Magicpenny's Porch Pond - Page 3

[angelcraze]

Epsom Salts will raise GH specifically calcium and magnesium. Plants use this up too, so it won't kill your plants and is actually fertilizer and maybe even a reason hardness is dropping. I just wouldn't go without my test kit, KH/GH and TDS meter since I got into water chemistry. I had to learn the hard way!

 

[MomeWrath]

Oh also my lily bloomed Sunday. I think yesterday was the last day for it because when I topped off the tank last night the bloom was starting to feel a bit floppy. I didn't know until Monday that it opened and closed every day. This photo was taken Sunday evening.

 

[MomeWrath]

Epsom Salts will raise GH specifically calcium and magnesium. Plants use this up too, so it won't kill your plants and is actually fertilizer and maybe even a reason hardness is dropping. I just wouldn't go without my test kit, KH/GH and TDS meter since I got into water chemistry. I had to learn the hard way!

or hey here's a crazy idea....I could do a ** water change ** **

 

[angelcraze]

Lol.
Some ppl don't do water changes. I think it's possible considering you are filling with rainwater? But for sure, I prefer water changes, I mean I think my fish do.

 

[MomeWrath]

Lol.
Some ppl don't do water changes. I think it's possible considering you are filling with rainwater? But for sure, I prefer water changes, I mean I think my fish do.

Yeah if it gets more than an inch or so down I throw the hose in there, and I dip out a few gallons (like 5 or so) and use it to water all my porch plants and a couple thirsty things in the yard. Maybe I'll just do that more...

 

[MomeWrath]

Little update. My lily bloomed again and the pond is Crystal clear. Beautiful day in NC today.

 

[CleaHelena]

Somehow, the frog eggs never turned into tadpoles! And my goldfish were all smiling lol.
I admit, I am not much of a water tester. I feel like that leads to either chasing numbers or slacking on maintenance. However, I felt guilty and slightly curious because of the other pondkeepers talking about weekly fifty percent changes on their porch ponds. I have never,So not once, done a water change except dipping out a few gallons to water plants with. I ordered some test strips. Checked all my tanks, with the expected results from each. Heavily stocked tanks had higher nitrates but all under 40, light ranks were practically perfect. I expected the nitrates in the pond to be sky high, honestly. One of the goldfish died yesterday, but the remaining four all seemed to be healthy and active. So I dipped my little strip...and I am shocked. Here is my result...

So I know my alk and gh are low. Do I need to do something about this? I've never paid attention to it before in fresh water. Maybe some epsom salts??

I know this is an older post. I have found putting some crushed coral into the bottom of the tub to really help with GH. I kept Assasin snails in mine to breed so GH was important.

Love reading about your new adventures in here. Sorry I have been away for a spell. The Green Tree frog stories are awesome too! I get Copes Grey tree frogs in mine, and they are green. Also have my free range bullfrog.

Season is far from over! ****, you may even winter them over in the tub.

 

[CleaHelena]

I know this is an older post. I have found putting some crushed coral into the bottom of the tub to really help with GH. I kept Assasin snails in mine to breed so GH was important.

Love reading about your new adventures in here. Sorry I have been away for a spell. The Green Tree frog stories are awesome too! I get Copes Grey tree frogs in mine, and they are green. Also have my free range bullfrog.

Season is far from over! , you may even winter them over in the tub.

I’d also like to clarify the amount of crushed coral. I would spread it sporadically across the bottom. Never wanted a gravel layer in my tub that could trap debris and gasses.

 

[MomeWrath]

Well after a wonderful summer last year, I allowed my daughter to bring home a "poor goldfish" from the state fair. He was sick (big surprise) and wiped out my other goldies in a matter of a week. Sad face.
So I took my little pump and foam block out, and bid the pond goodnight for the winter.
Once the world started to turn green again this year, I raked a bunch of leaves and pine needles out of the bottom, and noticed that there were tons of very alive ramshorn and pond snails in the tub, and some of the aquatic plants (Carolina Fanwork and a little stem of hygrophilia) were still alive and starting to grow again. So I got online and ordered an actual tetra pond box filter, grabbed a stronger pump than last year's - a Danner Magdrive left over from my reef tank - and hooked everything up. When I started to see shoots poking out of the water lily pot, I ordered some Osmocote+ tabs from ebay and shoved a few in there.
About mid-March, just when lockdown was setting in, I got a few feeder goldfish from a lady at Petsmart who was not too interested in letting me be selective...so I added four and within a couple weeks had just two left. About what I expected really. I let them be because the water had hit that early spring algae bloom and I couldn't see anything anyway.
Then in mid-April I could see the ghost of the rocks at the bottom of the tank, and lily pads started popping up to the surface. Well, talk about excited!! Went in to support my local LFS, and purchased two shubunkin, who cost *significantly* more than feeder goldfish. Tank tests out at 0-0-0 just like these lovely sun-driven things do, so I didn't worry too much about them.
Fast forward to today, and things are crystal clear again. The lily bloomed last week, and the four goldfish are doing great!
This is a week or ten days ago when I just got a quick shot of the shubunkin, before the lily bloomed:

Here is a "full tank shot" with it a little clearer from the past weekend after I picked up a water hyacinth. It's even clearer now, but I'm in the middle of a deck renovation..more on that later...:

To top it off, as we got to talking about the deck reno, I jokingly suggested we could make a pond to go across the long side of the deck, and how much I loved my pond, and that I would even give up the inside tanks to have my pond.
So now, my husband is framing in a 14'x2' by however deep so we can sit on the edge pond along the front of our deck. The pavers will be the "base" and the sand is to fill in. He's framing it with 2x4s and bracing the corners, and there will also be a center brace. Then we will get pond liner, secure that with battens around the top, put a 2" through-fitting on one side for an overflow drain with a pipe to run that into the yard away from the wood. Then he's going to put a 1x8 around the top as a perch for me to look at my fishies. Plan is subject to change because he knows what he's got in his mind but isn't always able to relay it to me so that I understand, and since he's visually impaired he's a little sensitive to too many questions. Between you and me, I will be doing a 2 week "leak-test" to check for bowing/failures/wear/leaks before I transfer my kids and their furniture.

 

[MomeWrath]

Moving right along...when I got home from work last night the deck was done and the pavers and leveling had been started. The pavers are level with the concrete blocks the deck is standing on, and my stepson is coming back today to take him to the store for more sand to make the base sturdy. I still don't know what his overall design plan is, or if it will work but here goes nothing. If it doesn't hold water I can always have a great raised flower bed...?? One does not look a gift horse in the mouth.

 

[MomeWrath]

Hopefully I will have good news on Monday. The liner is being delivered today, and we are going to finish construction on "the trough pond" this weekend.
Side construction is 2x6 all the way around. We are building a center brace across the top and Z-bracing the sides, so it'll be like a W on the sides. There will be the center batten plus an additional one for a total of 5 across. We also took one course of boards down since this pic. Once we get the liner installed we can finish the construction and then we are adding a frame around the top to act as a sort of perching seat on the deck side, and a place to set some flowers on. We will be bracing the corners as well. My husband has built dock bulkheads and worked on around and beside the water most of his life, and he assures me it will hold. We shall see! Stay tuned you might see a disaster lol.

 

[Fishproblem]

Hopefully I will have good news on Monday. The liner is being delivered today, and we are going to finish construction on "the trough pond" this weekend.
Side construction is 2x6 all the way around. We are building a center brace across the top and Z-bracing the sides, so it'll be like a W on the sides. There will be the center batten plus an additional one for a total of 5 across. We also took one course of boards down since this pic. Once we get the liner installed we can finish the construction and then we are adding a frame around the top to act as a sort of perching seat on the deck side, and a place to set some flowers on. We will be bracing the corners as well. My husband has built dock bulkheads and worked on around and beside the water most of his life, and he assures me it will hold. We shall see! Stay tuned you might see a disaster lol.

I had read through this whole thread up to your most recent posts, and I'm glad I found it again! Sorry to hear about the wipeout last summer - I guess we all need a reminder that QT is important for a reason, especially these days!

Really excited to see what you do with the new pond. I can't wait until we have our own place and get to play with outdoor water features. Your container was really inspiring, and I'm sure this will be to! Really sweet of your husband to do this, too. And you didn't even ask! What a guy.

 

[MomeWrath]

Not bad for a weekend's work! Just need to sand and finish the top shelf. Then we have to rinse and skim off the sawdust. The bulkhead drain in the end should help with that. We ended up (design on the fly) doing vertical bracing on the sides but it's 2/3 full and everything is still square. Of course there's an 80% chance of rain every day this week so that's probably it for now lol. Also throwing in a current tub shot. For funsies.

 

[MomeWrath]

I had read through this whole thread up to your most recent posts, and I'm glad I found it again! Sorry to hear about the wipeout last summer - I guess we all need a reminder that QT is important for a reason, especially these days!

Really excited to see what you do with the new pond. I can't wait until we have our own place and get to play with outdoor water features. Your container was really inspiring, and I'm sure this will be to! Really sweet of your husband to do this, too. And you didn't even ask! What a guy.

He is amazing and I don't deserve him! I sort of asked lol...he says he's owed it to me for years anyway. I don't know what that means really. He loves building stuff and he's excited to have a water feature in our yard and thinks it really finishes the look on the front of the deck. I can't wait to set trailing plants on top of the frame and have some rushes and my little pitcher plant sticking up...

 

[MomeWrath]

It's done!!! Everything transferred over today. We had some challenges with plumbing communication terminology...so the filter is still running on a foot of hose rather than the ten feet I intended, but it'll be alright for a bit til I regroup and can figure it out..
Without further ado...

 

[MomeWrath]

Sorry for the wall of text, but I can't tell this story anywhere else.
It happened... I am sure some of you saw it coming, and frankly so did I.
Saturday morning, after noticing that the whole pond liner had that lovely slime coating of biofilm, my daughter and I went over to PetSmart and picked out 5 more big healthy comets - two sarasa, two brilliant dark red guys, and a true "gold" one. Got 'em home, all settled in, admired them making friends with the ones that we already had, and went in the house. I came back out an hour later and looked at the overflow pipe and went, "why is the water so lo----oooohhhh noooo!" as my eyes traveled across the front and realized it had dropped about two inches and bowed out towards the yard about four inches!
So I dashed back in the house and grabbed my husband and daughter, and we spent Saturday afternoon moving everything back into the little tub. All eleven goldfish now in 100 gallons of water with a 500GPH pump. Nevermind how long it took to catch eleven 2-3" fish in a 14-foot tank. My daughter is a genius with the net. I caught one.
Being married to someone with a disability that makes everyone doubt every single thing that they do, or just assume they can't do anything right at all, is a delicate dance. I couldn't stand there and ask a hundred questions, no matter how delicately I put them, without sounding like just another doubter. So I watched the 14' pond get built with only one 2x6 brace at the top and in the bottom. The screws holding the bottom brace in pulled completely through the outside frame, and the wall of the tank bowed out and fell off the block foundation.
I didn't yell and scream, because there's no point in anger. I didn't blame him, and he didn't defend himself either. Neither of us got a lot of sleep Saturday night though.
Sunday we got up and realized there were only a couple of things we could do without tearing the whole thing apart and starting from scratch. So he got out the posthole digger and dug a hole. We went to the hardware store and bought a bag of quick-crete and two 3'-long iron stakes. We lifted the wall of the tank back into position and set a 4x4 post in concrete at the center, and drove the iron stakes 2' into the ground in front of the tank.
We lost two goldfish..one jumped out of the 100 gallon tank on to the deck and went between the boards (he was little) and another jumped out into the yard. A third jumped onto the deck right before we walked outside Sunday morning, and when I went to pick him up thinking he was dead he flopped a little, so I held him upright in the tank until he gained his bearings and then he swam off. No worse for wear by the afternoon he was ganging around with his friends again.
Yesterday afternoon we filled the pond back up 2/3 of the way and moved all the inhabitants back. Better to be in 250 gallons for now than in 100. We have to get more stakes to fully support the bottom before we can fill it all the way back up. What an ordeal. 3/10 do not recommend.

 

[Dezbian]

Hello fellow fish nerds! My name is dez and I've been keeping aquariums for about 12 years! I have recently moved to Massachusetts and am unsure of how to do a water garden that could withstand cooler temps in a shady area because the weather is so off up here it can go from 80 one day to 60 the next. I know the colder water temp fish I would maybe like to stock it with and I also know the plants I would like to use that can withstand cooler temps and shade. I guess my question is for any new Englanders that might be out here how do you manage stock tubs and water gardens in cooler areas with weird weather lol. sorry if this is on the wrong post please correct me if it is! thank you all for any help you could provide

 

[MomeWrath]

Hello fellow fish nerds! My name is dez and I've been keeping aquariums for about 12 years! I have recently moved to Massachusetts and am unsure of how to do a water garden that could withstand cooler temps in a shady area because the weather is so off up here it can go from 80 one day to 60 the next. I know the colder water temp fish I would maybe like to stock it with and I also know the plants I would like to use that can withstand cooler temps and shade. I guess my question is for any new Englanders that might be out here how do you manage stock tubs and water gardens in cooler areas with weird weather lol. sorry if this is on the wrong post please correct me if it is! thank you all for any help you could provide

Welcome! Not a lot of people are following my post, so you might get more responses if you started a new thread in the Ponds section. But for what it's worth, check out The Tub Pond Handbook by Dr. Ted Coletti. He's from New Jersey and is very successful. I think in anything less than an in-ground large pond you have to take your fish in over the winter there.

 

[Dezbian]

Welcome! Not a lot of people are following my post, so you might get more responses if you started a new thread in the Ponds section. But for what it's worth, check out The Tub Pond Handbook by Dr. Ted Coletti. He's from New Jersey and is very successful. I think in anything less than an in-ground large pond you have to take your fish in over the winter there.

thank you so much I will do both! unfortunately I will most likely be doing a blowout winter sale or something, as i only have a 10 gallon allowed inside at the moment becuase of complex rules. thanks again!

 

[86 ssinit]

Wow sorry to here what happened. Well at least it happened on the weekend . Good luck with your repairs .

 

[MomeWrath]

Wow sorry to here what happened. Well at least it happened on the weekend . Good luck with your repairs .

You are right about that! If it had been today it would have been a catastrophe! I don't even want to think about that. It only sagged for an hour at most before I caught it...today it would have been all afternoon. Yikes! Thanks for the "bright side"

 

[Fishproblem]

Wow! What a potential disaster. Congrats on the cool new fish, amid all the stress of having to rescue and reinforce the new pond. If it makes you feel any better, I baffled a filter on one of my tanks this week and engineered it perfectly to spill over the lid and onto our floor and furniture. It sounds like you guys have a *solid* plan to fully reinforce it though! (Pardon the pun...)

I can't wait to see it filled back up and full of plants and little frogs!

 

[MomeWrath]

Wow! What a potential disaster. Congrats on the cool new fish, amid all the stress of having to rescue and reinforce the new pond. If it makes you feel any better, I baffled a filter on one of my tanks this week and engineered it perfectly to spill over the lid and onto our floor and furniture. It sounds like you guys have a *solid* plan to fully reinforce it though! (Pardon the pun...)

I can't wait to see it filled back up and full of plants and little frogs!

aw that stinks! I am sorry for your furniture!
Yeah I am pretty stoked about the fish I got. I have been able to find some real beauties. One of the ones that jumped was an especially sad loss...he was the most brilliant red - my daughter said he almost looked like a betta he was so red. But the one I was able to rescue from the deck is doing great and no other losses despite all we put them through in the last 72 hours. Tough little guys.
We got the rest of the stakes in yesterday, and my husband is going to fill it the rest of the way back up when he's home from work tomorrow.
Then we have to buy some little shrubs or something to hide all the ugly stuff we just put in front of the wall. *shrug* oh well can't win them all I guess.

 

[Fishproblem]

aw that stinks! I am sorry for your furniture!
Yeah I am pretty stoked about the fish I got. I have been able to find some real beauties. One of the ones that jumped was an especially sad loss...he was the most brilliant red - my daughter said he almost looked like a betta he was so red. But the one I was able to rescue from the deck is doing great and no other losses despite all we put them through in the last 72 hours. Tough little guys.
We got the rest of the stakes in yesterday, and my husband is going to fill it the rest of the way back up when he's home from work tomorrow.
Then we have to buy some little shrubs or something to hide all the ugly stuff we just put in front of the wall. *shrug* oh well can't win them all I guess.

No worries! Like you, it was a near miss but not a permanent loss. My girlfriend came home earlier than expected and caught a large puddle, not a flood. Phew.

These little fish really are tougher than we often give them credit for. Thank goodness for that, but I'm sorry for the loss of your new red friend. And hey! landscaping is a bit of a silver lining. Who doesn't love decorative shrubs?

 

[MomeWrath]

Well it seems to be holding together now. Got the center brace reattached and secured. Bought a bunch of plants and now it's clear and pretty. My water hyacinth bloomed today...

 

[Cheesecake]

Well it seems to be holding together now. Got the center brace reattached and secured. Bought a bunch of plants and now it's clear and pretty. My water hyacinth bloomed today...

Yeah this is @Magicpenny's thread, you gotta post that somewhere else bruh.

WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MAGIC???

 

[MomeWrath]

Yeah this is @Magicpenny's thread, you gotta post that somewhere else bruh.

WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MAGIC???

The magic is gone. Only wrath is left...Canaculus.

 

[Cheesecake]

The magic is gone. Only wrath is left...Canaculus.

Hey hey hey I didn't choose this path. It was thrust upon me.

 

[MomeWrath]

Hey hey hey I didn't choose this path. It was thrust upon me.

As was mine, my young friend, as was mine...

 

[Cheesecake]

As was mine, my young friend, as was mine...

Whatever. I meant that I made a poll and like 70% of people voted for Cheesecake and not Canaculus.
I can't take this change man....first Frisbee.....then flyinGourami......now you......when will it end???

 

[flyinGourami]

Whatever. I meant that I made a poll and like 70% of people voted for Cheesecake and not Canaculus.
I can't take this change man....first Frisbee.....then flyinGourami......now you......when will it end???

Dude weren't you the one who started this? Just joking.

MomeWrath cool pond!!! The plants look great, what happened to MagicPenny ?

 

[MomeWrath]

Dude weren't you the one who started this? Just joking.

MomeWrath cool pond!!! The plants look great, what happened to MagicPenny ?

i lost track of who was who of all the people that I used to talk to all the time so i just decided if i cant beat em, join em. Also life kind of sucks rn other than the pond, so I haven't been feeling magical lately. Old Karen the Convict fits my current vibe better, and MomeWrath is sort of an Alice in Wonderland thing, and also my oldest kid used to call me Mome instead of Mom. So there you go

 

[Cheesecake]

Dude weren't you the one who started this? Just joking.

MomeWrath cool pond!!! The plants look great, what happened to MagicPenny ?

I don't know what you're talking about.

 

[MomeWrath]

Another interesting goldfish fact I have learned keeping my little pond...
Usually, when you buy the sort of tan-ish goldfish they end up turning a nice light gold color (like golden) over time. So when I stocked the pond I thought it would be nice to have a light gold fish in there mixed with the Sarasas, the shubunkins, the white freckled one, and the regular red-orange ones. Well not only did that little jerk not turn gold, but he's gone almost completely black. The only way I can see him/her at all is if she comes to the surface or swims above one of the rocks or another fish. Otherwise she blends exactly with the pond liner. I guess it's still cool...kind of a treat and always a surprise to see her. I actually wish I could get a better look from the side because there is some gold on her underside and behind the gills. Also the white one with a few orange freckles has gotten more and more freckles. It's pretty cool how the sun affects their color. The red ones are stunning.

 

[MomeWrath]

So. Many. Frogs...

 

[MomeWrath]

The goldfish are getting so big! And the Lily bloomed again. And the pond is so pretty!