Pond builder has finished installing the last piece of equipment for the pond – UV lights. Our original light did not function so we had to wait for a new light to arrive. Meanwhile, the pond became quite green under the hot sun. Visibility is less than 8 inches from the surface and we are getting a little foam as well.

While this is all part of a new pond establishing itself, we are hoping the process will resolve itself soon. We test the water each morning and you can see below the difference of water quality while they were in the garage (0 ppm ammonia and 0 ppm nitrite) and in their new pond. The nitrite and nitrate levels are both up. We have added salt to help control nitrite poisoning, added some beneficial bacteria, doing some extra additions of fresh water throughout the day – it’s somewhat of a waiting game now. It is comforting that none of the koi are exhibiting symptoms of nitrite poisoning (gasping for breath at the surface). We had hoped to put our bead filter that we used in the garage on line but there was a problem with the cap – good plan but you can’t always count on those gremlin events.

The UV light has been started tonight and it’s probably not realistic to hope for an overnight change – it will help with the green water quality. The return from the large rotary drum filter is split to one of the bakki showers and to the UV light. The water that has gone through the UV light will be returned directly into the pond below the surface.

It will be nice to be able to see to the bottom of the pond again. I am concerned about a large shiro utsuri that I have not seen swimming closer to the surface. We have been doing some feedings just to check on the koi and I have not seen her. She has always been a good eater so I’m a little worried.

The rest of the system seems to working very well. The bottom drains feed into the larger rotary drum filter and the skimmers feed into the smaller rotary drum filter.

I’m always impressed that the lines laid out months ago and covered with concrete work as expected.

The two skimmers need to be checked daily for random things like the occasional dead frog, small leaves, little bits from the eastern cedar trees, etc. Very easy to to just pull out the basket.

The waste system is something we will need to improve upon this summer. The rotary drum filters send out waste to a container that has a pump. Just like a toilet, as the container reaches a certain level, the pump flushes the waste out of the equipment house. The long term waste line will be placed underground and empty into a gully.

There is an overflow that also requires a line to the gully. We could have it join up the the other waste line but we’re thinking about other projects this water could be used for – like a hydroponic garden, water barrel to water other plants, a little water garden???

Tomorrow we’ll be starting on landscaping again. We need to fill in holes, smooth the terrain, and add some nutrition to the soil in this area. We have not determined what the final look will be, but we’re going to start with some good dirt, fertilizer, grass seed and mulch. We’re using cypress mulch now because the chickens seem to dig into this type of mulch less. All of our cedar mulch has been scratched and moved.

The task list is endless.