Yellow irises all bloomed first, and now that they're taking a break, the
purple ones are all in bloom.

Parrot's feather is still spreading, and various other marginals are doing..
um marginally well.

Took the cat's tails out of the pond, worrying about them puncturing the
liner.. relocated them slightly downhill of the pond, where the underground
water comes out.

Algae is going gangbusters, and visibility is just a few inches, with a lot
of suspended crap in the water.

I don't think I'll mess with the waterfall upper pondlet this year, and
instead concentrate on a bigger filter system of some kind.. the rubbermaid
one I made last year could never keep up, dispite having a powerful enough
pump.

Since the pond is in middle of the yard, trying to make something that's not
ugly is an issue. I'm thinking maybe one of those BIG rubbermaid trashcans
converted for filter use.

I'm sure the pond is overstocked now (almost 50 goldfish now, 8-12 frogs and
salamanders or newts is a 13x13x2 foot deep pond. 1/2 the day is gets full
sun, and even though I spent another $70 on plants last year, I still can't
get more then 1/4 shade cover for it at best.

Been battling the greenwater for 3 years now, and I'm frankly sick of trying
to deal with it. A new pump, uv filter, and new filter system didn't do
squat.

I've been unable to find anything for a veggie filter that will grow fast,
and is available here.

--
Gareee
(Gary Tabar Jr.)

Gary,

Could you sink the trashcan in the ground to look better?

Jim

"Phyllis and Jim" wrote in message
ups.com...
Gary,

Could you sink the trashcan in the ground to look better?
That's been my thought.. only issue is my "ground" is about 50% rock, and
digging can be pretty hard at times. the largest rock the graders pulled out
was about 6 ft square, and the largest I've personally dug out and been able
to maneuver around is about 3 ft square. They are great for landscaping, but
hell on the back.. LOL!

Only tentative plans now, is get a large square rubbermaid, fill it with the
air conditioning filter, maybe top that off with some of the marginals in
the pond, hoping they'll help, and then add the 4" pvc toilet output near
it's top to go back into the pond.

I did a water change about a week and a half ago, and it was clear for a few
days, but in even that short a time, that water's become full of suspended
particles, so I don't know how well the trashcan filter will even do.

Last year, I spent about $400-$500 getting the new pump, uv filter, and
additional plant hoping to get surface coverage and beat the greenwater, but
nothing helped at all. (Already checked water flow through the uv, pond
capacity, used the chemical strips to check Ph n such, and nothing at all
helped.

--
Gareee
(Gary Tabar Jr.)

Could you put dirt around the filter and have a waterfall?

Thinking about your UV. It should simply KILL the algae. If it ran
all season at the right rate and did not stop the green water,
something is wrong!

Good luck.

Jim

"Phyllis and Jim" wrote in message
ups.com...
Could you put dirt around the filter and have a waterfall?

Thinking about your UV. It should simply KILL the algae. If it ran
all season at the right rate and did not stop the green water,
something is wrong!

I checked the quartz sleeve, and the light was lighting properly. I did give
up on it after a few months though, and unplugged it trying to hook up the
filter, and never hooked it back up. I haven;t reinstalled it this year yet.
Just too discouraged.

I tried the pondlet veggie filter thing last year, and the plants all died
for some reason, and the waterfall just never "dropped" properly, and after
a few months, I got tired of screwing with it. The wife seemed happy with
it, but I never got the look I was shooting for.

I've thought about diggign a hole where the pondlet was, and using that to
partiall hide a trasncah filter setup, but last year it took me forever to
get the water hookups into the rubbermaid without leaking at all.. I tried
epoxy, silicon sealant, and a number of things, but never got a solid seal
on the inlet.

It took about 8 trips to various hardware stores here to locate the pvc
toilet flange, and 2 tries to install it, and get a solid leakless seal on
it.

The fish and plants that are in there are thriving, so I know I'm doing
something right, but never having a clear pond in 3 years after countless
days of attempts has just discouraged me almost past hope.

One of the biggest issues, is everything is built on a slope since I live at
3000 feet on a mountain, the the rocky ground is sometimes imposible to dig
up. I'll probably screw with it sometime again this year, but I can;t even
get any WH or similar veggie filter plants, so even attempting that is
difficult.

I was lucky one year and had someone send me some, and they did well, until
of course winter killed them off.


--
Gareee
(Gary Tabar Jr.)

"Gareee©" wrote in message
...
Yellow irises all bloomed first, and now that they're taking a break, the
purple ones are all in bloom.

Parrot's feather is still spreading, and various other marginals are
doing.. um marginally well.

Took the cat's tails out of the pond, worrying about them puncturing the
liner.. relocated them slightly downhill of the pond, where the
underground water comes out.

Algae is going gangbusters, and visibility is just a few inches, with a
lot of suspended crap in the water.

I don't think I'll mess with the waterfall upper pondlet this year, and
instead concentrate on a bigger filter system of some kind.. the
rubbermaid one I made last year could never keep up, dispite having a
powerful enough pump.

Since the pond is in middle of the yard, trying to make something that's
not ugly is an issue. I'm thinking maybe one of those BIG rubbermaid
trashcans converted for filter use.

I'm sure the pond is overstocked now (almost 50 goldfish now, 8-12 frogs
and salamanders or newts is a 13x13x2 foot deep pond. 1/2 the day is gets
full sun, and even though I spent another $70 on plants last year, I
still can't get more then 1/4 shade cover for it at best.

Been battling the greenwater for 3 years now, and I'm frankly sick of
trying to deal with it. A new pump, uv filter, and new filter system
didn't do squat.

I've been unable to find anything for a veggie filter that will grow
fast, and is available here.

--
Gareee
(Gary Tabar Jr.)

My Iris bloomed two weeks ago, and my water lilly has a big bud on it (just
noticed today). I thinned my cattails earlier this year, and now have more
flowers(?) on them than ever. The last four years it has grown thicker and
thicker, but only produces a couple of flowers per year. At last count, I
have ten flower stalks. No signigicant algae. The water's pretty much
clear as glass. Everything's looking good except for one of the Koi. My
big orange looks like it got into a fight. I don't think it was the
catfish (though I haven't ruled it out). I think it is more likely that
one of the neighbor kids tried to catch it. Kids will be kids.

George

Sounds like your pond iswaking well. Where are you located?

Jim

more likely it is spawning damage. Ingrid

On Fri, 25 May 2007 01:19:07 CST, "George"
wrote:
My
big orange looks like it got into a fight. I don't think it was the
catfish (though I haven't ruled it out). I think it is more likely that
one of the neighbor kids tried to catch it. Kids will be kids.

George

On Thu, 24 May 2007 15:53:02 CST, "Gareee©"
wrote:

I'm sure the pond is overstocked now (almost 50 goldfish now, 8-12 frogs and
salamanders or newts is a 13x13x2 foot deep pond. 1/2 the day is gets full
sun, and even though I spent another $70 on plants last year, I still can't
get more then 1/4 shade cover for it at best.

I figure the pond to contain about 2300 gallons?? I have 1500 and
probably 50 or more goldfish along with 6 full grown koi, 6 last
year's spawn (8" or so) and some koi spawn from this spring that I
haven't been able to count. They are hiding in the 300 gal veggie
filter under the parrot feather.

I'm surprised that the UV hasn't cleared the water some. If the water
flow through it is right the water usually clears within a week.
Sometimes it takes some mechanical filtering to catch the dead and
dying algae out of the water.

I use a mechanical filter as the last stage of my biofilter. the
mechanical filter needs cleaning every 3 days. Yes it is a pita, but
it allows me to have clear water. Some years I don't leave it in
place all summer, just in the spring, this year I'm still cleaning
regularly, the UV is still going too.

What works for some may not work for everyone, but I'm curious about
your pump size, or water flow through the UV, and flow capacity of the
UV?

Regards,

Hal

"Gareee©" wrote in message
...
Yellow irises all bloomed first, and now that they're taking a break, the
purple ones are all in bloom. brevity snips
===============================
Same here. The iris are now finished blooming. The hardly water lilies have
been blooming for awhile. Every year so far the yellow Cromatella was first.
This year an unnamed white lily beat it out. Now the reds and pinks are in
bloom.
--
RM....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
Zone 6. Middle TN USA
ISP: Hughes.net
~~~~ }((((* ~~~ }{{{{(ö

Ok, got irratated bitching here about the pond problems, and giving up on
it,. so I got more siupplies to try again. Picked up a 50 gallon rubbermade
trashcan, a 4" toilet flange, and screw cap mount to make a drain, gorrilla
glue to try gluing this stuff together, and 5 more sheets of the air
conditioning fiber for filtering filler.

I drained about 2/3 of the pond, and reseated a few plants th efish had
knocked over, cleaned out th epump, put it back in a planting basket cage
connected together with tie straps, and hooked the uv filter back up to it,
until I can get the solids filter completed.

One suggestion for connectors the guy at Lowe's had, was use insulating foam
on the inside around pipes coming in.. since it's waterproof and sticks to
everything, that should provide a good flexible waterproof seal on the
inside for the inlet.

An observation from last year: the epoxy didn't adhere to the rubbermaid
container at all. it did stick to the flangfe, but not the rubber maid. I'm
guessing that just made a tight enough seal from the screws to prevent most
water leakage, but plumber's epoxy and rubbermaid don't mix.

With any luck, I'll have the rest of the new filter assembled tomorrow, and
can hook the output from the uv into it. It will have a 4" toilet flaneg
output at the top, and that will have 4" flexible drainage duct hooked up to
it, leading down into the pond temporarily, untill I decide of a final
location for the filter, and what to do with the remains of last year's
failed pondlet/strem project. I'm tempted to tear it apart, btu th ewife
planted strawberries all along one side, and they are doing great so far
this year.

Hopefully I haven't tossed another $75 in supplies down the drain again.

--
Gareee
(Gary Tabar Jr.)

On May 25, 9:09 pm, "Gareee©" wrote:
Ok, got irratated bitching here about the pond problems, and giving up on
it,. so I got more siupplies to try again. Picked up a 50 gallon rubbermade
trashcan, a 4" toilet flange, and screw cap mount to make a drain, gorrilla
glue to try gluing this stuff together, and 5 more sheets of the air
conditioning fiber for filtering filler.

We tried pieces of edpm with rubber sealer on them as gaskets to
compress the toilet flanges tight to the sides. Worked well.

I drained about 2/3 of the pond, and reseated a few plants th efish had
knocked over, cleaned out th epump, put it back in a planting basket cage
connected together with tie straps, and hooked the uv filter back up to it,
until I can get the solids filter completed.

One suggestion for connectors the guy at Lowe's had, was use insulating foam
on the inside around pipes coming in.. since it's waterproof and sticks to
everything, that should provide a good flexible waterproof seal on the
inside for the inlet.

What would the foam be sticking to? It likes enough surface to bond
well.

An observation from last year: the epoxy didn't adhere to the rubbermaid
container at all. it did stick to the flangfe, but not the rubber maid. I'm
guessing that just made a tight enough seal from the screws to prevent most
water leakage, but plumber's epoxy and rubbermaid don't mix.

Yeah. Something more rubbery, compressed works better.

Good luck!

Jim

"Phyllis and Jim" wrote in message
oups.com...

We tried pieces of edpm with rubber sealer on them as gaskets to
compress the toilet flanges tight to the sides. Worked well.

Tried that, but without th erubber sealer last year, with no success. Same
rubber stuff you use on bicycle tires?

One suggestion for connectors the guy at Lowe's had, was use insulating
foam
on the inside around pipes coming in.. since it's waterproof and sticks
to
everything, that should provide a good flexible waterproof seal on the
inside for the inlet.

What would the foam be sticking to? It likes enough surface to bond
well.

it would be sticking to the pvc pipe in it, and the sides of the rubbermaid

An observation from last year: the epoxy didn't adhere to the rubbermaid
container at all. it did stick to the flangfe, but not the rubber maid.
I'm
guessing that just made a tight enough seal from the screws to prevent
most
water leakage, but plumber's epoxy and rubbermaid don't mix.

Yeah. Something more rubbery, compressed works better.

Good luck!


Thanks.. crossed fingers.


--
Gareee
(Gary Tabar Jr.)

Gary,

Here is a link.

I went out and took a pic of the joint where we have brought our exit
pipe into the plastic upflow barrel that feeds one of our berm ponds.
You can see from the pic how we did it. The joint has held about a
decade. Essentially, we worked the epoxy paste down into the gaps and
formed a complete collar about 3/4" wide. The epoxy does not bond to
the plastic, but it is a complete and rigid seal and is stiff enough
that the barrel cannot flex loose. On the inside, we put JB Weld over
the epoxy. Probaby not needed. The cut through the barrel is NOT
perfectly round. That means the epoxy cannot be rotated.

http://groups.google.com/group/The-F...7d0c29442524f6

Jim

"Phyllis and Jim" wrote in message
oups.com...
Gary,

Here is a link.

I went out and took a pic of the joint where we have brought our exit
pipe into the plastic upflow barrel that feeds one of our berm ponds.
You can see from the pic how we did it. The joint has held about a
decade. Essentially, we worked the epoxy paste down into the gaps and
formed a complete collar about 3/4" wide. The epoxy does not bond to
the plastic, but it is a complete and rigid seal and is stiff enough
that the barrel cannot flex loose. On the inside, we put JB Weld over
the epoxy. Probaby not needed. The cut through the barrel is NOT
perfectly round. That means the epoxy cannot be rotated.

http://groups.google.com/group/The-F...7d0c29442524f6

Jim

Cool.. gonna see today how well the gorilla glue bonds. I've heard good
things bout it, so we'll see. It actually expands 3-4 times as it sets up.

I'll do another partial water change today as well, and that will give the
filter less initial work to do.

--
Gareee
(Gary Tabar Jr.)