Whoops + Fish

Baby Timmy peed on my husband last night.  (hehehehehe)


New bits to add for today's update:
High nitrate / nitrite levels in both the outdoor fish and turtle tanks. My error, working to correct. I have plants in the fish pond to help, and I have four bubblers going and a bubbling fountain. I treated it with some junk from the pet store... while I was there buying it and testing my water, one of the friendly salespeople said, "Oh hey, did you see the two huge koi someone dropped off?" They know I have the room so they let me have two seven-inch (not including tail) koi and one large goldfish. (Yes, I kept them out until I verified the nitrate issue was fixed / nearly fixed. It's a whole lot better tonight.)

And then I went to my friend's house to collect her two turtle pals and her four four-year-old goldfish.
I'm not putting the turtles into the tank until I fix the issue that I had earlier but I do have one very large female and one smallish male (both with orange stripes on their heads!) in an empty 30 gallon tank in my living room.

The fish are HUGE. I mean, I thought I had big fish. Nope, these are three times the size of mine. And they let you pick them up. WEIRD. They are named Turtle Food 1, 2, 3, & 4. I've named the new koi Lucky and Creamsicle and the large goldfish Frank.

Huge fish. I love my fish pond.

Now to fix the disaster I started in my turtle pond.

Oh, the new turtles' names are Ike and Tina. Pictures to follow as soon as I am not so tired.

Welp.

I did a lot of calculations and diagramming today. A lot. My wrist even hurts.
I had this awesome, awesome idea for two ponds, side-by-side in an L shape, one rectangle and one square, like aquariums that fit the layout of the stuff in my garage. One 6x4x3, one 3x3x3. They would share a basking area but would still be separately enclosed. One would be 500+ gallons, one would be 200ish gallons. I even had the turtles' gallons-per-turtle needs calculated and a list of turtles that would fit into each pond. And I was on my way to building a waterproof container for my webcam.
I did all the layout, the structural designing, the price-checking / list-making on Home Depot's website, and all the calculations for the pond liner and found someone on Craigslist that was selling the pond liner thickness I needed.
Total price for a DIY set of tanks for all turtles in my pond, totaling about 700 gallons: A bit over $500 and a whole lot of weekend work and likely some injury.

Now, there was someone on Craigslist that I found that was selling his 4x5x2.5 300ish gallon above-ground koi pond with liner and pump and filter for $350. And I found a place online who would sell me a 300 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank for $250 with free shipping.
Total price for a buy-it-now-no-assembly-required-don't-even-touch-a-hammer-immediate-gratification 600-ish-gallon setup: $600
... so it looks like the DIY Super Garage Aquarium of Doom Project is on hold for now, but my turtles will be safe and healthy inside for about the same amount of money. Heck, even less money when you factor in the extra cost for broken parts, redoing of things, bandaids, new tools that I would need, and a whole assortment of other things. AND there's no chance of a sudden, explosive leak / drain ruining everything on the floor in my garage, either.

So Anyway...

I did a lot of calculations and diagramming today. A lot. My wrist even hurts. 

I had this awesome, awesome idea for two ponds, side-by-side in an L shape, one rectangle and one square, like aquariums that fit the layout of the stuff in my garage. One 6x4x3, one 3x3x3. They would share a basking area but would still be separately enclosed. One would be 500+ gallons, one would be 200ish gallons. I even had the turtles' gallons-per-turtle needs calculated and a list of turtles that would fit into each pond. And I was on my way to building a waterproof container for my webcam. 

I did all the layout, the structural designing, the price-checking / list-making on Home Depot's website, and all the calculations for the pond liner and found someone on Craigslist that was selling the pond liner thickness I needed. 

Total price for a DIY set of tanks for all turtles in my pond, totaling about 700 gallons: A bit over $500 and a whole lot of weekend work and likely some injury.

Now, there was someone on Craigslist that I found that was selling his 4x5x2.5 300ish gallon above-ground koi pond with liner and pump and filter for $350. And I found a place online who would sell me a 300 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank for $250 with free shipping (PM me and I'll tell you where). 

Total price for a buy-it-now-no-assembly-required-don't-even-touch-a-hammer-immediate-gratification 600-ish-gallon setup: $600

... so it looks like the DIY Super Garage Aquarium of Doom Project is on hold for now, but my turtles will be safe and healthy inside for about the same amount of money. Heck, even less money when you factor in the extra cost for broken parts, redoing of things, bandaids, new tools that I would need, and a whole assortment of other things. AND there's no chance of a sudden, explosive leak / drain ruining everything on the floor in my garage, either.

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.

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. 

Trust

There's a lot of trust and letting go that I have to do while making and maintaining this pond.

I trust that the pleco has survived the night and is resting in his / her secret dark place that I found the other day. There's nothing else I can do - I can't hover, I can't keep lifting up the rock to make sure there's still a fish there, and worrying does absolutely nothing.

I trust that Timmy is keeping himself cool during the heat, which has been pretty hot lately. There is plenty of shade, though, and the water isn't overly hot, and again, worrying does absolutely nothing. I do intend to get more shade plants out there for him, though.

I don't do 'letting go' very well, nor do I do patience. But I'm learning to do both because I can't do anything else.

Timothy's Old Mom

I'm so glad that Timothy went to an awesome home! I was so upset that I couldn't bring him with us when we moved and trying to clean that big stinking tank by myself was impossible. I know that he will have an awesome home with you and I thank you for loving that cranky little brat. I'm thankful that B and K gave him to you.
Timothy's old mom.

As much as this is going to sound cheesy, I think Timmy saved me as much as I saved him. I'm really glad I got him too. I knew he would be a great way to teach the kids about different species, and they had been wanting a turtle for a long time, but I didn't realize how much I really would love having him around. Now I have a project that I'm wholeheartedly involved in, I've done something constructive with the hole in the ground out back, and now I take time out of my day to just sit and relax. That's something I've really needed.

So you're welcome, and thank you in return; I'll be sure to update pictures whenever I can snap a few of him in the pond. Right now he's only poked his head up a few times and then darted back underwater when he saw me, but I'm sure he'll get used to it and hang out with me again eventually.