A Pond of Prevention...

[ddaquaria]

I agree with the concrete walls, the pressure of the liner allows little to no movement. I had to dump 6" today just to make an adjustment. But with my soil alone, the backfill never held or clump tight enough together.

I have 2 solutions for clear water. One, I have a savio skimmer that allows you to install 2 UV bulbs in it. The second component would run all the time, which is using both bogs to help filter the water of nutrients. The bogs volume is about 15-20% of the total volume of the pond.

Found a leak today in one of the bogs - my fault completely when installing the grate. Should be pretty simple to patch.

Tomorrow we work on the waterfall, and the plan is to have the skimmer filtration running by Sunday.

[ddaquaria]

Houston, we have waterfall...

[Gene D]

Looks great Donald. Which colony are you planning on housing in there?

[ddaquaria]

The current plan is the namansi reef and either my murago or red rainbows along with my petros. With over 1000 gallons...

[swk]

WOW. I'm speechless. That's gonna be amazing when it's stocked

[ddaquaria]

Okay, plan changed - mpulungu for the remainder of the pond season

[ddaquaria]

Mpulungu are awesome in the pond.

[cichlid1409]

so awesome! I'm drooling.

now, get that thing cycled!!!!

[ddaquaria]

I gotta make a video of this. It is just so cool seeing the mpulungu playing in the rain and exploring their new home. Added some lillies for coverage and decorating the sides with ferns. There is still more to be done... And with the rain, I definitely need to watch the KH/pH closer as well.

[ssrprelude]

Nice!

[tbui1178]

Awesome! How did you cycle the pond so quick? Old media?

[ddaquaria]

I'm pretty sure that pond is not cycled completely. I had been running the pond prior for a week to gas off the chlorine - as well as adding prime. To get a little bacteria in the water, I use several gallons from one of my aquariums as well as adding "beneficial bacteria". It's over 1000 gallons and I doubt 50 fish will add enough bioload right away. It also has helped to add the filter media and bioballs that were previously in my aquarium.

The guys were coming up the side during yesterdays feeding, but with the rain this morning - you saw them about midlevel. What is not crystal clear yet, but you can see about 1.5 to 2 feet down (I know this b/c I have a plant/rock ledge at about the 2 foot mark.)

[ddaquaria]

Today we are pushing close to 15+ hours of rain, and the pond easily overflowed with currently no issues. You walk in that yard feeling the soaked ground move under your feet, and you really start to understand why to build the pond in concrete blocks. Any ground within 3 feet of the pond, your feet slowly sink. Due to all the rain, I did use about 2 cups of tang buffer and 2/3 cup of salt.

I really see why people love their koi especially during feeding time. It's pretty cool to see the group start swarm around the pellets that were just thrown in.

[tbui1178]

Planning on putting any type of UV light ?

[ddaquaria]

Planning on putting any type of UV light ?

Built into the skimmer. I just need to add the bulbs and plug them in.