So we've got this nice little pond right up next to the screened porch.
We sit and watch ducks, cranes, turtles and fish and all sorts of forest wildlife.
The thing about it is that last Winter (2013-14) we lost at least 100 fish due to suffocation.
The pond froze over in October 2013 and didn't thaw until March 2014. (Dang Global warming!)
We found frozen fish floating upside down all over the shore. I did some asking around in order to know what caused this. No air in the lower water levels was the answer offered by a guy who knew lots of things about fish. So, I needed to aerate the water! I checked into buying what we needed and found this equipment cost $1,000s. What to do?
A guy at work offered me an old pump out of a hot tub. Cool, I'll take it.
A guy at work offered me an old pump out of a hot tub. Cool, I'll take it.
Now I need something for it to float on.
How about PVC?
Looks good.
Now on to the spray pattern, more PVC.
Make a take-up tube, drilling many holes in it small enough to exclude fishes and what-not.
Take-up tube is 9 foot long, and came within 2 foot of the bottom of the pond.
Beta testing from the shore. Worked fine.
Tethered float testing. Also worked well.
(Plants to disguise the pump)
Now to build a housing for the pump to keep it out of the weather.
Outlet on top, inlet on the side.
Electrical connections made in a weather tight box.
Almost done.
Weather tight now and ready to pump.
I used it all of last Fall (2014) and found that it caused a bad smell from the pond.
We used it anyway as we had purchased fish and didn't want to loose them again.
After say about a month, the smell went away and the pond was much more clear.
This is made to be taken apart and stored during winter. The pond is still mostly frozen
as I write this. I hope to have the pump back in operation by Saturday.
as I write this. I hope to have the pump back in operation by Saturday.
