Autumn is definately on its way here in Plymouth

[Dave 54]

Well the autumn months are definately on there way here in Plymouth , that damn Jet stream the one that gave us such a nice summer has now slipped bellow us and is drawing in colder air and lots of moisture , it rained so hard over the last three days that I've had to open the overflow pipe up and loose 2" of water above the level of what it should be.
The temperature on the pond has dropped from 16c right down to 12.5c in three short days
All the winter preperations are done with the filters cleaned, new quilt batting added, the six brushes cleaned, 12 new airstones bought and the old ones replaced , a sack of freshly charged up zeolite has been added and the bag of Lithaqua topped up, last but not least the new parasol closed for the winter
All we need to do now is put the policarbonate covers over the pond and we are ready to go through yet another winter lets hope its not a bad one like last year with all those storms we had to suffer .


Dave

 

[tbendl]

Awe. I hope you have an easy winter as well.

 

[Dave 54]

thanx for your good wishes but I have a bad feeling about this winter whether thats a frozen and white UK (which we cant cope with), or a wet and flooded one like last year (again giving us problems of coping with it all) we'll just have to see
If its frozen white winter we are prepared with crampons for both Val and my walking sticks and crampons for our footwear too
The gloves are in the laundry and clean as are our scarf's and the hats are hanging up on hooks just in case

Dave

 

[tbendl]

Crampon? I'm so terrified of the answer but I have to know what the heck that is...

 

[Dave 54]

Crampons are steel spikes that grip in the ice I can fiix them to the bottom of the walking sticks and the foot ones are the same but held on place by thick rubber straps .
Mountain climbers use another version of this .
The stick crampons I first saw when in Military hospital and a Royal Marine who broke his leg whilst on ski's during an exersize had them attached to his crutches , it took another 30 years before they became available to civilians

Dave

 

[tbendl]

Wow you guys don't mess around with that snow stuff.

 

[Dave 54]

Yes we all remember what happened to Captain Scott and his ill fated expedition to Antartica (he came from Plymouth )

Dave

 

[Tula]

Autumn is upon us here as well, but I'm not as far along as you on winter preparations. I've netted the pond and have slowed feeding to light feedings of wheat germ based food on warmer days. I'm still not sure what I'm doing with my Hako air pump. I wrote the manufacturer and they say many people use them through the winter, but I worry it might be too powerful.

I'll close down my filter and water fall in Nov. doing a good water change about that time. Sigh...guess we'll all settle in for a long winter's nap

 

[DrCase]

I'm not ready yet

 

[Dave 54]

Autumn is upon us here as well, but I'm not as far along as you on winter preparations. I've netted the pond and have slowed feeding to light feedings of wheat germ based food on warmer days. I'm still not sure what I'm doing with my Hako air pump. I wrote the manufacturer and they say many people use them through the winter, but I worry it might be too powerful.

I'll close down my filter and water fall in Nov. doing a good water change about that time. Sigh...guess we'll all settle in for a long winter's nap

Do you have a manifold with the airpump Tula if not look up a koi dealership website and buy one this will give you taps with which you can control the amount of air going into the pond .
We run ours all winter but at a much reduced rate .
With an air stone you can set them at various levels by fixing a few bamboo rods across the pond and wrapping the air hose around it a few times gives you the differing depths you can use .
We are lucky we run two airpumps one supplying the pond bubbler the other our filters so much of the oxygenated water comes from our three of our four filters, the first in line being a vortex with requires no air stones

Dr Chase my good friend its always better to be ready just in case we get early snows freezing temperatures and frost.
Another 1c loss of temperature on our own pond and the covers are going as quickly as we can .


Dave

 

[RobAmy]

I'm not ready yet

I am not ready either

 

[Dave 54]

Slightly up in temperature today at 12.7c , our remote swimming pool thermometer took on water the other day so I'm using a floating bath thermometer to take the daily temperature until the other dries out , my fault really I didnt tighten it up enough .
RobAmy I feel for you I really do, here everyday is a blessing to us

Dave

 

[Tula]

Do you have a manifold with the airpump Tula if not look up a koi dealership website and buy one this will give you taps with which you can control the amount of air going into the pond .
We run ours all winter but at a much reduced rate .
With an air stone you can set them at various levels by fixing a few bamboo rods across the pond and wrapping the air hose around it a few times gives you the differing depths you can use .
We are lucky we run two airpumps one supplying the pond bubbler the other our filters so much of the oxygenated water comes from our three of our four filters, the first in line being a vortex with requires no air stones

Dr Chase my good friend its always better to be ready just in case we get early snows freezing temperatures and frost.
Another 1c loss of temperature on our own pond and the covers are going as quickly as we can .


Dave

Don't laugh.....I don't know what a manifold is! The air pump has a weighted hose and a rubber wand like thing that disperses the air bubbles. I've been super impressed with this wand thing, it's fairly long and emits a heavy stream of fine bubbles.

 

[addy1]

I wrote the manufacturer and they say many people use them through the winter, but I worry it might be too powerful.

I am using the pond breathers that Mitch used, Mitch gets a lot colder than we will.
I got scared of aerators, after someone here in Maryland, used a aerator and lost all the fish over winter, all except one. So bought two breathers, one for the big pond one for the stock tank.

 

[j.w]

Autumn is here today for sure, cooler temps, leaves are falling and turning colors and.........rain, rain and more rain have joined the party! Gonna be like this for many moons now............wait..................I bet we won't see that old man in the moon till June!