crsublette
coyotes call me Charles
Hey there, welp, after all the questions I have been bugging ya'll with, I figure about time I introduce myself after all the help ya'll have given me.
I am here in the real north texas, texas panhandle, Dalhart, where OK NM CO and TX almost meet at a corner. About 80 miles north west of Amarillo (same Amarillo in the country songs
).
( i'm the prettier one on the right )
2011 drought we only got up to 4 inches of annual precipitation, optimistically rounded up, and some other farmers near us did not even get that much. Rain is a rare event around here. Get'n a 3 inch rain is such a blessing that I say it is a miracle for it to happen here. We get our precipitation from short duration, small rains that seem to happen more frequent. A 1/10 inch here, 3/10 inch there, another 8/10 inch, and they eventually add up; this is how we get our rain through out the year. 2011 we had up to 60 days of very hi-98 and 100 degree temps; other areas near me had many more days than the 60 days. 2010 was an awesome year with around 10 inches of annual precipitation. 2011 we had to abandon crops and grassland and cattle were and are still dissappearing, but 2012 is starting out better!! Hoping for the best.
Give me a yell if ya have questions about the agriculture and land in my area. I do not mind at all. If I don't know, then I know enough folk around here that will know.
I farm for a living mostly in the grain arena and get'n busy. April through June is a big planting season for us so have very little time to do much on my little "pond". "Pond" in quotes since I originally wanted just a nice rock water feature with alot of water movement. We do not hear water around here at all, not even from rain, unless I am near a sprinkler. This Febraury and March I have been working on finishing some pondless waterfalls and my bigger "pond" that have motivated all my questions.
As mentioned, this "pond" started as a fancy rock water feature, but then I figure " lets put some plants and fish in there for my farm cats !! "
(( hope the pictures are not too big, not for sure how else to do it, and ignore the timestamp cause I just now took the pictures, stupid camera ... and please ignore the dead plants!!! )
Yeah, planted alot of plants late in the fall when it was, even still, very hot. Ignore the dead plants please!! haha.
One thing I know was done right, the foundation to all the stream, waterfall hill, and resevoir is solid to make sure it does not settle.
I put the rock walls back in but didn't use waterfall foam on it all. This is going to be a project I'll do next February/March.
Also, I have not yet put back in the granite rocks that go into the stream. These really cause the stream to get a little more than an inch of extra depth. Right now, stream is only 1~2 inches deep.
The waterfall is a huge boulder where I am going to do some more plumbing to get a couple more fancy rock features.
The project got finished back in November and plan on cleaning it, spraying it down and draining it, every February/March.
We go down almost 500 feet, more in other parts, to get our groundwater so it is extremely hard here (300KH, 400GH); I am hoping my water treatments will decrease this.
If I do not wash off the calcium magnesium deposits, then the deposits just continue adding layers to the point where a foggy grey film is permanently formed on the rocks. Eventually, the deposits are just about impossible to remove. The deposits really hide the rock's color. I have not done this yet. On the waterfall, rock spires, and stream, I just spray on the vinegar, let it sit a couple minutes, then hit it with my high pressure sprayer. I am hesitant to using Muriatic Acid since I am afraid it may weaken the rubber liner. Hopefully, going to have time here soon to do this. Definitely will rinse out and drain the "pond" good to get all the vinegar out.
I am hoping to start aging, or cycling, the water first week of May so I can put some Comets in soon.
There's a skimmer off to the side that feeds the 3 rock spire fountains on top of the flagstone table.
I got the Hakko (HK-25L) as an aerator. A couple air stones, one on each side, kind of underneath, the flagstone table. Also, the aerator feeds air in my cavern underneath the flagstone table and feeding air into my pressurized filter. I've heard adding air to a filter helps to form bigger beneficial bacteria colonies on the bio-media. Also, since my "pond" is so shallow, the heat likely will remove much of the dissolve oxygen so I am going to really open up the air stones when it gets hotter around here. Right now, the air stones are not opened much at all.
The main pump is a submersible (~3600gph, 30ft head height), where a deeper hole was dug to sit the pump 18" deep. I am thinking of get'n an external pump with higher flow rate to really get water going down the stream, maybe.
All'n all, the water feature holds around 450 gallons and can hold up to 600 if I fill it all the way to the top where it overflows, but I just keep it at 450 gallons.
The water resevoir, or "pond", is 12~14 inches deep. "Pond" has a 2~3 inche rock bottom. The flagstone rock is sitting 10 inches from the bottom on top of a very thick heavy duty plastic container giving the floating rock "table" appearance. This Spring I put some rocks in the container to create some caverns where I put a 10 foot perforated braided 1" hose to add freshwater and air; hopefuly this extra flow coming out of the caverns will prevent debris from going into it. I am thinking the fish could use this to hide if they need it.
The flagstone table has about 2~4 inches water above it, maybe more depending on how much I fill it.
There ya go.
Nice meeting everyone.
Appreciate all the information on this forum, all of the answers to my questions, and active community!!
I'll do my best to help out as much as I can.
I am here in the real north texas, texas panhandle, Dalhart, where OK NM CO and TX almost meet at a corner. About 80 miles north west of Amarillo (same Amarillo in the country songs
).( i'm the prettier one on the right
)
2011 drought we only got up to 4 inches of annual precipitation, optimistically rounded up, and some other farmers near us did not even get that much. Rain is a rare event around here. Get'n a 3 inch rain is such a blessing that I say it is a miracle for it to happen here. We get our precipitation from short duration, small rains that seem to happen more frequent. A 1/10 inch here, 3/10 inch there, another 8/10 inch, and they eventually add up; this is how we get our rain through out the year. 2011 we had up to 60 days of very hi-98 and 100 degree temps; other areas near me had many more days than the 60 days. 2010 was an awesome year with around 10 inches of annual precipitation. 2011 we had to abandon crops and grassland and cattle were and are still dissappearing, but 2012 is starting out better!! Hoping for the best.
Give me a yell if ya have questions about the agriculture and land in my area. I do not mind at all. If I don't know, then I know enough folk around here that will know.
I farm for a living mostly in the grain arena and get'n busy. April through June is a big planting season for us so have very little time to do much on my little "pond". "Pond" in quotes since I originally wanted just a nice rock water feature with alot of water movement. We do not hear water around here at all, not even from rain, unless I am near a sprinkler. This Febraury and March I have been working on finishing some pondless waterfalls and my bigger "pond" that have motivated all my questions.
As mentioned, this "pond" started as a fancy rock water feature, but then I figure " lets put some plants and fish in there for my farm cats !! "
(( hope the pictures are not too big, not for sure how else to do it, and ignore the timestamp cause I just now took the pictures, stupid camera ... and please ignore the dead plants!!!
)
Yeah, planted alot of plants late in the fall when it was, even still, very hot. Ignore the dead plants please!! haha.
One thing I know was done right, the foundation to all the stream, waterfall hill, and resevoir is solid to make sure it does not settle.
I put the rock walls back in but didn't use waterfall foam on it all. This is going to be a project I'll do next February/March.
Also, I have not yet put back in the granite rocks that go into the stream. These really cause the stream to get a little more than an inch of extra depth. Right now, stream is only 1~2 inches deep.
The waterfall is a huge boulder where I am going to do some more plumbing to get a couple more fancy rock features.
The project got finished back in November and plan on cleaning it, spraying it down and draining it, every February/March.
We go down almost 500 feet, more in other parts, to get our groundwater so it is extremely hard here (300KH, 400GH); I am hoping my water treatments will decrease this.
If I do not wash off the calcium magnesium deposits, then the deposits just continue adding layers to the point where a foggy grey film is permanently formed on the rocks. Eventually, the deposits are just about impossible to remove. The deposits really hide the rock's color. I have not done this yet. On the waterfall, rock spires, and stream, I just spray on the vinegar, let it sit a couple minutes, then hit it with my high pressure sprayer. I am hesitant to using Muriatic Acid since I am afraid it may weaken the rubber liner. Hopefully, going to have time here soon to do this. Definitely will rinse out and drain the "pond" good to get all the vinegar out.
I am hoping to start aging, or cycling, the water first week of May so I can put some Comets in soon.
There's a skimmer off to the side that feeds the 3 rock spire fountains on top of the flagstone table.
I got the Hakko (HK-25L) as an aerator. A couple air stones, one on each side, kind of underneath, the flagstone table. Also, the aerator feeds air in my cavern underneath the flagstone table and feeding air into my pressurized filter. I've heard adding air to a filter helps to form bigger beneficial bacteria colonies on the bio-media. Also, since my "pond" is so shallow, the heat likely will remove much of the dissolve oxygen so I am going to really open up the air stones when it gets hotter around here. Right now, the air stones are not opened much at all.
The main pump is a submersible (~3600gph, 30ft head height), where a deeper hole was dug to sit the pump 18" deep. I am thinking of get'n an external pump with higher flow rate to really get water going down the stream, maybe.
All'n all, the water feature holds around 450 gallons and can hold up to 600 if I fill it all the way to the top where it overflows, but I just keep it at 450 gallons.
The water resevoir, or "pond", is 12~14 inches deep. "Pond" has a 2~3 inche rock bottom. The flagstone rock is sitting 10 inches from the bottom on top of a very thick heavy duty plastic container giving the floating rock "table" appearance. This Spring I put some rocks in the container to create some caverns where I put a 10 foot perforated braided 1" hose to add freshwater and air; hopefuly this extra flow coming out of the caverns will prevent debris from going into it. I am thinking the fish could use this to hide if they need it.
The flagstone table has about 2~4 inches water above it, maybe more depending on how much I fill it.
There ya go.
Nice meeting everyone.
Appreciate all the information on this forum, all of the answers to my questions, and active community!!
I'll do my best to help out as much as I can.
