Mi pawnd rebild tew

[sissy]

I used a string with a weight on the end and sucked through with my shop vac and then tied a stronger rope to that and pulled that through and then tied the wire to that and pulled it slowly through .That was for the guest house I had to do that .The one by the basement we just had to drill a hole in the cement .My house has it's own 200 amp service .I could get the wire part of the way through the pipe but not all the way and the rope worked great ,you just have to go slow and make sure you tie it really securely to the wire .I also had my son pushing the wire in from the other end ,push and pull slow but sure .When we did the garden electric we just kept feeding it through as we connected each pipe easier that way and we used bigger conduit .

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Sure wish I had a 200A service! I'd be lucky if mine will supply 125A...

Well there were no problems during the cold spell over the last few days. We got down to -5F at night. Had about an inch of ice on top of the water, but the waterfall continued to flow smoothly and kept a nice size hole in the ice. I think I have the adjustable heater dialed down about right now to where it only comes on when the water gets close to freezing, so it shouldn't run much through the Winter. Today it got back up to 40F and about 2/3 of the ice melted off the pond.

I need to find a sinking thermometer so I can find out what temperature the bottom of the pond is at. Its really weird seeing the fish swimming around underneath the ice, but I guess they're staying warm enough to be fairly active.

 

[sissy]

you can just try the regular thermometer for now with a weight at least it will give you an idea of what the temp is.Most houses built in the last 10 years or more were built with 200 amp services to deal with larger demand .Would be interesting to see what the temp is down lower .I looked at mine and it is just above 70 but I guess that will drop down after temps here start dropping .Actually top temp of water is a little lower with the waterfalls going .But sun is on the pond all day and with the septic tank warmer the ground I guess it will take awhile for it to go down .I have been looking at all the info on how much heat actually comes off a septic tank and I added the tank treatment stuff yesterday so it should even warm up more .

 

[oldmarine]

OK so I'm impatient... I decided to hook up one of the filters to my old pump today to get an idea of the flow. The following are from a 3000gph pump, running a 6-foot head. One thing about it, it sure did stir up the water!

I really can't wait to see how this much water will look going over a slate waterfall!

Hey great pics of your pond and filter, but just need to know if your pond water ever cleared up. It seems like really merky water for such a large filter. Were you ever able to hide your filter into the landscape? Great DIY filter.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Hey great pics of your pond and filter, but just need to know if your pond water ever cleared up. It seems like really merky water for such a large filter. Were you ever able to hide your filter into the landscape? Great DIY filter.

Back at that stage, that was just an empty barrel sitting beside the original pond. That pond had nearly 4 years of build-up in it, due to very minimal cleanings, so the high water flow really stirred things up. If you follow deeper into this thread, you will see that this pond no longer exists, having been completely replaced by a new pond which uses two of these 55-gal barrels.

To answer your question though, yes... once construction was complete and everything had a chance to settle in, the water cleared up and is currently crystal-clear. Of course the Spring algae-bloom will turn it green again for a short period, but generally the filters do their job and keep the water looking great. The barrels have not yet been hidden in the landscaping, as I have more work to finish up around the waterfall next Summer, but I will be planting lots of tall grasses and vines around them, and I gave the outside of the barrels a quick shot of black spray-paint.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

I forgot I had more pics on the camera! We had another snow storm on December 3rd (the day after the last set of pics).

I really like the look of the deep snow against the flowing water...

Even with all this additional snow and cold temperatures, the ice was trying to thaw out

Hello? Can anybody hear me? (Gnome and turtle got lost!)

 

[sissy]

wow look at your snow and the best pic there is the stream with the snow along side it .

 

[j.w]

I love your snow pix Shdwdrgn! Lucky you getting a white Christmas but then you prolly have one every year.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

j.w - no our weather is always a toss-up. Some years its 20 below at Christmas, other years it can be 60 degrees. All of the snow from those last pictures has melted off already, but here we are in the middle of another storm today. Probably 8-10 inches on the ground already (but I had fun driving my wife in to work this morning!). This is the biggest snow we've had since I got my new truck two years ago.

Hmm, maybe I should go take some more pictures

 

[j.w]

I'm jealous.........it's really frosty here but the sun is shining brightly right now. Yes, yes take more pix! At least I can have a white Christmas through your pictures!

 

[addy1]

Very pretty, we are sitting 16 degrees above normal. No snow in the forecast, just rain and warmer than normal

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Wow we REALLY got hit hard overnight! 10.9 inches of new snow on the ground, and not one bit of ice over the pond. Anyway, a few new shots for those who aren't getting a white christmas...

Honest - there's a gnome riding a turtle right in front of you!

For some reason the cat didn't want to come outside today.

Apparently this shot snow-blinded the camera. It almost looks like a bad cut&paste in a paint program...

The water temp has been staying around 35-40 degrees since the last ice melted off. The days are going to start getting longer now which means more sun on the pond, and the fish seem to be doing just fine with the weather we've had. I'm sure there will be more ice as we head into February, but I'm starting to wonder if those irises are ever going to give up?

 

[fishin4cars]

Snow pics look really cool, I doubt we see any snow for the remaing of this year, even after a ten degree drop we are still reaching temps in the low 60's.

 

[addy1]

Very nice! My iris and rushes stay green year round, even with nasty snow fall and freezing temperatures. Neat pictures, thanks for sharing!

 

[sissy]

Your water looks clear and fish look happy .I was reading a book on koi and this one says the longer you can keep your filter going the healthier it is for the fish and I guess we will see .I still have my filters going and it has been in the upper 50's and 60's here .It says there is less debre's on the bottom of the pond to cause big cleanouts in the spring and less chance of major problems with the water quality .I wish I knew where the rest of this book was I found it in the box of stuff I bought at an auction that said pond stuff on it .I had to clean it up and slowly unstick the pages .I was just going to throw it away but decided to see what it was .Hours and hours of work but worth it .