My biggest surprise is how beautifully the skippy filter has worked. I love it!!!! And it gives me a bit more water surface.

My Sweet BF broke his leg the beginning of July on the first day of a long-awaited fishing camping trip. He has spent the summer (and still has at least 3 more weeks to go) of lying on the couch in a cast with his leg in the air while I am running around like a crazy person taking care of him, the dog and working. WHEW. He is now able to do a bit more for himself as his leg heals so I told him I was going to abandon him for the weekend and spend as much time as I could outdoors working. He can always call me on the cell phone if he needs to.

Thankfully the skippy filter has worked beautifully all summer. I can see the pond bottom clearly. I have string algae, but I like that - just have to scoop some out of the stream every once in a while. I FINALLY did get back behind the pond last weekend when I rinsed the prefilter and broke off all the tall plants (mostly mint) that were drooping into the pond.

There is so much work to do on everything - I still have morning glories, moonflowers and caladiums in their original pots from early summer - but I am determined to spend this weekend working out there. We may only have a couple more weeks of summer but I want to see the yard the way I like it for at least a little while.

I just love that skippy filter and hope to be able to finish the rock garden I want to build around it. Have all kinds of plants to put in it.

My WH is doing great - always does at the end of the summer when it is time to throw it in the compost pile. I stuck my dwarf Joe Pye Weed in his pot in the skippy filter to give it water one day and forgot to take it out. It has thrived and looks great. The curly rush and bloody dock in the skippy are also lovely.

I still have naked liner where I removed the rocks to widen the stream and now the rocks are buried in all the weeds that have grown up, so I have to do a bunch of weeding before I can even get back to the stream.

Feels like a lot of work and it is, but I enjoy that kind of work.

Anne

My big surprise has been how fast koi grow.

We have a big 80 foot natural pond (water in - water out) that we've had over 20 years. I keep goldfish in it to keep mosquitoes down. Well, I try to keep goldfish. We have a pair of ducks that nest near it every spring and decimate my goldfish, so a June restocking is usually a must.

Everyone here has raved about their koi so when I restocked in June I bought two tiny little 1 1/2" long cheapo koi from a pet store and put them in the big pond with the equally tiny goldfish. I never feed any of these fish because I want them to keep the mosquitoes down.

Well, here we are ten weeks later, and the goldfish have doubled in size, but the koi are over 6 inches long. My husband hums the "Jaws" theme every time he sees them. Koi seem to be growing machines. I can see now why everyone stresses how much room they need.

I guess it didnt suprise me but, as far as life and my pond go, what can go wrong, will go wrong and chances are you wont be able to fix it by yourself.

30 plus days of temps near or above 100 Â less than .75" of rain since July 14 - potted plants dying by roasting in the pots. Lot of green water but fish and water plants doing fine!

First-my biggest surprise this year was when my pond finally went from algae green to crystal clear. When I fed my fish I thought I had maggots in the pond. Little tiny white swimming things. I thought koi eat maggots so that would be their dessert. Imagine my surprise as time went on to discover those little white swimming things were hundreds of koi fry. Many thanks to all my pond forum buddies for taking most of them off my hands. The remainder of them (what I could catch went to a very clean well maintained pet store). It was fun to place minnow traps in the pond and I was always surprised to see what I caught in the trap. (Nothing like going fishing in your own pond). lol There were so many varities and colors. Some were long fins and others were just regular. Some that went to the pond store never made it up for sale. The owner said they were too beautiful and he was taking them home for his pond. I still have about a dozen in the pond that outsmarted the minnow traps. Unless something more satisfying comes along I don't think anything could top this surprise.

Second was to discover I have a groundhog frequenting my pond this year (sure beats raccoons, possums and skunks). It drives my cat nuts whenever it's in the yard. It is funny to watch when it eat the grass. Sometimes it is slower than a slug. I don't know why but it reminds me of Mr. Magoo. So I call it Magoo.

Third is that I cannot destroy a yellow jacket nest. Of course they built it in the ground right next to the spigot for my garden hoses. I have sprayed this nest three times already to no avail. The very next day they are coming and going like they always do. The nest must be too deep to phase them. I try to keep everything organic in my yard, but every year I have a continual war with hornets and wasps. I think it's because they have access to mud around the pond.

Fourth is like Lisa said how big and beautiful my fish are with her recipe for homemade fish food. The guy at the pet store wanted to know what I fed the koi fry to get them so big and beautiful. He flinched when I told him homemade fish food. (Guess it cuts into his profits). lol

Fifth is that I have a leopard frog that survived the winter. I have a lot of green frogs, but didn't think any of my leopard frogs made it. One day I managed to get a good look when a green frog was sitting next to a leopard frog and I was surprised at the difference, and also very happy that it made it.

Jenny

LOTS of surprises this year!

* Water hyacinths with double flower spikes and each has from 15-20 flowers! WOW!!! 8-)

* Beautiful fast growing baby fish which are Jenny's Grand-koi. THANKS! About 50% are butterflies. ALL are gorgeous! :-)

* Leopard Frogs have invaded the 3 ponds. Spring Peepers are everywhere too! Never saw any tadpoles though. Many many salamanders this year too! Just about every other rock or log around the ponds has at least one salamander under it. We don't step on the stones or logs. 8-) We have always been ~toady~ but never so froggie or salamandery! LOL!

*Yes! I've noticed many honeybees and TONS of butterflies! LOTS of cicadas too.

*Screech Owl family visits almost every night! :-)))

*Only 5 Ruby-throated Hummingbird nests found though in the back garden. Maybe they're just more well hidden but we usually have at least 7 nests. (Greedy thing, aren't I?)

*The roof of the house can be transformed into a HUGE feeding station for Gulls and their youngsters when Mike decides to toss fish and bread smeared with fish onto the roof! :-/ I'm not sure I liked finding that out! LOL! The birds sure did! 8-)

To koyjoyii, re: yellow jacket removal
Jenny, obviously watch out, those yellow jackets are nasty. The way to kill them is to mix up some malithion, (or probably other poisons would work) very concentrated; perhaps 1/8 to 1/4 cup and fill to a cup with water. Pour this down the hole at dusk or later so that everyone is home to get the treatment. This also prevents you from being stung.

Re: Yellow Jackets / Wasps and somesuch ...

Blast them with a CO2 fire extinguisher. They will be frozen immediately ... Remove them to the location you desire ... They will defrost and carry on elsewhere. No killing. No toxins!

Have you ever seen the movie, The Blob ? The Blob was frozen too. It works for wasps! :-)

This is my third summer with my pond and it is endless fascinating and always changing! This year's wonders include:

Seeing the bottom of my pond in June! (Thanks UV light).

Seeing my very first water lilly flower in person, and it was one that I'd grown!

Seeing my big green frog with a bird hanging out it's mouth!

Seeing MORE juvenile fish in my plant-only pond, last year it was goldfish transported as eggs from main pond, this year I dunno what they are must have come from Florida as eggs on plants.

Lastly, and most sadly was seeing my Goldie, my first koi and a big one at that, lying on the bottom on his side one day. Looking back I realized his color got paler as the years went by so I think he was sick since I bought him. This day he suddenly flopped over and stopped eating. Despite 3 weeks of my "therapy" I did loose him and it hurt as much as any other pet I've lost.

The return of many, many frogs after 3 years of hardly any.

My surprise was that my longfins' fins finally caught up with the growth of their bodies. Beautiful long flowing fins now on my large butterfly koi.

the biggest surprise I had this year was the return of the frogs!!

I had to do a major water change earlier this summer due to an unfortunate algae fix snafu. My fault, big time!

Anyway, when the water change took place many, many tadpoles went with the water and fertilized my flower beds. After the water change, I spotted only one loan tadpole swimming around. I figured I'd decimated my frog population for the year.

Three days ago, I came around the house to find a beautiful frog sitting on a lily pad! I was able to get a glimpse of him before I startled him and he jumped into the pond!

So exciting to see the frogs back and listen to them sing at night. There is nothing more relaxing than the sound of moving water, crickets and frogs singing in the background at night! Ponds are a lot of work, but oh so rewarding!

My first year with a pond and two koi and a few weeks later a couple hundren of baby koi. I bought two hyacinth and some parrot fern and my pond is cover with both of them. I've given aways bucket full of both and still need to get rid of more. I given koi to everyone who had ponds around here and kept the prettiest ones for my pond. Our pond has been such a hit that other people are thinking of putting one in their yard. We live in town and all the kids in the neighbor hood come to see the fish. It has been such fun and a great hobby. I'd like to post a picture of the pond but don't know how. Any help?

I've had a few surprises this summer.

I love the waterlily I bought last fall, and how awesome it has bloomed for me this summer. Never a day went by that I didn't have a pretty bloom.

I love that I can now grow (not kill) my water hyacinths. They have really helped keep the water very clear. And they are now blooming like crazy.

I was startled to see the 2 minnows I was unable to catch last summer became parents this year. I guess that means 1 boy, one girl.

My husband surprised me with a dock cover for the skimmer. Very nice and pretty. Beats looking at the black box. He also took me on a surprise road trip to a friend's house. When we walked around the corner of their house, I saw a HUGE pile of rocks from an old koi pond. Husband said I had a huge smile on my face as we loaded them up. 2 trailer loads and more to go.

But needless to say, I am not surprised by how much I love the pond, whether sitting by it, or working on and in it. Nor am I surprised to already find my self ready to dig another one.

I have also been surprised and humbled by all the great people on this forum and all the help and advice I have received. It is like having a whole network of new friends with a similar hobby. So thank you all.

Vickie

lotofstuff,
Here's a link to help with the photo posting.

Hope it helps, S

Here is a link that might be useful: Posting photos FAQ

My surprises...

My first frogs. Giant Green Frogs. Only two right now... but toads galore.

My third summer of the expanded pond. The first year my goldfish had fry. I've gone from about 12 to 42 goldfish this summer.

Surprised by my experiment with water hyacinths. I fertilized them (the water) with stump remover all last year, one teaspoon a week. Got giant WH with lots of daughter plants overtaking the pond. This year, no fertilizer.,, much, much smaller plants and fewer daughter plants. I guess that's how it's supposed to be... BTW, we've had PLENTY of heat for 'em, so it wasn't climate.

Summer is fine but last February I had a huge algae bloom with a foot of snow on the ground,.That's what happens when the koi reproduce and grow huge. I lost five enormous koi and it turns out they were my favorites..the tamest ones who ate out of my hand. Despite 100 degree temps, the summer pond is okay. If there were babies, they ate them. They look healthy and happy but I thought that last year too.

2 months with my new pond and NO algae bloom!! Lovely blooms on the waterlilies that I fed with tomatoe spikes, and the biggest suprise....BABIES!!! Baby fish already! well, one, lol! It is about an inch long, I was really having a bummer moment when I spotted it too, so it really was a pleasant suprise!(a visiting friend's german shepard attacked a man walking buy my yard, ugly)

My first surprise was when I woke up to my pond down about a foot. I filled it back up and let it set without the pump running (wasn't leaking from the liner) and it didn't go down any. I then dug up the line from the skimmer to the water fall and it wasn't leaking. After that I tore the waterfall apart and discovered the water was going behind the falls because the water fall tub was slightly crooked. After that was fixed (6 weeks later)my pond pump quit and I had to buy a new pump. Then the dreaded algae bloom. I fixed that by filling a tall waste basket with filter material with rock and marbles in the bottom to keep it from falling over (like the last time I did that.) My pond was looking mighty clear and I looked out and thought I was seeing the bottom. I noticed both pumps had stopped and went out to reset the breaker. To my surprise the water was gone except maybe 2"x2' and my fish were dying. Three koi and three gold fish already dead. I ran and got a 40 gal. pond and ran the rain barrel water in it and put slime coat, water conditioner and peroxide. I put eleven goldies in that. I held up my white goldie till it started to recover. I discovered something had removed the tubing going from the extra pump to the home made filter. I then scrubbed down the pond took (5 hr's) and rinsed it a couple of times. Put goldies back in that evening. My pump and water falls are working and I haven't lost any more fish. I loved my koi and hated to see them go but I only have a 1400 gal. pond so think I will stay with only the goldies.
I have had my pond about 4 years and this is the first time I lost any fish.
Today I was emptying a rain barrel and discovered a goldie in it. Named it Lucky. I put it in the aquarium with my fantails.
I feel blessed to have 12 goldies. I have learned some lesson's I won't repeat. It's been over a week now and thing's are looking brighter.
If I had only remembered what GW member said about "never set a pump on the bottom of a pond".

Violet,

I am so sorry to hear about your fish loss. That is always so heart-breaking.

I had water loss this spring (luckily no fish died) and thanks to a suggestion by someone here (sorry I've forgotten who it was), I got a sump pump shut off at lowes (much cheaper than the little giant brand) and now if I have a water loss problem in the future, the pump will shut off before the water gets too shallow. WHEW.

Anne

Anne, Thanks for the kind words. It makes me feel a little better. I felt so sorry for the poor little fishies.

I will check out the sump pump shut off. Thanks!

Maxine