***The Pond Discussion Thread****

[NickK]

Have you considered what happena if the pump fails or the power fails? Ie the water flows back theough the pump in to previous stages - will that simply flow back to the pond? Will the rise ib pond level cause a problem?

Is there a second pump or is that fitted in the output of the existing pump?

 

[kindai]

Have you considered what happena if the pump fails or the power fails? Ie the water flows back theough the pump in to previous stages - will that simply flow back to the pond? Will the rise ib pond level cause a problem?

No problem in this regard.

Though it does limit me in terms of what I can do pipework wise eg UV units.

 

[kindai]

Second treatment went in today, pond back to radioactive green.

 

[NickK]

Interesting the NTlabs FMG turns the pond dark blue, then it slowly fades back to clear over a few days.

Fish seem to be happy although a little hungry.

Was giving the BD a bit of a purge then it absolutely bucketed down. May have to get another load of buffer.

The fittings arrived too.

 

[kindai]

Interesting the NTlabs FMG turns the pond dark blue, then it slowly fades back to clear over a few days.

Its likely they used a blue dye in the Formalin to help block UV (uv breaks Malachite down quickly).

Im using Malachite and Acriflavine which is a yellow base, hense it looks greener.

 

[NickK]

Moved the final little fish out of the back filter area... but it required me to (a) remove the airlifts, (b) pull up the anoxic filter baskets.. only then did it get caught.. but I had a to use the staff of the net only .. to make it think it should come up to the top, then I used the net head in the other hand to grab it.. what a palaver..

Anyway - three little koi now in the main pond along with the two large koi.

 

[kindai]

Build is coming up nicely.

Decided to add a window in the front to see the media turning over....

Will also make finishing the blockwork easier for access and mean I dont gas myself when fiberglassing it.

 

[NickK]

Was out in the garden today, seen all the little koi.

It seems wally, an orange koi, is happy wandering around but avoids direct eye contact with me - he looks out of the window first to see if I'm there.. then if I'm there it will sink below the window and then follow the base of the window along. Little has he/she known that I was 30cm away from it as it was happly eating algae on the walls last night.
Today as wally move across the window.. one of the little ones moved across was following. The other was across the pond under some plants.

Happy now, they seem less stressed and settling in.

Work stopped for today at the moment - we have rain and a thunder storm with black clouds... so once that's done it's back to the garden.

 

[NickK]

The Mrs surprised me with an under water camera (plug-in ethernet one), unfortunately:
* accessing via web browser - it wants to download an EXE and can't work as the browser is too modern (I'm using a Mac, and no I'm not downgrading my browser)
* comes with a USB - nope.
* iPhone app requires a cloud login - thus the video stream has to go to the cloud in china before coming to the app and it spews adverts.

It has all the hallmarks of a security risk/breach.. even if it's simply going to be under water.. not installing anything, let alone degrading the security and installing malware..

So I'm afraid that surprise gift (and she seemed so happy with it).. is going back.

 

[NickK]

Noted one of the fish jump high in the air this morning. Did a water test - it showed a high ammonia level (~1.0mg/l), so went at lunch and bought 3 bottles of ammonia stuff (4.5Kl treat/each). The guy in the shop said it converts ammonia (NH3) to ammonium (NH4+) which is not harmful to fish and it can still continue to show up as high ammonia on some tests.

I was thinking - what could have caused this:
* two recent treatments
* taking the anoxic filter baskets out for a couple of hours
* new fish + feeding
* addition of KH buffer

The ammonia seems to be high still, but given there's enough to nuke 1.5mg/l in all 13,000 litres, I suspect that's an incorrect reading. I could have changed the water but that's got lots of other complications. In the end I want to know why there's a high ammonia but low nitrite and nitrate, something causing a spike. I have seen the two large fish, two small fish but I've not see the third small fish.

Anyway.. an unpopular action in the pond.. but they're on a no-food regime until the ammonia drops.

 

[NickK]

Just shoved my waterproof GoPro clone down on the net pole

1. Seems ok, a few bits of algae string.
2. Fish seem quite relaxed now, a second test seemed to be better on the ammonia reading.
3. It's green.. I need to get my UVC hooked up for a couple of days of continuous blasting.

Let's see tomorrow.

 

[NickK]

Started the hard fit for the UVC, I forgotten how much solvent glue stinks. The pipework for his separate loop is 63mm but the pump is 50mm (EA - 2" connections.. really?!?), so I may go for a 50-63mm soft boot for the initial fitting for the pump rather than solvent glue the pump in straight away.

I remember the days when 1" flex pipes seemed massive.. and now I use 32mm for my air supply!

 

[kindai]

I forgotten how much solvent glue stinks.

Learn to love it

Update on the bio chamber. Inlet, outlet and waste holes drilled. Cut a recess to support window. Top edging done as well as the support frame for the window. G4 all the blockwork to make sure any ground water stays out prior to fibreglassing.


To do, get the in out pipes fitted in place and sealed. Taper the base towards the waste hole, create supports for the stainless mesh. Fibreglass it and then get the window in.

 

[NickK]

This weekend will see me pulling apart the filter for the first time since it was fitted. Turns out I didn't fit the 90 behind the filter for the 2" connection #facepalm then once that's done I'll put a tube into the drum for now and setup the back for a simple flex pipe return into the main pond. Next year we'll get a fibre glass top made for the anoxic filter and then make it a water fall in fibreglass - adding the 2" return into the back of that so it's a water fall driven by the drums front -> UVC -> water fall and back to the pond making a second loop and so the poor drum filter will not have to run with the full rate of water of both the filter and the water pump running through it.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

First frog visitor in my mini wildlife pond



Finally all the frogs in our garden have somewhere to go.

 

[NickK]

Well it turns out I needed a 90deg so I stopped before disassembling the filter. I didn't order a 90 bend as I thought I could find time during the week to pop out and buy one locally. Nope.. so this weekend is back to paving. The paving is looking good so far. However as there's no UV running the pond is green again (we had some high sun/UV days).

 

[NickK]

Needed some summer food for the remainder of the summer, so grabbed from Hakari Gold for once. Mixed that in with the remaining food, so once they're getting cooler I'll get some new wheatgerm but for now that will do.

 

[NickK]

Ran out of food (well part of the mix) and the local shop had one bag of NTLabs Heath without a date code on it.. hmm so I opted to buy a bag of Hakari Gold. So for now they have a mix of all the foods including some NTLabs wheatgerm, some of the small pellet oase and some spirulla disks.

Koi food can be difficult ro find what is rebadge branded food.

Saki Haliri - ££££ - sort of the top food from Japan and you pay top dollar for it. 2kg colour + 2kg balance is £82! (NTLabs 5kg health + 3kg wheatgerm =~£80)

Hakari Gold/etc - £££ - non-rebranded but supposedly decent food. If people switch out from HS then this seems to be one of the foods.

NTLabs Probiotic - £££ - premium line of ntlabs, I used this before but expensive.

NTLabs Health/etc - ££ - a great food and I’ve used Health etc for years. i’ll mix health and wheatgerm products together and vary the mix for the season/temps.
Usually 5kg of health + 3kg of wheatgerm will last the year.

Coppens - £ - a heavily rebranded (with the branded packaging costing an as much as the above) but all produced by one of the largest producers (coppens). I tried a JPD branded coppens and it turned my water brown.

I’ve been feeding the wish once a day except when they are milling around the window.

 

[kindai]

I stopped using Hikari/Saki a couple of years back when they stopped shipping it from Japan and produce "an equivilant" over in Europe on the promise to reduce the cost, but they never did.

Its also mentally expensive as you mentioned. And frankly if not raising show-grade koi, its a waste of money.

I now use JPD foods. Quality food, doesnt cloud the water, fish love it, low waste, and has a really nice balance of color enhancers that dont mess with the shiro.

Shori when the water is holding 20+ degrees
50/50 mix of Shori and Shogun between 14-20 degrees
And beflow 14 degrees Shogun on its own.

 

[NickK]

I believe the pond got a bit of a top up today.. given the amount of rain induced flooding of roads etc. crazy amount of water!