For many
years I have always wanted a small water fish pond with a water fall. A couple
years
ago
I started to build the frame work in the shop using 2x6's and 2x2's. The
total width is 77 inches and is 55 inches front to back. The total depth of
the water is 18 inches when full. The whole unit is stained and sealed with
in a dark pecan stain. The whole framework was then moved to edge of
the yard just outside my radio room (actually the door from my radio room goes
right out to it). The bottom was leveled with gravel and sand then a
plastic 10mm liner was put in it. May 2006 we put in new liner and changed
some trouble spots that sprouted through the winter. 13 goldfish ane 1 crawdad
survived the winter at which several weeksthe whole pond was froze over. I
also threw in a fantail goldfish and a guppy (not sure how long she will
last). last week. They were the sole survivers of my indoor aquarium that sprung
a leak. Now the "Lake of the Wizards" sports abput 20
fish, one crawdad, Brapp and his knorr "ET", 3 wizards, 3 unicorns,
1 white tiger, 1 knome, 2 ferries, a gargole and 2 tiki statues...oh and a
frog under an umbrella
Brapp the viking and his knorr 'ET'
The water fall was made by gluing rocks onto a sheet of sealed plywood with silicone. This took a long time as I hand picked each rock and fitted it like a jig saw puzzle and then stuck in fake weeds ( $1 a bundle at the dollar store). It looks a little different now as I have covered all the bare wood areas with fake vines and plants and a new uv filter is also mounted and concealed on the right side of the fall. There was originally suppose to be a rose bush there but it died.
The water is pumped up into a small bowl type rock formation (just under blue flowers) then cascades down onto the next level and then into the pond. The pump is a small pond pump (300 gal per minute) with a bio-filter in it which has a diverter that diverts some of the water across the back of the pond into another filter which has another bio-filter as well as a uv light in it to control the single cell algae. and the goes into the far side of the pond thus creating a circulation from one side to the other.
The "Lake-of-the-Wizards"
come from the fact that if you look on the cabin porch you will see a small
wizard and at the base of the uv filter is another one. if you look closely
you will see a unicorn as well as 2 pixies. there are other small figurines
scattered about the pond as well.
..
smaller waterfall
And what
is this odd looking thing you ask. Well here is the story, soon after
I got it all
together and the weather got somewhat reasonable and stocked with fish
(started with 5 koi and 15 gold fish...the dime wal-mart feeder variety
goldfish that
is)
all
was
fine
then
the sun got it warm enough that the lawn snakes started coming out. As
it got hotter in the summer the snakes discovered a way of getting up into
the
pond and the buggers were eating the smaller goldfish and killed 3 koi
by biting off their fins. The snakes would actually lay on the bottom of
the
pond and wait for a fish and snag it then come to the surface. Well
they were making there way up over the back. To stop this I had a couple
of ideas. First (an most logical) was to put a barrier that they could
not get up the full length of the back of the pond. I really didn't want
to tear
it apart to do that just yet so next idea was to make something they couldn't
or didn't want to cross. Thus the "Snake Fence". The idea is
simple, make a section of railroad track type thing that a snake has to
touch both sides
of it as the cross. Now energize that with a fence charger ...hoooo ho...an
electric snake fence.
The charger
is designed for a 30 mile electric fence so should work for 7 foot, and
indeed
it does, it will throw a 1/4 inch spark with a "snap" you can literally
hear for 50+ feet. The big question was would it do what it is suppose
to? It did cut the snake invasion down to just about zip. After several
encounters I finally witnessed a crossing, that snake got about a quarter
of the way across and finally made contact with both sides enough to get
a "hit" and he flew up in the air about 6 inches went perfectly
straight and slithered through the air and landed in the pond. Well it worked
but
the jolt propelled the critter forward and he lit in the pond anyway but
I am sure he wasn't hungry when he got there. I mover the tracks closer
to the inside edge so the snake body was more flat as it crossed and that
helped. I did have e one small snake I fished out several times and how he
was getting over that thing without getting zapped I have no clue. Besides
the snakes the fence also created a bad hair day for the local cats and squirrels
that snooped around back there. Unfortunately when they exited the area they
wasn't caring which way they went or what they had to move to get gone so
numerous times I found figurines and fake plants scattered and floating everywhere. The
snake fence has sence been replaced with "snake away", a granular product
that makes the snake confused by affecting its jacob's organ . They stay
as far away from it as possible, have used it for 2 summers now and no snakes
near the pond.
I sure enjoy going out there in the morning and having my morning tea as
I sit and watch the fish and listen to the water trickle down into the pond
while the morning sun warms the bones. However as fall come and the
weather started to change I had a problem, what to do with it and the fish
during the winter. Well I knew goldfish will survive in water tanks
when froze over and I have heard of koi doing as well so I had a plan. I
would enclose the area with plywood and on the roof put some sky lights. Beings
how I already had a 8x8 foot frame around it I simply used it to hang sealed
plywood on it and continue it over the sidewalk to the edge of the house.
I also put in 3 2x8ft clear fiberglass panels in the roof for light. (remember
there is a door that goes out into the area from the radio room). We
also put bails of straw around the 2 outside edges of the pond to help insulate
it. This all worked well and especially on cold days when the wind
is blowing the "fish house" stays about 5 to 8 degree warmer than outside
and at times when the sun is shinning and the snow hasn't covered the clear
panels it has been as high as 20 degree higher. However we did have a 2 week
span where it was near 0 degree at night and low teens in the day and it
froze over.
fish
house winterized
winter at L O W snow blew through fence..frosty 2006
2006
The
mistake I made was that I left the pump on the waterfall (thinking it would
keep a hole open where the water hit) well all this did
was pumped water from the bottom out to on top of the ice and the froze while
emptying the water under the ice. I caught this in time and turned
it off but wound up with a good 4 inches of ice layer over the top of the
pond
plus a large clump of ice (looked like glacier) on the water fall, looked
cool though. I tried several things to melt a hole down to the water
level and finally did it with warm water then put a 100 watt light bulb in
a shield real close to the ice and in 2 days had a hole about the size of
a cantaloupe. At this point all the fish that survived the summer
( 2 koi and 15 goldfish) were still alive as they would come over and peek
up through the hole. Oddly enough as it warmed up a little and all
the ice melted off the 2 koi went belly up as did one small goldfish.
I learned a lot about what not to do next winter and this spring I am going
to do some major rebuild. First when it gets warm spring days, I will
take down the panels ( built them so they would go up and come down real
easy, 4 screws per panel) I want to build another
waterfall utilizing the uv bio filter that will feed the far end of the pond
and also put in a bypass line that goes directly into the pond below water
level. This will be so next winter when it freezes I can turn off the waterfalls
and leave the bypass run to circulate the water. I am also going to heavily
insulate the line that crosses the back of the pond to keep it from freezing. I
am going g to make a good reflective lamp utilizing a 100 watt bulb to mount
and keep a hole for gasses and oxy to escape if it does freeze over. The
big lesson I learned....Don't spend big dollars on koi, yes they are cool
looking but almost all the 10 cent feeder fish I bought from wal-mart (except
for the ones the snakes got and the one that died later) have all survived. 2
of them are about 5 inches long now (07), they started out about 1/2 inch
in 05. I think there are 20 left but not sure how many of them I threw in
there
over the summer. I know I threw 10 in there one day and next day was
0 of them left as I had a bluegill in there for a week...seems they like
tiny gold fish ( could be why the sell them as "feeder fish" I
guess...duh). Anyway
looking forward to spring and can take down the panels and enjoy the sun,
fish and trickle of water at Lake-of-the-Wizards.
POND # 2
In the spring of 07 I built this pond, It looked real neat when I got it
all working but turned into more work I could keep up with ( 2 ponds
= 2 much work) come spring
of
08
I will
use the
gnome
home / water wheel and water taughter to add another water feature on
the far end of the old pond.
