The Backyard Pond Project came along well in the 5th year. We had a late start and early shutdown making for a short season this year. But all the problematic issues I’ve been working through over the past 5 years now appear to be solved. Late start was due to a protracted leak battle. The liner cracked badly in several spots at different times when subsidence stretched it a bit too hard. It’s been a slow process of basically reacting to settling ground and making repairs as it goes. It looks like it might be about ready to finish settling. Then a couple weeks ago I moved the fish inside, shut it down, drained and cleaned it early, expecting to get a preliminary layer of fiber-ed roof coating on before winter. That stuff takes 3 months to cure, so it will be coated again in January, and finished with 3 coats of truck bed liner prior to startup again in April 2018.
Filtration and associated water quality was the other niggling issue that finally got well sorted this year. Algae blooms came under control with the combination of barley straw and a UV sterilizer. The filter stack now consists of a super-efficient multi-layer setup of lava rock, coarse matala mat and finer polyester media that probably does a better job filtering the pond than the commercially built and sold units running on the aquariums inside. This was the first year the pond stayed crystal clear the whole time, right from the start. This pic, taken just before shutdown, shows a clear view to the bottom through 4 feet of water.
It will take another full cycle of the liner building process before attempting 365 operations. It’s starting to look like Pond v7 will be the finalized version. The 11 pics I kept from this year can bee seen at the top of this page.