Hello from Shenandoah Valley :)

[sissy]

have you checked out springdale gardens they are having some great sales right now and if you sign up on line you get extra savings .I wanted to go but Hillsville flea market is coming up and i have to go find the bargains again













gotta love it

 

[humbirdlover]

Wow, love those urns! Thanks sissy, will go check out the site

 

[sissy]

Do you go to the hillsville flea market it is only 2 times a year labor day and memorial day week ends .Well actually 4 days but great bargains .

 

[j.w]

humbirdlover
Love those little hummers, reminds me I need to fill my feeder as it ran out yesterday while at the fair.

 

[Fishylove]

Whoa sissy! Wish I was closer, that looks right up my alley. Gotta LOVE Flea Markets!

 

[sissy]

I used to love NJ because we had them al over but my fav. was the englishtown flea market .Also in NJ there were lots of farm produce stands well not here . :sad: I went to the Bristol one and man was that crowded.This is the one at hillsville and looked out my side door this morning , I heard the alarm go off and this intruder was a welcome one

 

[humbirdlover]

Aw, thanks J.W. for the cute welcome with the hummies Mine will be leaving sometime around Labor Day, sure will miss the little guys. I enjoy them so much..

 

[humbirdlover]

OK, another update, I swear I think my middle name is "Murphy". Bad luck with the UV/Bio Filter. It has to be returned , UV light not working and too much involved to send it to the manufactorer, have them see if it's the bulb, or electrical. As it turns out it was way too small, plus instructions said to only have 50% of pond volumn going in so had to split the flow from my pump, and some other issues. But I guess I'm back to square one, and will try to build my own, again. Water still yucky, and more now that I've been in there messing, but the fish don't seem to mind, LOL A friend of mine did share another big clump of hornwort, so didn't anchor this bunch down, just let it float. I did check out Springdale Gardens website, Sissy, and saw some plants I really would like to have.I just need to keep reading all the ideas on the bio filter, and come up with one that would work for me. The one I built before, was so big, and the outlet was up so far that it was impossible to "hide" So back to the drawing board..

 

[sissy]

I always figure out lets at half way up and thats why i use the pipe on the tank adapter 3 inch pipe with a 2 inch outlet to the pond this way I can put the water in the top and it goes up the pipe and back out and is at least 4 inches from the bottom for gunk to settle but seems since I have been putting plants in my filters there has been no gunk to clean out of the bottom .So plants in the filter rule /Oh and if you don't mind leaving the tank adapter in you can buy a screw in plug and use pipe tape to make it water tight 'I bought my tank adapters at pet mountain.com and the new tank i am putting in is oval and going to use 2 tank adapters and this way i have more room for plants .

 

[sissy]

Oh my gosh just went out to check my pond and darn it up in the waterfall what do i see but fishy babies .Oh darn all are yellow and white .Do I have any friends left to pawn them off on ,bless them with :razz:

 

[humbirdlover]

I only have 1/2" hose coming from my pump right now. Other than when I was trying out that bio filter, I've used an old timey hand put for the "waterfall" It has a prefilter attached with a piece of hose inbetween. so with a 450 gal pond, how big a filter do I really need? If I can't use my current pump for a bio filter and my water feature, I could always use a smaller pump just for the "water feature" Might be getting another pump soon anyway, mine has stopped two evenings in a row So back to the filter, you're saying run the pipe from the pump in from the top of the bio filter, and have the outlet down father on the filter tank?

 

[sissy]

This is how i do mine and the reason is with the finer algae cells nothing will pick them up and quilt batting will and the extra basket you see on top of my filter catches all that stuff .I usually put mine little over half way up for how I have mine set up .You have a smaller pond and you could get a waterfall filter like they have at springdale I think it is around 25 dollars .It is a waterfall weir with a tank on the back part for filter media .I use the half way up plus 2 inches more

.You could use a tote for yours much cheaper and simpler this pick is a heavy duty tote an adapter and it is screw in and you can use screw on pvc and elbows

 

[sissy]

The one on this tote is up higher because I was going to dry stack the stone in front of it to hide the outlet

 

[humbirdlover]

Thanks so much for posting pics, and I really like the way you stacked the stone for the falls I'll probably be dreaming about filters in my sleep tonight..Will try to get some pics taken and posted so peeps can see what I'm dealing with. Thanks so much for your help

 

[humbirdlover]

Yay, found a water plant place and only about 20 miles from me! Got a Bog Bean, variegated water iris, water clover and a clump of dwarf cattails. Now just to figure out how I'm going to arrange them. No progress on the bio filter yet, but still mentally working on it