Putting into practice what I've read here.

[chibae]

My "micro" barrel pond has been irking me this year. In the years past the water has always cleared up enough for me to see the bottom. this year, after I totally took it down and redid it (not plants or animals at the time) I added my water hyacinth, some parrot feather and patiently waited for the new pond syndrome to clear. Well the pea soup cleared but I still could not see down to the bottom (18" deep). There is no electric out there so I had only had a solar fountain going. On Thursday I did a 1/3 water change that made no difference. So, I bought a submersible pump/filter and ran it off an extension cord. Not something I would leave running unattended, such as overnight. It was plugged into an outdoor GFI receptacle, but it was a fairly long length of cord to run.

Yesterday I ran the filter for twelve hours. Every two hours I took it apart and rinsed out the filter sponge and activated charcoal. By the end, the water was still "cloudy" but there was very little matter for me to rinse out of the filter.

Today I searched the house and found some batting. But not enough to make a prefilter "in a box" out of it. However, my filter (made for aquariums, not ponds, on a budget here) has a "waterfall" tube that can be attached so the water exiting the filter comes out above the water line. The tube is about six inches ling and has five holes for the water to exit through. I took the batting I found and wrapped it around the tube, holding it in place with two rubber bands.

I ran the filter that way for six hour today, wasn't home for part of the day. Twice during that time I removed the batting and rinsed it . Not only did the batting turn green, in some places it was black. When I closed the filter down for the day I could actually see the bottom of my pond again.

Reminds me of my very early days of fish keeping. Those plastic filters inside our aquariums, filled with charcoal and floss. Followed by outside filters and finally under gravel ones.

Thanks everyone for putting another tool in my small toolbox. I will be looking for more batting and a small perforated container to do a mini version of the milk crate for when I need to do this again.

 

[sissy]

just needs more time . seems this year has had some really weird weather changes . Like here 80 close to 90 during the day and 40's and even some mid 30's at night also . . Batting always works but cleaning it can be a hassle . Is the pond in shade or sun and do you have water test kit . I use the reusable furnace filters in my pond stock tank filters . I buy them at lowes and they are blue and easy to wash off and reuse . Ponds are always the hardest in spring and then during fish spawning time . any plants or fish in your barrel pond

 

[chibae]

just needs more time . seems this year has had some really weird weather changes . Like here 80 close to 90 during the day and 40's and even some mid 30's at night also . . Batting always works but cleaning it can be a hassle . Is the pond in shade or sun and do you have water test kit . I use the reusable furnace filters in my pond stock tank filters . I buy them at lowes and they are blue and easy to wash off and reuse . Ponds are always the hardest in spring and then during fish spawning time . any plants or fish in your barrel pond

Full sun, the tree shading it came down this spring. It is covered about 60% with water hyacinth, floating lettuce and one parrot feather. it is home to two feeder comets (courtesy of a neighbor whose cat at my three year old goldie) and some snails. She has space to take the comets back if I don't have my bigger pond up by late summer.

 

[sissy]

I have 2 stray cats that i got fixed because they are great mouse hunters and they just like to chase the frogs in my lily pond . I just took 2 buckets of tadpols to a farm pond to help the farmer with mosquito control . . I kept some of my floating hyacinth in a fish tank in my basement but have not put it in the pond because of such swings in temperatures here . Been up to 90 during the day and can get down to low 40's and even higher 30's . It has been a really weird spring here VA weather is just terrible this year , dry no rain and now they say rain for 4 days . OH SO NOW YOU HAVE THE POND ADDICTION TOO

 

[chibae]

I have 2 stray cats that i got fixed because they are great mouse hunters and they just like to chase the frogs in my lily pond . I just took 2 buckets of tadpols to a farm pond to help the farmer with mosquito control . . I kept some of my floating hyacinth in a fish tank in my basement but have not put it in the pond because of such swings in temperatures here . Been up to 90 during the day and can get down to low 40's and even higher 30's . It has been a really weird spring here VA weather is just terrible this year , dry no rain and now they say rain for 4 days . OH SO NOW YOU HAVE THE POND ADDICTION TOO

My cats are indoors only, but one I adopted at 14 months old was a TNR cat. My first year with the pond I had minnows, and slowly due to ignorance or predators lost them all. My second year I put in some feeder goldies. In the fall there were five small ones. the following spring there were two. Both larger than the last time I saw them. They made it through a second winter and then my cameras caught my neighbor's cat and a raccoon fishing for frogs. we found both goldies in parts. This year I have a grid secured down to prevent fishing. The openings are large enough for the local frogs, no bullies here, and I have escape routes for them to easily climb out.

Fred, the cat, still patrols all the yards and mostly hunts voles, although I have occasionally seen him catch a skink. When they see him through the windows my cats go full on yowling, hissing and spitting.

 

[GBBUDD]

You don't need to get too fancy a milk crate with the batting draped into it with the high sides and making like a bucket with the batting this way as it clogs it moves up the sides and youll know when you need to clean it as it will be over flowing.

 

[sissy]

I have 2 stray cats that I got fixed . Momma cat came here with 4 kittens and was starved and could not feed them . So I built her a home and she moved in with her kittens . I kept momma and one kitten and a friend who owns a farm took the others as barn cats . He comments everytime I see him about his little family of cats and what great mousers they are . I kept momma and 1 daughter and got them fixed and he took the 2 boys and the other female ad got them fixed so they would stay around .I use a crate also with quilt batting I just put it in my waterfall pond and run an extra hose to it from the pump . My home made water spitters do a great job of aerating the pond also . I have them in my waterfall pond and in the bottom of the pond to keep it clean . It is just pvc pipe with sprinkler parts as spiiters . The extra hose from one of my pumps goes into the pvc pipe across the bottom of the pond and every 24 inchs is a sprinkler adapter that is screwed into a pvc fitting .

 

[chibae]

I have 2 stray cats that I got fixed . Momma cat came here with 4 kittens and was starved and could not feed them . So I built her a home and she moved in with her kittens . I kept momma and one kitten and a friend who owns a farm took the others as barn cats . He comments everytime I see him about his little family of cats and what great mousers they are . I kept momma and 1 daughter and got them fixed and he took the 2 boys and the other female ad got them fixed so they would stay around .I use a crate also with quilt batting I just put it in my waterfall pond and run an extra hose to it from the pump . My home made water spitters do a great job of aerating the pond also . I have them in my waterfall pond and in the bottom of the pond to keep it clean . It is just pvc pipe with sprinkler parts as spiiters . The extra hose from one of my pumps goes into the pvc pipe across the bottom of the pond and every 24 inchs is a sprinkler adapter that is screwed into a pvc fitting .

My micro pond is small, but i am learning more and more how to put into practice what others do. just on a smaller scale. getting ready for when I start my next step up. Years ago some "do gooder" thought she was doing a wonderful things and stole my horse's kitten to "recuse" her. She would climb up his tail to sleep on his back. After that all the other cats were brought to their respective "owners" homes before anyone else swept in to "rescue" them.

 

[sissy]

I have 3 rescue chihuahuas and all my dogs have been rescues over the years . I am 71 now and no big dogs . The big dog rescues were because of my 2 sons when they were growing up and litlle dogs are easier now . My sons were born 12 years apart