Country Escape's 2nd pond - Goldfish only

[addy1]

Well, that sounds easier than when I did it before, BrandonsDad. I used a 5 gal bucket, but scooped the pea gravel in, sprayed it with water, swished it around, dumped water, repeated about 3-5 times. I never thought about poking holes in the bottom. My idea is to use my 6' wide scoop, which I can tilt somewhat, enough to let the water drain, but hold the pea gravel, or that is the idea. We shall see if it works or if the pea gravel washes away, too. Thanks for the added idea!

Does not work well ce, we tried that, until we just gave up and dumped it. We were using way to much water out of our well and it was so dry that year. The dip in the bucket will collect all the muck, you can't tip it enough to get the dirt to run out and leave the pea gravel in. At least with mine you couldn't

 

[pondlover]

 

[CountryEscape]

Hmm ... well sounds like I'm going to try the tractor bucket and see if that helps. If not, I'll just be dumping it in and let the quilt batting filter it as it runs out, just like PL says. My water in the new pond is pretty murky, so I'm very anxious to get some filtration going in there.
And, on Sunday, since it's supposed to be back up in the 80's, I plan to get into my koi pond and get all the goldies caught and moved to the goldfish pond! That should be a fun ordeal. LOL I really need some help. Maybe my son will be around. If not, I've learned to "do it myself" pretty much, so will see what I can get accomplished! The seine net I got is either 10 or 12' long, so really I could try to brace one side and then walk the other side around to shoo the fish to one end. It's how I will get the one side secured so the fish can't get past it easily that will be the trick. Will need something that is not sharp, like a broom handle or something like that, and then somehow attach it to the side of the bog. Will be an interesting feat, but will be fun to catch all those boys and girls and move them to their new digs.
Sooo glad I got my grass mowed last night. It looks soooo pretty this morning! And, noticed these irises blooming next to the red tulips when I mowed. Don't go to this south side of my house much.

My Japanese Maple came out great this spring! Just planted it last summer.

These next two I'm not positive what they are. The pink flower is in the waterfall plantings, and the blue/purple flowers is a ground cover. Does anyone recognize what type of plants they are?

 

[addy1]

the purple looks like the waterperry speedwell I have growing, low height ground cover. Mine are covered with purple flowers.

 

[pondlover]

Love your Japanese Maple. I have the same type that I'm going to put somewhere around my pond. All your flowers look so springy!!

 

[j.w]

Good luck on catching the fish CE. Sometimes some will scoot around the net but most won't and then you have to do it again til you get them all. Is best if you have two people and three would be even better but sounds like you are determined to get them even if you do it all by your little ole self. You could just lay out a tarp and dump your gravel on it..............a slight hill would help and then just spray it all the best you can then the silt would run off the low end. Too bad you can't rig up some kind of a lip to attach to your tractor scoop w/ holes in it and then when you tilt the scoop so the water can run out the gravel wouldn't want to fall out as much.

I don't know what those plants are but they are quite pretty!

 

[addy1]

lol jw, we tried that too, put fencing over the bucket, even after washing the bucket full , stirring it etc, when we dumped it tons of dirt left. So gave up.

 

[koiguy1969]

if i had to clean alot of gravel i might consider a little cement mixer...fill it it with gravel and water and let it tumble.i 'd bet it would do the trick.. that is if i could borrow one. dont know if i'd want to pay rental....

 

[addy1]

neat idea koiguy

 

[CountryEscape]

Well, from the sounds of it, everyone has tried many different ways (and Addy, I didn't know you already tried the tractor scoop idea), so I believe I'm going to take the fast route and just scoop it from the truck to the tractor scoop, then dump it into the bog. Let the water circulate and use quilt batting to help catch some of the silt. I don't mind if it has extra dirt in the pea gravel. I'm just ready to get it done! So, that job will go faster and be less "wet" than I had planned, which is nice!
Got some rain this evening about 1/2" so it's muddy in the bog. Going to clean house this evening ... at least that's my plan. LOL Then will be all done with housework in the a.m. and ready to hit it hard come morning. The water in the bog won't stop me from working. I just have to finish the few blocks in the inside wall and then I'll be ready to pull the liner over and get the pea gravel poured into it.
I have a huge skid of rock to go pick up sometime this weekend for the inside edges of the walls. I'm sure hoping what I bought will be plenty. We shall see! Still probably will need flagstone load to put as a "cap" on top of the landscape stones, to hide the liner. I'm so excited, wish I could be outside right now. Instead, I walked around the ponds, talked to the fish, gave them a little bit of food, spotted at least 3 bullfrogs in the big pond, and now one of the bullfrogs just croaked. Life is good!!!
The main picture I wanted to post this morning, I forgot! This is some of the creeping jenny from you, JW! I separated what you sent me last year, and all of it is growing really well. There is some of the coreopsis on the left, and sedum on the right, but the creeping jenny is all around everything here. I'm thrilled, as I want to transplant some of it along the stream top edge, when I get that done.

 

[j.w]

Life will be even better when you get done w/ all this and can sit back w/ a tall cool one and enjoy all your accomplishments and hard labor from the comfort of your deck! Oh sure there will always be little tweaks you want to do and add but this is the back killer stuff going on now and soon it will be over! Can't wait to see the finished product in action and all the fish enjoying their diggs!
Even the bullfrogs are cheering you on!

 

[koiguy1969]

as long as you dont fill the bog too fast you may be able to keep a large amount of the "dirt" in the gravel. maybe fill until the gravel is covered, let it sit for a day or 2, giving it a chance to settle... then finish the fill , but do it slowly. and alot will settle and stay,how long dependis on the flow rate thru the bog.

 

[CountryEscape]

Well, the flow rate is what is going to push the silt out. The PVC pipe will be on the bottom, so it will be stirring it up constantly, so I figure might as well go for it and get it running right away. There wouldn't be any reason to wait, since I will be pushing water in from the bottom and stirring it up, right? I can understand doing it slowly if water just going to skim over the top, but my water will go from under and then out the top. Constant stirring, the way I figure it. I don't think the silt will harm the fish, will it? If not, then I will stir and stir until it's all stirred out and the dirt settles to the bottom of the pond, or gets caught in the quilt batting. If I would be going about this wrong, please volunteer more wisdom.

 

[addy1]

We used a very low flow pump for the first month or so feeding water into the bog, at that time no fish. i think the gph was around 250 or so. When we finally turned on the 4200 gph pump, we did not get a real dump of dirt out of the bog. Never thought it out that way koiguy.

 

[CountryEscape]

Oh, heck, I didn't even think about a very low flow rate into the bog. I'll be using a valve to adjust the flow, so will definitely do that. The pump I'll be using is a 4200, so will have to divert the rest of the pressure back into the pond, or maybe set up the temporary filter again and see if I can get some more clarity out of that.