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Robyn's Pond Newsletter October 2008

Last Updated: 2/17/14

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Introduction and Miscellaneous:
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If you have something pond-related that you want to share (information, jokes, web sites, pond secrets and tidbits, something pond-related for sale), let me know, and I will add it to the next newsletter. What topics would you like me to cover? Do you have a question that I can answer or pose to others in the next newsletter?

My web site moved to fishpondinfo.com five years ago today. My site is just over 11 years old.

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Significantly Altered or New Pond Web Pages, Photos, or Videos on Fishpondinfo:
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1. http://www.fishpondinfo.com/myfish/basepond2.htm -
This is a page on my new indoor 50 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank pond in the basement.

2. http://www.fishpondinfo.com/animals/index.htm -
I started working on my animal index in the summer of 2007 but then had no time to work on it. I finally had some free time and was able to at least link the pages in to their new location. So, now the pages on pond mammals, snakes, and microorganisms are in this directory along with various other animals that did not fit in to one of the other directories. I have yet to add information or otherwise review the pages.

3. http://www.fishpondinfo.com/myfish/mykoi.htm -
I moved the section on my koi from the main koi page to this page. This page has photos and information on my two new koi as well as my two older koi. After I do more work on the animal directory and some odds and ends, I plan to move and renovate the goldfish, koi, and pleco pages next. I hope work stays at a reasonable level for a while so I have the time. If it goes crazy again, it may be years before I get to move renovations.

4. http://www.fishpondinfo.com/myfish/bigpondphotos1.htm - (URL changed to a new directory in 2014)
Under Summer 2008 are two new photos of the tropical yellow canna in bloom with two flower heads and a photo of the deep end of the 1800 gallon pond.

5. http://www.fishpondinfo.com/myfish/fishphotos.htm - (URL changed to a new directory in 2014)
Under Summer 2008 is a (not very good) photo of some rosy red minnows in my 153 gallon pond.

6. http://www.fishpondinfo.com/amphphotos.htm - (URL changed to a new directory in 2014)
Under the frog section, there is a new photo of a male green frog.

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New Pages on Pond Showcase:
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1. None this month.

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Happenings at Robyn's Ponds:
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1. On 9/5/08, I bought a 50 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank at the feed store. I set it up under the two four foot fluorescent plant lights in the basement on 9/7/08 and filled it to about 40 gallons full. I didn't center it under the lights because, somehow, I have to get a ton of house plants in around the lights too in about another month for the winter. I have lots of tropical water plants to bring in this year so I needed a bigger pond. Also, it will allow me to do something I swore I would never do. But, since everyone else is doing it, I hope to get two koi at the koi show on 9/14/08. The 50 gallon stock tank will allow me to quarantine them until spring with plenty of room if I get small ones.

2. On 9/7/08, I squirted off the flosses and the Cyprio biothings in the kiddie pool. I cut some yellowing leaves off of the hardy canna and pickerel rushes. The 1800 gallon was at 74 degrees F and the 153 gallon at 75 degrees F. I didn't get a chance to repot the yellow flag iris.

3. On 9/14/08, I went to the Mid-Atlantic Koi Show. I broke my own rule and bought two koi. My 1800 gallon pond is not a "real" koi pond but has two koi, Maggie and Colin, that I added 10 years ago. My new koi are "purebreds." Mac (after MAKC) is a Sanke (red, black, and a little white). Kojak (after Kujaku) is a Kujaku (metallic peacock, platinum and orange/brown). They are about 7 and 5.5 inches long with tail respectively (but very slender) and living in the 50 gallon basement pond for now. I hope that is not too much bioload.

4. I took off work on 9/15/08 to do my Sunday chores a day late (sort mail, clean rabbit hutch, vacuum the house, pond chores, mowing, etc.). The 1800 and 153 gallon ponds were both at 77 degrees F. I squirted off the flosses. I fertilized just the waterlilies and older lotus for one last time. The lotus have only about one leaf each! There are no leaves on the Comanche (changeable), Firecrest (new pink), or Fabiola (old pink) hardy water lilies now. I miss them so much! I am pretty sure they have died. The Attraction (red) has a few leaves while the Chromatella (yellow) and Albata (white) have a good amount of leaves. The Emily G. Hutchings tropical waterlily is the only waterlily that is growing like mad, and it keeps putting up pink/white flowers. The only other lily flowers are a few here and there from the Chromatella. So, it was good that I bought two new hardy waterlilies this year to replace two that died although it looks like one of the new ones died too.

I put up the mosaic pond on the front porch for the year. The little pump in the 50 gallon tub pond was dead so I brought it inside for the year.

I took the dwarf papyrus out of the 153 gallon pond. It was barely alive. I cut off the growth since it was all bent over. I put the pot in to the basement pond.

5. On 9/21/08, I squirted off the flosses and gave the Cyprio biothings a quick squirt in the filter. The 1800 gallon pond was at 64 degrees F and the 153 gallon at 68 degrees F. I removed the dwarf umbrella palm and put that in to the 50 gallon basement pond.

I was supposed to have repotted the yellow flag iris in the four gallon pot a few weeks ago and was determined to do it this day. First, I cut off all the leaves to within about half a foot of the pot. I also cut what I could that was growing out the sides. Using all my strength, I got the pot up on a ledge so, once out of the pond, I could haul it downhill by pulling. When I cleaned up the pile of leaves, I saw a saddleback caterpillar. I was lucky not to have accidently touched it and got stung. I was also lucky to get the yellow flag iris out of the pot without having to damage the pot. It is a thicker plastic than my other pots. I filled up the empty pot with dirt and repotted four pieces of iris that had been growing out of the pot. Then, I had to top it off with pea gravel but I was mostly out. I put in a mix of used pea gravel and aquatic plant "soil" media (the clay cat litter type stuff). I topped that off with huge "pond stones" which was all I had left. It looks pretty nasty but will have to do!

6. On 9/28/08, I squirted off the flosses and the bioballs and lava rock. For those that say you do not need to clean the filter media, they have never seen what comes out of my bioballs! It's thick brown slop. The 1800 gallon was at 69 degrees F and the 153 gallon at 70 degrees F.

I removed the tropical water hibiscus from the pond. The fish and deer had long ago removed it from its pot, and I stuck it back, and this was repeated 20 times. So, it was just loose. I potted it up in a 1 gallon pot with Aquatic Plant Soil and topped off with large size aquarium gravel. I was out of cheap pea gravel so I bought a 25 pound bag of five-times-more-expensive aquarium gravel. Why? I can't lift 50 pound bags of pea gravel and am afraid to ask my disabled father to do so. I put the water hibiscus in the basement pond. I am bringing in one tropical pond plant per week because I do not have time to bring them all in at once. Next week, I will pull out the bluebells which are also no longer in a pot. They do however seem to have flower buds so I may wait to see if they bloom and keep them out until they're done. We had some heavy winds and rain for a few days, and the hardy canna and yellow tropical canna kept falling over. I used my pond net to pull/push them back up multiple times. On 9/26/08, when I pulled up the tropical canna, a few heavy stalks cracked. One came right off but the others were hanging there. So, on 9/28/08, I cut those off and threw them away. They were heavy! I guess I will be cutting the canna down when I eventually bring it in, probably storing in damp sphagnum moss instead of putting it in the indoor pond as is.

The original epoxy around the edge of the fiberglass biofilter has degraded over time. I had already removed some that was loose a few years back and put new epoxy there. Now, another section had totally detached from the filter. Since the filter fills up beyond the edge when it's running, some water was leaking over the edge. The overflow lip was not built deep enough. I used an entire stick of aquarium epoxy and made it in to a snake-like piece about a foot long and pressed it down around the filter edge. Since that area is always wet, it wasn't sticking well but hopefully will set and hold. I've used it underwater for various things (it's made for that).

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Pond Tidbits:
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1. None this month. Do you have any pond tips to share? Is anybody reading this?

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Web Sites of Interest:
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1. None this month due to lack of time.

What's your favorite pond-related web site(s)?
Do you have a web site you want me to mention here?



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