Pages

Sunday, September 23, 2012

A lot this week

A lot has happened this week.

I took the pump back and got a smaller one, a filter box, and a fountain attachment for less money than I had spent on the super huge pump.

After grabbing some large branches from my mom's yard, I made a new turtle basking area. It's a shelf, braced with large landscaping bricks, with the wood on top all locked together. I hope they start using it soon because it's within the view of my bedroom window so we all can watch the turtles being awesome turtles. I also put their little houses underneath it and braced those with other bricks.

We set up the pump, the filter box, and the fountain attachment in the pond this morning. We set it to the three-tiered setting and it's making a lovely noise out there right now. Very relaxing. I'm going to check the filter tomorrow morning to see how it's doing. I wrapped the cord around the top of the filter to try and keep the lid on in case of turtle accidents and then I put the cord under the brick the box is mounted on.

And, on the inside of the house, we have new additions to Baby Timmy's tank. I was at $petstore last night and saw that some fish were on sale. Some SPOTTED fish were on sale. Dalmatian Mollies - and, of course, every fire truck has to have a Dalmatian, right? So I bought two for $1 each, a boy and a girl, because of the fire truck that the boys bought for Baby Timmy. We have enough tank room for the two of them and the itty bitty turtle, so it works out. I also bought a cave for the tank and the first thing Timmy did was swim inside and stick his head out the window. I wish I had had my camera ready for that because it was so funny. The fish are named "Spotty Fish" and "Spotty Fish."

Pictures:



 Happy basking turtle.
Dragonfly! Baby Timmy's new friends.


I found the turtle like this when I walked out. I wasn't even noticed in the first picture, and right after the second picture, there was a turtle hidden in a basket.


 BABY TIMMY














Hi there.
This is my new wooden basking area. It's all sturdy and has enough room for multiple turtles. 



 Meet Mork and Mindy, two new rescues. The husband doesn't know about these yet so hey, honey, if you read this, we have two new ones I got while you were sick.
This is a turtle in my reeds. Kind of hard to see but if you look closely, you can see a shell.
















And these are my smashed reeds. 

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Not Good at Math

3600 gallons per hour equals 60 gallons per minute. That equals one gallon per second. A 14 gallon rubbermaid container fills up in, oh, a little under 14 seconds. Even with three two-inch drainage holes.

I apparently didn't think that one through.

Friday, September 14, 2012

3600 Gallons Per Whoa

Learned a lot of stuff today.

1. The constant trickle refill of regular tap water I've been running might be killing the bacteria (because of the chlorine in the water) that kills the algae. Overgrowth.
2. The fertilized soil in the pots may be contributing to the algae's food supply. Overgrowth.
3. A 3600gph pond pump is like a boat motor and will move quickly and violently if you point it wrong.
4. Making your own pond filters isn't so hard, but you have to make sure you have one big enough to handle the pump output.
5. I'm going to need more pipe to slow the gph at this point because holy moly, shoving a gallon a second through this filter just won't be good for the filter or the pump. (3600gph / 60 minutes / 60 seconds)

Bought a TotalPond Submersible Waterfall Pump (3600 Gallons Per Hour). The next lowest was a 1200gph pump and it was only $50 cheaper; the pond itself is between 3000 and 4500 gallons, and one day I hope to run an irrigation system from it, so the gph x 3 option for only $50 more was something I was ok with. I certainly don't have to cycle the water THAT OFTEN, but I'm sure I can make this work somehow, even if I pump it up a few feet and then back into the filter. However it works.

The filter is going to take two rubbermaid 14gal containers run in-line with one another along the side step, which would give me access to them from the outside and allow me to run the pumping line up some to decrease the gph for now. I'm not setting them up initially to be biofilters, but rather to help clear some of the junk out of the pool, so having only 28 gallons of water space won't be too detrimental; biofilters are supposed to have less push-through than what I'll be charging into them, but for now, it's fine. One day I'll add a much bigger filter box in the line that will slow the flow and let the good bacteria have its way inside the boxes.

I need to go make some filters to stick into these boxes, and get some pipe fittings so I can attach them and detach them without breaking stuff. I think I'll make a draw out out a design and see how it looks.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Plaaaaaaaants

Received three yellow water irises today, so I went to $homeimprovementstore to get some soil, since I was out. Well, in the clearance section, there were three pots of horsetail reeds for $3 each. So of course I bought them.

I did something I might regret later, though. I sunk the pots into the pond without changing the soil to organic natural good soil. They were in pretty harsh shape, and I didn't want to stress them further (more than half he stalks we're crispy and crunchy). I hope the soil won't affect the fish or turtles.

I also had to use non-organic potting soil (with slow-release fertilizer) in the irises. I think the pond is big enough to withstand a jump in nitrates without a lot of damage. It wasn't much and the water and surface area compared to what I put in has a good ratio, so I'm not TERRIBLY worried, but I'll certainly be keeping an eye on the wildlife this week.

Because the piggy fish keep devouring all the food I put in for the turtles, no matter what it is, I sunk a kiddie pool into one of the shallow ends (the one opposite the plant end) so the turtles will have a separate eating area that has no fish in it. The lip is just above the water and accessible to turtles, both from the outside and the inside.

It also has a slide if the turtles are so inclined.

Three horsetail pots, three irises, and a feeding pool for the turtles. It has been a productive afternoon and evening.

Now I'd have pictures if my computer's power supply hadn't set itself on fire. Later.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Snails and Plants



Got some large plastic pots to upgrade my planting. I put my three small clay pots with my watermint cuttings into the long shallow pot and sank it into the pool with rocks. The water doesn't cover the plants but it reaches just far enough into the clay pots to wet the roots of the plants. It seems to be ok at that level.

With one of the large pots, I un-potted one of my big watermint plants and put that into it with some rocks. It should take over the whole pot that way, and I hope it will pretty fast. I love those plants and they are crammed into the six inch pots, which isn't great for them, so I hope they expand to fill all the room they want in these new big ones. I'll wait a week and see how this watermint is doing in the large pot and then I'll probably transplant the other one too.

There were snail eggs slathered all over the bottom of the original watermint pot. I saved a few of the blops in a jar so the kids could see the process, but I put the pot back where it was as well so some of them will hatch in the nursery water. Snail eggs do look kinda gross. Like snot with dots.

In other news, I talked to someone who used to build ponds for people and he says I definitely need a pump to keep the water moving. He says it keeps the fish healthier and the plants will grow better. I'll work on that next.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Thar Be Snails

I think my sister is about to have 100 snails.
Before shot, then today's shot.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Actual Baby Dragonfly

That other insect wasn't a baby dragonfly - it was a damselfly nymph. I saw an actual dragonfly nymph yesterday (three of them!) and then this morning, I saw the shell from when one climbed out and shed its skin and flew away! The difference is very obvious. This thing was about the length of the end of my pinky finger.

  

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Eggs and More Eggs

This morning I got a load of new hyacinths from my pond exchange group and, as I was putting them into the pond, our huge orange dragonfly flew over and LAID EGGS. She flicked her tail in the water while flying, splashing and curling her tail down into the water next to the plants over and over. I looked it up and whaddyaknow, that's how they lay eggs.

I think she approves of the new plants. Adult dragonflies only live a few months so I sure hope her babies approve of the plants too. I need to see what the eggs look like so I can move some to the spa nursery to keep the goldfish from eating them all.

And the snail I gave my sister might have laid eggs. Huge mass of dots in a squishy jelly. Might be eggs.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Hand-Feeding Fish

Amazing day. I blew up my new floating raft and had a relaxing float through the water, watching the fish, drifting around, being calm. And then the fish ate their fish pellets out of my hand. 

Amazing, amazing day. 






BABY DRAGONFLY! (update: damselfly)

We have a baby dragonfly damselfly in the spa / plant nursery! A BABY DRAGONFLY DAMSELFLY!
I am so excited. (and yes, I put it back in the water after finding out what it was)





Sunday, September 2, 2012

Big Fish

This evening, I put my feet into the pond as I sat on the side and I dropped fish food pellets in the water nearby. This brought the fish to me and I could get a close-up view of them next to a measurable object - my foot.

The largest fish are more than half the length of my foot, and the smallest goldfish are about the length from the tip of my big toe to the pad of my foot. So the big fish are about six inches long and the smaller fish are about three inches long.

I also bought some more floating toys and a mask / snorkel set for later. I'll be away from the pond for a few days this week so my sister'll be taking care of it all, but when I get back, there'll be a relaxing float around the pond in my future for sure.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Worms

Since the turtles don't eat in front of me very often, I've been thinking of other types of food that they would like to entice them to eat just so I know they do. Worms would be easy to raise and I could leave them in a feeding area to ensure a good count of how many were eaten (likely all of them).

A bonus to the worm thing is that we could have the in the old aquarium and throw all of our compostable trash into it and the kids could see the worms eat and learn about composting. Red wiggler worms can double their population in 90 days or less, so it would be really easy to keep a sustainable level of worms for turtles and composting.

I am very excited about our new worm / composting possibility. I'll start after next week.

Multiple Snails! (and stuff)

I found several more snails in the nursery area and did some research: They look like Apple Snails, which are  very popular in pet stores and aquariums. They're still small yet, but there were three. Research tells me that some types of apple snails can reach a size of six inches in diameter. SIX INCHES OF SNAIL. And turtles eat them so I won't have any overgrowth problems. I think these are the blue apple snails, which don't seem to get that huge.

All the turtles came to the surface while I was out feeding the fish (I only feed them a tiny bit now to stop the algae overgrowth we had) except Original Timmy, but I saw him this morning out the window. I have to get more little houses built for them; they all try to crowd into the two we have made out of pet carriers. Everybody looks healthy and happy out there.

I found a floaty thing in the garage for the kids and let them both float themselves in the pond to be near the fish. One fish nibbled on my oldest's finger, which made him giggle. I was, of course, near them at all times because it's still a body of water.

My small lily pad is still small and lily-paddy and growing just fine. I'm thinking I will create a small fish garden with that one and another small plant and one small fish for my sister, who's been wanting a fish of her own again. My big lily pad is still amazing and is now a little bigger than a half dollar. The others haven't reached the surface yet but I raised the planters so they'll get a little more sun. Maybe it'll encourage them to grow.

Snails, turtles, more baby mosquito fish, tons of huge goldfish... This is such a fun pond.