new pond project

[koidaddy]

I have had plenty of set backs. Pump sucking up fish, tubing coming apart and draining half of pond, green water. But it's a learning curve and promotes challenges and new ways to fix problems

Aint that the truth bsr. I have battled all the above mentioned. I was just mentioning in another thread about I have learned the hard way on quite a few things and want to help others hopefully avoid the pitfalls of the hobby. Good for you for keeping on when it gets tough. If it were easy everybody would have beautiful crystal clear ponds.

Good luck.

 

[bsr8129]

I have not glued the PVC together, thats part of why they came apart before. They are pushed in all the to the elbow so now they will not come apart, and i have placed a ring of silicon around the other edges to help keep them together and to prevent air leaks. I change my plumbing around to much to permently bond them together. I know i am chancing it but its been like this for about a month so far. I have also learned the hard way that if a connection breaks it wont completly drain my pond it will only drain it to the level of my pump which is apporx half half way, thats also why i like this pump, with a submersible pump i would have almost completly drained it when i had the failure.


All of us could go the "easy" route and buy proven filters that cost hundreds, but where is the fun in that. plus its challenging to find cheaper better ways of doing it.

 

[koikeepr]

oof! okay, you are taking a chance for sure! Why do you keep changing the plumbing around? Settle on a design and glue those suckers together. You can put in a bunch of fernco rubber fittings that you can easily remove when needed. But you really do need to glue pvc in a plumbing situation.

 

[bsr8129]

I keep tweaking it makeing it more effcient, the first i plumped it, it looked like a jungle gym pipe going everywhere, now i have simplified it and hid it better, but im sure i will find a better way and thininking about adding a second barrel so things will get moved around again. it never ends

 

[bsr8129]

Well I broke down and went to the darkside or should I say light side as I bought a uv light as I can't take the green water anymore

 

[koikeepr]

do let us know how long it takes to clear up. Usually you'll notice the beginnings of it in a day, and by the 2nd or 3rd day it's gone.

 

[bsr8129]

I will ordered it on line so hopefully here by mid week

 

[bsr8129]

Finaly got the uv hooked up and running here's hoping I have clear water soon. It's a 36 watts so here's hoping

 

[bsr8129]

24 hrs later and very little change

 

[koikeepr]

give it some time. it can take up to a week. Have you done water changes? You need to do at leat 20% water changes each week.

 

[bsr8129]

I did a 10 percent last week will do another 20 this week I also discovered a potential issue as I replumped the filter went from 2 inch to 1 inch on the down tube. Since I was using a 1 inch to 2 inch that caused all kinds of air in the filter and I think it was moving the filter material out of the way becuase when I replumbed it and took out all the scrubies they were fairly clean for being in there for over a month and as much junk is in my water some looked brand new

also I discovered that the pump for my uv is only pushing 360gal/hr. So I am really killing everything in the water as it goes through

 

[koiguy1969]

i dont know ...i never do even a full 10% water change and my parameters are ideal, all the time... on my 1200 gal pond i flush my 70 gallon filter and replace that water...same on my 800 gal pond i do a 55 gal flush every week, and replace that.

 

[koikeepr]

You can't neck pipe down to 1"--it's just too small and leads to all sorts of issues. Truly the smallest any pipe should be is 2" so that it's the most effective.

I do 20% water changes each week. You need to stay on top of water changes as it's important for the health of the pond.

 

[bsr8129]

well green water went away, now i have cloudy white water, which seems to be a bacterial bloom, which seems to be "good" and will clear in a week or so. I can see about 1 foot down.

 

[linc2010]

Fold the corners in like an accordian and you will get rid of a lot of those wrinkles but not all of them. I know Koi Keeper :cupidarr: just told me how. It worked! It will be like wrestling alligators but it will work. Then you can tape the folds together to make a nice corner. You can use the tape the pond stores have.