My goldfish pond

[addy1]

Where in Africa? I was there years ago, had a great time, fun trip. If the tads where in the pond and not in a small amount of water, they should be fine. ow you might lose all of your fish.

 

[CountryEscape]

Colleen, I knew you would be able to relate. LOL Keith, she is the type that tells everyone that she has a pond, like she is an expert, when in reality she knows very little from the mechanical standpoint. She will buy the best of the best in filtration, just to SAY she has an expensive filter (Oase is what she has now, and wants to have again). She's always been that way, even when we were kids. When designer jeans came out, she HAD to have them. They were $42, I can clearly remember that. Mom said she had a $100 limit for school clothes, and she STILL bought a pair! She's always had to keep up with the Joneses. I'm totally opposite. I'm far more frugal, want to do things right, but inexpensive and if I can make them, better yet! So, I will probably just give her pointers about how to plumb her pumps so that she can pull them out to clean them in the future. In AZ, she didn't have any large tree leaves, so that may be an issue in WI, where she will get tons of leaves in the fall, if there are any trees around where they buy.
And, I don't mind helping her, I will be happy to do so. It's just her demanding way, and everything has to be under her control 100%, that's the whole issue about "building the pond the day after closing" that I don't agree with. I would even come and dig the sucker myself! I dug both of mine in 10 days or less. But, I won't take the time off to do hers. She will have to find someone there to do it for her. She is not a patient person at all. She may have a hard time finding anyone to dig for her, since she won't have access to "Mexicans for hire" in WI. LOL

 

[callingcolleen1]

Well I am speaking to the "other" sister again ..... Anyway, her pond was the most horrid shade of green you ever did see, not just "pee green" ( he he ) but dark pea green and had green chunky floaty's everywhere! So I felt bad for her and told her about the wool batting, she is using that in her stream and it is helping now, plus she did a part water change and finally got the guck off the bottom of the pond. Her pond is only about 130 gallons and she has koi .... not big enough for koi in my opinion! Then her stream was too wide and the pump too small for such a wide stream, so the water does not move fast enough .... at least she is taking my advice and getting another pump and filter! I have extra little pumps and spitters so on my next day off I will go over and help her and hook up a nice spitter so she has more water movement.

I love my sisters, but they can just be plain kooky! Now she is on some new kick about the big dipper in the sky, she claims it is a "port hole" to another universe, and aliens are comming from the "port hole" to earth! So I said, yes, the "pot hole" must be really good! Ha ha ha ha!! I laughed really hard, and I think that made her a little angry .....

 

[CountryEscape]

Haha, love your kind of humor, Colleen. I have a guy coming over to look at my pond plants this afternoon. Turns out to be someone I used to go horseback riding with when his kids and my kids were young. Turns out he has had a koi pond in his back yard for 7 years! This ought to be a fun conversation when he gets here. I'm selling cattails and lilies, and anything else he's interested in. I'm not charging too much, about half what they go for in the stores, and if he's interested, maybe I'll make a little spending money this afternoon. But, more than that, I'll catch up on an old friend, which is more than worth the time spent.

 

[CometKeith]

Addy, She is going to Ntisaw, Cameroon with her engineers without borders group from school. https://sites.google.com/site/ewbntisaw/
Actually the whole group of 6 and the professor are staying here tonight and we are driving them to the airport early tomorrow morning. The prof is an expert in water filtration. I'll see if he can give me any tips for my pond before he leaves! CE/Colleen good luck with your sisters! You don't pick your family. I know that all too well...

 

[addy1]

How neat! Bet she will have a great time and probably work hard too. Mine was a fun trip, years and years ago.
Let us know what the professor says about your pond!

 

[sissy]

I know it all which is nothing and sometimes less than nothing , :cheerful:

 

[CometKeith]

He really liked it and asked a lot of questions. He knew about water lettuce because he tried keeping them and some guppies when he was a graduate student living in Canada. I think he might have caught the bug because he mentioned he should build one in his yard!
Yup I carted the most of them to the airport at 5:30 this morning and then the rest of the group an hour later. It's going to be a long trip for them because there are a lot of layovers but is sounds very exciting. Several of the students have gone there before and were looking forward to going back.

 

[CometKeith]

We had two really nice days in a row. Both in the 80's. Here are my 3 green frogs relaxing in the sun. I really like them because they have webbed feet and remind me of a skin diver. Sometimes they float to the surface all stretched out and just float on the surface until they decide where they want to go. Also they are less shy than bullfrogs and hopefully won't grow as big! I just planted some parrot feathers and you can see them in the foreground. I also broke down the other day and ordered and new biofilter. I broke one of the latches on top of my Sunterra filter this spring and it continually keeps leaking water. Maybe its a good thing because my pond loses about 25 gallons a day so it forces me to do small water changes on a continual basis. But... At this point I am tired of it. I ordered a Laguna 1400. It looked to be pretty well made for the price and so far I am happy with my Laguna pumps.

 

[addy1]

The biggest I have seen is around 4 inches, they do stay smaller than a bullfrog and usually just sit and let you get pretty close to them.

 

[CometKeith]

CE, so far I really like them a lot. The only thing is you can never get them as a tadpole in the stores around here, only bullfrogs. I don't have a big love for bullfrogs because they are considered to be a nuisance in so many parts of the country and they will eat almost anything including other frogs! I got my biofilter yesterday. it was kinda weird because it was shipped in the Laguna box with no additional packaging. There was a hole on the side of the box and the metal band that keeps the filter together was pretty scratched up. I called azponds and they promised to send me a new part so I don't have to ship the whole thing back. Maybe it seems pretty minor to complain about a few scratches but when you pay $250 for a filter you want everything to be perfect.

 

[sissy]

I had to send my first laguna back as the box said maxflo but the pump inside was a maxjet pump .This one I got says it uses 115 watts but tested it and it uses 145 watts but it does pump more water than stated .It shut itself off and not sure but wonder if it back flushes it's self ,because it came back on after a minute or 2 .Not sure but contacted them about all my concerns .

 

[callingcolleen1]

That better be some good filter for 250 dollars! Now I don't feel bad for spending money on my underwater filters, they work great and stay underwater all winter even if not in use. I shut the one filter and pump down in the winter, while the others run. The one that I left in the water, just unplugged the pump, left that in the water to, work good every spring, and because the filter is in the water all winter, even not running, it seems to run much better as I think some of the life inside the filter must stay alive as I have not cleaned that one filter this year yet and it is running very well. The new filters I bought this year, will take longer to get the bacteria in it going as with anything new, but they are coming along good as I just got the same filter as they one I had, just extended it., as they screw together nicely.

 

[callingcolleen1]

That's funny Sissy, cause I got that laguna Max flow filter too, that is the one I unplugged over winter and just left it in the pond, with the pump, in the aquatic mint. That filter box is about 14 years old and still works great, and never had to clean it this year yet, cause I left it in the water and lots of bacteria must have survived cause it is working just great!

It sits on a shelf, right where I left it all winter, pump right next to it hiding in the aquatic mint, the pump just moves the water around the aquatic mint to naturally keep the water fresh and minty smelling.... that mint is just great for a natural water freshener!

Here is a picture of it in the top pond, where the really big two koi are.... of course Poppy got her nose there too!

 

[CometKeith]

I put it in today. It is a lot of money but I don't have the time to make a filter and this seemed like a good one for the dollars. It's a Laguna pressure flow 1400 high performance pressurized filter. It's actually a little smaller than my old filter. My old one had clamps you had to press down on the sides and I guess I forced one of them down and the clamp broke. It's been leaking water ever since. Also i tried to find Sunterra on the web to try to find a replacement part and it doesn't look like this model is being sold anywhere. I took about half my bio balls out of the old filter and put them in the new one so it was not starting the bb from scratch. I hope this works out. I hope with all the larger rocks in the waterfall that there is enough bb so I am not starting to cycle from scratch. I thought about running both of them at the same time but decided it was a better idea to use the old filter's bio balls. Colleen the mint sounds good. i had some nice plants last year but only a few came back. So far just the lilies and water iris. Sissy, they make a lot of different models and keep changing the names when new ones come out. The new pumps they are selling have regulators to protect them and that is maybe what happened to yours. My pump shut off in the winter when it got too cold and started right up in the spring.

Oh, the Engineers without Borders trip my daughter is on to Africa lost all their bags including clothes, supplies, and equipment, because of the baggage handlers wildcat strike in Brussels. So no luggage going on a week now! I heard there are over 20,000 stray bags just sitting at the Brussels airport.