Do it yourself

Quote: Ayecarumba

Maybe the drop was just the liner settling into the all the nooks and crannies? Usually filters take a few days to hit their stride. Maybe you should give it some time to build up some probiotics before putting live animals in there? Is Kermit still MIA?

Love your optimism =)

But it's not =( With the pump off both boxes held their water, yet the rivers went almost dry. My bleeding seams are leaking >< I suppose I'll count myself lucky that I made the rivers much shallower than the shallow end of the pond; I'll only have to purge tens of gallons instead of hundreds. But...ugh, I just don't wanna. The thought of doing that project solo again... UGH!

But whatever. It's early and I'm cranky and disappointed so nvm me. I've a whole gun of lap seal, it's only 7', and it's gonna be 70 today. I'll dump the whole mag into 'er until it oozes out the damn sides lol. We're not done yet =)

On the "filter", there is none yet. It's just the pump, which I've used every step of the way. If it can push like a fire hose pulling water up from 4' down and 12' out, it should fire hose even more going just 6" and level. But it's not. That hose kink is a problem, and an easy fix.

You're not wrong on "healthy water", I just don't have the time. That's a several week endeavor if everything goes right, and I don't do nothin' right =) Give it a bit to gas off town water chlorides and come up in temp, run some aerators, and leave to hope. So far, other than the time I did a tank change during a main line break that poisoned the water, I've not lost a fish to idiotic water management. I already tossed 4 survivors in there last night and at least one is still alive (can't find other 3), so it won't be an issue, especially as it'll be some time still before they're all in.

Kermit lol. I'm now convinced Cuauhtémoc ate him. There are a few areas downstairs too cluttered for me to check, but I can't see him going into any of them as they're dusty, cobwebby, inhospitable areas, whereas most of my basement is cool and damp. Water is almost as important as air to an amphib, he wouldn't just hide in a closet. He'd be trekking for water until he found it, or until dehydration forced him to cocoon up, and if he cocooned up I'd have found him.

RIP Kermit. 2019-2019 MIA/KIA.

Phew. Found it (I hope)

Givin' 'er a think, the leak had to be at water level, which meant in the wall of the main liner (improbable) or the bottom of the rivers (obvious). The rivers were easy enough drained by cup, and a folding of the main liner acted as a retainer to allow me to work in the dry without draining a drop. After cleaning, wiping, and leaving to dry, simply feeling along the seam gave up the answer; a damn fold got me. The tension of the folded rubber pulled apart just enough, and a probing finger easily made it's way right through.

I only did the glue and tape, forgoing the lapping caulk due to the difficulty. So that's what I did. Dried it, cleaned it, and folded it upwards just so. A practice run to ensure I could run a full bead without issue, and I banged a bunch of tar in 10' of crack, taking care to seriously goop up the tunnel of that fold. All gummed up, I flipped 'er back over and covered it all in rocks.

Nothing to do but wait now. Though some cure in just minutes, I figured I'd give it a full day. Plenty of other garbage to do anyway. But that's caulked, the filter pipe is dug back up, and the upgrade is bent and ready. Bang that out tomorrow and all should be good to go.

Oh, and all four test fish are doing fine =)

Quote: Face

Oh, and all four test fish are doing fine =)

I think wit all of this trouble that you have went through that you should consider putting in fish that you can farm for dinners. I would love to have ready access to some lake perch anytime I was hungry.

Quote: DRich

I think wit all of this trouble that you have went through that you should consider putting in fish that you can farm for dinners. I would love to have ready access to some lake perch anytime I was hungry.

Hehe, not a bad idea. But I'd need a hatchery and it'll take a bit to dig one of those.

Going out and collecting frog eggs to hatch just to keep these few fed shows how daunting a task actual farming is. I'll try for 80,000 this time, but even last year's 8,000 attempt took ~4wks to hatch and grow and were all gone a week after that. And that's a one time boon. Keeping these 10 lil guys fed is a twice a week crick endeavor all summer long. Then figure it's ~2yrs from fry until just big enough to be worth the time, closer to 4 to get a good chunk out of one. "Farming" isn't in the cards, at least not in Mega Pond. Somewhen in the future? I'd own a hatchery in a second, if I could manage to figure it all out.

It could be used as a fridge of sorts. I've kept perch in my tanks before, they'd do just fine in Mega Pond. And it's damn sure big enough to hold 10 of the biggest ones I could catch, enough for a family meal. But I'd still have to go out and catch em, ya know?

Never should've torn down the pool. 24,000gal had farm potential =)

Success!...?...!!

I plopped 7 dinner plate rocks on my gooped up fold, drained the river one final time, and wrapped it all up in a big cotton towel. None if it mattered. Soon after all was completed it rained and rained hard and rained long. The rivers were full and the towel saturated before I went to bed.

Upon morning, the rivers still had water in them, but it was still raining. I drained the gooped river and gave a peek during a lull and saw that it was still semi tacky. Piling the rocks back up to ensure a seal reflooded it. And I just left it to chance. There was more to do, the seam could wait and see.

Rained like hell when trying to get the tote pipe finished. Made it a bit of a messy affair and I worried about the caulk taking, but after all was finished and covered with tote lids, a feel check an hour later showed they hardened up fine. With the rain sufficiently flooding the river, I gave the pump a go for the first check of the day.



So far everything ran fine, save for the pump outrunning the flow. I ran the hose enough to make up, and let the pond run for the first time ever. The looping pipe made a HUGE difference, though the proximity of the outlets still caused a bit of a kink. A few rocks strategically placed to push the hose out forced a more circular loop, and the overflow began to rage out of the tote. So far, so great.

The rest of the day was just random piecemeal. Picking up some tools. Replacing some trees. Adjusting plants and air. A run to the pet store scored some barley bales and extract, getting an immediate jump on water care. And what the hell, one hundred juvie goldfish to get things started. With those tiny things taking to the water immediately, I figured the larger tank fish would have no problem. One by one while putting things together, I began acclimating them to the colder water and releasing them.

Fast forward the rest of the day and all the s#$%ty portion is nearly done. The water has not dropped a single bit. The pump has been raging for hours. I had to fashion a chicken wire mesh to block the bitty fish from entering the pump tote, but the fish are all acting as they should. The deep end, piled full of a mass of earthworms, was picked clean right away. At the "almost there" point, things are awesome =D







I suppose I'll finish filling in stages, so I can pinpoint a leak as it happens. Once full, I'll need a couple crick runs to score a mess more rocks to cover liner... and that's about it. Then it's play time. Lillies, other fish, tadpoles and frogs, snakes and turtles... she's all but done =)

Quote: Face

Hehe, not a bad idea. But I'd need a hatchery and it'll take a bit to dig one of those.

Not as much as you may think. I keep hearing of aquaponics in 50-60 gallons and a few tilapia.

You need a beaver.

Quote: DRich

You need a beaver.

Insulting Face's manhood, 3 days. If
god wanted Face to be born with a
beaver, he would have made it so.

Quote: DRich

You need a beaver.

Dude... if like fish they grew to the size of their environ? An adult, chinchilla-sized beaver would be awesome. They tear a lot of s#$% up, though. That filter would be packed full of mud within a morning.

I think I'm just about there. After running all evening long without drop, it ran all night long with a drop of less than a cm. A quick look around didn't reveal anything, so I could only shut down the pump to see if it made a change. Checking for a leak was all but impossible as the hole was still flooded and it was still raining, but I figured it could be done in time. Some hours later I happened to glance at it while walking by and saw that the hole was empty. A quick running of the pump showed water very slowly start to rise from under the tote and begin to fill the hole.

A quick check of the overflow tote showed several areas the high pressure, swirly water might could work its way out of, and the manner in which the hole floods makes me think I'm right. The tote is currently curing, having been lapped the entire edge of the liner.

No doubt it's the last fix and any other necessary fix will be more of the same, so I'll stop with the updates. The filter works better than I ever could've imagined, having already piled itself full of anything that floats, and much of any suspended silt. Other than nicking a bunch of rocks and laying more out, there's nothing to do now but wait until everything grows. I'll be back then with the final product.

https://www.wayfair.com/decor-pillows/pdp/whole-house-worlds-floating-crocodile-head-bust-whwo1017.html?piid=