I haven't posted, or even browsed the forums, in at least a month, maybe longer. I'm kinda bored and not ready to go to bed, so I figured I'd post a new thread here with pictures to come tomorrow.
Some of you may remember me posting earlier in the summer/spring about my pond. I have a 4'x9' 400 gallon pond. I started it this spring. Very soon after building it, before it cycled, I added 20 feeder comet goldfish. Only six survived until this point, though they are now doing great and none have died since the first couple weeks after adding them. Lesson learned. They were small, only about an inch long or smaller when I added them. They are now about 3" long, with one brown one growing much faster than the others; it is nearly five inches long at this point. I also added two Shubunkin goldfish that are both about 6-7" long. The plant life has gone crazy and I've had to do several major plant cut-backs. The lillies are non-stop blooming and so is even the anacharis. A frog moved in about two to three weeks ago, which I am ecstatic about. It is starting to get comfortable with me being around and doesn't immediately jump into the water any longer.
I built my own filter out of a 19 gallon rubbermaid container and green scouring pads. I made the mistake of routing the inlet vale into the filter through the bottom of the container instead of through the top. Furthermore, I had no provisions for catching the water and rerouting it to the pond if it leaked. I sealed both the inlet and outlet pipes with silicon caulking to the rubbermaid container. About a month ago I came home to find my water level had dropped over a foot throughout the day. I shut off the pump, filled the pond back up and bought a new tupperware container. I removed the filter and saw that my design had indeed failed and it was leaking around the inlet valve. I rebuilt the filter with the same basic design, except that the inlet valve was routed through the lid of the container and the seal around the outlet valves was greatly improved and PVC pipe was used instead of the flexible rubbing tubing. I also moved the pump to a higher location so that if I do have a catastrophic failure I will still have water left in the pond. Lastly, I added additional liner around the filter so that if it did leak, it would reroute the water back into the pond. So far it is working flawlessly.
My water couldn't be more clear. I've taken a full glass of water out and placed it into a glass vessel just to see how clear it really is and it looks like distilled water. I'm very pleased with the function of the filter. I also have some Japanese trapdoor snails that seem to be doing an excellent job of keeping the algae down. The rocks on the waterfall where the snails can't reach are covered in thick algae, but the rocks in the water are nearly devoid of algae. In fact, it's clean almost to a fault. I say this because in the spots where the line is showing, it is still bright and shiny and has no algae on it.
That's about it. I'll try to post pictures/video tomorrow.
Some of you may remember me posting earlier in the summer/spring about my pond. I have a 4'x9' 400 gallon pond. I started it this spring. Very soon after building it, before it cycled, I added 20 feeder comet goldfish. Only six survived until this point, though they are now doing great and none have died since the first couple weeks after adding them. Lesson learned. They were small, only about an inch long or smaller when I added them. They are now about 3" long, with one brown one growing much faster than the others; it is nearly five inches long at this point. I also added two Shubunkin goldfish that are both about 6-7" long. The plant life has gone crazy and I've had to do several major plant cut-backs. The lillies are non-stop blooming and so is even the anacharis. A frog moved in about two to three weeks ago, which I am ecstatic about. It is starting to get comfortable with me being around and doesn't immediately jump into the water any longer.
I built my own filter out of a 19 gallon rubbermaid container and green scouring pads. I made the mistake of routing the inlet vale into the filter through the bottom of the container instead of through the top. Furthermore, I had no provisions for catching the water and rerouting it to the pond if it leaked. I sealed both the inlet and outlet pipes with silicon caulking to the rubbermaid container. About a month ago I came home to find my water level had dropped over a foot throughout the day. I shut off the pump, filled the pond back up and bought a new tupperware container. I removed the filter and saw that my design had indeed failed and it was leaking around the inlet valve. I rebuilt the filter with the same basic design, except that the inlet valve was routed through the lid of the container and the seal around the outlet valves was greatly improved and PVC pipe was used instead of the flexible rubbing tubing. I also moved the pump to a higher location so that if I do have a catastrophic failure I will still have water left in the pond. Lastly, I added additional liner around the filter so that if it did leak, it would reroute the water back into the pond. So far it is working flawlessly.
My water couldn't be more clear. I've taken a full glass of water out and placed it into a glass vessel just to see how clear it really is and it looks like distilled water. I'm very pleased with the function of the filter. I also have some Japanese trapdoor snails that seem to be doing an excellent job of keeping the algae down. The rocks on the waterfall where the snails can't reach are covered in thick algae, but the rocks in the water are nearly devoid of algae. In fact, it's clean almost to a fault. I say this because in the spots where the line is showing, it is still bright and shiny and has no algae on it.
That's about it. I'll try to post pictures/video tomorrow.
