PS.... already trimed up the low branches so there is a better view from the windows of the house. I will make sure to keep a camera sitting on the window sill so I can post some up once it has water in it again.
We have a "Hole"... the rest... we need Help!
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sissy
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I have one of those bought it on craigs lisy ,the guy had a whole bunch of them and he needed money and he told me on the phone he had small ones too but when I got there he only had big ones .He told me he had 60 gallon and 100 gallon ones and all he had was big ones but for the price I bought it and use it to mix liquid fertilizer ./Sorry i use lava rock and may be a bit heavy but works for me .You could use the tank as a bog if you are willing to cut the top off ,it has the metal cages surrounding them and they are pretty heavy duty .You could pull the water from the bottom or let the water go in the top .Not sure it would work but my filters work and I have floating plants in the top of my filters and after 2 months I tried to see if there was muck on the bottom of the filters but there was none .
not sure you can figure out a bigger version .But my hose from the pond enters the top and runs down through the filter stuff and then comes back up through a 3 inch pipe with an elbow that attaches to the tank adapter .The 3 inch one is a drain pipe .
not sure you can figure out a bigger version .But my hose from the pond enters the top and runs down through the filter stuff and then comes back up through a 3 inch pipe with an elbow that attaches to the tank adapter .The 3 inch one is a drain pipe .
Initial indications are good..... I had to reduce the level of the upper pond as that still has a leak but now I know where it is. The 5K pump proved a little too much but putting 180 degree nozzles at the end to direct the water to the falls side reduced the flow to just the right level. Already started doing falls mock ups to start to get a feel for the height and placement... a work in progress. The flow from both sides circulates the dogs toys full circle in the pond, with a nice swing past the skimmer. I think this will work fine for the floating plants as well as keeping the floating debris collected...... nothing stays against a wall, it is constantly moving all around both the shallow and deep sides.... far beyond expectations or plans
It will take a good bit of work to mellow out the pink color but that is the color of the base granite surrounding it. Some pool painting to simulate the moss on the surrounding rock should do that just fine.
NOW.... the clean up begins, the hauling of river rock and logs starts to get this to blend in and then work on the filter system. Frogs moved in full force already and the Finch's near filled the small upper stream and filling pond this AM. The best yet, a Bald Eagle stayed overhead eyeing the pond as it
It will take a good bit of work to mellow out the pink color but that is the color of the base granite surrounding it. Some pool painting to simulate the moss on the surrounding rock should do that just fine.
NOW.... the clean up begins, the hauling of river rock and logs starts to get this to blend in and then work on the filter system. Frogs moved in full force already and the Finch's near filled the small upper stream and filling pond this AM. The best yet, a Bald Eagle stayed overhead eyeing the pond as it
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sissy
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looks great so far and sorta like that red pink color reminds me of when I visited my aunt in Arizona.
taherrmann4
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Looks great so far. I'm not crazy about the pink, but once it mellows out like you said will look good.
sissy
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what you guys afraid of a little pink .
HAH, a trick question.... NAW, tickled Pink with pink, but anything good...... can there be too much? I knew better than try to answer that!
Carefully disected some of the moss on nearby granite at the edge of a seasonal creek, and transplanted it to the small upper pond. Within a day it was already emerld green and looking like it may it may stick.
sissy
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I SMELL FEAR :razz:
[quote name='sissy' timestamp='1346088079' post='138073']
I SMELL FEAR :razz:
[/quote]
Read correctly... while getting a good chucle from That... well played! How's that for a tap dance?!
Kris reminded me that I had stacked near 2/3 of a pallet of left over Cultured stone that we built our fireplace with, down in the gulley after we finished building the house.... I had forgotten all about it and it was hidden from view by 4 ft tall weeds. I kept all of this as a material waiting for a project... and finally they found one another.
In an effort to avoid blinding commercial airline pilots, the pink Must be toned down a little.... and her idea was the solution. Laid out randomly along the edge, the cultured thin cut boulders looked quite nice in a mock up, enough so that I started gathering long ago debarked and bleached out dead wood from the river bottom, and old discarded Cedar and Juniper fence posts from the pastures. Together this combination looked great and did a fine job of starting to hide the plumbing under the walkway and bridge leading to the gazebo, while blending into the lay of the land look we have out here. Once we get used to it, and the inevidable changes... "Because That stone isnt the right color or shape or size or ... what EVER, for That spot, what were you thinking?"... from the Master Decorator.... I will glue them down with construction foam, I know better than to do that Now! The north pasture has an area that is covered by 1-2 inch agate river pebbles, and those will be collected for use in the stream section.
Finally having the oppertunity to sit in a chair last evening, looking at the waterfalls and small stream, sipping a good Scotch..... some 4 years of work to get to this point...... it is starting to come together, finally. It was near the end of the Scotch that I saw the funniest thing. I had cut a piece of semi rigid closed cell foam with a 2" circle in the middle as a failed attempt at finding the right flotation for my self adjusting skimmer. I had just thrown that discarded piece in the pond to monitor current patterns from the falls and stream, just watching how it circulated around. Seems the Finches have already learned to use this as their floating lawn chair, landing on the edge and drinking through the 2" hole in the center, picking up bugs and seeds from the outside as it floated around the pond The neighbor is going to loan me his automatic trail camera so we can get some photo's of what has been visiting at night.... what ever it is, its big and has stretched out the barbed wire fence near by... that now needs mending and tightening. The near by river has now dried up and this has taken over as the sole remaining waterhole... it should get interesting.
I have yet to finish the filter circuit but plan to use a 275 gallon IBC food tank for the task. This weekend will see efforts to build a wooden platform under the gazebo on which the tank will be sitting, thus allowing the tank to be gravity feed from the bottom of the pond. At better than a ton finished and filled weight and built on a 30 degree slope... the platform will have to be stout! I have yet to figure out a cost effective filter media and having searched the discount and Dollar stores for Scotchbrite type materials..... I am still clueless as to what I will use, what ever it is, I need A LOT of it for a tank this size. With the drop bottom of the IBC tanks and the bottom drain, I suspect a backflush clean out will be simple and effective if I can build a loovered panel a few inches off the bottom to promote separation of heavy solids prior to the water flowing through the filter media. After researching others designs of this type of filter, pumped in through the top, plumbed to the bottom with a T bar and 90 degree fittings to promote swirl of the unfiltered water looks to be a great idea. I think I will take it a step further and have that incoming water go through a few 1/4" screens, again to promote some settling of solids to the dropped tank bottom, prior to it hitting filter media. Who knows, I have perfected making mistakes on this project so far.... might just as well raise the bar a bit higher! Any advise on a cheap filter media for this would be gladly welcomed.
I SMELL FEAR :razz:
[/quote]
Read correctly... while getting a good chucle from That... well played! How's that for a tap dance?!
Kris reminded me that I had stacked near 2/3 of a pallet of left over Cultured stone that we built our fireplace with, down in the gulley after we finished building the house.... I had forgotten all about it and it was hidden from view by 4 ft tall weeds. I kept all of this as a material waiting for a project... and finally they found one another.
In an effort to avoid blinding commercial airline pilots, the pink Must be toned down a little.... and her idea was the solution. Laid out randomly along the edge, the cultured thin cut boulders looked quite nice in a mock up, enough so that I started gathering long ago debarked and bleached out dead wood from the river bottom, and old discarded Cedar and Juniper fence posts from the pastures. Together this combination looked great and did a fine job of starting to hide the plumbing under the walkway and bridge leading to the gazebo, while blending into the lay of the land look we have out here. Once we get used to it, and the inevidable changes... "Because That stone isnt the right color or shape or size or ... what EVER, for That spot, what were you thinking?"... from the Master Decorator.... I will glue them down with construction foam, I know better than to do that Now! The north pasture has an area that is covered by 1-2 inch agate river pebbles, and those will be collected for use in the stream section.
Finally having the oppertunity to sit in a chair last evening, looking at the waterfalls and small stream, sipping a good Scotch..... some 4 years of work to get to this point...... it is starting to come together, finally. It was near the end of the Scotch that I saw the funniest thing. I had cut a piece of semi rigid closed cell foam with a 2" circle in the middle as a failed attempt at finding the right flotation for my self adjusting skimmer. I had just thrown that discarded piece in the pond to monitor current patterns from the falls and stream, just watching how it circulated around. Seems the Finches have already learned to use this as their floating lawn chair, landing on the edge and drinking through the 2" hole in the center, picking up bugs and seeds from the outside as it floated around the pond The neighbor is going to loan me his automatic trail camera so we can get some photo's of what has been visiting at night.... what ever it is, its big and has stretched out the barbed wire fence near by... that now needs mending and tightening. The near by river has now dried up and this has taken over as the sole remaining waterhole... it should get interesting.
I have yet to finish the filter circuit but plan to use a 275 gallon IBC food tank for the task. This weekend will see efforts to build a wooden platform under the gazebo on which the tank will be sitting, thus allowing the tank to be gravity feed from the bottom of the pond. At better than a ton finished and filled weight and built on a 30 degree slope... the platform will have to be stout! I have yet to figure out a cost effective filter media and having searched the discount and Dollar stores for Scotchbrite type materials..... I am still clueless as to what I will use, what ever it is, I need A LOT of it for a tank this size. With the drop bottom of the IBC tanks and the bottom drain, I suspect a backflush clean out will be simple and effective if I can build a loovered panel a few inches off the bottom to promote separation of heavy solids prior to the water flowing through the filter media. After researching others designs of this type of filter, pumped in through the top, plumbed to the bottom with a T bar and 90 degree fittings to promote swirl of the unfiltered water looks to be a great idea. I think I will take it a step further and have that incoming water go through a few 1/4" screens, again to promote some settling of solids to the dropped tank bottom, prior to it hitting filter media. Who knows, I have perfected making mistakes on this project so far.... might just as well raise the bar a bit higher! Any advise on a cheap filter media for this would be gladly welcomed.
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Just love all you are doing! The finches still astound me when they land on the deck pond, and eat algae, never thought I would see a bird doing that. So neat they are using your piece as a floating bar!
It will be so interesting to see what visits your set up at night, you need to post the pictures when you get them.
Filter material can be a ton of different things, ac filters, pot scrubbers, pads for floor sanders, cut up pvc, strapping, door screening, wander the dollar store and pick stuff up.
It will be so interesting to see what visits your set up at night, you need to post the pictures when you get them.
Filter material can be a ton of different things, ac filters, pot scrubbers, pads for floor sanders, cut up pvc, strapping, door screening, wander the dollar store and pick stuff up.
Thanks Addy, now you got me thinkin! I have Rolls upon rolls of old nylon screen from the gazebo that proven unable to stand up to the 120MPH winds out here... that is a great suggestion as a coarse bottom layer for the filter. I will take your suggestion and just start cruising the Dollar store today.
We sure are looking forward to getting plants added into this to throw another color into the mix. To conserve water a bit I think we will just get some plastic Ivy vine we saw at a consignment store just to fill the gaps until growing season starts up again.... heck, they even had Cat Tails and reeds there that I thought were real from a few feet away. Anything to make it look the part so we can start enjoying it before the snow comes. As it stands, Kris has been using it as a swimming hole near every night as the days here are still mid 90's even with mid 50's at night.
I forgot the camera at work yesterday so I will see how Kris' cell phone camera works and post up some of those. I am quite pleased on how it is starting to feel and with the pump working for a week straight now, I think the leaks are all gone. Water use from feeding the wildlife... that will be an entirely different leak. The wild plumbs and berries now fully ripe in the gullies, I suspect we have some black bears stopping by for a drink now. With the river dried up, we have not seen the Turkeys but... in time, they too will find it. With the pond only some 30 feet from our bedroom windows I have heard something splashing around out there.... the frog families are all doing the backstroke, we catch them when we go out with a flashlight night.
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Like your ideas on plastic plants! green in the snow all winter.............
I just love the look of what you are doing, the salmon color is not even that bad, give it time dirt algae will tone it down. Your path is to die for, just so darn neat. My slope is a real pita to walk up, I have dug in some stepping stones, also walk the stream edge, balancing on rocks lol, still young enough to do that.
Can't wait to see what the camera catches. We just found a 5 foot snake skin under the hood of our yard truck. Going to hang it on the wall with our rattle snake skin (hauled from arizona lol)
I just love the look of what you are doing, the salmon color is not even that bad, give it time dirt algae will tone it down. Your path is to die for, just so darn neat. My slope is a real pita to walk up, I have dug in some stepping stones, also walk the stream edge, balancing on rocks lol, still young enough to do that.
Can't wait to see what the camera catches. We just found a 5 foot snake skin under the hood of our yard truck. Going to hang it on the wall with our rattle snake skin (hauled from arizona lol)
sissy
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remember muck will cover up most of that pink over time and grow and grow no matter what you do it grows .I use lava rock in my filters and find it to be cheap at garden centers and found soaking it in peroxide and water really makes it work great .I used to get real lava rock the black stuff from Hawaii but my friend sold and moved here to be able to afford to live and at that also lost my source of free kona coffee boo hoo . :sad: He sent me a nice big batch a couple of times so if you see a mountain spewing lava wait until it cools and grab it .
Yesterdays efforts went towards "decorating", thus giving me a first hand pucker up education on the cost of Plastic vines, cattails and flowers. Given it will be a one time purhase and give year around looks.... Why in the blazes would I start watching costs at this point when we are just about to be able to enjoy it. Kris will surely plant and float everything that grows, as that is a passion of hers and my first failed attempt at a pond years back looked terrific due to her efforts with the plants. Kris was right, just the little bit of 'green' makes a Very big change. Doing all of this in the desert..... plastic is good for the time being. My rock moss transplanting actually looks to be working in the small upper pond. Just when I feel the want to pat myself on the back for that, I remind myself that fool stuff grows on a rock... it will grow anywhere..... ego deflator... but if it works, so be it.
The neighbors Lab came by yesterday when they stopped by to check on the hole and managed to rearrange Everything not cemented down. Logs, rocks... the works, all strewn about after their departure, thus reminding me... this is only a mock up and must be finished... in time.
We had a 20 minute rain last evening and were able to check how the run off from the BIG rock worked filling the pond... and I couldnt be more pleased with those results. I will dig out some rough gravel from the gulley and have that run off filter through that in the future, so to keep the pine needles uphill in the future.
Now on to the filter so I can clean out the cement dust that has settled on the bottom during the construction phase. I have decided that I will use a solar panel mounted under the gazebo in an effort to keep this all above freezing during the cold months... if for no other reason than I have it, and have no current use for it
The neighbors Lab came by yesterday when they stopped by to check on the hole and managed to rearrange Everything not cemented down. Logs, rocks... the works, all strewn about after their departure, thus reminding me... this is only a mock up and must be finished... in time.
We had a 20 minute rain last evening and were able to check how the run off from the BIG rock worked filling the pond... and I couldnt be more pleased with those results. I will dig out some rough gravel from the gulley and have that run off filter through that in the future, so to keep the pine needles uphill in the future.
Now on to the filter so I can clean out the cement dust that has settled on the bottom during the construction phase. I have decided that I will use a solar panel mounted under the gazebo in an effort to keep this all above freezing during the cold months... if for no other reason than I have it, and have no current use for it
