School pond desparate for help

[sissy]

thats a cute pond with plenty of potential learning going to happen and love the turtle I have 2 that stay around here

 

[Nova]

Found a pic of one of the pond residents. He came to the pond after being studied by 3rd graders.

 

[addy1]

Owie, those pincher sure could hurt your pinkie! Neat looking

 

[Nova]

The kids had a great time, although they liked playing with the tadpoles more than working on the filter. LOL They ran out of time to make it look nice but this is what they got done in 25 minutes. The detail work will take place over the next couple weeks. When I buy more plants for my pond I will get a couple extra for school. Sorry I can't show you pics of the kids having fun.

One of the kids dropped pump and cracked the cover over the filter part but not the housing. It seems to be working ok.

 

[fishin4cars]

Great job! You never know you may have just brought out the next Big hit in fish keeping and not even know it. Be surprised how mush that may effect on the way a child thinks in the future. I was encouraged by a science teacher when I was pretty young. Last class reunion,(25 year) I talked to one of my classmates that I gave extra guppy babies to at the end of that school year, She still relates to me as the fishman. LOL oh and she still kept fish too after all these years.

 

[addy1]

Great job! all you did should really help, and I bet those kids did have fun and will remember the pond!

 

[sissy]

well it looks a lot better than it did and guess they enjoyed it

 

[Nova]

before I left work I rolled the netting to get it under the water. I hope to spend more time after work next week fixing it up.

 

[Nova]

BIG surprise when I got to school this morning. We had a huge storm last night, lots of damage and power out all over town. The power at my house has been out for 8 hours so far. At school I go out to check the pond and found it nearly empty, just enought water for the fish. Water was trickling out the biofilter at the output spout and it was overflowing over the side. After taking the opportunity to clean the bottom of the pond and the pump I found a piece of furnace filter was blocking the spout on the biofilter. That's why it was overflowing and emptied the pond.

I filled the pond part way because I don't have any additives to put in the water to clear out the chlorine. I will add more later, but we are expecting more storms so I will let it completely fill with rain water. I also rearranged the stuff in the biofilter so there is netting in front of the spout so flow won't get blocked.

 

[DrDave]

Another reason not to put filter pads in a bio filter.

 

[koiguy1969]

nova..you just need a top media grate and that wont happen... better than trying to just guard the outlet...
DrDave..that was builder error not the medias fault....ive never had a problem...3rd year of 24 / 7 / 365 use,(about 1/2 is in its 4th year) and i still havent cleaned my media...still floats, not clogged or water logged. still works great! you said "another reason", what are the others?

 

[addy1]

Glad you went to check on them nova! You make a great fish mom.

 

[27goldfish]

It would take some time, but what about aquarium silicone around your output hole? I did that to a gravity fed filter that I cracked the lid on. Works pretty well. Also, have you thought about a top cover for the Rubbermaid piece? That may also help with overflow issues. I love the idea of a school doing this. My school did something similar, and I had a blast!!

 

[27goldfish]

Also, if you need any pond filter material, I have 300 linear ft of stuff like this. I have to clean it off about once a week with a garden hose because I only use 1 square foot of it at a time for one of my pumps. Two sides, a kinda course and kinda fine. Picks up a lot from my 18 fish. I'll have to check out how much it would be to ship it to you. Just let me know if you are interested and how much. It is 12 " wide. And I could use it for 4 lifetimes, and still have some left as a 1 ft square lasts me all season.

http://images.ask.com/fr?q=pond+fil...6page%3D1%26o%3D0%26l%3Ddir%26pstart%3D0&qt=0

 

[Nova]

I will work on getting a milk crate setup for the pump. I have added a before and after pic of the pond. You can see the debris on the bottom of the pond that needs to be cleaned out. I will have to stay afterschool to do that, not enough time during school.