Ponds in Canada

cas

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Do you have to clean your underwater filters in the winter?
 

callingcolleen1

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No, never have to clean them till early spring. I run big underwater filters.

Then it also came to me that the biggest companies selling and making new products, and even top of the line pond companies, don"t even design the ponds they build and filter boxes to even run all winter??? Why is that???
Ok they sell a really small "rinky dinky" pond deicer that I would not count on to keep my two big 20 inch koi alive all winter. Its really only for mild winters and small fish.

They need to design ponds that can run all year round like a river. Small lakes can even kill off fish during very cold winters cause lakes will always freeze much harder than rivers as flowing water keeps ice down. They really need to change their way of thinking.
Then the sell people tons of stuff to keep fish from sickness, cause moving them inside promotes illness. Then they sell more product to keep ponds from going green and ugly, cause the ponds are not balanced cause they shut them down all winter. I only treat tap water and sometimes liquid pond peat for injured fish. My pond water in main pond that runs year round is never green,
Really they need to start designing ponds to run year round.
 
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callingcolleen1

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I think I will work on a video on my next day off, where I will draw up plans for the "perfect" all season pond design. Seeing how I think I am the only person that I know of that has run a pond all winter {successfully without losing fish to winter kill} since 1991.
I have "been there and done that" and "seen all kinds of things that can go wrong in winter".
 
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Colleen you have multiple ponds, so can stream the water through them. What would you suggest for a pond like mine, one pond, 3.5 deep, straight dropped sides?
 
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you can still create a current of water with pumps and/or spinning balls. have you got a picture for me to look at of your pond?
IMG_0271.JPG
IMG_0273.JPG
IMG_0279.JPG
 

j.w

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Sure looks nice and big and very pretty @Tula
Is it very deep? Oh wait I see it says 3&1/2' deep so that's pretty deep. Your photo makes it look bigger. How long and wide is it?
 

cas

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Colleen, do you you have any bio filters? How often do you have to clean the filters on your underwater pumps in the summer?
 

callingcolleen1

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Colleen, do you you have any bio filters? How often do you have to clean the filters on your underwater pumps in the summer?
I just have Bio underwater big round filters before the pumps. In the spring I clean them lots (weekly) as it is more nessaary during early spring. During peak summer months when everything growing nice, then just maybe once per month. The filters I use can get heavy as they suck up lots of sludge. Thankfully they are easy to access so that makes things easier.
Large floating Yellow flag iris cleans well too.
 

callingcolleen1

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I posted my video of my spinning stainless steel balls and somebody comnented "where do I get these spinning balls everybody talking about".
I was so happy and excited to hear everybody talking about my spinning balls, and they really do help get more water movement across the pond.

They can be difficult to find as many have little holes or nipples as they were originally meant to be gazing balls for garden, but I discovered years ago that they spin very nice with running water.

I found my stainless steel balls originally years back at local pond\pet shop. They few years later I found larger 12 inch tri colored at local garden center. Then this year I found the really big 20inch ball at Rite Downtown Garden center right here in Medicine Hat.
You can also find them online as well...
 

j.w

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@callingcolleen1 the ones w/o holes are very hard to find. I have looked and looked and if anyone finds any please post them. Sometimes if they don't say whether they have holes in the ad and then you ask them they say no holes but then you get them and they do have a hole and you end up sending them back. I suppose one could fill the hole but I'd much rather have them w/o holes.
 

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