Sigh, I have the lotus curse, leaking tub

[addy1]

You know something weird, it had a slight pond smell, but not bad. Nothing like the lilies smell.

And the litter looked like it was just put in, clean , until we dug into it.

 

[j.w]

Well! Pups to vet, dwealt with tree cutters, around 1230 or so decided to tackle the lotus tub. Carolyn came down to help.
29f in am, now about 55f

Plants groomed down.

View attachment 166228

Started digging! Thrilled! The top foot plus minus, a many years settling pond, easy to remove wet slimy Muck.

Started shoveling it off, scoop dump, scoop dump, until we started to see litter, clean litter lol.

Pulling out handfuls of dead roots tubers. No good tubers seen.

BUT then dug through the litter to near the bottom of the tank, tubers! Lots of them! big tubers, slowly followed the tubers until we found the end. Or a root mass to separate.

About 8 inches of mucky water still in the tank, no sign of a Crack or hole. BUT we still have about 1/3 rd plus to remove.

View attachment 166229

Quit at 3pm to clean up and get our yorkies out for play time.

SO you want to be a ponder, be ready for this look!

View attachment 166230

Nice healthy tubers! And lots of mucky Muck.

View attachment 166231

Good job! Glad it turned out better than you thought and you had a helper, yay!

 

[addy1]

Is the stock tank a Rubbermaid? If so, I bet it is leaking at the drain valve (plug) area. It is an easy fix if so. Pull the tank, clean and dry the threads and apply a fish friendly silicone sealer. You can even use plumbers tape.

I still have no evidence of a leak, ie crack. But another side to clear.

If there is no Crack, i will clean the drain, from the inside, fill it with my boat repair caulk, ie made to be under water. Refill the tank see what happens.

It was wet in that area, but that is the downside slope, so it was always wet no matter where the overflow came from.

Thanks I would never think of drain failure, not touched, why fail

 

[Hound Heaven]

Well! Pups to vet, dwealt with tree cutters, around 1230 or so decided to tackle the lotus tub. Carolyn came down to help.
29f in am, now about 55f

Plants groomed down.

View attachment 166228

Started digging! Thrilled! The top foot plus minus, a many years settling pond, easy to remove wet slimy Muck.

Started shoveling it off, scoop dump, scoop dump, until we started to see litter, clean litter lol.

Pulling out handfuls of dead roots tubers. No good tubers seen.

BUT then dug through the litter to near the bottom of the tank, tubers! Lots of them! big tubers, slowly followed the tubers until we found the end. Or a root mass to separate.

About 8 inches of mucky water still in the tank, no sign of a Crack or hole. BUT we still have about 1/3 rd plus to remove.

View attachment 166229

Quit at 3pm to clean up and get our yorkies out for play time.

SO you want to be a ponder, be ready for this look!

View attachment 166230

Nice healthy tubers! And lots of mucky Muck.

View attachment 166231

Well done! Nice fat tuber -- so the good ones always grow at the bottom?? I've been thinking of sorting through mine and that would make it significantly easier.
So did you find the leak??

 

[addy1]

Every real good tuber, nice fat ones, a bunch of skinny new ones, was on the bottom. a lot had growth tips. Darn fragile.

We worked on grabbing the old mush ones and removed as we worked down to the shiny white ones.

Also the container is round, they tended to follow the edge of the container. But some did run across, not many

I have a ton of pretty tubers.

We put the tubers in one of my loop ponds to keep them wet until replanted.

Leak? Who knows, pond is empty, no cracks, holes seen, so I filled it to the top, 6 hours ago, not one drop lost.

Waiting till am see what it looks like.

It lost 1 foot overnight, before we cleaned it out. Now holding water, so far.

I am going to make the drain sealed.

A load of litter coming from wally world.

@mrsclem do you plant the skinny ones and the fatties?

 

[Hound Heaven]

So glad you salvaged so many

 

[addy1]

I need to take a picture of the tubers. Was too worn out to care about anything.

 

[Hound Heaven]

Recently I bumped into this video of tubers being harvest as food in Japan --- blew me away how HUGE they can get!

 

[addy1]

Wow bigger than mine!

 

[mrsclem]

Every real good tuber, nice fat ones, a bunch of skinny new ones, was on the bottom. a lot had growth tips. Darn fragile.

We worked on grabbing the old mush ones and removed as we worked down to the shiny white ones.

Also the container is round, they tended to follow the edge of the container. But some did run across, not many

I have a ton of pretty tubers.

We put the tubers in one of my loop ponds to keep them wet until replanted.

Leak? Who knows, pond is empty, no cracks, holes seen, so I filled it to the top, 6 hours ago, not one drop lost.

Waiting till am see what it looks like.

It lost 1 foot overnight, before we cleaned it out. Now holding water, so far.

I am going to make the drain sealed.

A load of litter coming from wally world.

@mrsclem do you plant the skinny ones and the fatties?

I planted fat ones. I never found the leak in my tank. Think the lotus got thirsty!

 

[addy1]

Well over night not a drop lost.

My lotus must have drank a ton to drop the tank by over a foot over night, and drop the big pond by 6 inches.

My speculation, the debris was swirled around while working on removing the lotus. Some of that debris made a nice plug for the leak in the drain. I even blasted the plug hole with the hose to clean it out. But no leak.

So my fix, pump the 300 gallons out.

Clean dry the plug hole, fill the sucker with my boat caulk.

Let it dry, litter here tomorrow, start the pond rebuild.

What a messy back breaking job. now the lotus have a beautiful clean home!

 

[mrsclem]

I'm having trouble keeping the water level up in our new tank! I know there's no leak. Maybe should have thinned out more lotus.

 

[addy1]

Lol my one 300 gallon pond with just fantails is constantly dropping.

It always happens when we have butt cold nights, warmish days and still warm pond water. The water gets sucked out.

I tried to blame this loss on that, wishful thinking. drained again, sealed the drain hole, letting it harden up.

Probably Monday get the lotus back in the tub.

 

[j.w]

Lol my one 300 gallon pond with just fantails is constantly dropping.

It always happens when we have butt cold nights, warmish days and still warm pond water. The water gets sucked out.

I tried to blame this loss on that, wishful thinking. drained again, sealed the drain hole, letting it harden up.

Probably Monday get the lotus back in the tub.

Quick work Super Woman

 

[addy1]

Went to work on it today, the caulk was not dry enough.

Had to rescue a few frogs that jumped in the empty pond.

So went back to work on removals.

Hired a tree company, they dropped a bunch of weed trees.
While chatting with them, I mentioned I would LOVE to have all the dead boats and cars gone. WELL boom done, nothing worth value, scrap type dead cars, all sitting too many years.

5 boats, 8 boat trailers, 6 dead cars, and a trailer sitting full of dead stuff since 08, ie sitting since. A few things saved, the rest they will haul away.

Been a darn busy week, but I am so thrilled to remove, the I will get them running vehicles and boats.

They have been hauling for 3 days. Rotted tires, keys lost, etc.

They also removed a poop load of dead tires, sun rotted, etc.
Use on a farm to hold down hay tarps.

One quote to removed, landfill the boats was 15k. And that was just two of them, the bigger ones.

hubby loved craigslist.

YEAH!