Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

google "pondboss" for some great pond info..

Thanks for the pics, Don!
(Sorry I didn't respond earlier, I've been offline)

Nice pond Don what are your plans for it

I have been planning on putting in Channel Catfish and Minnows. I recently received a book on how to maintain farm ponds from the County Extension Service and I may change my mind and put in some more varieties as well. The book tells me that the Blue Gills are Bream. I had wondered what they were that were being discussed here on the forum. The book suggests that I use Bream for food for Big Mouth Bass which are predators. However I think I want to be the predator. lol

Yesterday was among the worst I have had lately. I had worked in the garden a while and took a break and when i came back half of my fish tank water was on the ground. One of my gutters was twisted under an overflow pipe and had spilled instead of returning my water to the tank. I got that fixed and had to go to town for about three hours and came back to and almost empty fish tank again. One of the pipes to my supply line had come apart and this time the water was only about 6 inches deep. so I lost about 80% of the water the second time. By the time I had put in about 500 gallons of water I noticed some floating stuff in the water. It felt like oil or grease. I can not imagine where it came from unless it came from the well (bore). This well is a very good well as I have never been able to pump it dry. I am thinking that it may have been in the well all along and I did not know it. There was probably 1/2 cup of stuff in the water. I skimmed it off and saved it to have it looked at to determine what it actually is. After I collected most of the stuff I over flowed the tank to remove the rest. I am so disgusted to loose so much of my water and bio stuff. The other part is the water from the bore is not completely clear and the fish tank had just gotten clear so I had been able to watch the fish for a couple of days. Now it is going to be cloudy for a while again.

About a week ago I changed my pumping timer to 30 on 15 off so it would clear my fish tank and it worked. Now I will leave it as is for a while longer. I was going to put it back on 15 and 45 today. Not now. I did a water test to see if I had lost it all and it shows I still have some rates in there but not much. The rites and am are both near 0 and Ph is up around 8.0. The little blue gills and the minnows ate fine but the cats did not eat very much. I probably should not have fed at all but I did not think about it at the time I fed them.

Hurry up and get all your HSM's out of the way so you can enjoy your system. Plan for the worse hope for the best.
Just don't give up.

If your pump is all the way on the bottom of the pond you should raise it up or make an intake pipe for it so that it cannot pump out all the water if a leak happens. On my current setup I made a grid of pipes for the pump intake and drilled a small hole in the side of the pipe before the pump, the plan is that the pump will suck air when the water reaches the level of the hole and not pump out the rest of the pond water.

The oil may be from the pump, some are filled with oil. I opened up my sump pump after it died and oil sprayed out of it.

Since you're using well water it's not as bad to fill it up again, would be more of a pain if you had to with tap water, so that's something positive...

Either glue your pipes or put a self tapping screw into the fitting to hold the pipes on but still allow them to be undone. (I need to do this too, shame on me) HTH!

I was reading about ponds too and as a result I got some daphnia for the water, for the little ones to chew on. I got minnows, some blue gill, and just four catfish. I think now I have maybe two bluegill, the catfish all died, and about a dozen adult minnows, but now there are hundreds of tiny minnow babies in the sump!

I am assuming HSM is High Stress Moment. Too many of them lately.

This morning I called the manufacturer of the pump and found it is an oil filled pump. They said it must have overheated and to take it back for a replacement so I did. I made a new fish screen for the new pump also out of a 5 gallon bucket. I sawed slots in the bottom and sides to let the water in and keep the fish out. I set the saw blade up about 1 1/2 inches and cut up from the bottom about 7 of 8 inches. I guessed at the slots being about 1/2 to 3/4 inch apart. I cut the slots through the bottom so it will still be able to suck up the solids I hope. My return lines cause a swirl action in the tank and it makes all the stuff go to the center even though it is a flat bottom tank. I set the pump on top of the lid and estimated where it would set and marked the hole for the outlet and cords. I trimmed it out and test fit to see if the float switch was still clear to operate. It looked good so I snapped on the lid and put it in the fish tank. Lots of room for plenty of flow. After starting the pump again I rechecked the bucket to see if it was collapsing because of the flow but it was ok. I read the flow chart again also. Says I can get 4500 gph at 5 foot head so I should have plenty of turnover of the tank.

As for the big pond I don't think it gained much water today. Not much increase in depth when I waded through it. When I checked the Ph it was at 7.0 so the lime I put in is working. Today I saw some wild life activity when I was looking in over the side. Must be a frog or a bug of some kind. Making ripples in the water. I will have to get an aerator going soon so it does not get stagnant. I always wanted to have a farm pond big enough to play in as well as have fish in it. I really do not want to share with snakes though. Just do not like snakes at all. I was raised to be deathly afraid of them. It really is ingrained well. At about 6 or 7 I was taught to kill all the poison ones and leave the non poison ones to take care of the rats and such like varmints.

Good nite all

That is a nicer way of putting it but it usually stands for Holly Sh!t Moment.

Don says....."Just do not like snakes at all. I was raised to be deathly afraid of them. It really is ingrained well. At about 6 or 7 I was taught to kill all the poison ones and leave the non poison ones to take care of the rats and such like varmints."

In Australia they've calculated from hospital records that 87% of all snake bite admissions were fromm ppl either trying to capture or kill the snake.......

arbe looks like your avatar is wearing a snake. I still really don't like them thangs.

Yeah Bushy that is how the Croc man got it I think. Trying to capture one that was super poisonous. Did not make it to hospital.

A couple of weeks ago I gently chased one in my chicken house into a corner where he hid in a quart jar. I scooped him up in a 5 gallon bucket and moved him out into the bush and let im go. He was about 6 foot long. Black and a very triangle head so was poisonous. Still they kill the rats and mice.

You're a braver man than I Don.........

My avatar is me with a 2m Carpet Python around my neck.

It was a very nice snake. Very placid. Just hung on and looked around.

Brushy not brave just careful. I did not want to hurt or be hurt.
ARBE 60 years is a lot of training to over come. When you can see them there are too many of them so killing them is not bad but good. I have been around ranchers most of my life and they all keep a non poisonous snake in their barns to keep the rats under control. They stay hidden from people so you don't see them. They just do their job. And they don't play with them.

NEXT QUESTION ON WORMS IN BEDS
My beds are starting to accumulate some stuff in them so I am going to put some worms in. I see most people use red wigglers. Are they the best? Can you use the regular garden worms for the same purpose? I use 1/2 blue barrels for beds, How many would you put in each bed to start with?

i put about a dozen in each half barrel, red wigglers or "composting worms" are what's most often used..
since you already have some "stuff" building up, at least a dozen per bed..they will self regulate

Ass keith said spot on