Wisconsin Pond Build

[CometKeith]

Hey Nathan, Sorry to hear about you losing fish. That's never fun. lt's cool about your girls helping and spending time with dad. I spent a lot of time with my daughter when she was young and didn't regret a minute of it. She is 22 now and quite independent. I have a 2000 GPH pump and a smaller 400-600 pump so I hope I will be okay. Actually i bought a bunch of rocks the other day.... 5500 lbs to be exact as I was going to start setting them around the liner. My wife heard about it and wasn't happy. She said their home can't be done until her home and construction project is done and no way will the fish have their home done first. Okay. i gave in. i figure it's not worth the battle and probably if we wait until spring we will have a really great overall design. I hope my liner is okay over the winter but it looks like it's going to stay that way now for a while. The fish are all doing good. I lost one since the move and I hope that's it. Keith

 

[Lisak1]

In my yard the weeds are the last to die and the first to start growing in the spring. They never give up!

 

[addy1]

With the bit of rain we just got the suckers are sending up seedlings.

In my yard the weeds are the last to die and the first to start growing in the spring. They never give up!

 

[herzausstahl]

Are you worried about it shifting with the freeze thaw Keith or UV exposure? And all good husbands understand the mantra "happy wife, happy life!" Lol even if we try to push the envelope on occasion!

 

[callingcolleen1]

I'm sorry to hear you lost your koi and big goldfish last year. It is a very common mistake people make, as the fish get larger, they need more oxygen, and in winter (or anytime of year) when the biggest fish start to die off first, it is because they ran out of oxygen first, as the largest fish consume more oxygen than the smaller fish. Koi also seem to require more oxygen in summer than similar size goldfish, as Koi also generally move faster as well.
That is why I leave my main pumps running all winter as my two largest koi are very big and heavy and 25 years old. Too many people think that the running water will super chill the water but that is not the case, as pond water cannot be super chilled. Super chilled water only can happen with pure water void of minerals like in the clouds or lab.
Lots of people make that same mistake.

 

[herzausstahl]

Thanks Colleen! I think it was 2 yrs ago but definitely lesson learned! I'd let it run year round if I wasn't afraid of damming in the stream but now I have pumps that should push the full volume of water per hour in winter that I can set up in each one to move the water. Now I just need time to do it. Lol. Only need to do one pond as the upper only has maybe a dozen Goldie babies that rode the wild ride through the the pump as fry & lived. I never fed them so only about 4" in a 2000 gal plus pond. Ironically the cold/lack of oxygen killed off my rosy reds that year too. The big fish I got but that one surprised me.

 

[herzausstahl]

For a reminder, first pic is lower pond 3 1/2 feet deep, next two are second "upper" pond, it's 6 feet deep.

 

[sissy]

My sister and her hubby have the glued down vinyl planks and love them .They have a great dane and a mastif and pit bull and they have yet to destroy the floor in 3 years now .I love the pic of your girls .It is like they have a house on the lake in that pic

 

[herzausstahl]

My sister and her hubby have the glued down vinyl planks and love them .They have a great dane and a mastif and pit bull and they have yet to destroy the floor in 3 years now .I love the pic of your girls .It is like they have a house on the lake in that pic

That is exactly what I want to hear about the floors! Lol why we chose it plus its waterproof. I went glue down so they can replace if one plank gets chipped. We've got the trim out & just finished painting. Going with new trim along the floors. Keeping same around doors as the new trim will be 4" wide & some of the doors in the hallway are too close together for that. So just gonna use existing trim but paint it. My wife is excited. Ironically I want to replace our gas fireplace in a cpl years next with a wood one for comfort & esthetic reasons but my 8 yr old is steadfast against it. Reminds me I. Not the only one living here. Lol thanks for the comment on the potting shed, a cabin on the lake is exactly the look I was going for!


Anyone ever see yellow Shebunkins? I was at petco the other day & they had 2 of them. They also had 2 shabbies in the koi tank so I wasn't sure if some got misplaced upon being stocked.

 

[addy1]

Look for the whiskers, I have not seen a yellow shubbie but I do have cream colored ones. Some yellowish tinge but not yellow.

 

[sissy]

They had no choice but to glue it down it was a slab in there family room and water did not hurt it because there on demand water heater down there leaked .My brother in law forgot to clean out the clean out on it or they call it flush out the sediment since they have a well .Did not lift any of the vinyl planks .They were lucky they caught it early .I want a gas fireplace .I am sick of bringing in wood and the mess it makes and cleaning the chimney every year is a nightmare .I have the brushes and it is not hard just extremely dirty .We only have access to propane here if we get a tank .

 

[addy1]

We put in a 500 gallon propane tank. I dug the hole for it, they delivered it. Then I covered it up with rock dust. That little propane heater in our living room heats the entire house. We also put in a instant on propane water heater, a little touchy with a well getting it set right, but our electric bill did a nose dive with it running

 

[sissy]

We don't have people down here with much knowledge of new things .So hard to find installers for the stuff .Even the propane companies are just starting to get some info on the new stuff or what they call new stuff .Tell them they need to get on the ball so they can make more money.Here you either own the tank or rent the tank .If you rent you are on automatic fill up and if you own they are not responsible for leaks or damage to the tank and they stopped allowing to be buried .

 

[herzausstahl]

Luckily I'm on city water & natural gas! But if I ever do convert I'll leave the gas pipe closed off in the new fireplace so it would be easy to convert back to gas. I just love the smell, look & feel of a real wood fire. I did look for whiskers addy, can't remember if I saw any or not.

 

[herzausstahl]

I've been looking for new koi since I lost my other ones (through my own ineptitude), and finally found some really cool butterflies at Walmart of all places. Only $7.92 each & put them in my empty (except for 1 neon who my girls call "guy" cus they thought it was a guppy) before I set it up for cichlids. So they'll live there until it warms up enough to move them outside to the bigger pond I built for koi. It has a few goldfish who survived mr toads wild ride through the pump. But all I plan to have there. Gonna keep just Goldie's in the lower pond due to its smaller size.