Winterizing II (2008)
Can't believe (yes I can) it's been nearly a year since my last post, which was about winterizing the pond and getting it ready for the Winter of 2007-2008. Well, you know that old saying, no news is good news, and as much as this blog was started largely due to the trials and tribulations I was having with my pond in 2007, the main reason there's been no posts for 2008 -- besides laziness, that is -- is that nothing bad happened this year, pond-wise. Compared to last year, 2008 was entirely uneventful insofar as the Buddha Pond is concerned.
The only pond based pain-in-the-butt that I can recall was actually still from late last year, after the winterizing I mentioned in the previous post. I guess you could call it the icing on the cake. The pump I'd had for at least 3 or 4 years finally gave out, just a few days before Christmas, which was a bummer, budget-timing wise, but by then the weather and pond water was cold enough it wasn't something where I had to drop whatever I was doing to rush out and buy a pump, though I did get one within 24 hours.
Now, the Buddha pond isn't quite 200 gallons, but I'd always used a pump rated for about 200 GPH, so that's what I went looking for, but due to a labeling error, I ended up with one that is actually rated for 240 GPH. It turns out to have been a real plus, overall.
The extra flow does cause me to lose more water from the pond than usual, due to the stronger jet which, over time, causes more water to simply splash out of the pond, but the good part is that it seems that added flow has done wonders for the ponds health.
2008 has been the mirror opposite of 2007, insofar as the problems I was having last year with cloudy water, after the pond had mysteriously and disastrously lost all of its mojo. This year the pond was exceptionally clear, all year long. It's not unusual for it to be very clear when it's cold, but as Winter turned to Spring, and Spring to Summer, etc., the pond just kept on being clear. And I mean so clear that it looks inviting enough to drink (though I still would not, of course). Even during a few times when I was tardy in getting to needed water changes.
Also, and this could be coincidence (as all of this could be), I had almost no problems with algae this year. There's always quite a bit in the Spring, because with no leaves on the trees it gets an extra dose of sunlight, but one the leaves came in and I treated (non-agressively) for algae once or maybe two times, it remained very minimal to non-existent, all Spring, Summer and now well into Fall.
I did a water change over the past weekend, and while I think it would be good to go for this coming Winter, I'll probably do one more change if we get a warm enough weekend to the use the hose, after I'm done with the last of the leaves.
The only pond based pain-in-the-butt that I can recall was actually still from late last year, after the winterizing I mentioned in the previous post. I guess you could call it the icing on the cake. The pump I'd had for at least 3 or 4 years finally gave out, just a few days before Christmas, which was a bummer, budget-timing wise, but by then the weather and pond water was cold enough it wasn't something where I had to drop whatever I was doing to rush out and buy a pump, though I did get one within 24 hours.
Now, the Buddha pond isn't quite 200 gallons, but I'd always used a pump rated for about 200 GPH, so that's what I went looking for, but due to a labeling error, I ended up with one that is actually rated for 240 GPH. It turns out to have been a real plus, overall.
The extra flow does cause me to lose more water from the pond than usual, due to the stronger jet which, over time, causes more water to simply splash out of the pond, but the good part is that it seems that added flow has done wonders for the ponds health.
2008 has been the mirror opposite of 2007, insofar as the problems I was having last year with cloudy water, after the pond had mysteriously and disastrously lost all of its mojo. This year the pond was exceptionally clear, all year long. It's not unusual for it to be very clear when it's cold, but as Winter turned to Spring, and Spring to Summer, etc., the pond just kept on being clear. And I mean so clear that it looks inviting enough to drink (though I still would not, of course). Even during a few times when I was tardy in getting to needed water changes.
Also, and this could be coincidence (as all of this could be), I had almost no problems with algae this year. There's always quite a bit in the Spring, because with no leaves on the trees it gets an extra dose of sunlight, but one the leaves came in and I treated (non-agressively) for algae once or maybe two times, it remained very minimal to non-existent, all Spring, Summer and now well into Fall.
I did a water change over the past weekend, and while I think it would be good to go for this coming Winter, I'll probably do one more change if we get a warm enough weekend to the use the hose, after I'm done with the last of the leaves.
Labels: Pond Mojo, Pond Pumps
posted by Bryrock at
2:07 PM
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