nyb440

If you can find a freshwater mussel (the ones at grocery stores are almost always saltwater), you can feed it very finely ground up fish food or algae wafers. As Jvision noted, you probably won't notice a dead mussel until it's far into decomposition (yummy!), so I don't know if I'd try it in my main tank, but it can be done.

Just an update: the fish and lilies are now out of the pond for winter. I was able to break the ice with a shovel and lift it out. It took less force than I thought, so I didn't have to smash it and risk damage to the fish and pond liner.

Thanks for the suggestions. If the ice will thin, then I can at least hack away at it. The good news, I suppose, is that the fish should be really easy to catch at the current water temperature!

Winter has sneaked up on me, and I now have a pond with a 2" thick sheet of ice. I still have to get the fish out for winter, so I need to thaw this ice sheet. I know it's supposed to warm up later this week (so says the weather man), but I'm not convinced that it will get warm enough for long enough to melt the ice. Does anyone have any suggestions? Will a couple of aquarium heaters bring up the temperature just enough for this purpose (it's a 150 gallon pond, so not huge) or is this fantasy?

Thanks for the ideas. We don't have any yappy (or non-yappy) dogs, and the cat stays indoors, so there won't be any help from the family fauna. I like the fishing line idea. So far, the netting seems to be working, and does catch leaves, which seems to be a nice side benefit.

Hello, This week I discovered that ducks are truly horrid things to have invade your backyard pond. Not only do they leave an incredible amount of "deposits" in a very short amount of time, they dig in the plant pots destroying the plants and making a mess. I now have a net over the pond, which I hope I won't need for the entire summer (I'm hoping this pair of ducks gets the hint over the next little while). Has anyone here successfully discouraged ducks from their pond? Any suggestions (ones that don't require ammunition)?

Hehe, those pics bring back some memories. Back when I worked at one of the LF stores we had one of these set up. I don't remember having to clean it, but I do remember two stoned customers who were very puzzled by a fish swimming in the bridge portion. "Whoa, man, how's the fish swimming out of the water like that?" (I don't promise that that's the exact quote, but it's close enough )

Those are some very, very nice tanks, indeed! I'm partial to the ones in 4th, 9th, and 14th place, although all are impressive.

You could try muriatic acid (HCl, about 6 M, I think) available at hardware stores. Use gloves, of course, but it should be more effective than vinegar. If it's rinsed well, there's nothing to worry about in terms of toxicity (unless they've added come other compound to the mix that I'm not aware of).

Just to clarify, the amount of substance in a certain volume is given by the density. So, the 1 g = 1 mL assumption is really only valid for pure water (the mass of 1 mL of H20 is the definition of a gram). However, for the purposes here, it probably doesn't matter much. I think that the easiest way to carry out the previously pondered titration, with materials typically available at home, would be to first prepare a fairly concentrated stock solution of NaHSO4. Use easily measured volumes to do this, say 500 mL and a few tablespoons of the salt. (those are somewhat random numbers, you'd have to play with the exact ratios to find what works, depending on the final volume that you need, more concentrated would probably be better). Then add the stock solution to the RO/tap water mix and determine how many mL you need to add to reach the pH you want. This would avoid trying to consistently measure out odd volumes of the salt itself, such as 1/32 of a tsp. Just keep in mind that tap water can contain more than one acid/base pair (although "carbonates" are normally the most significant), which can change from season to season, making your life as a chemist more challenging (your recipes may not always work). Another option is that there are some commercial buffers (Seachem?) that can be added to RO water to get a buffer with the right pH and buffer capacity. This might take remove a whole lot of guesswork.

Ah, the word titration was mentioned somewhere up above. Why not do just that? Take a small volume, say 1-4 L, and add a broad indicator, such as bromothymol blue. Add your acid until the solution turns the desired colour, and record the amount of NaHSO4 that you need. Once you get the approximate amount, you can fine tune it with a short range test kit, and scale up. Or, even better, if you have a pH probe, use that. Before adding anything to your tank, make sure the pH of the mixture stays stable. Now, the water in your tank is of a different composition than just RO/tap water, with organic acids and other goodies, so things may change on you in the "real world" setting. All that being said, is adding an acid your only option here? You may find it to be a somewhat unpredictable and frustrating experience.

I agree with Gobies et al, that your best option is probably goldfish, as temperature swings in a small above ground pond are greater than in-ground ponds, and other species may not be hardy enough. However, you could possibly try paradise fish. The paradise fish don't get as big, so you wouldn't need as big a tank to overwinter them in, which might be something to consider. By "a few" goldfish, how many are you thinking? I wouldn't add more than one or two small ones. I like to keep my pond understocked. There's less maintenance, and I don't have to feed them that way (there are enough bugs that they get really nice and fat over the summer).

Given the amount of space in there, you likely won't have more surface area than the lily will take up. For this year though, it probably won't be a problem to have other plants in there since the lily isn't going to take over the pond overnight. One thing that you might consider doing for aesthetics is to move the pond a couple of inches away from the wall, and hang a couple of railing planters (if you can get ones short enough) off the straight sides where you could put some grasses, etc. Of course, that's entirely up to your preference. All that aside, it looks like a nice way to put a compact pond in a small space. Maybe I should consider one for my own patio.

The short leaves on the lilies won't be a problem, they'll grow to the right height pretty quickly. In terms of other plants, you'll probably find that the lily takes up most, if not all, of the surface area once it gets going. For other plants, the choice is really up to you, both the hyacinths and water lettuce should do well. I've also had very good luck with frogbit. Another floater is duckweed, which some people say is a real nuisance. When I tried it, I had enough to cover the entire surface of the pond, and in four hours had not one leaf left, and some very plump and happy goldfish. Does your pond have a ledge? That would be a good place for a couple of marginal plants like irises, rushes, etc.

Yes, I'd say rinse any gravel that you put in there. Sure, it will settle with time, but it's worth the effort to avoid starting off with a cloudy pond. And, if your gravel has been in the front yard for a while, and may have some fertilizers on it, there's another reason to give it a rinse. As far as the lilies go, if they're still in the greenhouse in late July, they're probably not in the best of health. That being said, they can probably be nursed back to health with some fertilizer tabs and sunshine, but I wouldn't expect flowers. I've actually had better luck starting with tubers, even the dry ones from Wal-Mart, than full grown plants, for whatever reason. Although, it's a bit late to start them that way. Try to find an early blooming lily, if you can. I'm not sure what part of "Southern Alberta" you're in, but in Calgary, the growing season is too short for some lilies. My 'attraction' lilies will flower about mid-August, but my 'chromatella' lilies normally produce buds in early September that never get a chance to open.