My   Pond   2003

Well it's been a very busy year so far. I was about 2 weeks behind on starting the rebuild of the filter/waterfall because of the rain. Finally I was able to get it started. Luckily I was able to get the second pond built during that time though.

First, pictures of the second pond I built in the backyard. It's a 100 gallon preform with an internal filter. I originally built it to hold the goldfish but it has had other uses. From holding the big koi while I rebuilt the filter to housing the babies until I put them back in the big pond.

It has a bunch of small lilies that I've had trouble growing this year for some reason and I threw in some Parrot's Feather when it overgrew the big pond. Creeping Fig grows around the outside to hide the pond edge along with some ferns. But I've already decided to move this and put it in the ground when I build the deck in back. The fun never ends.

First I tore apart as much of the waterfall that I could before moving the fish. Then it was divide up the fish between three seperate holding tanks. The big koi went into the second pond. The smaller koi and shubunkin went into the old filter tank. The goldfish, catfish & plecos went into a swimming pool that was also holding my plants.      Then it was clean out the pond and tear the rest apart. The system I had decided to build was complex but easy, if there's such a thing. But I ended up having a problem with the pump keeping it's prime so I had to change gears and switch most of the design. I can't understand why the pump would do that, it was below the pond waterline, so it shouldn't have but it all worked out in the end.

It starts here. The water comes directly into the pump from the bottom drain & skimmer. Right off the pump is a "cross". One opening leads to the spitters & bottom circulation. The top of the cross leads to the start of the filter which "Y's" off to the UV if I need it. So when I shut down the two upper ball valves I have a filter by-pass if I ever need to treat the pond. The ball valve you see at the bottom is the last opening of the cross. It is set up so I can connect a hose to it and clean things out using pond water or water my plants.

I didn't take pictures of the process because once I would start working, I wouldn't stop. One day I had to put up a tarp so I could work because it was supposed to rain all day, and rain it did.      It only took me about a week to clean the pond out and get it filled back up. I lost a few of the small koi, from what I don't know. Must have just been shock because none of the levels were out of wack. Luckily by the time everybody started feeling fine the big koi in the back decided it was time to lay eggs. That story later. Back to the filter..............

Got to take these pictures yet!!!!   Soon....

The water comes out of the pump and into the box on the right which is just a large rubbermaid tub that has a spray bar in it. I also added some bio-fill & filter mats in this box.

The water comes out of that box and into the box on the left via two 11/2" bulkheads. In that box I have some Parrot's Feather and Watercress. Kind of like a mini vege filter. The water falls over a piece of slate and into a 55 gallon plastic drum.

There is nothing in this drum. Just open water. So it should act like a settling tank. The drum is under that first ledge. It flows out of the drum and into a large garbage can that contains bagged bio-fill.

It flows out of the drum and into a large garbage can that contains bagged bio-fill.

It then comes out of the garbage can via another piece of slate and over a ledge that is covered in slate and large river rock. I still have some slate to put on the sides of the ledge and around the box that contains the Parrot's Feather but I've been busy getting some other stuff done and chasing baby fish around.      See my little fish statue I found at WalMart. I thought it was so cute.

On the other side of the waterfall I built some shelves for plants. I used silicone to attach the slate & river rocks to some leftover liner. This is for plants that I don't want to put in the pond or can't go in the pond. The top shelf has a Chameleon Plant. The second shelf has dirt in it and has Varigated Potato Vine & Devil's Backbone planted in it. The third shelf has Amazonica Taros on it. The slate that you see at the bottom of the picture is just loose pieces of large slate. These I can take off if I ever need to get to the drums for some reason. Plus if it rains real hard the water/dirt from the plant shelves goes to the ground instead of into my pond.

Since this photo was taken the Amazonica Taros have been moved to a shadier spot and the Potato Vine has started growing there.

A shot of the whole layout. The umbrella Palm has come out and got planted in the backyard because the seed heads always left a mess on the water.

This is a shot of the side. I made a bench on this side so I can sit out there and enjoy the sounds of the falls. (actually I sit on the ledge where the fish statue is and watch the fish)   Plus I can stand on it to see into the drums. The right side of it lifts off so I can get to the ball valve to shut the pond water off if I ever need to. And the extra seating will come in handy for the Christmas party I have every year. It's hard to have seating for 100 people.

Both drums have a clean out drain which runs under ground to the plants on the left side of the bench (you can just see part of a Macho Fern there). I have some extra pipe and fittings stored in the bench so I can extend the drain line to another flower bed if I want. I really like how it all turned out.

One good thing about the new system: I'm not losing water anymore. Not a drop. When I took the waterfall apart, some of the boards were so waterlogged, I was sure that was where my water loss was coming from. Now I know for sure.

THE LAYING OF EGGS

I knew Domino was pregnant because she was getting so FAT. The back pond was covered in eggs. So I scooped the fish up and put them back in the big pond. Well, two days after I put them in the pond, Pendragon (who I also knew was pregnant but I thought I had more time because she wasn't as fat as Domino) laid eggs. About a week after that I was out messing around the waterfall one morning and they were carrying on splashing in the bog ledge but I could never catch who was doing it. Finally I saw Crazy Horse chasing Igrain around. That night I found those eggs. About a week after that, Athos was chasing Red Cloud around. Now I have about 200+ babies swimming around and that's the ones I can see. I caught some of them and put them in my quarantine net but they are so small they swim right through the holes. And now it looks like Domino is pregnant again. I can't wait for them to get big so I can see what's what. The pond store in Tampa is going to take the babies that I don't keep. I'm so happy, I'm a Grandma.

MORE BABIES

Yep, Domino was pregnant again. Poor thing, she had 4 big males chasing her around the pond. I thought for sure she was going to get hurt. Between the first egg hatching and this one I had scopped out as many babies as I could find and put them in 2 aquariums. Some I could just never catch. The tanks started getting crowded as they grew so I took the goldfish out of the back pond and put the larger babies in there. I noticed that the babies that were still in the big pond were growing faster than the ones in the second pond, so now I've moved them back into the big pond and put the goldfish back. I'm really going to have a hard time catching those babies when it's time. There are two that I see so far that I want to keep. At least by the looks of thier colors now. We'll see.