new roof. how long before i hook everything back up?

[Philphine]

i think there were only a few other people here who used rain water off the roof, so i guess there won't be many answers. but anyway....

having a new roof put on both my house and garage this past week. normaly this time of year i stop collecting water anyway to make sure i don't bust a tank from water freezing, but i'm also considering diverting the water that normally runs straight into the pond during rains for a while (i think with yard run off some will end up in there anyway), so that maybe the initial sand, and whatever chemicals and whatnot off the shingles and galvanised nails can kind of wash off some. then next spring, about the time i'd start saving water in the tanks anyway, hook it all back up.

anyone who uses rain water gotten a new roof and did or considered any of this? did you wait at all or just hook everything back up and back to normal? thanks.

 

[sissy]

There is a lot of loose grit comes off the roof and if your weather is cold already it will not get a chance to heat up and seal all the grit for awhile .

 

[addy1]

We got a new roof a year before I built the pond. Once the pond was built just sent the roof water in, never thought it out. 3 year fish are doing fine and all else that live there.

 

[Philphine]

thanks for the replies. we've had pretty warm weather compared to normal, but i'm guessing not warm enough for the sealing sissy mentioned (i needed it done now though. hail damage had my roof leaking some). i guess i will take advantage of planning to disconnect things anyway and wait 'til spring. i have a hose from the house/tap in the pond also so i can top off that way if needed.

this is the end of the second season for me. i just have comets (and at least one frog i noticed a month or so ago), and a couple of the algae eater fish that died, but that was because of the cold (couldn't find them in the pond to take out last fall/winter). i probaly won't get those again, but the rest, plants and whatnot have all thrived pretty well. i just figured i'd ask seeing as the roof is brand new. thanks again.

 

[addy1]

I have pulled the gutter feed in the winter (last winter) but it never got cold. This year the gutters are still hooked up. With the aerator the pond should not ice over, the extra water will just go out the overflow.

 

[Waterbug]

I've collected rain water in the past. An amazing amount of dirt and granules do come off the roof and from the air. However it all seems to settle petty fast. A pre-filter settlement chamber keeps that muck out of the pond, just to keep it from piling up.I doubt seriously if any of it is that harmful as most of it comes down in the rain drops, dust in the air. That type of thing has been getting into ponds, lakes, etc., for a long time. And rain water is considered drinkable, so it isn't too bad. I mean sure, it isn't as good as water from a reverse osmosis system.

You do have to be aware of how low a pH rain is, from around 5.6 down into the 2 range. The pH can rise after collected depending what caused the low pH. As long as you understand pH buffering and adjust as needed there should be no problem.

 

[adavisus]

A common sense yard stick for starting any natural pond is to let water stand, wait for algae and small aquatic organisms to show up in numbers, then add aquatic plants, then try a cheap fish or two

 

[gardengimp]

We had to take the cheapo gutters off our house when I could no longer climb a ladder. Now, we have stock tanks at the main runoff spot in the front and the back. The front tank I use to top off my pond. The junk from the roof, along with all the leave litter gets caught in the tank and just clear water goes into the pond. Works great. The stock tank has the added advantage of making it easy to direct the rain water overflow into the garden area of the property, instead of down the driveway and out the street; or flooding our front entry path.

 

[sissy]

I bought big plastic barrels and i am still amazed after 8 years how much grit gets in the bottom of them that I have to empty the barrel and scrape the goo out .I have 30 year gaf shingles on my roof and still get some grit and the dust and dirt is like black ooze .

 

[Philphine]

well, as it turns out, since last thursday it's rained nearly constantly. they're saying we got somewhere bettween 4-5 inches of rain. that, and the fact that i still had one gutter hooked up that fed into the ponds the whole time anyway (i thought it was being changed too and didn't think about it never being disconnected 'til yesterday), made me decide to go ahead and hook every thing back up. i figure after that much rain, whatever could be initially washed off should have been, and really i like it hooked up over the winter anyway.