TODAY BLOG FOR 10.16.09

A very unseasonable cold October day today. None of the rain that they called for in the morning hours, but that should be hitting tonight. Today’s pond agenda consisted of starting the day with pond winterization services. First pond winterizing was in Cranford, NJ on a new pond renovation service we had done about 1 month ago. The pond water was very clear and clean looking and just the first hints of pond algae was starting to appear on the submerged and waterfall rockwork. The waterfall looked great; very peaceful, and smoothly flowing. The koi and shubunkins were taking advantage of the fish caves we built into this pond but I did get a look at them and they all look great and seemed to have possibly grown a bit. For the service we cut back the hardy aquatic plants; pickerel, lilies, sweetflag, lizard tail, and iris. We removed some leaves that had accumulated at the bottom of the pond, not many though. We cleaned out the pond’s skimmer box and filter pads in the biofalls and put leaf netting over the entire pond. The I added a coldwater beneficial bacteria charge. Next pond service was in Westfield, NJ. This small pond installation I built 2 years ago and also was in very good shape and needed just a very simple filter system cleanout and leaf netting over it. The goldfish in this pond are not growing very quickly but look very healthy otherwise with some very nice coloration of deep orange. Next pond: Mountainside, NJ pond winterization service for this very small pond of about 3’X5′, another goldfish pond, with only about 7 fish. I built this pond 4 years ago and this pond too looks in very good shape. I only see this pond twice a year and the owner does not do too much pond maintenance to it but it always stays in good condition! We cleaned the filters, cut back the aquatic plants, and covered the pond with leaf netting. The rain is beginning to kick in now. Off to a pond winterizing in Springfield, NJ next. This pond I renovated and rebuilt from a disaster of a pond that unfortunately another pond builder had “created”. This pond now looks great with a multi tier waterfall, a pond depth of about 3 feet, full of very cool koi, 4 hardy water lily and 1 very large tropical lily that we took out of the pond. The iris I cut back. I cleaned the biofalls and skimmer box filters, removed a bit of debris from the inside of the pond and a bit of string algae from the waterfall stream section. I used 2 leaf nets to cover this pond installation. Finally a trip down to Princeton NJ to receive a delivery of gravel, 10 tons to be exact, that will be arriving at the jobsite of our current project which is a RainXchange Rainwater Harvesting System. Upon arrival I saw that the groundwater from last night’s rain had started to drain into the not yet filled rainwater reservoir for the rainwater harvesting system making the aquablox float a bit, so I quickly got a hose into the reservoir and started filling. Then I had the gravel unloaded and began very quickly to build a “road” of planks and scrap wood from around (this whole job site is under construction) the area so crossing the mud flats would be a bit easier. Then began wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of 1X3″ gravel to top off the aquablox all the while now the rain is really coming down which is only compounding the ironic problem with the rainwater harvesting system, which under ANY other circumstances rainfall would be a welcome sight! The aquablox got completely covered with gravel 12″ thick, the reservoir had now been filled about 4/5 of the way and it was time to call it a day. Long cold rainy day, alot of service performed, I am now wet, cold, tired, and want to go home. My wife made split pea soup! another day in pond world! If you’ve made it through this blog post I thank you, send me a comment and topic suggestion. Visit my website loveyourpond.com
All copyrights to this material belong to Mike Gannon.

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