"Bill Stock" wrote in message
t.cable.rogers.com...
Woke up early to put the trash out this morning, as the masked bandits
prevent putting it out the night before. Decided to look at the pond
before
stumbling back to bed. HOLY CRAP BATMAN!, where did all the water go? The
poor little pump was sitting there trying to suck out the last bit of
water,
the waterfall has stopped, the plants are scattered all over the sides and
the boys are all huddled together in about 10" of water below the pump
intake.

OK, whut happuned? The evil raccoons, no all the potted plants are
undisturbed. The evil heron, no, no obvious signs of trauma. The evil
neighbours, nope, still snoozing. The evil cats, nope, FIDO is till
charged
up. Meteorite, yeah, that's it, oops no scorch marks, no burning rubber.

WAIT!, I cleaned the filter last night, but there aren't any obvious signs
of gushing water. Maybe I cracked the casing when I put the cover back. So
I
disassembled the filter, only to find the "Oh" ring stuck under the filter
sponges. I was amazed how quickly it drained the pond, eight hours.

I won't do that again, not until next season anyway.


Thanks for all the happy thoughts.

The boys all survived the refill and were happily munching away this
morning. I was concerned about the temp/PH shock with a 90% water loss. I
initially only added enough water (with dechlor) to cover the pump again and
then let that sit for about 3 hours. I then set the hose for dribble (with
dechlor) and let it fill the pond for the next six hours. This left me at
about 85% full and I stopped there. Frances topped up the pond last night
with her last gasp.