I remember you pond being 4 feet deep? How do you clean the bottom?
~ jan

On Sun, 30 Jul 2006 15:43:46 GMT, wrote:

I too have had problems in the past, so...............
I built my koi pond with a veggie filter. It is designed sitting OVER the pond and
with a drip edge so if it overflows (it really cant), but if it got a hole or
something the water falls back into the pond.
NO PART OF THE FILTER OR PUMP IS ANYWHERE OUTSIDE THE POND
the waterfall is such that wind cannot blow the water out of the pond either.
http://weloveteaching.com/mypond/2000/p2000.htm
THE POND IS NOT OVERSTOCKED
so even IF the pump and air stops, the fish are fine for a while. a high surface to
volume ration helps in cooler climates. in hotter climates the temp of the water
MUST be kept under 80 degrees because the hotter the less oxygen holding capacity.
screen cloth if nothing else. my ponds dont face south AND the veggie filter and big
lily shade the water even more.
pea soup algae in hot weather sucks the oxygen out of the water at night. very bad
scenario for loosing aeration in hot summer
the UV and the pump that serves the UV are on the same circuit so IF the circuit goes
off or is blown the UV does not burn out from lack of water cooling.
Get a big Oase pump or a pump with a fantastic service record and keep a backup. my
pump hangs by the hose only half way down or 2' so it doesnt suck stuff off the
bottom and cant drain the pond. the hose is clamped down so it cant "jump" out of
the filter. BTW, filter returns have to be unblockable and much larger than the hose
output. mine is an open waterfall so that cannot happen.
some pumps seem to get hung up after electricity shuts off. usually these are pumps
that have overheated in the past or been clogged. I have one that has to be "bumped"
to get it started after it shuts off. the pond it is on has a big aquatic ecosystems
reciprocating blower on it so there is going to be aeration if not filtration.
I will say it again. there is NOTHING like a veggie filter for trouble free ponding.
my ONLY problem is the plants die in fall and I gotta get em up and running in spring
before I can start feeding my koi normal rations every day. feeding high protein/fat
and low carbohydrate/grain means a whole lot less detritus that can clog the filter,
altho with a veggie filter there simply is no way to clog it up. Ingrid

"scs0" wrote:
1) The pond draining because the filter overflowed
2) Fish dying because the pump stops
3) UV clarifier that died for no reason

It's basically been an entire season of BS for me with the pond. The
thing I'm tired of the most is the pump stopping on me. It's not
clogged because the thing is enclosed in a large pump protector. If
the power goes out for just a fraction of a second I'm at risk of the
pump deciding not to turn back on when the power returns. Overloads
and GPF issues are not in play here because the other device on the
outlet continues to work and the pump comes back online when I pull out
the plug and plug it back in again.

I also have a Laguna Filter Falls waterfall and it has overflow holes
at the top. Unfortunately those holes can't be connected to a tube, so
when the filter decides to overflow there's nothing I can do about it.
This happened recently because those filter balls somehow got loose
from their section and jammed up the outflows. I don't think this ever
happened before and I had 3 clog up at once and lost several hundred
gallons of water.

What I need are a book of tips to prevent BS with things like:
1) Use foam instead of filter balls because the balls will just clog up
the filter's tubing
2) Look for XYZ when choosing an external filter so that you don't risk
returning to a drained pond after returning from a trip
3) Look for XYZ when choosing a pump so that you don't risk returning
to a pond of dead fish after returning from a trip



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Also ponding troll free at:
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