An Update

Update:
Changed Baby Timmy's basking area to his old dock and he seems much happier now.
Took the ramp that was Baby Timmy's old dock out of the Musketurtles' tank and gave them some eggcrate. They have all been up on top and they get up a lot easier now.
Mollies are all pregnant except the boy (duh). Snails are reproducing like snails. Started with one, now have over 9000. (Actually probably close to 300 but that's a lot from one.)
Brought in some plants / plant clippings. Accidentally scooped up a baby mosquitofish so that one went in with the Mollies for now.
All the turtles are scarfing the latest bunch of dandelion greens. I might make it a point to pick the neighbors' weeds this coming spring just to harvest enough to keep from spending $3 a bunch.
Baby Timmy ate a fly.
I put pond lights into the fish pond and it looks GREAT. Wish the water was a little clearer but my husband misinterpreted my directions for feeding them and ended up overfeeding for two or three days. It'll go away with more filtration and less feeding, I figure. The little fountain makes the water just fine and nobody is gasping at the surface. I also put in more fake plants and it looks really cool, especially now with the lights.
Sheldon's been doing turtle jazz hands at Morkie. I just know he's going to show somebody his willie and I'm going to see it and be forever traumatized.
Big Timmy's been relentless with his fluttering at Betty this week. When I feed them, I have to shove him away with a stick or she can't eat. She is having none of it, though, and simply steps on his head and moves him out of her way. He comes back immediately, though.
I'm thinking I want to bring Betty in for some hardcore basking to get rid of those retained scutes. I have a box made up and an area I can wall off so she'll have plenty of room. I can poke at the spots on her shell and move the air pockets, but that makes me worry she'll get fungus or something in them, you know?
I think my goldfish might be about to lay eggs. I think that Poseidon the Pleco might eat them all though.
That's probably it for updates.

The Pond Plant Haul

There was a sale at $petstore when I went in last night. Pre-planted pond plants for under $2 each. I picked up all six that were on the shelf and brought them up to the register, where the manager on duty casually mentioned he had more in the back.
He had 30 more in the back. I got them all. Once the turtles are out and it starts warming up a little (next year), I'll put all these in and see where we get. It'll be nice to have pond plants all over.

Pictures

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.

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.

First Lily Pad!

My very first lily pad reached the surface this morning. It's tiny, but it's on the surface. SUCCESS!

Thursday's Update

Well, I may have accidentally gotten another pleco. A dark black one. It's cool. It's in the spa / plant nursery right now because it's kind of green in there.

I have five or six rooted cuttings of water mint now, and I would cut more but there's a huge spider web that attaches to both plants and I don't feel like disturbing the spider right now. It's pretty impressive and the kids like watching for the spider at night. There is also a tiny black spider on one of the mint cuttings, which was a surprise. I didn't even see how a spider could make it over to where the cuttings were, but spiders are pretty good at moving around, I guess.

Got a hula hoop to feed the fish in. They kept eating the turtle food so I got them the hoop to hopefully train them to eat in it and leave the other food alone. It's been known to happen, and goldfish are trainable.

Built / rebuilt a better basking area that we can see from the window in my room. It's an old desk top and bricks. It's partially submerged and right in the sun most of the day. I see one turtle already checking it out.

I need to get an underwater camera.

Lilies Down

The lily tubers I had gotten last week were growing well enough in the water without soil or anything, but the roots were in the sun. I didn't want them to get burned so I put them under gravel and sank them to the bottom of the spa (shallow, maybe 18 inches tops). It's a temporary solution but at least now they will grow without direct sun to cook the tubers and roots.

I also "planted" my watermint in gravel that I put into an old baby sock. I eventually hope to have them growing bare-root in mesh pots along side the turtle islands (or at least in the main water).

Turtle Island

We have Timmy (of course), Chewy (the light colored one), and we have a male and female that need to be named. Any ideas?

I am so tired. I love my pond so much but the last two days I've had a sick kid so I haven't gotten out there as much. My pennywort came in today and my hardy lilies came in two days ago. I want to plant the lilies but I lack pots and stuff to hold them; I think I want to just sink them into the pool with gravel and mesh pots or ... something. The pennywort will grow just about anywhere, so I was thinking of putting them over the sides of the turtle islands.

OH, I forgot to update about the islands.

I'm making 3x3 wooden platforms (sanded), floated on PVC pipe (capped), with two ramps each. Eventually I hope to have pots on the tops for leafy plants and mesh pots hanging off the sides for those plants (like pennywort and watermint) that can be grown in up to a foot of water. This would eliminate the need for soil and pots inside the pond. I could also, in the same vein, connect the mesh pots with the water lilies to the anchor point of the islands OR I could hang them (weighted) underneath the island itself. I'm not sure of those yet.

One of these days one of the islands might have a sandy pit in it for the eggs, but I don't have to worry about that for many, many months at this point. At the other end of the pool where the shade cover is right now I was thinking of doing a 10x10 or an 8x8 island and taking the shade out. The island itself would provide plenty of shade and it would look a lot better. And it would be fun and easy to maintain since ... well, it would hold more plants and would be something else to fiddle with. Basking, shade, plants, and a hideaway for the fish and turtles underneath - what more could they ask for?

I just need to make sure I'm using the right wood before I end up making islands I can't use. I also have to figure a good way of attaching the ramp; I was thinking tie rope through holes on the ramp but I don't want the turtles gnawing at them.

Babies Everywhere!

All three of my water mint cuttings have roots now, just within the last couple of days. This means I will be making more cuttings and moving these three to their new soil-less pot.

And I have multiple instances of mosquito fish babies! Some in the spa and a lot in the pond. They look like tadpoles and I was really confused when I first saw them because of that. I wondered what kind of creature had spawned in my pond! So cute. Now I'm just waiting for the goldfish to spawn, but since mosquito fish have live birth and goldfish lay eggs, I think the goldfish will have a harder time of it.

I built a basking platform in the middle of the pool but I haven't seen anyone use it yet. I may try to redo it and make it more stable later, when it stops being rainy at night.

I kind of want to just create an island.

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.

Video of Today

Today's pond time was so great! This video sums up why - it involves the fish and toes.

Baby Mint

I took my first three cuttings from my water mint plants today. I put them into glass jars and set them where they'll get partial sun.

This is the first time I've tried such a thing and I'm hoping to grow them bare-root so I can just put them into the pond and not have them in dirt.

Minty

Got my water mint yesterday. I've never had plants shipped to me before, so I was really excited and really anxious; I had stuff to do until 11:00am and then I raced home to check the mail. The plant wasn't delivered until about 3:00pm but it was dropped off right to my door.

The two water mint plants were HUGE compared to what I had thought they'd look like. I put them into six inch pots (the only pots I had enough soil for) and used organic potting soil (which prevents me from putting them into the pool). Then I soaked them with the pond water until it ran out the bottom and I set them in partial sun.

A few hours later, they didn't look so great. I then took a plastic bin and put the pots inside it and filled it up with pond water. Later that night, they had perked up quite a bit. Yay plants!

With the soil in them, I know I can't put them along the side of the pond because any water runoff is brown and I don't want that in the pond. What I plan to do is take some cuttings once they recover enough from their travel and the new environment and start the cuttings in water. I hope to be able to put them in pots of sand and submerge the pots a few inches into the pond. We shall see; I have been learning patience and I know I can't rush into everything. I do hope they recover sufficiently by next week, though.

Pictures

Shade Made

Put up a shade tent across one side of the pool. Set up two sunning areas. Released the turtle.
The water temp in the shade was around 80 and it's 100 outside now, so I think the turtle will be ok even if it goes up a little. I will be closely monitoring him the entire day, though, to make sure he's ok. And to make sure he doesn't eat all my surviving fish.

Water Mint

I just got the first non-craigslist thing for the pond (besides the fish, I mean). I bought some Water Mint from eBay. Two large plants, coming my way next week, that I plan to immediately stick in some nice water and then take cuttings from when they're acclimated. Then I'm going to need to get a plastic kid pool to hold the pots in.

Day 5 Update

The water is green but we have 50 water hyacinth plants floating in it doing some cleaning. I haven't filled it up all the way to where I want it because I'm trying to get the water clear first so it doesn't look like a giant gross mess. I may be optimistic but in the day and a half that the plants have been in, I seem to be able to see the bottom more clearly. It's green, but not cloudy green.
There is also good news and bad news: We have no more mosquito larvae swimming around / floating but I haven't seen the fish in two days. Except one. One died.

My Craigslist Pond Plan

My Craigslist Pond Plan:
I want a pond. We have an unused pool. You can see where this is going.

The plan is to only get things off Craigslist or use what we have lying around. I realize this is going to take months, both to assemble the parts and to get the water running smoothly and grossness-free, but I apparently need a hobby (something I am in complete control of), so this should be it. I've really taken a liking to our turtle and think that he'd truly enjoy the snot out of a 6000 gallon pond.

After extensive research and writing things and diagramming like someone on caffeine with a pencil, I have come to the conclusion that I need these things:

First:
2 100 gallon containers (round trash cans or similar)
2 1500+ GPH pumps
PVC (which I have a lot of, actually; I just have to find it)
PVC sealant / glue (have this too but might not have enough)
Filter material (which may be the only thing I buy new)

Second:
Floating plants (jumbo hyacinth and frogbit are my top choices)
Planted plants (water lily and some ferny things)
Shade plants (big leaves, can be in-water or side-planted)

I've measured our pool and I'm only going to fill it three feet up. This would reach the second stair (barely) and it would allow for two basking areas for the turtle since we also have a side stair / ledge about that high. And only having three feet of water would allow a great slow rise for shallow plants, plantable plants, and submerged plants to branch out in stages without cramming everything into one area.

Once I get the pumps running, the filters built, and the water smooth and clean for a while, I'll add in the plants. Then I'll ensure the pH and temperature are acceptable for a time, and ... maybe next year Mr Timmy Bonk will get a new home. ... I'll probably stock it with Koi first, though, so they'll get too big for him to eat.