Look what fell off the back of a Lorry! - The Story Continues
....The story continues....
It is now June 2005 and I am getting ready to go to the BKKS National. The pond is now nearly finished and the garden is ‘coming together’. We decided to put the Bakki Shower at the side of the pond and feed it straight back in via an urn. At the moment this is working very well and the pond is maturing quite nicely – it’s hard to believe that it’s only just 3 months since it was delivered!!
All the cladding has now been completed and we just have a bit of tidying up to do. Pergola has been erected and will have shading and a polycarbonate roof on before it starts getting cold again. I am planning to cover the sides as well and create a greenhouse type construction. That way we can service the pond during the winter without getting wet!
....2008....
It is now February 2008 and this is the first time I have looked at this article since 2005. Well, as all the best laid plans, I didn’t get to have my polycarbonate roof nor the sides so I could play with the Koi during the wet winter months. I have covered part of the pergola with shading and as I write we have nearly sorted out the new filter house at the bottom of the pond.
During the intervening time we have played host to over 50 Dutch visitors (all at one time!), visitors of the SE Section, who were very interested in the pond and you would not believe the questions I was asked about it, and several Sections. We also hosted the MSB BBQ a couple of years ago. The fish have really thrived in their new environment and I would recommend this way forward to anyone who is thinking about having a new pond, and I have done! I still get asked if we would use this method again if we did another pond and I have to say that the answer is yes.
So what has happened in the intervening years well, we have got all the filtration up and running, Bakki Shower and Nexus as main filtration and we have added an Eazypod and Trickle Tower to the skimmer. The Eazypod is gravity fed from the skimmer and then pumped to the trickle tower and back to the pond. We also have a 3kw heater in line from the Nexus and a Pro-line UV. We have also installed an EA UV/Sterilizer between the Nexus and the pond. This has been running for approx 18 months and we have just replaced the bulbs. I dread to think just how much we have spent on “add-on’s”, in fact I don’t even want to think about it!
Our main task for 2008 will be to get the filter house completed. This covers the deck that housed the electric’s shed and the Nexus filter. We are planning to insulate this and had hoped to move the Bakki Shower inside with the Nexus, that but it didn’t fit! Colin is hoping that the heating costs will reduce once this has been completed, so we will wait and see!
Stop Press!!!!
The Eazypod has been replaced with a Sieve and we have purchased a heat pump........it is now in situ and the pond is currently steady at 19degrees (September 2008). How this will pan out during the winter months I don’t know so we will just have to wait and see.
