New to ponds in Southeastern Ohio

[natbla]

Here are pictures of a few of my fish that I took last night. I have 9 in the pond, but 3-4 of them are hiding at most times. I don't have reflective problems at night so the pictures look better (though a little out of focus) than those I've taken during the day.

Here is my biggest fish by far. He's twice the size of the others. As a frame of reference you can see one of the normal sized fish in the top right corner.

Here is the one whose color I like best:

And this one shows my other two-color gold fish, with my favorite and one of the standard colored ones. At the top of the pic is the big guy's head.

Unfortunately, the pictures show how much cleaning I still need to as well. I assume its too cold at this time of year to clean and that has to wait until spring, right?

 

[addy1]

Nah, you can take a net and gently remove the junk, better than letting it rot in the water. Esp if your water freezes over.

 

[natbla]

Well a quick update:

I'm very slowly getting the things I want/need for up keep on the pond and prep for building a new one next year. I've decided I'll build a modified 2 chamber skippy style filter to accommodatie the current pond with more fish and handle both once the new larger pond is constructed.
I'm using a 6 year old roughneck rubber maide tote (37 gal). Its got a much thicker plastic than the ones on sale these days). It will be my biological/ fine particle filter, and a 49 gal tote I purchased for $20 yesterday. It will need some reinforcing with an exterior shell or some kind of tentioned harness (made of what I have on hand. This tank will be a settling tank. The plan is for a 2" inlet pipe from the pond (fed by the pump, a 3" outlet from near the top of the tote leading to the bottom of the biofilter, and two 2" outlet pipes heading back to the pond(s) at the top and other side of the second tote. I'm hoping to get the electrical conduit fittings next week, and find a couple dumpster based items to used as screens that will separate the parts of the tanks and filters. I went with this design because its lower profile, and with a usable 70 gallons of space was more potential filtering capacity if I ended up taking longer for the pump and had an increase in fish load. I'll post pics of the totes tomorrow if I get a chance.

 

[sissy]

I saw a filter the other day at a house here they spray foamed the outside of the tank to insulate it and make it stiffer to hold up .I was wondering if you could also use foam core board the same way on a square or rectangular tank by just wrapping it around the tank bungee cord it or glue it ..They told me they used the spray foam that they used to insulate there crawl space as it came in a bigger canister for for bigger jobs .I know I have used the foam it green stuff in the walls and floor of my guest house and wish i had thought to do my filters with it .I used the leftover to get any gaps in my house closed up and also insulate a shed .I think I may try to see if I can find it around here in the bigger size .The cans lowes sells one be to small ,plus I could make another spray foam fake hollow rock with chicken wire and burlap

 

[natbla]

I saw a filter the other day at a house here they spray foamed the outside of the tank to insulate it and make it stiffer to hold up .I was wondering if you could also use foam core board the same way on a square or rectangular tank by just wrapping it around the tank bungee cord it or glue it ..They told me they used the spray foam that they used to insulate there crawl space as it came in a bigger canister for for bigger jobs .I know I have used the foam it green stuff in the walls and floor of my guest house and wish i had thought to do my filters with it .I used the leftover to get any gaps in my house closed up and also insulate a shed .I think I may try to see if I can find it around here in the bigger size .The cans lowes sells one be to small ,plus I could make another spray foam fake hollow rock with chicken wire and burlap

I'm curious, did they spray the fome before or after the tote had water in it? I'm heading to Lancaster, OH today so I may price/buy at least one of the fittings today.

 

[sissy]

they said they sprayed it with water in it because the first one cracked the foam off in spots when they filled it with water and that roughing the tote up a little with sand paper because the tote was smooth and did not stick but they did end up with a pretty neat planter from the first failure .I liked the planter as they painted it a grey and it looked like cement without the weight

 

[natbla]

Yesterday we had the worst rain I've seen since we moved here. I think we got 2 inches in less than an hour. As a result the water overwhelmed the berm behind my pond and I must have had run off into the pond because it went from clear in the morning to cloudy at lunch. I think it ran under the waterfall liner and over the lip of pond. Up until yesterday, I thought it was all one piece, but yesterday afternoon I could see on one side were the is a gap between the two pieces of lining. So I restarted the pump to clear some of the sediment before it settled to the bottom. This made a big difference by the time the temps finished their plunge from over 50 to 25 degrees. All of the ice on the surface melted by the end of the day, and hasn't started to refreeze yet despite the temps.

Worst thing is, I think I have a small ice puncture as there is a small trickle of water dripping down the face of the front wall. Luckily, its coming out at the top of the top retaining wall brick. This is the low point in the pond so there is an outside chance its not a cut. If I'm really lucky this is really only more water leaking out of the bricks from the massive water push from yesterday. If I'm only lucky, the floating ice was pushed into the wall by the heavy wind and it punctured the liner about 1 inch below the top of the liner.

 

[addy1]

Wow hope your liner is ok, most likely it is, with that amount of water hitting that fast it will run out for a while.

 

[sissy]

Could be since the rain was so heavy some of it got washed behind your liner and is just running out of your retaing wall .I had that happen to mine and thought it was a leak also and it just turned out it was a gap there that allowed the water to escape

 

[natbla]

Wow hope your liner is ok, most likely it is, with that amount of water hitting that fast it will run out for a while.

Could be since the rain was so heavy some of it got washed behind your liner and is just running out of your retaing wall .I had that happen to mine and thought it was a leak also and it just turned out it was a gap there that allowed the water to escape

I hope that you guys are right. I'm worried that its a leak because with more normal rains the pond would fill up and run over for a couple days. But this morning it was already down about 1 " from the top. I'll check again when I go home at lunch. But I don't have time today to deal with a major issue with the pond. I"m the Exec. Dir. of a Housing Authority and my board meets tonight so I'l be home for a total of an hour between now and 11 PM tonight. Plus, while I have a 30 gal. aquarium that I recently purchased it needs to be cleaned (it was used for hamsters) and tested for leaks before I can fill it and let it set and then add fish to it. Plus I don't yet have an aquarium filter yet.

 

[addy1]

If it is just at the edge it will wait until you have the time. The only leak that would really hurt is one that is deep in the pond and drains it dry.

 

[natbla]

If it is just at the edge it will wait until you have the time. The only leak that would really hurt is one that is deep in the pond and drains it dry.

Here is a picture of the ice flow from the "leak."

and this one is a close up of "source."

The water was flowing from under the edge of the brick and slightly under the liner.

 

[addy1]

Looks like you have a low spot, and the water is just flowing out there, if there is water under the liner, it might just be back flow.

 

[sissy]

Yeh addy is right just like an ice dam happens on your roof and backs up under and can come back into your house .If there is no overflow in your pond that will happen .It has happened to my pond before when my overflow got cut off by lily leaves .

 

[natbla]

Looks like you have a low spot, and the water is just flowing out there, if there is water under the liner, it might just be back flow.

Yeh addy is right just like an ice dam happens on your roof and backs up under and can come back into your house .If there is no overflow in your pond that will happen .It has happened to my pond before when my overflow got cut off by lily leaves .

Well everything thawed yesterday, and my wife notice there was still water running. The water level was a good two inches below the lip and dropping still. So I was pretty worried. I took a hard look a the liner and didn't see any cuts and the algae on the liner was not indicating any water flow. So I too a few of the brinks off the liner and looked at it and made a discovery.

The liner was folded at that point where the water was coming out. The fold had enough algae and grime in its crease that once the water over flowed due to rain it started a suction/wicking action and was drawing water up the fold, over the lip, and the out of the pond. I broke the suction by unfolding and refolding the liner, and the "leak" has finally stopped. I'm down 2 inches of water but I bet that it will be refilled with rain over the next couple months.