bridge this spring to provide more shade for the fish. But mostly I will be focusing on landscaping around my pond. I want to put in a stone patio next to the pond and maybe a path from the deck to the pond. And then I need to figure out how to hide my fiters. The pressurized I can bury but even though I love my matala biostep I do not like how it has to be so close to the pond because of the water return.

So what are you guys planning?

Hi-can I see a picture of your filters? I don't have any except at the top of the waterfall and a little in the skimmer. Is it hard to add them after the fact?

And yes, I have Spring fever also!

This spring I will try and dig my pond a bit deeper and a bit further away from the fence. Let's see how much energy I have in spring. But I can't wait for spring already.

I'm going to finish the rock garden on the other side of the waterfall. I did one side and started on the other, but didn't get around to finishing it. It's a much tougher area to arrange because it provides the access to the filter and I have to leave a path. I haven't really figured out what to do with it to balance the two sides out.

Here is the Matala biostep filter. They are a greater filter and would be easy to add on. I actually got one because when I was building my pond, I jumped into buying a filter too quickly and this was one I added on. I think it is rated for a 1300 gallon koi pond. My other is for 1400 gallons.

It is very easy to clean and does a great job filtering. It doesn't clog either, the matala mats are very high quality. The only problem is that it has to be next to the pond for the water return so it could be a little challenging hiding. I'm sure it can be done and that is one of the things I'm going to work on in the spring.

I would like to just buy a big filter to replace the two but I will probably be putting my money into landscaping this year. The two filter combo works well even if it is a little annoying. My water quality has been awesome since adding the second:)