What did you do in the garden today?

[Sally PB]

Rainy today, so I didn't get anything done outside. Hubby and I both worked on indoor projects, and we got a lot done.

 

[fuzzi]

Instead of having the water drain directly from the bottom, I put a 90 elbow on the bottom drain hole and let the water drain from the top to bottom out, and instead of having the water pumped in on top, I have the water circling on the bottom up. I use bio balls that float and leave enough space for the water to circle on the bottom. The water moves the fish poop up off the bottom, so when I stuck my hand down to the bottom to check, I didn't feel any muck build up. Most of the poop gets broken down and accumulate around the floating bio balls. I clean and drain it once in a great while by pushing the floating balls up and down and opening the drain valve.
The return water from the filter goes into a plastic cement tub with a bell siphon that has a hole on top, so the water drains from the bottom up, but never empties. The nutrient in the water gets used up by the duck weed in the plastic cement tub. This prevents green algae from turning the water green and the duck weed is fed to the fish by lifting the bell siphon.

However, in this close system the KH in the water gets used up by the beneficial bacteria and when it goes to zero the nitrification or good bacteria goes dormant, and the water becomes toxic. I add baking soda to keep the nitrification bacteria active and do 10% water changes daily. If you see sick fish, this is the problem.

Mine is just a simple system that generally maintains the pond water so fish and frogs and dragonflies can thrive.

I learned about soft water and pH crashes the hard way, lost my fish. Our water here is so soft that it barely registers hardness. I add buffers to my aquariums with weekly water changes to prevent pH crashes, and to keep my snails alive. Without buffers my snails' shells disintegrate and they die.

 

[akroberts1085]

Went out to clear an area I want to make a edible plus flower bed. I started the tractor and after 2 pushes of weeds out I decided the girls needed to be free to range a little. I have done this for 3 days now and it is still causing me to feel like oh no wait what are you doing where are you going. Dang girls are gonna give me a heart attack. Wally likes trying to herd them and dig up the ground for them.

 

[BReeder!]

Out with the family much of the day, but we managed to transplant 8 summer squash, 6 basil, and 4 dill. Getting out done little by little. Need to plant more greens (lettuce, spinach, kale and chard) and get those pepper seeds replanted.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Careful what you wish for... I prayed for rain. We've had probably 4" since Thursday and this is looking forward.

View attachment 3814802

I'm going to DEFINITELY have to spray fruit trees on Tuesday for fungus....

Time to do a backward rain dance ...

 

[Minanora]

Instead of having the water drain directly from the bottom, I put a 90 elbow on the bottom drain hole and let the water drain from the top to bottom out, and instead of having the water pumped in on top, I have the water circling on the bottom up. I use bio balls that float and leave enough space for the water to circle on the bottom. The water moves the fish poop up off the bottom, so when I stuck my hand down to the bottom to check, I didn't feel any muck build up. Most of the poop gets broken down and accumulate around the floating bio balls. I clean and drain it once in a great while by pushing the floating balls up and down and opening the drain valve.
The return water from the filter goes into a plastic cement tub with a bell siphon that has a hole on top, so the water drains from the bottom up, but never empties. The nutrient in the water gets used up by the duck weed in the plastic cement tub. This prevents green algae from turning the water green and the duck weed is fed to the fish by lifting the bell siphon.

However, in this close system the KH in the water gets used up by the beneficial bacteria and when it goes to zero the nitrification or good bacteria goes dormant, and the water becomes toxic. I add baking soda to keep the nitrification bacteria active and do 10% water changes daily. If you see sick fish, this is the problem.

Ah, duckweed, the glitter of the aquatic hobby. You can buffer your KH with crushed coral. Aquarium Co-op has it for a good price. I have to use it because of the same thing in my 75G tank, I never need to do water changes, just add water, and add coral. The coral is nice because it's a slow release and only buffers so high. the higher the pH, the less it decays, if your pH and KH get too low, it buffers up without hurting any fish or plants. KH stabilizes pH; if you run out of KH, your water pH crashes.

 

[Minanora]

Mine is just a simple system that generally maintains the pond water so fish and frogs and dragonflies can thrive.

I learned about soft water and pH crashes the hard way, lost my fish. Our water here is so soft that it barely registers hardness. I add buffers to my aquariums with weekly water changes to prevent pH crashes, and to keep my snails alive. Without buffers my snails' shells disintegrate and they die.

crushed coral, as I mentioned prior. Its fantastic for buffering KH and stabilizing pH.

 

[Minanora]

Today, I noted that two of the three types of california poppy I seeded are sprouting! Both types of basil are coming up and both varieties of corn are coming up in force now. New pool is filling. yay!

 

[chickengr]

nights still cold here. I don't feel like wasting oaxaca green corn seeds. got some more tomato/pepper/cucumber seedlings to transplant.

 

[akroberts1085]

@fuzzi , thank you for the heads up about the barefoot you have mailed. That's supposed to say bareroot.