***The Pond Discussion Thread****

Just pulled a massive raft of algae and poop out of the drum filter then gave copious flush cycles.. but my hand still smells of it after washing twice.. not sure if it's in the watch bezel or if it's just my hand.. grim.
 
Been giving my koi very light feed these last couple of weeks, as they were searching for food.
Today they are really active....looks like an early spring start, hope the frosts hold off lol
 
I've been giving them a few feeds a week. It's warm enough that they're looking but some are active fish others are less so.
 
My koi don't usually start searching for food until mid-March, so is a definite early start this year.
All of them are very mobile and take the food fairly quickly tbh.

Holding back on the feed until the water warms a bit more and the filter can start to spring into life a little bit....
 
Added some elodea having thought I added some years ago, only to end up with a much slower growing variety. Amazing how cheaply you can pick these things up online these days and how quickly they ship. Had some snail hitchhikers that’ll I’ll happily take too.

Then considering a few sticklebacks in a few months to stop the mosquitos taking over.
 
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Thinking of buying x2 new 55w UV's.
Mine have been in for 10 years and they were second hand to start with.
I change the bulbs every year but have had to do minor repairs last couple of years due to the plastics starting to deteriourate.
 
I made a DIY UVC out of pvc pipe, however the plastic on the actual screw thread for the head unit has become brittle - just goes to show how they’re designed to fail after a number of years.
 
For the last 3 years I have had to do repairs when changing the bulbs.
They have served me well given the very low cost, so I will invest in a new pair I think.
 
Since my original plan of a wildlife pond somewhat failed, frogs yes, spawn no and just lots of mosquitoes I figured it was time to add a few fish to stop me getting bitten all the time. Wish I had built a bigger pond into the space, maybe next time.



Edit: the fish are doing well and pretty much ignore the food I put in, not surprising given all the flies already landing in the water.
 
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So the CT-1 worked in gluing the plastic thread on the UVC together it appears. At least for now. The threat is above water level but needed to provide enough thread strength to seal so the pressure pushed the water out the loop.

Pond is slowly clearing.
 
father-ted said:
Had an otter attack on my pond on Thursday night.
4-5 large koi gone, found 1 part eaten on the lawn.
5-6 koi in the pond damaged and scratched, chunks missing.
Found 2 areas of the garden perimeter that they have been getting in, so repaired and made secure.
Placed a net over the pond as well, not that it will stop them tbh.

Hoping that the garden is secured enough to keep them out now, time will tell.
Reports from several people on Facebook around the area of similar attacks over this week.
Seems the otters have come inland on the becks/streams, probably due to polluted river systems.

Heartbreaking to see the koi damage, one of them has a large chunk missing next to its mouth, must be painful but it is still swimming around and eating, so should survive.
:-(
Click to expand...
Had another otter attack the night before last, another koi left on the lawn part-eaten (probably a 8-10lb fish).
The otter could not get into the garden via the same entry point as last time, as I secured it with galvanised mesh.
Instead, it dug a hole under the concrete gravel board next to it, under the fence and in.

Have filled the hole with postcrete and have put mesh around the pot plants around the pond, hoping that will stop them jumping high enough to get onto the pond ledge.
Have ordered £150 of 16 inch pins to bang into the soil along the fence line, to see if that prevents further digging by them.

The otters are a serious issue around here now, Facebook showing dozens of ponds that have been decimated by them.
Heartbreaking to see the damage and kills they do, my fish are now really nervous and skitty, understandable really.
 
Been attacking the pond with a claw hammer and masonry chisel. (don nick - not chasing windmills?)

Water had got behind into the original plasterwork and frozen over the last couple of winters. So it's ripping the tiles off, ripping the wet disintegrated plastering off and the now rusty metal edges he used that have expanded too. Tomorrow it's mixing up concrete plaster with some SBR and rebuilding from the block work. Oddly the last repair I made (using concrete+SBR) is sound. My tiling was holding the plaster underneath on too .
 
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I have been hammering some 15 inch metal rods down under the garden fence today, to hopefully stop the otters from digging underneath.
Hoping that will stop them.....time will tell :-(
 
Went outside and noted a still pond (only in the last hour) !!!! But the pumps pumping.. yet no pressure in the pipe.
Opened the pump cleaned inside, reassembled.. nope still no pressure..
looked down and the pipe to the biofilter had popped off.. #idiot.

Well the pump is working nicely..
 
When something like that happens, you get that awful feeling in your stomach....then a feeling of relief when you find out it is something simple :-)
 
Today is day three of repairing the pond due to frost damage. There's a maximum limit of thickness of plaster to stay.. so it's case of building up the layers. This should be up to the point it's level with the old plaster. It doesn't need to be perfect other than roughly level as the tiling will need something to stick onto.. we're forecast rain tomorrow so getting this done today and dried should be ok for that.
 
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