Journal Mission Bathtub 2017

[zozo]

Some random pics, Forget me not is flowering., the sweetest little flower i've ever seen. Still my favorite.

The mosses also doing very well.. All fermly attached, some a planted last year, others this spring.. And big fat mama Jambo is going bonkers over a little red food pellet. Actualy i like to teas her like that.. And she always gets what she wants..

Getting closer, sucking and bubbling like mad....

If sucking doesn't help she does the free Willy..

 

[frederick thompson]

Had my pond 15years without an issue even when it freezes, normally turn the filter off for the winter months. But obviously the expansion off the pond liner due to the expansion off the ice on the surface is taken up by ground and liners. I'm thinking about tubs etc which aren't in the ground and are more likely to freeze more due to their sides not being insulted by the ground. Would you normally empty them of water or just insulate around the tubs? Let's assume the tub is to big too move.

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That surprised me. Turning filters off in winter months. As fish still produce ammonia whether been fed or not. Do you keep koi carp.
Or are they what i call hardier fish. I reckon i could get a way with that with rudd goldfish tench green carp . But not with my koi carp. There im.une and stress levels change. Good to hear you aint had a problem in 15 years. Not many can say that. I leave my gear running all year round even uv s.

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[Tim Harrison]

I reckon big fat mama Jambo is a bit bonkers
Some fish definitely have personality.

 

[zozo]

She is.. The oldest, the biggest, bravest and matriarch of the pack, actualy no idea how old goldfish are when in the lfs. But i have her over 6 years now.. Seeing the grow rate of the last year new born without super grow food, the biggest maybe is 35mm the smallest still only 10mm. An educated guess maybe 3 to 4 years old when bought at 50 to 60mm. So she must be over 10 years old now.

And she plays tag with me, as do the other 2 oldest too, but she is always leading first. She always first with everything.. When i stick a hand in the water she comes playing and the others follow. Sometimes she likes to be touched and swims into my hands and sometimes not than she playes hard to get.

Funny is, as you can see in above pics, in smaller fish it aint realy noticable, but when getting bigger you see clearly they can move and position their eyes and focus. I do not know how they figure it out.. If i put a food pellet on a floating leaf, so it's not toughing the water and not getting wet. They notice it and knock it off. No idea if it is smell or sight.

You would think they have like all animals food competiton and envy.. But she hasn't, no matter how much food i throw in, she always leaves some for the little ones.. They are very social fish..

Sounds crazy, but having such a above ground terasse tub is more inviting to sit close to and observe and interact with the fish. Less distance than it is with a hole in the ground pond.

 

[mort]

That surprised me. Turning filters off in winter months. As fish still produce ammonia whether been fed or not. Do you keep koi carp.
Or are they what i call hardier fish. I reckon i could get a way with that with rudd goldfish tench green carp . But not with my koi carp. There im.une and stress levels change. Good to hear you aint had a problem in 15 years. Not many can say that. I leave my gear running all year round even uv s.

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I do this as well Fred. I run my pond using vegatation for much of the filtration and the box filters more for mechanical removal and water polishing. The plants, crud and other substrates provide a massive surface area for bacteria so you still have filtration that can cope with the lower pollution levels over this time. When it starts to warm up and metabolisms increase, the filters come on.
I don't have anything fancy really, a few ghost koi that must be 15 yrs, plenty of goldfish and 4 tench. I wouldn't do this with proper koi or in a "cleaner" system like yours though.

 

[frederick thompson]

I do this as well Fred. I run my pond using vegatation for much of the filtration and the box filters more for mechanical removal and water polishing. The plants, crud and other substrates provide a massive surface area for bacteria so you still have filtration that can cope with the lower pollution levels over this time. When it starts to warm up and metabolisms increase, the filters come on.
I don't have anything fancy really, a few ghost koi that must be 15 yrs, plenty of goldfish and 4 tench. I wouldn't do this with proper koi or in a "cleaner" system like yours though.

Sorry zozo. Hope where not juming on your thread here mate.
Hi mort. Hope your well.Good to hear how other people run there ponds. Yeah i can understand your way of doing things. With veg filteration. How long would it take for the veg filter to mature enough to be able to do this mort.
And what type of plants are best for this. As you know my pond has not been running for a year yet. But is slowly maturing. I probably will never turn mine off. But all filtration helps. The more the merrier. As the saying goes.


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[Zeus.]

That surprised me. Turning filters off in winter months. As fish still produce ammonia whether been fed or not. Do you keep koi carp.
Or are they what i call hardier fish. I reckon i could get a way with that with rudd goldfish tench green carp . But not with my koi carp. There im.une and stress levels change. Good to hear you aint had a problem in 15 years. Not many can say that. I leave my gear running all year round even uv s.

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Yep got Koi some reasonable size too ( weeds doing well too )

 

[zozo]

Sorry zozo. Hope where not juming on your thread here mate.

Happily jumjum as much as you like, it doesn't bother me a bit.... Mi Casa Su Casa is my middle name.. And equaly UKAPS guest as you are, no more no less..

 

[zozo]

Yep got Koi some reasonable size too ( weeds doing well too )
View attachment 105372

Nice!

 

[mort]

Sorry zozo. Hope where not juming on your thread here mate.
Hi mort. Hope your well.Good to hear how other people run there ponds. Yeah i can understand your way of doing things. With veg filteration. How long would it take for the veg filter to mature enough to be able to do this mort.
And what type of plants are best for this. As you know my pond has not been running for a year yet. But is slowly maturing. I probably will never turn mine off. But all filtration helps. The more the merrier. As the saying goes.


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I'm good thanks Fred. The natural filtration doesn't take long to mature if you use lots of plants to begin with or stock only a small bioload. I have rushes, iris and water cress as the biggest helpers due to their speed of growth.
I wouldn't turn your filtration off either. This works better where your pond resembles Zeus's beautiful example above, where you have a lot of plant biomass in the display section of your pond and that would be hard to achieve in your case bud. Your upper pond is great and when it fills out you will see it contribute quite a lot.

It would be boring if we were all the same wouldn't it.

 

[frederick thompson]

Yep got Koi some reasonable size too ( weeds doing well too )
View attachment 105372

Nice pond mate looks good. Couple of nice fish.

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[zozo]

Backside view.. Now its still to be seen, the ferns are growing steadily probably will be covered in a few weeks.
The stickleback tank is still strugling with that nasty green/brown slimey algae.. No idea what it is, if its a diatome or a rhizoclonium.. It realy is nasty stuff, i clean it out whic is realy easy and it takes only an hour and i see the glass covered again with green slime.. I made the wrong plant choices or better say kinda started to early. I had to trim the tubs nimphoides anyway and threw all of in the tank, till all other plants start off.. I little to impatient i guess. But it'll turn out ok.. Just have to sit this one out. The water stays clear and nothing, to worry about.

Some visitors

Cirque du soleil on the Lobelia.. Added it last week and this no slug can reach it.. At least that what i hope.. My last Lobelia turned into slug snack..

Added some Gratiola officinalis

The grass on the tree stump, is Cyperus alternifolius, the stump is hollow and i did put a clayball with the grass in it.. I grew it from seeds i collected last year.. It's actualy just a simple grass, ok it can grow big, but almost all grasses do if you never cut it. I also tried it indoor above the tank, threw some seeds in emersed moss and it grew.. So it seems to be a good idea for emersed growing, grasses are very undemanding, and it's potential to get big will take years and as said some cutting.. So if i triggered you some ideas, buy a Cyperus in the garden centre which is way to big for this, put it in the garden to make it flower and collect the seeds at summers end and your good to go.

Added some Pogostemon stellatus i had growing above the tank indoors.. Never got it to flower.. No outdoor in the sun, well see how it colored up in darkgreen and burgundy red.. I think it'll do ok and flower somewhere this summer. Might get some seeds from it as well.

Hard to see, but also experimenting with some Myriophyllum tuberculatum out door. Still to early to say, but it looks like it getting somewhere.. It's a very nice colored Myriophyllum.. It's also in the stickleback tank, but covered in that slimey gree stuff.

We have very sunny days and already 25°C in the sun and 20°C water temp, if this keeps going like this.. Than we have some rock and roll this year..

 

[Tim Harrison]

Looks great, summer seems to be visiting you more frequently than it is me at the moment.

 

[Nelson]

Wow.Looks great.

 

[zozo]

Looks great, summer seems to be visiting you more frequently than it is me at the moment.

I have none to complain about this year.. Well nothing but my own mistakes.
I did put soem wood with java fern in the tub way to early it was still to cold for it... And it lookes like i killed it all and all is covered in aufwuchs.. The rhizomes are still green so it might come back. Hopefully i bit faster in the sun than it does in the tank indoors. It is some Orange (left) and some phillipine (right).. But all leaves are brown..

In the gutter it also slowly is getting in the righ direction.. For now its fgrowing the same algae as the tank.. It's cleaned very easy but back in half a day.
Also all the algae which comes loose in the tank is drained to the gutter and collects it.

Here is some Elocharis hairgrass, and some Lilaeopsis brasiliensis, some moss and grass from the garden and some still very tiny bog pimpernel..

Lilaeopsis brasiliensis and loads of diatomes..

Smackdab in the middle behind the drain pipe is a tiny rhizome of a Rotala indica a left over from last year, slowly comming back, th etiny shooot already has red leaf edges..

At the end some creeping Jenny also some cyperus and gratiola.. Had a Syngonium indoor needing a cut, it did put it in the gutters drain pipe.. Preesed in the corner is a Potentilla palustris.. A late flower, but a rather special one.. The leaves look the same as the strawberry growing above it.. (it's a creeper with wooden stems, it might also be a good decorative candidate for growing indoors emersed above the tank.) The yellow enemal pot contains a Echinodorus and some cyperus and Hygrorhiza..

It getting greener everyday.. The Iris in front of the tub grew from a seed falling the cracks i guess.. Nasty buggers, did cut it away already 3 times but ti keeps comming back and lifting up the pavement.... It about to flower, i think i'll let it grow on some more...

 

[zozo]

 

[zozo]

We are so lucky that Sticklebacks are not the size of a Pike.. Our waters wouldn't be safe..

 

[Zeus.]

Although Jack Pike are suppose to be able to eat other Jack Pike off the same size, or is that an urban myth- did read it in a fishing book many years ago

 

[zozo]

Pikes are indeed solitairy and known cannibals, if they take on their own size i do not know.. Biggest pike i've seen measured 1.35 metre, seems something very desperate if same sizes like that take on eachother. But young ones are devoured by adults without much hesitation. I've also seen pictures of people incidently bitten by large pikes. They usualy take off when disturbed. When they catch something the only bite, hold, turn it and swallow. But if these fearless pack hunting sticklebacks where that size, i surely would'nt stick a toe in the water.. In the vid above it actualy is easy going, i feed them very well.. But in the beginning they where very skinny and realy fiting eachother and flashing through the tank, ripping worms appart, shaking their heads like mad dogs.

Also when i'm cleaning the tank, they are realy crazy i always have to be very carefull and not cut one in half with the razor blade while scratching the glass, they constantly attack everything. You do not need a net to catch them, they attack the hose i use to syphon and get sucked in if i'm not carefull enough. I use a brush to try to chase them away from the hose.

 

[zozo]

Yet not realy very much to show.. But it still goes ok, happily growing, tho had to add some extra pottasium and traces, that was my best guess. Still have the idea i lak some magnesium, got to get me some epsom this week.

But the family is happy, thats most important..

The male stickleback is coloring up nicely, but hard to get on picture.. I guess i have to try again one night with artificial light.. But this is the dirtiest tank i ever had.. At first it had some strange dusty algae bloom.. Attaching to everything, but if brushed it fell apart to dust, like tiny coton flakes floating around. And 5 minutes later it accumulated all again to whatever forming filamentous strings. It kept comming and comming, but his is about over now and now the diatoms are comming it seems, the black rocks are brown. Till now i did about 2 waterchanges a day.. I guess all that caused a little fert difficiencies. Plant sare growing, but i expected more of it.. Only thing growing like crazy are the snails.. Never seen snails grow so fast, tripling in size in 6 weeks time..

But!! The water is clear.. So still have time, summer yet didn;t start.. Oh, we had a little heavy heatwave, a few days over 34 degrees.. 2 female sticklebacks didn't survive it. They were to weak..

The unidentified Nymphoides is slowly comming.. I realy wonder what it is.. Kinda like the red marbled leaf it has.. Hopefully it'l grow on and flower.

The submersed growth all is doing fine..

Also the mosses in the barrel are having a party.. Why doesn't it grow so fast in my tanks?? Don't ask what it all is.. I know some fontanilles and Taxyphyllum is in there and a lot..

The Potamogeton gayi is realy going mental.. It realy likes daylight.. Aslo did cut off some flower stacks from the echinodorus and threw in the water.

After a week or so it looks like this. Every elbow the flowers were developes leaves and roots. So i will be having a bud loed of echinodorus plantlets after the summer..

Some random shots from the rest of the (wildlife) garden..

One of my all time favorites, the Antirrhunim.. Our common name is Loinsmouth.. So that is why i decided to put this flower on the grave of my previous cat i burried in the garden few years back. And i haven't seens this plant for a few years and this year it popped out again on it's own..