- Joined
- Jul 14, 2018
- Messages
- 539
- Reaction score
- 486
- Location
- Huntsville, AL
- Hardiness Zone
- 7B
- Country
Spring is here and our one-year old pond is doing great. Lily pads have surfaced already, water is clear and the bog that was a stone desert last year is full of plants, and the fish all look great. I added a couple new plants to the bog, a variety of arrowhead plants and rushes. I moved three spider lily plants that spent last year floating in the pond to the bog. Put a second one that floated last year into the upper pond. It is now three plants. The three pickerel rush plants and two water lily plants all have new leaves poking out of the water. Surviving from last year are a bunch of lilies, water celery, bloody dock, hostas, some rushes, and the crocus bulbs we added this winter. The upper pond is solid hornwort and red Ludwigia. This little pond is home to two frogs who seem to like it there.
We only lost one of the babies from last year over the winter. Found it in the skimmer basket three different times. Seemed like it was bent on suicide. The skimmer visit must have exhausted its reserves as it disappeared over the winter.
Our spring pond work included removing the original waterfall box filter pads and replacing with Matala filter pads. I put a stack of black, green and blue pads in over three weeks gradually removing and replacing the old pads. The pads come in a sheet and needed to be cut to fit. I used a dry wall hand saw that worked OK. The new pads seem to be working great. By making them a little bigger then old pads they fit tighter. Next project is to replace the pre filter in the skimmer.
Our last spring project is to rework the bog/pond connection. We need to raise the lip about 3” to provide more room for gravel in the bog and to better seal the liners where the meet. With heavy rains the pond fills and the overlap creates a siphon effect allowing water to leave the pond and run under the liner to exit at bog retaining wall.
So as of today we have 19 shubies including the five originals. The babies range in size from one guppy sized baby to two that are around 3”. We are enjoying seeing them since all last year we had pea soup for water. We are expecting the water to go green as the weather turns hot But hope all the plants start having an impact. As of today we have a velvet green algae covering the liner everywhere the trap door snails are not browsing and string algae on the waterfalls and where there is a current and an object.
We only lost one of the babies from last year over the winter. Found it in the skimmer basket three different times. Seemed like it was bent on suicide. The skimmer visit must have exhausted its reserves as it disappeared over the winter.
Our spring pond work included removing the original waterfall box filter pads and replacing with Matala filter pads. I put a stack of black, green and blue pads in over three weeks gradually removing and replacing the old pads. The pads come in a sheet and needed to be cut to fit. I used a dry wall hand saw that worked OK. The new pads seem to be working great. By making them a little bigger then old pads they fit tighter. Next project is to replace the pre filter in the skimmer.
Our last spring project is to rework the bog/pond connection. We need to raise the lip about 3” to provide more room for gravel in the bog and to better seal the liners where the meet. With heavy rains the pond fills and the overlap creates a siphon effect allowing water to leave the pond and run under the liner to exit at bog retaining wall.
So as of today we have 19 shubies including the five originals. The babies range in size from one guppy sized baby to two that are around 3”. We are enjoying seeing them since all last year we had pea soup for water. We are expecting the water to go green as the weather turns hot But hope all the plants start having an impact. As of today we have a velvet green algae covering the liner everywhere the trap door snails are not browsing and string algae on the waterfalls and where there is a current and an object.
