• We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo

New project, will take a long time

Been trying, but I only get recorded runaround...Never have got to talk to a human...
And any of the retailers they list to do business with says PennPlax hasn't been shipping parts lately...
alot of stuff on back order...
and the old,
"I don't know when we might get anything from them" line is driving me nutz...

I got a decent impeller, but the shaft is worn enough to cause a slight wobble I know its going to elongate the holes the shaft seats in and then I'll have to replace the impeller housing and the motor group or toss it out...

I just finnished loading it with Eheim media, new foam and floss pads and sealed the baskets with foam so the water can't bypass, then I find the worn shaft...It wouldn't be worn like it is, if the baskets were sealed to the body in the first place. I really should have checked it first but it was still running fine, no noise till I put it back together...:(:irked:

I'm slowly starting to dislike ceramic shafts and bearings...Stainless steel can be repalced at any machine shop for next to nothing, but I have tried to match ceramic and steel...steel gets eaten up like warm butter... gotta be steel steel or ceramic ceramic....
 
I'm not going to lie here, the fish are in a bad way the ridiculous cold snap over winter has caused all sorts of problem, fulkes, trihodina etc. PP hasn't cured them so it's time for drastic action.

There is a plus side to this, at least I know there is a problem, this is going on in ponds all over the country but still I need to get it sorted. My water won't clear, the pond has just not matured well and since the blanket weed treatment went in I can see no fish. I'm cleaning the filters bi daily and I'm, slowly getting there.

I'm treating with Formalin today which will sort out the parasites but the problem is that it is only safe at temps over 15, my pond is at 10. We are at the devil and the deep blue sea point, do nothing and they will die, do something and they may die.

On a plus note, I've tweaked the FF again, after I had my 'I'm filling it in' moment when it started leaking. I'm deadly seriously here, I've had enough, no matter what I do It just seems to burn money and never get any better, Mrs Y turned me around but mentally I'm shot. I go to bed worrying about the pond I get up worrying about the pond, I've really had enough.


The unit is a constant pain to get right, flow rates and levels are so critical to make it work properly, the fact that it get switched off every other day whilst I'm cleaning means that it need to be reset with the correct flow rate again which is running off a split in the return pipe.

Anyway, 8 hours over night(Mrs Y went a bit OTT on the leak and resealed the whole unit with the magic epoxy) :


fft.jpg

Maybe I need a new career as a monster hole filler:irked:
 
As far as you have come Brother?, you are in the home stretch...

I know it has a way of defeating the spirit, but just hold out to see what evolves...all this work you've put into this project is going to pay off big time.

You are close I bet...just have to realize you might loose some stock, but then it will take the pressure off the need to do something "right now"!

Like you said, ponds all across the land where you're at, are suffering the same fate. It's not your fish keeping ability here in question, it's nature, and she has the last say...

Don't loose sleep over it Bro, that will just cloud your thinking and demotivate you...you can only do what you can do, and we all know you have done more than most of us would do to see our projects through...:thumbsup:
 
Yan keep your spirits up buddy. you have been through alot I know. like Zenn said you are 1 person in many that has had to deal with this stuff this year. it will come around I am sure of it. you are a fighter and once you get it all stable it will be fine. you have a beautiful setup and we all know you will get it sorted out one way or another
 
Thanks for the support guys.

Here is an update.


Another scrape done today, no more flukes or Trich but we now have a return of chilodonella. The water still isn't warm enough for the correct treatment so it's back to PP again. It will be interesting to see how long it takes to oxidise this time after all the cleaning and water changes. Either way I'm, going to have to get the big sturgeon(as it's the only one I can see) out and the small ones will just have to ride the storm.

So whilst the pond is under PP, I'll clean the filters again and I'll have to turn the FF off as well.
 
That's some progress, and that's good to hear!...

I'm sure you will gladly appreciate a break from the FF adjusting for a while,

Really wish the weather would cooperate a bit more for you...
I'd send you some of this sunshine in a minute if I could!

Hang in there Brother it won't be much longer now...:thumbsup:
 
zennzzo;4079183; said:
That's some progress, and that's good to hear!...

I'm sure you will gladly appreciate a break from the FF adjusting for a while,

Really wish the weather would cooperate a bit more for you...
I'd send you some of this sunshine in a minute if I could!

Hang in there Brother it won't be much longer now...:thumbsup:
PP is in and the water is still purple after an hour. The Kohaku, hands down my best fish is in quite a bad way. Touch and go if it will pull through:(

Couldn't get the sturgeon out either, PP kills sturgeon although some people have treated and they've made it. Fingers crossed.
 
Yanbbrox;4079348; said:
PP is in and the water is still purple after an hour. The Kohaku, hands down my best fish is in quite a bad way. Touch and go if it will pull through:(

Couldn't get the sturgeon out either, PP kills sturgeon although some people have treated and they've made it. Fingers crossed.
Let's hope the Kohaku makes it, and your big Sturgeon is probably stout enough to get through...I know in cold waters their metabolism slows way down, so maybe it will absorb less PP than is lethal...got my everything crossed Brother, and a prayer to the fish gods also! :thuimbsup: and let Mrs. Y know we appreciate her efforts as well, ;):D
 
zennzzo;4079418; said:
Let's hope the Kohaku makes it, and your big Sturgeon is probably stout enough to get through...I know in cold waters their metabolism slows way down, so maybe it will absorb less PP than is lethal...got my everything crossed Brother, and a prayer to the fish gods also! :thuimbsup: and let Mrs. Y know we appreciate her efforts as well, ;):D
I do appreciate the support bro. I know I've not been posting much lately just about had it with the thing. It just burns money and never gets any better, the pond has wintered badly, you just don't really notice these things when its so cold out.

The water wasn't too bad until the first time I ppd it and nothing happened the pp was gone in less than 1/2 hour. So I nuked the blanket weed and and the pond turned milky green and never improved.

Here is the extra filter floss I've added to take some of the crap out(well I say 'the', I've got another three sheets of it in the filters, the only way to clean it without it breaking down is in the bath. Fill the bath to a third and squeeze the crap out, for some reason the camera wouldn't take a picture of it when I'd done it, the reflection was causing the light reading a problem, you can already see it leaching the green and crap, bare in mind I'm empting the filters and cleaning the media every other day:

extra.jpg

PP is in, it took just under 3 hours to clear up which is not bad, with a normal treatment it should last 4 hours, considering it was gone in 30 minutes the first time I did it, I'm pretty happy with results. As daft as it sounds it also reacts some of the dissolved solids from the water which makes the water clearer, now if only I had some way of removing the waste from that, hang on a minute I've got a FF;)
pp'd.jpg

You can't really see how purple that water is I've got a video which may show it better but it's still processing, Oh and I'm just noticed that Mrs Y's foot make a second appearance on MFK;)


Fish wise the big sturgeon is still going strong and has an army of the little ghosts following it around the pond, remember the 6 tester fish when this thing got filled? two of them are now active.

Who knows what will happen from here, May is fast approaching when the filter upgrade is planned, funds are low due to the purchase of the FF so I need to reflect and work it out where to go from here. I'll do some more scrapes next weekend and send them down for analysis.

I'm still hacked off with the whole thing but the wife won't let me fill it in as I built it for her 30th so I'll just keep going day by day, keep cleaning and see whats what. After sitting down for an hour with Nigel and his mate we sort of just accepted that this is a part of koi keeping, it helped having Mrs Y with me for a change.


I'll get the quick vid up when it's processed and again thanks for the kind words and support.



 
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