Frozen sunburst

[Shdwdrgn]

We have a rapid freeze last night, and this was the result...

Also caught a little water flowing through the ice in the river.

Anyway, just thought I'd share.

 

[fishin4cars]

Cool pic of the waterfall, you should post that in the pic of the month! Do you leave the stream running even when the stream freezes completely over?

 

[Shdwdrgn]

So far I've had everything running without a hitch... until today. Somewhere around all the ice, I think I lost about 50 gallons of water. I was refilling when I took these pictures. I have no idea where the water went to - I would have expected to see an ice flow out across the yard somewhere, but its just gone. We are starting to get into the coldest part of the season now, so this is when I expect bad things could happen, and am keeping an even closer eye on the water.

Ah I didn't realize there was a separate thread for the pic of the month. I see it now, heading that way...

 

[addy1]

Very nice picture! Love how you captured it.
we are still waiting for real cold weather. It is bouncing so much here. Yesterday 58 today in the 30's.

 

[DrCase]

Nice Pics
Now might be the time to turn of the pump

 

[sissy]

did you check you filter tank .I had one that cracked on my first pond when we got a sudden freeze .I could not even see the split at first .I guess the plastic could not take the cold .

 

[j.w]

That picture is really cool! We have a nice white frostyiness on everything here right now. But guess what?........................................................SNOW MIGHT BE ON THE WAY.....................................but they do this to us all the time during the winter......tell us snow and it's a no show!!!

 

[Becky]

That's a great picture! I love the different ways ice can form

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Thanks, all... The weather is still bouncing here as well. Back into the mid-50's for the weekend. I never turned off the pump on my previous small pond, and just can't imagine doing it for the larger body of water. It just seems counter-intuitive to me to turn off their circulation.

I do have one idea of where the water goes. The liner material that comes up the waterfall just lays against the sides of the barrels, underneath the exit spouts. I had problems this Summer with the water going over the edge at times, so I'm guessing with all the ice that formed, the water went up over the edge again. Getting this fixed is high on my to-do list for next season. I made a mistake with the liner material anyway, so I'm going to take down the whole waterfall (trying to keep the bricks in order so I can rebuild it the same) and lay in a new piece of rubber. Once that is finished, I'm going to cut holes in the edges and screw together the barrel exit spouts with the liner material trapped between, hopefully completely sealing it off and raising the edge of the liner above the spouts so there can be no overflow. As far as I've been able to determine, this is the only area where I've had significant problems with losing water, so we'll see how things work next year after I get the area fixed.

 

[sissy]

seems when there is a leak you know where it is and how it happens and you say either what chance it will happen or I will take care of that later .I 've been there done that to many times myself and think most of us has at one time or the other .

 

[Shdwdrgn]

True enough, sissy. And I knew that spot could be a problem when I put it together, but by that time I'd been working on building the pond for two solid months and I had to walk away and take care of other things. This coming season all I need to worry about is finishing up the waterfall properly, then I will be essentially done and I can just tend to the fish and plants.

 

[sissy]

huh done laughing now when do any of us ever get done ,we say that and then come up with something else .It's a never ending circle .

 

[herzausstahl]

I like the way your stream looks, thats what I wanted to do with mine, but accidently dug too deep and now that its all in place I have no desire to redo it. awesome waterfall pic!

 

[Shdwdrgn]

You could always fill your stream with gravel like I did. I used progressively larger rocks, up to 8-10", to create a dam to contain the gravel. It has worked to some degree, but the fish have knocked a bit down into the larger pond that I'll have to clean out this year. I'm also considering putting some drilled pipes under all the gravel, fed by another pump, to flush out the gravel from the underside and make it act more like a bog filter.

My only regret with my stream is that I should have made it wider, with 45-degree sides, so I could stack the larger rocks against the sides instead of having them sit on a shelf. When the dogs step up to the water, they have a tendency of pushing the rocks in.

 

[addy1]

You could always fill your stream with gravel like I did. I used progressively larger rocks, up to 8-10", to create a dam to contain the gravel. It has worked to some degree, but the fish have knocked a bit down into the larger pond that I'll have to clean out this year. I'm also considering putting some drilled pipes under all the gravel, fed by another pump, to flush out the gravel from the underside and make it act more like a bog filter.

My only regret with my stream is that I should have made it wider, with 45-degree sides, so I could stack the larger rocks against the sides instead of having them sit on a shelf. When the dogs step up to the water, they have a tendency of pushing the rocks in.

If it would not take a bunch of work, re-dig where your rocks sit, the shelf, with a back slope away from the pond I did that to make my rocks stable for stepping on them.