Waterfall is Working

After two days of hard, wet, and dirty work the fish pond is clean and the waterfall is working.

During this time Brenda, Stephen, and their dog Shelly stayed at the house while floors in their own house were being sanded and treated, and all three tolerated the disorder very well.  Shelly could not do much to help me but Brenda and Stephen were very helpful in various aspects of the effort.

Pump on firm concrete pad.

Note deteriorated screen

32 year old Davey Pump

Messy work site

Temporary accommodation for frog and 7 fish

Re filling the pond

Testing the pump

Inlet blocked by gum nut

Waterfall working again

Ferns to be planted

The waterfall system is fairly extensive.  In order to avoid priming issues and to protect the pump from the weather I placed it on a small concrete pad below the verandah.  This had the added advantage of avoiding the sound of the pump in the entire patio area.  But the price was long runs of 2" plastic pipe.  The run from the pond to the pump inlet is below the patio paving and comes out of the ground below the verandah.  The run from the pump is again under ground and passes along the top of the retaining wall to the outlet at the top of the waterfall.  I've got great photos of the minor engineering feat of the entire project, but unfortunately they were taken decades before the digital photography revolution.

The first task was to drain the pump.  I capped off the pipe leading to the pump then crawled below the verandah and disconnected the he pump from the pipes and removed it for testing.  I then went back to the pond, removed the cap, and out went most of the water.  That left a foot of water which had to be bailed out the hard way.  It was a dirty and smelly job because after 5 years the bottom of the pond was covered in a gooey black mud called "mulm", which is the rich biological residue of life in the pond.  To complicate things I had to keep an eye out for at least 5 fish that I knew were in the pond.  Eventually I recovered 7 fish and one frog, which I  placed in a large container for an overnight stay.

The water lilies were gigantic and much too heavy to lift out of the pond, so I had to slice the roots with a knife and lift them out in sections.  After that was the matter of scrubbing the walls and floor of the pond, which meant several rounds of rinse water followed by more bailing.  I noted the inscription on the concrete floor of the pond "9/81" (September 1981).  While I did the scrubbing Brenda was above cutting small and viable sections of water lilies and re-potting them.

The next morning I tested the pump ("Davey", model no. 5100-1, motor type 327, voltage 220-250, amps 2.2, 0.3 kw, serial no. 44186) feeding it water from a garden hose and it seemed to work OK, which meant that the waterfall must have not been working because of some soft of blockage in the pipe which must have cleared when I drained the pond.  I then spent 90 minutes filling the pond, placed the fish back in their home, and saw that Mr. Frog had jumped out of his temporary home during the night and was already happily swimming around the pond.

Stephen and I went to the hardware store and found some screening material which prevents fish and gum nuts from being sucked into the pipe.  Once this screen was in place I started the waterfall and to my dismay it abruptly stopped working after about 30 minutes.  I finished the day digging 3 holes next to the driveway for some agapanthas that I hoped to plant.

The next morning I uncoupled the pump and brought it up for inspection and Stephen discovered that a gum nut was blocking the inlet.  It had probably dropped behind the screen because I did not have the overhead rock in place.  Bad luck.  Soon the waterfall was working well and I spent hours filling up the three agapantha holes with  nutrient rich mulm then hosing down the mess in the patio.

I usually clean out the pond every 2 years, but now that I'm retired I'll probably make it an annual event.

In the final photo you will note a barren area to the right of the pond.  Higher up and to the right of the waterfall is another area suitable for planting.  When I left in 2008 there were ferns and several tropical plants doing quite well in these places but they died undoubtedly from neglect and I am looking forward to restoring the vegetation.