My pond progression( DIY Skippy, inherited pond renovation)

[ponder630]

I hope everything turns out ok with your husbands. I have two little one's and my checkup my doctor told me with my family history of high cholesterol is either change your lifestyle and lose 20 pounds or go on cholesterol lowering drugs. I chose to change my lifestyle and hopefully that keeps everything ok.

 

[addy1]

I refuse to take the statins, they are nasty drugs. I go the route of walking everyday, working in the yard, and trying to eat better. My good cholesterol is real high, out weighs the bad stuff that is higher then the magic below 100 number they want it to be.

Mine bounces between 110 and 145, almonds, eaten every day, just a handful really helped my numbers. Doc gave up telling me he wants me on the statins, as I point out my ratio is fantastic..........My goal is no pills unless they say if not taken you will die, like soon....... I think too many docs just hand out pills like candy, easy fix, then another pill to fix the pill side effects they just gave you, then another for that side affect on and on........

 

[Carolyn22]

Sissy - No, I have not lived in PA the whole time. I was born in Rochester NY and it wasn't too long after that that we were on the west coast and my brother was born. I was an air force brat and then add to the mix that my Dad was in medical school doing his internships and residencies - so although I have lived on both sides of the country and in between, most of my memories are on the Eastern part of the country.

I still travel back and forth to Rochester - I was there 20 years ago for a period of about 10 years. My best friend is still there and where we be without 'girl time'. Funny thing, our children are now the ages we were when we first met so long ago and they are now having babies.

GG - I hear you on the doctors. Hubs had to learn to walk all over again after having an allergic reaction to the flu so many years ago. That was before I had come along, however - that was also before the age of the internet and self diagnosis. He does ask me what my father thinks about certain things, even though my Dad was never a heart doctor.

Addy - I too have the good cholesterol that is sky high. I did go on the statins and am so regretting it. I do try to stay active, but the weight just does not seem to budge. My goal is to get myself off of those nasty drugs. It wouldn't hurt to be thinner either.

 

[sissy]

almond milk is great I love the chocolate kind and if you add cool whip and put it in a blender it makes a great milk shake .Hate to say it but seems after 50 the weight just finds you no matter what .Before I moved down here and retired I weighed 105 pounds and now I weigh 145 and i hate it .Even doctor can't understand it ,i am a vegetarian and I don't eat any candy or sweet stuff .I am active and never stop and up at every morning around 6 am and usually still on the go after midnight .I Only time I sit is to be on the puter and i force myself to sit down and do that so I can at least rest a little .My bones ache if I don't .I have my coffee fix then .

 

[addy1]

When he first tried to get me to take them, I said show me the break down of my numbers, then I very nicely pointed out all information out there, medical sites, state no statins needed with the high good and lowish bad, perfect ratio, mine is below what the recommend, so it is great. Now at one time my total was over 400...............long time ago lol

So I win, he now knows I am not going to take them, the new thought process is women should not be on them. He tried to tell me I had high blood pressure, I said nope, just have white coat syndrome, pressure goes up when I am around doctors, worked with them too long.

Tried to tell me I was pre diabetic, said nope, check it again, your blood sugar can be a tiny high in the am if you are npo and tend to really need to eat, like I do. Usually have breakfast at 530am, so npo to 7 am kills me. Won that one too lol.

I go to them really informed, loaded with info and we discuss what will or will not be done.

 

[ponder630]

I guess that is why we are so reluctant to put chemicals in our ponds! We won't even take drugs because we all believe there is something better naturally. I just think as a society, our food sources and lifestyles have changed so much in the past 20 years (and I'm in my 30s) that I think is causing a lot of health concerns. I can't recall growing up in the 80's that any of my friends or school mates had any food allergies, as a kid I played outside from the moment I got home from school until my mom called us in for dinner.

Now my nieces and nephews all play on the electronics indoors. I raise my girls to play outside like I did and with a pond they love nature. My eldest collected rocks with another friend yesterday to put on our waterfall and my other daughter likes to help clean the pond by netting debris.

Maybe that is why we all love ponding so much, its relaxing and gives you some time to be with nature and slow down a bit. Like I said, this is my first year where I am really working/enjoying the pond and I can't stop adjusting my pond now. Everyday I come home and I sit outside looking at what I should do next or what rock to adjust.

Back to ponding though, I found some flagstone at lunch time at a rock yard and brought it home and started adjusting the falls again and put a big flat piece on a few boulders to give the fish a place to hide under. The fish seem to be getting used to my presence and eating while I'm outside now. They still get spooked as soon as I stand up, but if I sit real still for 5 minutes they start to come out. I still have foam though and I think I have been doing weekly water changes. I think I have changed out about 30% of water the last two weeks. How much water change is necessary to dilute the DOCs and once the plants get established will the foam go away?

Here is an updated video pondside after dinner yesterday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=NKwrWMObunM

 

[CometKeith]

Hi ponder630. Your pond looks great. I started out with a lot of limestone and have moved to using slate or granite because of ph problems.

 

[koiguy1969]

almond milk is great I love the chocolate kind and if you add cool whip and put it in a blender it makes a great milk shake .Hate to say it but seems after 50 the weight just finds you no matter what .Before I moved down here and retired I weighed 105 pounds and now I weigh 145 and i hate it .Even doctor can't understand it ,i am a vegetarian and I don't eat any candy or sweet stuff .I am active and never stop and up at every morning around 6 am and usually still on the go after midnight .I Only time I sit is to be on the puter and i force myself to sit down and do that so I can at least rest a little .My bones ache if I don't .I have my coffee fix then .

sissy...COOL WHIP IS HYDROGENTED OIL AND HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP...2 of the worse so called "food products" you can put in your body. if you drink almond milk. drink Silk brand...no carrageegen in it. almond milk contains fats that help carry nutrients into the blood stream so its excellent in smotthies. coconut milk is even better for you. but look for a brand with no carrageegen. Silk brand uses it in their coconut milk.

OH...and back on original thread subject...ponder630, the ponds coming along nicely.

 

[ponder630]

CometKeith: I was just wondering about the PH. I tested my water last night and it was in 8.6, but the PH from the tap was 7.6. I did have my waterfall running over my existing limestone when I built it last weekend. On Monday, I went to the stone yard to pickup flagstone and have since tinkered with the waterfall so the majority of the waterfall runs over the new flagstone and not limestone. Could the limestone raise the PH that much? I did do a

 

[CometKeith]

Hey Ponder630, I think the limestone can raise it a lot. I had all this nice limestone in my waterfall and switched out all of it last year to granite rocks. If anything your ph should go down over time because of plants in the pond, not up. High PH is a measure of strong alkalinity or lime, so it makes sense that rocks made from lime can raise PH in water. Most books on ponds recommend not to put limestone in waterfalls. There have been a lot of discussions here back and forth, but it is always better to use alternatives like slate or granite. The garden store I mentioned to you has really nice looking granite rocks. I think I bought around 150 pounds for $35 or $40 and that was enough for my waterfall.

 

[ponder630]

A little update on my pond progress. It's been roughly a month since the DIY filter went in and about 3 weeks since the waterfall was built. I've added a lot more 3-4 inch cobblestones at the base of the waterfall making it more like a stream. I was inspired by all the posts of a trickle tower/strawberry jar trickle tower and thought that perhaps making it more of a stream to give the water more time to contact with rocks to mimic a TT. Not quite a true T.T. but I'm hoping it has similar effects. I The water is really clear now and water tests show no traces of ammonia, nitrate, nitrite. I did get three new shubunkins as one of the pond stores sent me a flier for their pond event and they were giving away a free koi or 3 goldfish. I opted for the goldfish as I don't think the pond can support another koi.

The lily pads are coming up again but are very small compared to last year, when I bought them. Is that a sign that I may need to re-pot or is that normal for the first pads of the season? The watercress I threw in the filter took off like crazy. I started with one bunch and had to divide a massive clump into smaller ones and took some smaller pieces a nested them into the waterfall. They are starting to take hold and fill in the waterfall. I found some lemongrass and stuck some in pea gravel in one pot and the other stalks bare stem in the filter. Lets see which one grows roots, if they don't oh well $2 down the drain!

I've also added a Tetra in-pond skimmer due to the yard service blowing all the crap in my pond this past weekend and I can't believe how clean my pond looks. The fish seem to be doing well in this warm weather and are very active. I am still trying to calm them down with my presence. It seems they won't hide right away and if I sit pond side and throw food in the feeding ring, they won't come up right away but usually after a few minutes of me being still they cautiously come up and eat as you can see in the video.

Last but not least, we've rearranged my windows overlooking the pond from our kitchen and made it into my new favorite spot in the house.

 

[ammand]

I bought my house last year and it came with a pond. Roughly 10 feet x 7 feet x Avg 2.5 feet. It only had a 400 gph filter box with a few foam pads and a few bio balls. Looks like a fountain kit from Home Depot. It has a few fish (3 Koi and 2 goldfish).

I managed through last year with a bunch of hyacinths, water lettuce, a floating planter with a bunch of bog type plants and a lily and that kept my water clear but had a tea color tint to it due to the leaves and muck before. I've used a ShopVac every other month to vacuum out the muck and performed my water changes with that last year.

This year, I finally settled into the house and am now focusing on this pond. I just finished building my Skippy biofilter, but still have a bunch I want to do. I still need to move this filter back a bit and rock it in, but for now I wanted it running to start the biological filtration as the weather is getting warmer.

Here is a few pictures of the pond last year:

View attachment 53939 View attachment 53940 View attachment 53946 View attachment 53947 View attachment 53948

Here are the pictures of the filter I built today. I have a 1900 GPH pump running this and I am using Koiguy's weir. So far so good, I think I may want to add a ball valve to adjust the flow into the filter and plumb the pipes through the wall too. As you can see the pond is filthy! The new pump and the waterfall kicked up all the muck on the bottom. I even cleaned the pond out last week and it "looked" clean...Boy was I wrong! I also have a 2" ball valve to back flush this and will be using this to change my water more often, I'm thinking a 60 gallon water change every week and to flush out any muck in the filter. I'll keep this up until my water clear up. Any opinions if this is too frequent?

I am trying to see if the flow is too fast. I timed a 5 gallon bucket was filled in 40 seconds. My pond is ~1000 gallons. What is ideal?

View attachment 53941 View attachment 53942 View attachment 53943 View attachment 53944 View attachment 53945

This is just the beginning and I will be adding pictures as I improve this pond more this season!

Your spillway filter tub is exactly what I have been looking for. Can you please share source for purchasing? Thank you in advance. Love your pond.

 

[j.w]

@ammand
Not sure exactly what spillway @ponder630 is using but this is a very old thread. I think perhaps it is something like this but not exactly sure where you can buy it. Maybe someone else will know.

 

[Laaf]

You can buy a tub like that at Tractor supply or another livestock supply place. But you need to purchase a weir separately and cut in an opening and attach the weir in a waterproof way.

 

[Phaewryn]

Your spillway filter tub is exactly what I have been looking for. Can you please share source for purchasing? Thank you in advance. Love your pond.

https://www.amazon.com/Rubbermaid-Commercial-Products/dp/B007IAFCC6?th=1 (the tub)

(the DIY process)

(how to make a weir using a heat gun, you can also use many other outlet types)

(how to cut the top grid)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmhiyDCRTVM (how to build one)