My goldfish pond

[CometKeith]

Keith we had some pretty big storms too, here in Cincinnati. Some of my friends still have no power and the heat and humidity is oppressive. Hubby wants to look into a whole house generator.

Tula. My daughter in Miami wantsnto get a backup generator and the kind she wanted is back ordered until next Spring! We are pretty lucky here with no power outages… but we did shut our tvs off during the storm in case there was a power surge!

 

[CometKeith]

@CometKeith glad you are all ok and I saw this on the news!

Thanks jw. and today it hit a 100 degrees and it’s not even mid June! All the activities my wife and have this week have been canceled because of intense heat. We were supposed to walk through a well known cemetery tomorrow to see all the famous people from Chicago that got buried there and even that got canceled!l

 

[CometKeith]

My Koi lined up by the waterfall again tonight even with the new aerator running, It’s been two days in a row of almost 100 degree heat! I’m guessing the waterfall creates a lot more oxygenated water than the aerator because they all still line up at that spot!

 

[Tula]

Keith, I have a shade sail over our pond ( which I realize you wouldn't want to do as your view is from above ) that provides a good amount of shade, two points of surface water agitation ( discharge from sand & gravel filter ) and 3000 gph waterfall.....and an aerator......and my pond isn't as big as yours.

Does your filter discharge to your water fall ?

 

[CometKeith]

Keith, I have a shade sail over our pond ( which I realize you wouldn't want to do as your view is from above ) that provides a good amount of shade, two points of surface water agitation ( discharge from sand & gravel filter ) and 3000 gph waterfall.....and an aerator......and my pond isn't as big as yours.

Does your filter discharge to your water fall ?

Hi Tula. The pond isn‘t in full sun because it gets midday shade from our building. I agree that I should find a way to get more water flow. I was talking to my wife yesterday and she agrees I should enhance the water flow of my little waterfall. The plan is to build it higher with at least one more level and add another pump. I have all the stuff I need for that so I won’t have to buy anything more unless I want to go with a much stronger pump. The filter has its own pipe and doesn’t expel water over the waterfall. That’s all pvc so it would be a lot of work to change it. I’m not sure if that would make much of a difference because that flow slows up considerably just before I need to backwash my bead filter. Thanks for your suggestions!

 

[YShahar]

Hi Tula. The pond isn‘t in full sun because it gets midday shade from our building. I agree that I should find a way to get more water flow. I was talking to my wife yesterday and she agrees I should enhance the water flow of my little waterfall. The plan is to build it higher with at least one more level and add another pump. I have all the stuff I need for that so I won’t have to buy anything more unless I want to go with a much stronger pump. The filter has its own pipe and doesn’t expel water over the waterfall. That’s all pvc so it would be a lot of work to change it. I’m not sure if that would make much of a difference because that flow slows up considerably just before I need to backwash my bead filter. Thanks for your suggestions!

Keith, how about doing a small stream out of your wetland area? That should pick up quite a bit of oxygen. Maybe something along the lines of this sketch?

 

[CometKeith]

Keith, how about doing a small stream out of your wetland area? That should pick up quite a bit of oxygen. Maybe something along the lines of this sketch?

View attachment 151825

Yshahar actually that’s a great idea. We had some plants planted there but the local rabbits ate all the flowers I will need to check with my wife who has the final say on these things…. I did install another pump yesterday and one more level of stone. It’s not a finished product but at least it will give the fish some more oxygenated water in the meantime. It hit 99 degeees F today here!

 

[Tula]

Makes a nice difference I also see discharge from a black hose and that is sure to help also.

 

[CometKeith]

Makes a nice difference I also see discharge from a black hose and that is sure to help also.

Thanks Tula. That’s the discharge from my bead filter. I just backwashed it so it’s flowing better. I also cleaned a lot of sludge from the bottom of it. My water flow through the filter seems to be a lot better. Do you think it’s because I cleaned the sludge? Also the pond water is a lot clearer today. So question is this because my filter is more effective or maybe the pond finally cycled? It was pretty cold here until mid May but I haven’t noticed any string algae so maybe it cycled a while ago. It’s hard when you go away for 3 weeks in the Spring to know exactly what’s going on! Here is a pic I took today with the clearer water.
ps I noticed the fish swimming around much more quickly the last few days so I’m guessing the extra oxygen from the enhanced waterfall really helped them!

 

[j.w]

Hey @CometKeith glad things are improving and what is that plant in the front that is sprawling across the water? I like it!

 

[Tula]

I know our sand & gravel filter has reduced flow when it's dirty and it's improved after we back wash it. Your fish look so colorful in the clear water, such a pretty picture.

 

[CometKeith]

Hey @CometKeith glad things are improving and what is that plant in the front that is sprawling across the water? I like it!

Hi JW I think it’s a bog bean plant? I have a lot of them! Lol

 

[Tula]

I was going to say bog bean, but wasn't completely sure.

 

[CometKeith]

I know our sand & gravel filter has reduced flow when it's dirty and it's improved after we back wash it. Your fish look so colorful in the clear water, such a pretty picture.

Thanks! It’s so much fun having clear water. I’m sure it’s my filer because it’s working so much better now. Here are two more pics. The second shows my out of control lilies and how big the bog plants are getting!

 

[Tula]

Have any of your koi spawned this season ? Summer 2021 was the first and only season ours didn't spawn. We were hopeful they'd just stopped spawning....but no such luck....both females spawned this past week.