Renovating the pond

[addy1]

YIPPPPPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEE WAY TO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just saw your showcase posting!

 

[wuftytufty]

Hehehehe! Sorry, felt the need to keep the suspense!!

We are battered! We had to ring out for food, got a curry. Had a couple of glasses of wine.

Now off to bed! Suspect that tomorrow, I will be floating about folding and trimming, perhaps a couple of stones in place. But have friends coming around tomorrow night. So we are working on folding and filling...hurrah!!!

Thanks for the applause!
:banana: :banana: :banana:

Need to do the peanut butter jelly banana dance, now!

 

[addy1]

yummy love peanutbutter and honey

 

[wuftytufty]

Not ever tried it, it#s not big in the UK, however I did buy some peanut butter today, and we do have honey....Right, off to roll around barefoot in the pond having a good wrestle with this liner and a pair of scissors!! The terrible rain threatened was a tiny shower....more accurate cutting open a seagull and looking at it's entrails or using seaweed than listening to the weather men!! Hurrah!

 

[addy1]

Yeah getting the liner in, so exciting, holding breath to see water in it! (well pretend holding breath)

 

[wuftytufty]

Right, priority now is getting it fish friendly... so I have folded the liner, and we have dumped big rocks in, to keep it all in place, but only at strategic points, to be honest!!!

Have put in the pond filter pump with the little fountain thing, we shall see how that looks! and also put in the waterfall pump. Boggy bits to follow tomorrow or Monday.

It rained a tiny bit, but I have now put the hose in, to fill it up.....as soon as it is full, we can then put the pumps on and get it aerated well! Will also add the good bacteria, when I add the fish, as the bacteria won't have much to feed on!!!

Had a bit of a problem, trying to lay the new liner under the waterfall, thing, because some genius decided that it would be amazing to concrete it in place....oh, well, it is *just* above the water line.

And it is 3 in the afternoon, I am going for a nap as we have guests around tonight, at 6.30!

 

[Fishylove]

I swear it seems like every day I find new nature things that have found the pond. I love it! As Addy lives on the east coast of the US, we live in the Mid-west, in Indiana; at the very bottom on the Ohio River I've been to the east coast, but not as far up as Maryland, would love to one day though as I hear it's BEAUTIFUL.
Also.... I can't remember if anyone has recommended this or not..... your pump? If it is a submersible, it is a good idea to raise the pump up off the pond bottom. I used an old milk Crate, where I cut the grated portion off the sides and sanded down, so it wouldn't cut the critters, and set the pump on top of that. This way the fish can still have that area to swim thru, the pump will be off the bottom and wont be as apt to get clogged with debris that settles on the bottom. AND if for some reason your pond were to empty ( for me it was a hole in the waterfall liner) the fish will have those 1-2 feet where the pump can't drain the pond completely!

And when is your Fall? Now that you've almost got the pond filled and on its way (so exciting!) To keep the fall leaves and twigs and such out of the pond, use bird netting or deer netting to cover the pond during fall and winter and it will considerably cut down on spring start up and cleaning!

Your pond is really coming together, Its Wonderful wuffty! I love it when newbies fall in love with ponding! It is such a rewarding hobby, to sit and enjoy your creation!

 

[addy1]

Enjoy your company! We drove up to penna fot the night got a piece of land with like a small living space on it like hunting cabin
You could always glue on a small piece of liner if nearwaterfall too low agree with fishy keep pump up off bottom
On a tab not typing to well lol

 

[wuftytufty]

Hehe, thanks Fishylove and Addy, It has been filled, and the pumps have been running. I will try to elevate them, but it will only be by a couple of inches, because it's only 2 feet deep, because we seemed to hit some ground water, poss the watertable, or poss a spring, so let it at that!

Today, it is raining relentlessly, so we will wash the gravel off, a bit, and but the boggy bit together, then plant up the waterlillies, that are looking decidedly unhappy at the moment, and then we will release the fish and critters in, but not before catching some to get photos, so you can see the cute frilly frondy baby newts, they are just sooooo cute. I was having drunken dreams about finding hundreds of little newt underground, last night!! We were v. naughty, we drank waaaaay to much! And then stayed in bed until noon! but after such a week of hard labour, I think we needed it!!

Both the dogs are exhausted from the trauma of watching us pull the garden apart, it is funny!

 

[wuftytufty]

Muddy waters....well, it is the stuff in the gravel, that we took out. I am presuming that it will settle and actually benefit the water, as it has all the bacteria etc??

 

[addy1]

lol My water was BROWN when I turned on my pond for the first time. We did not rinse the gravel, way too much and it was a very dry summer and we are on a well. So just loaded the gravel dirt and all, turned on the pond. With xx time (can't recall the xx) the water went clear. That was towards the end of the build summer, the next spring with turn on the water was crystal clear and has been ever since.

so happy to hear you have water now! and your pump running! yippee! A long hard week, you have worked your tail off and have done great. Good thing to not dig below the water table, it would float the liner and be a real pain.

 

[wuftytufty]

Will upload pics later! Promise! Really pleased with progress so far, but also sooooo glad to not have to do it for a while! The muck is what was originally in the pond, before we took it apart, and it was all healthy and balanced in there, so pretty confident that this stuff pretty much belongs in there....plus it is something for the critters to hide in.

So next, I want to get some big snails, and also look at a couple of other fish, but not sure, as this is a nature pond crossover, really. We have the fishfingers in there, and newts. I looked into minnows, but seems they destroy everything, eat all the spawns and breed like mad.... I wonder about a couple of comets of something? Don't want big fish, just little ones!

 

[addy1]

Coments can get to around 10-15 inches, sometimes, they breed like crazy. My shubunkins seem to stay smaller and breed less, but will still make babies. The shubbies are real colorful too.

Yep the muck is probably good for the critters, I would never totally clean out the bottom of my pond, got to leave something for the critters to snack on.

 

[wuftytufty]

Yay, the water cleared after we got back from the Mosel. All looking good, the lilies are now the right way up. Every time I want to go take a pic, it is raining very hard, the pond is well full! We are hoping over the next few weeks, to get all the stones in around the edge, so we will get there, but we were so pathetically exhausted after that week!

Thanks for the interest and moral support along the way!

 

[addy1]

Great to hear! Take a break from pond building, start fresh. I did that when building mine sometimes so tired had to stop the work, do something else then come back to it.