Hi everyone,
I’m new here and new to ponds.
We bought a house in June that has a relatively small waterfall feature in the backyard. The house is 20 months old so this is about the same age.
For the first few days after we moved in, I didn’t even think of the backyard so the pump (filter?) remained off. I had no instructions whatsoever about how to maintain it (and didn’t even think to ask, actually) — but knew we had a remote control to “turn it on.” I finally turned it on about 4-5 days in because I noticed the water was greenish, and figured it needed to be run.
For about a week, I turned it on each morning and turned it off each night. And then I started thinking it was maybe supposed to be on all day 24/7 so I kept it on for about a week.
One Saturday, about three weeks into living here and while we were watching TV, our entire left side of the garage (at the front of the house) blew a circuit (tripped?), taking with it the power to the water heater, modem, and garage door opener. We got an electrician to come out and he turned it back on. By day’s end, it blew again when I wasn’t home and my husband said nothing unusual had happened.
When we had another electrician come out, he brought the power back again. I happened to ask about the water feature and if he could look into that too while he was here — and he said he would. So we took him to the back and I used the control to turn it on (to show it didn’t work) when the entire system tripped again. He figured out that the water feature pump was the culprit and once that was unplugged — everything else was back to normal and has remained that way since.
It’s now been a month since. I’m having the toughest time trying to find a service provider who can come out and fix it. I had one koi pond specialist come out and he tried but could not find where the pump is. He believes water either got into the pump or the pipe that houses the cord that leads it to the outlet on the patio, and is tripping the circuit. Doesn’t do me any good if he can’t find the pump.
I got the name of the company that built this feature from the former owners to at least tell me where the pump is. As mentioned, this is less than two years old but the company claims the warranty is null and void now because the house was sold and the warranty doesn’t transfer. What the…. ugh. It’s not even a battle I want to take on right now, but unsurprisingly, I haven’t even gotten a call back to tell me where the damn pump is or what kind of pump is in this thing.
I finally had someone from a pond company come out today and the diagnosis is the same. But now, the water is darker and I can see some bug activity on it. (It’s making me itchy just thinking about it.) He thinks there might be an auto-fill on this after learning I have never filled it since the beginning of June and it’s been 110-117F in Vegas recently.
He recommends a full cleaning ($550) and once emptied, they will find the pump. If the pump is the issue, they’ll replace that for what he thinks will be $400-500. If water got in the pipe, it’ll be $150-ish to vacuum the pipe and replace the cord. He also suggests I change to a pond-less waterfall feature now or in the future to alleviate the maintenance if I am not keeping fish. (I think it’s too shallow and small — and way too hot here — to keep fish alive in this thing!) But that would be around $4,000-5,000, he said.
Since he can’t schedule me in until next Wednesday, so I asked what I can do to kill the bugs (mosquitoes?) that I can see on the surface. (They weren’t there last week.) He suggested I go buy pool chlorine and pour it in, and that will take care of it until they come next week.
So, for those of you well-versed on pond-keeping — does this sound like a good plan? And do the prices sound reasonable? And if I pour chlorine in here and there’s a bird that drinks out of it, will it die? I haven’t seen birds drink out of it (though I have lots of hummers that come by to feed on the feeder) and I know my dog doesn’t drink from it — but I’m wondering what chlorinating this pond will do or if there’s something safer I ought to do. I’m guessing I’ll need monthly (?) maintenance after this is fixed.
I’ve kept up to 60-gallon aquariums indoors and loved it. But I’ve never had an outdoor pond of any kind and am just beginning to learn. I don’t plan on doing the pond-less waterfall anytime soon, but in the next couple of years, I’d be open to either that or making this even bigger, but I don’t know what kind of money pit I’m getting myself into. It was a huge selling point for me when buying this house and the waterfall and water sounds made the backyard so serene and relaxing, so this has been disappointing, but I can’t wait to bring it back.
Thanks, guys, for any guidance you can offer!
I’m new here and new to ponds.
We bought a house in June that has a relatively small waterfall feature in the backyard. The house is 20 months old so this is about the same age.
For the first few days after we moved in, I didn’t even think of the backyard so the pump (filter?) remained off. I had no instructions whatsoever about how to maintain it (and didn’t even think to ask, actually) — but knew we had a remote control to “turn it on.” I finally turned it on about 4-5 days in because I noticed the water was greenish, and figured it needed to be run.
For about a week, I turned it on each morning and turned it off each night. And then I started thinking it was maybe supposed to be on all day 24/7 so I kept it on for about a week.
One Saturday, about three weeks into living here and while we were watching TV, our entire left side of the garage (at the front of the house) blew a circuit (tripped?), taking with it the power to the water heater, modem, and garage door opener. We got an electrician to come out and he turned it back on. By day’s end, it blew again when I wasn’t home and my husband said nothing unusual had happened.
When we had another electrician come out, he brought the power back again. I happened to ask about the water feature and if he could look into that too while he was here — and he said he would. So we took him to the back and I used the control to turn it on (to show it didn’t work) when the entire system tripped again. He figured out that the water feature pump was the culprit and once that was unplugged — everything else was back to normal and has remained that way since.
It’s now been a month since. I’m having the toughest time trying to find a service provider who can come out and fix it. I had one koi pond specialist come out and he tried but could not find where the pump is. He believes water either got into the pump or the pipe that houses the cord that leads it to the outlet on the patio, and is tripping the circuit. Doesn’t do me any good if he can’t find the pump.
I got the name of the company that built this feature from the former owners to at least tell me where the pump is. As mentioned, this is less than two years old but the company claims the warranty is null and void now because the house was sold and the warranty doesn’t transfer. What the…. ugh. It’s not even a battle I want to take on right now, but unsurprisingly, I haven’t even gotten a call back to tell me where the damn pump is or what kind of pump is in this thing.
I finally had someone from a pond company come out today and the diagnosis is the same. But now, the water is darker and I can see some bug activity on it. (It’s making me itchy just thinking about it.) He thinks there might be an auto-fill on this after learning I have never filled it since the beginning of June and it’s been 110-117F in Vegas recently.
He recommends a full cleaning ($550) and once emptied, they will find the pump. If the pump is the issue, they’ll replace that for what he thinks will be $400-500. If water got in the pipe, it’ll be $150-ish to vacuum the pipe and replace the cord. He also suggests I change to a pond-less waterfall feature now or in the future to alleviate the maintenance if I am not keeping fish. (I think it’s too shallow and small — and way too hot here — to keep fish alive in this thing!) But that would be around $4,000-5,000, he said.
Since he can’t schedule me in until next Wednesday, so I asked what I can do to kill the bugs (mosquitoes?) that I can see on the surface. (They weren’t there last week.) He suggested I go buy pool chlorine and pour it in, and that will take care of it until they come next week.
So, for those of you well-versed on pond-keeping — does this sound like a good plan? And do the prices sound reasonable? And if I pour chlorine in here and there’s a bird that drinks out of it, will it die? I haven’t seen birds drink out of it (though I have lots of hummers that come by to feed on the feeder) and I know my dog doesn’t drink from it — but I’m wondering what chlorinating this pond will do or if there’s something safer I ought to do. I’m guessing I’ll need monthly (?) maintenance after this is fixed.
I’ve kept up to 60-gallon aquariums indoors and loved it. But I’ve never had an outdoor pond of any kind and am just beginning to learn. I don’t plan on doing the pond-less waterfall anytime soon, but in the next couple of years, I’d be open to either that or making this even bigger, but I don’t know what kind of money pit I’m getting myself into. It was a huge selling point for me when buying this house and the waterfall and water sounds made the backyard so serene and relaxing, so this has been disappointing, but I can’t wait to bring it back.
Thanks, guys, for any guidance you can offer!
