Tenuki - What Happened to Your Pond??

[Julles]

Tenuki - did you say in the string algae thread that you came home one day to find your pond totally empty?  What on earth happened?  Did you loose fish?  Plants?

Sounds like a horrible disaster!

[LynneNY]

Thanks for asking that - I was wondering the same thing too!!!

[tenuki]

Thanks for asking.  Yes, totally empty except for  2 - 3 inches of water.  No fish loss, my lilies look OK.  I always come home, say hi to the cats and then look at the pond.  You cannot imagine the feeling of seeing it empty.  I did take some pictures and was going to post an "empty hole", but don't know how to do it.  I took a pic last week because everything was looking so good and I thought a before and after would be interesting.  Strangely enough, even though my three pumps were sucking air for who knows how long, they are still working.  Had to make some emergency calls to find enough declor to at least get enough water in to save the lilies.  While waiting for Mediacom to come and fix my internet I decided to plumb in the new uv light I got.  Guess I didn't tighten one hose good enough.  I am still depressed because now I know I have to wait for it to cycle again and it takes my pond forever to do that.  I put a low water shut off on the one pump that has hoses that are not glued being as that is the most at risk and then ordered two more - next day air for the other two pumps.  I do not ever want to come home to that again!

[Julles]

Man, what a close call!  You sure got a lucky break.

When you figure out how to post the pictures, we all sure would like to see your pond.

[Esther]

OK, here comes Miss or is it Mrs. Buttinsky. I have been preaching about floats for a long time but haven't had reason to get on the soapbox for a while.

Coming from someone with experience. DUH??? I put a piece of filter media in a wire mesh basket in the entrance to the spillway from the Skippy. The media got filled with crud and blocked the spillway====results, Skippy overflows. Luckily Dh is leaving for work and discovers it before I had any loss, just a little water. Didn't learn my lesson and did it again. Another lucky save as I discovered it this time. Now if I want to filter out the algae quickly, I put the filter media in mesh baskets and sit them under the drops of my waterfall. So if they get crudded up, it just runs around and over top of it and stays within the waterfall.

Next experience---a plastic shopping bag blows in the pond and gets sucked across the opening of the skimmer which lowers the water in the skimmer and the pump runs and runs and runs and gets so hot I am shocked it didn't burn up. Soooooo, I purchased a pump with a built in float. The float drops down, and automatically shuts off the electricity supply. A few years later when that one dies, the place I had purchased that brand from, said they didn't have any with a float and wasn't sure that brand even came with a float any more. So I went on Smith and Foster website http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=5344&rel=1 It was only about $45 and I zip tied it inside my skimmer tank and now I no longer have to think about the water getting pumped out of my pond in any way.  To me it is worth what I spent when I know it protects my pump, my fish and my water plants.
Which reminds me, never put your pump on the bottom of your pond for that reason. If you do pump it down, don't make it so it's going to take every drop of water you have.

I'm lucky as we are not on city water.

[Julles]

Tee hee hee!  When I first read Tenuki's story, I almost wrote that she would surely soon get the "lecture" about floats and cut off valves and the like.

See?  I was right!!!    

[Esther]

Yup Julie. Some though have never heard it and if they don't know floats exist (which I didn't) then it is us oldies fault for not sharing as this can be the most important "tip" to a ponder to protect the safety of the pond.. 

[Holldoll]

Thanks for the link Esther! I didn't know about those. I'm definitely going to get one in my skippy, as I had a similar experience with the roots of my WH getting sucked in. 

[tenuki]

Because I am not an experienced plumber, I have always used them.  This year I didn't put them in because I glued all my fittings this spring.  Stupid Hey!  I had one left so put it in as soon as the pond refilled but the others did not work so I had to order two more.  I got the "extra low water" cut off ones - on sale for $45.  NEVER AGAIN - I am still wallowing in self pity (stupidity)!!!