Above the Tavern with Parka!

[Parka]

I'm catching up after vacating in the mountains for the last 9 days. The plants are a great addition. Your mini pond may not have looked all that great, but it grew some healthy plants. You'll need those high-powered lights to keep up with the sunshine those plants have been getting.

Are you sure your goldfish didn't spawn? I've never seen goldfish fry in real life, but the finnage and body shape on the little guy look like a goldfish to me.

They are way too small to be goldfish. They look like full grown fish now, less an inch long, and those are the biggest ones, these guys are micro fish, wow!
I can take better pics later, and try to identify.

I have been busy setting another pool for plants. I started on Tuesday. The gutter is just to use as a level.



On Thursday I sorta saw it needs more leveling.



And so I better get busy!

 

[Sassafras]

Nice hunk of rock!

 

[Parka]

Nice hunk of rock!

Well, one day I tried to break it with a sledge hammer. It was not giving up any material so I found something else to do.

I got that pool level, I used my Silver Power Wheels to my advantage, I had to dig out a hole at the high point and then back fill the lower slope and then I used my Adult Power Wheels as a steam roller, and I even carved a 'road' behind the pool so I can drive around it without tipping over. It is 10' diameter, 18" deep and holds about 820 gallons. It is to grow more plants. I tossed in a few small water lettuce plants and in just a few weeks it will be covered.






This is the water lettuce on the surface of Chicago


I still have not plugged in the bigger lights yet, I will soon!



This is a shrub I dug up and I liked the root gnarlies!



I also tossed in this longish piece of a hollow trunk, it will be fun to put plants on it.

 

[Parka]

Good morning, I have major subject matter that Must be sorted out and I have pictures and Test Results (nitrate test), however, some things really surprised me.

Okay, pic 1 is three nitrate tests. The outdoor pool was filled with water changes, this was water from the Cleveland, it is heavily stocked with 8 koi and 20+ Goldfish, I'm noticing the nitrates rise fast, so, on the left is the pool water test showing near zero PPM. on the right is the test from Cleveland only one week after a water change.

Somehow or another the water got conditioned in the outdoor pool so I re-used it to give the Cleveland a water change. And I topped off the Chicago from the nitrate rich water from Cleveland and now I can re-fill the outdoor pool from Chicago, Living above the Tavern ain't so bad! I got going on with the lights too, Lot's of Action too, and Pictures! My Inner Junkie wants me to audition for the Village People! We can chat about that later...




This pic is filling the Chicago from nitrate rich Cleveland



And this pic is the Water Lettuce spread in Chicago, I just recently added the plate lights. I understand the plants take up the nitrates but I was very surprised the outdoor pool stripped away the nitrates more than the planted Chicago. The Chicago water test is the middle vial.


I have a pair of these 100 watt plates with fan and another pair of 200 watt plates, for Plant Action!



Water lettuce, I just added the plate lights in the past couple days, most of that growth was under much lower light.


Here are those tiny fish that hitched in on some plants. I don't add any food to Chicago, and these lil guys are thriving.



The water from the pool, I used it to re-fill the Posh Cleveland, but it got cloudy...

When I initially filled the pool with water change water, it was clear with 40-80 ppm nitrates,


I wonder if the sprinkler action helps rid the 'trates?

 

[Sassafras]

Wow, some explosive plant growth! Interesting twist, deliberately pumping nitrate-laden water into a tank for plant food. As I understand the nitrogen cycle, nitrates are pretty much the end of the line for the conversion of urea/ammonia in water with oxygen present. The water sprinkler should assure that the nitrates stay nitrates by reducing the chance of anoxic or anaerobic conditions. Being outdoors in the sunlight, you're probably getting algae that consume the nitrates. Last pic looks greener than the one before it.

 

[Parka]

Interesting twist, deliberately pumping nitrate-laden water into a tank for plant food

Not really, it's the clumsy way, no clever twisting! I have three (3) large vessels of water, NOT including the medium sized, hard working Akron, at a modest 285 gallons.

I'm trying to copy cat what Brother duanes is doing and so I'm getting good results with nitrate tests, but that is the only test that I perform, plus I'm trying to understand the entire process.

My High Idea is that I may have created a legit Backyard Water Treatment Facility for the re-cycling of Goldfish water. "The solution to pollution is dilution", I learned that rhyme right here at MFK and while I do agree, water changing is a very big deal.

Three large vessels of water.
1. The Posh Cleveland, 500 gallon, stocked medium to heavy with Koi and Goldfish,
2. The Mighty Chicago, 890 gallons, unstocked except for about a dozen micro-fish, becoming heavily planted.
3. Outdoor pool, 820 gallons full, at about 80%

My plan, already In Action, is to pull water from Cleveland into Chicago, and from Chicago to the Outdoor Pool and then pump the treated water back into the Posh Cleveland.

I finally made a DIY trickle type filter using a 5 gallon bucket.

The pot tray in Step Four, the recessed areas are cut out helping direct most water through the fiber floss inner bucket, that reminds me of My Inner Junkie!



I'm using a 600 gph pump for this filter.



The algae will clear, and I would like to learn more about water testing, Water Testing Advice REQUESTED, this is NOT a Demand, merely a friendly request!


My Land Baroness momentarily stepped out and My Inner Junkie convinced me to display my DIY Hobby Guitars, Pinto on the left and Porky Pig on the right, I displayed them right on the countertop. Good Call by My Inner Junkie! He wants me to take Porky and make inroads with the Village People, How Very Exciting!

He says I should sell myself as, "Cis Curious", his words, not mine! But still, it is SO enticing!

 

[Sassafras]

I like the filter. Bet that water lettuce will soon cover the entire top of the pond, eating nitrate as it grows. Wonder if the unicellular algae water from the pond will cause you any problems when you pump it to the Cleveland. Afraid I'm not going to be your source for water testing. The only parameter I test is pH. I have three sources of water for water changes, untreated spring water, treated spring water and well water with pH's of 6.0-6.5, 7.8-8.0 and 4.5-5.0 respectively. I mix and match to get the pH I want, although most of the time I just use straight untreated spring water. When I kept an Mbuna tank, I used the treated spring water and a Philippine coral sand substrate to keep a pH around 8.2. I'll bet duanes could jump in with some water testing advice, he tests the local Panama waters in addition to his tanks.

Guitar on the left is cool! Looks like a natural tree burl or something.

 

[esoxlucius]

My plan, already In Action, is to pull water from Cleveland into Chicago, and from Chicago to the Outdoor Pool and then pump the treated water back into the Posh Cleveland

Your idea of having two large extremely heavily planted "pools" to extract nitrate from your main heavily stocked koi tank is very doable. Basically you've got two huge refugiums eating the nitrate before it's pumped back into Cleveland. I'd love to have the room to do something similar for my 360g.

Cleveland probably has quite a large bio load, your nitrate creep will be excessive in this tank. The ratio of plants to fish is something you'd have to work out in time through regularly testing for nitrate. As the plants grow and thrive in the "filter" tanks the ultimate goal is for nitrate free water to be pumped back in to the koi tank.

However, to achieve this goal of 0ppm nitrate I suspect that those two "filter" tanks will both literally have to be like jungles to make a dent in the nitrate which those koi are producing.

It will be interesting to see how you get on with this, but I think it is a doable challenge.

 

[Parka]

I like the filter.

thanks, it's easy to add extra baskets too. It's mostly contained out of sight but there is a lot of gurgling and splashing going on as that water falls through that filter and it is my understanding, with air involved, the water gets treated to lot's of oxygen as it flows through all the different lava rocks, sponges and trays.

Your idea of having two large extremely heavily planted "pools" to extract nitrate from your main heavily stocked koi tank is very doable

It will be interesting to see how you get on with this, but I think it is a doable challenge.

Thank you for the encouraging words! Now that I have a lot of the infrastructure completed, I Best get Above the Tavern and do some studying on Water Management, Testing for Dummies, I gotta good at it!

When I get the NYC built, I might do a DIY Garbage Can trickle type filter but it will be on the floor....

unicellular algae

It took three days for the Posh Cleveland to clear up sharp, after I used the pool water for a fill. This is so fun! I'm not going to use the pool water until it clears up from that algae. I forgot to mention, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of frog tadpoles in the outdoor pool. I'm gonna let that play out too. I'm pretty sure grown frogs will eat those tadpoles... Lot's of dragon flies hanging around, and I built a road around the pool, for the fun of it!

There is a small stream right behind the pool at the tree line but I can't access it because of the drop-off and uneven terrain.

The only parameter I test is pH.

 

[Parka]

Hello and Good Morning!

I got it going on with the Outdoor Pool, I keep about a 250 to 300 gallon deficit in the pool so I always have space for water transfers without the need to throw water away. I have changed the order of transfer. Now, the high nitrate water from the Posh Cleveland, it goes first to the outdoor pool and within 24 hours a nitrate test shows zero ppm, so fun! And THEN I take finished water from the Mighty Chicago to replenish the Posh Cleveland. And then I refill Chicago from the pool water, which shows zero nitrates! but it still is not clear yet.

I'm going to report back this evening with pics and greater details, I got my Boss Bike Back, I gotta go Day Camping!