Added a dozen goldfish to the new pond to start seeding it tonight. Decided that if weather is fine tomorrow, the electrics are going in then, so the filter transfer will take place tomorrow night (the amount of water to fish ratio isn't going to affect them as the filter has been seeding in the old pond for a couple of weeks now).
My New Pond Construction
- Thread starter VanDiesil
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Looks like your making some nice progress, keep up the good work
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Looking nice
Suppose I had better make the most of the sun and go and do some more work on the new pond. Only running electrics today as got regional première of "Amazing Spider-Man 2" to attend tonight (won tickets).
Changed my mind, have moved several barrow loads of spoil (& suffering now for it!) instead to start backfilling the sides ready for the slabs and whatever else I put around the edge of the pond for decor.
Changed my mind, have moved several barrow loads of spoil (& suffering now for it!) instead to start backfilling the sides ready for the slabs and whatever else I put around the edge of the pond for decor.
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Electrics will definitely be going in within the next 36 hours as the new pond is suffering an algae bloom (green water), where as the small pond is crystal clear. Added some mature barley straw to the new pond earlier as well as a little H. Peroxide to try to kick start the algae inhibition ready for the filter matting to remove as much as possible when transferred. Would have moved it earlier but got to lay the foundations for the filter box before I put it in and they were laid this afternoon (run out of time).
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lol it took my 5 years to get my electrics............my electrician hubby was a little slow hard wiring my electric. Ran off a huge extension cord for years.
Essentially what I have run so far LOL Removed the cabling off the 30m extension reel I had here and fitted that to the waterproof junction box, which is waiting to be put through the outbuilding wall in to a circuit breaker. Need to relocated the box andf pump, plus wire the pump in to the waterproof junction. Shouldn't take much longer than an hour to run the cabling properly in conduit & do the rest of it.
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It took him one hour to finally do my electric, we had the wire run since the day the pond was built, 4 years ago.........opps said 5
Absolutely FUMING this morning!!!! Woke up to find that the fish in the small pond were gasping at the surface. New pump that was bought 2 weeks ago has failed!!!! That is 2 pumps gone in the space of 15 days!!!! Impeller completely clear, electrics all fine as tested with other items. Shop cannot replace until next week at earliest as Friday and don't get delivery on Saturdays and closed on Monday, and manufacturer saying that it has to go back to them even though it was bought on 28 March 2014!!!! To say I am fuming is a complete understatement!!!! If I lose any fish, there will be absolute carnage happening in the store when I get down there (worst part of it is that Friday is my busiest day with other things, so don't need this on top of everything else presently!!!!!).........
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Do you have a aerator you can put in until you get this fixed?
No as this was a replacement pump for an old one that failed. I have a choice: I can move all the fish over to the new pond and hope that the much smaller pumps running a smaller filter can turnover enough water to run the filter box, or leave everything in situ as is and hope for the best. The new pond though has had a massive green water explosion as no filtration been running in it & the pump that packed up was running the new filter box in the small pond to cycle it before transferring over to new pond. Obviously I don't know how long it has stopped for but was working at 5pm last night (was 9am this morning that I noticed it when I went to feed the fish), so a lot of the bacteria could have died due to it being a Wet & Dry filter that has remained dry for God knows how long!
Aaron S
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Hey you started this pond on my birthday! Pretty sweet.
I know all about your health issues. I just had a major surgery on my back in December, and I'm still not cleared to walk more than 50 feet at a time. Then in February my doctor drove by my house and saw me rebuilding my pond and I thought that he was going to choke slam me! I really sucks because some days are real good and some days you can't get out of bed.
Your pond is coming along real nice and is looking pretty good. It's a shame about your pumps. That would make me mad enough to want to punch a hobbit. If you have just gold fish, I think that they will be ok. A year ago some pretty big tornado's tore up a big part of the Oklahoma City metro and I was without electricity for 3 weeks. I have just regular comet goldfish and they all pulled through pretty good. They were pretty freaked out when the pond got filled up with hail, but once every thing was in operation again, they appeared just as healthy as before.
I know all about your health issues. I just had a major surgery on my back in December, and I'm still not cleared to walk more than 50 feet at a time. Then in February my doctor drove by my house and saw me rebuilding my pond and I thought that he was going to choke slam me! I really sucks because some days are real good and some days you can't get out of bed.
Your pond is coming along real nice and is looking pretty good. It's a shame about your pumps. That would make me mad enough to want to punch a hobbit. If you have just gold fish, I think that they will be ok. A year ago some pretty big tornado's tore up a big part of the Oklahoma City metro and I was without electricity for 3 weeks. I have just regular comet goldfish and they all pulled through pretty good. They were pretty freaked out when the pond got filled up with hail, but once every thing was in operation again, they appeared just as healthy as before.
Disaster averted (I hope!). Just transferred two smaller pumps to the new filter box and they are running fine now. Have started moving the rest of the fish from the small pond over but there are always a few that avoid the net constantly, so to lower the stress, I am draining the small pond presently slowly (16mm garden hose siphon!) to make it easier to get them moved this afternoon. Going to use the time later to clean the existing 25W UV out and plumb that in line with one of the pumps to try to clear the green water (although the lamp probably needs replacing as it is a good year old now).
My main concern is that a dozen of the fish in the small pond are of an historic strain of Cyprinus Carpio (descendants of the Galician strain imported by Donald Leney in the mid-20th century) in UK angling circles so they are important to me, and that a good friend of mine in Devon breeds this strain now in his stock ponds (one successful spawning every 4 or 5 years!). Once the new pond is up and running properly, I will be paying him another visit for another dozen or so of them.
Got the new pump working again. The motor for some reason doesn't have the power to start the impeller turning. Cleaned the impeller, shaft & impeller cavity out, and still wouldn't start (I could see it trying as I powered it on dry - only momentarily though!!!). Gave the impeller blades a quick nudge with a piece of soft wood I had laying about and it started turning properly again!!!!! It is now running as a fountain until I get time this afternoon/evening to attach the pipework to it again. At the moment it is running off a standard plug in the mains socket in the outbuilding, so got to wire that up to switchbox sometime - which will probably mean the same all over again!!!!! 