Minor pond disaster

Woke up early to put the trash out this morning, as the masked bandits
prevent putting it out the night before. Decided to look at the pond before
stumbling back to bed. HOLY CRAP BATMAN!, where did all the water go? The
poor little pump was sitting there trying to suck out the last bit of water,
the waterfall has stopped, the plants are scattered all over the sides and
the boys are all huddled together in about 10" of water below the pump
intake.

OK, whut happuned? The evil raccoons, no all the potted plants are
undisturbed. The evil heron, no, no obvious signs of trauma. The evil
neighbours, nope, still snoozing. The evil cats, nope, FIDO is till charged
up. Meteorite, yeah, that's it, oops no scorch marks, no burning rubber.

WAIT!, I cleaned the filter last night, but there aren't any obvious signs
of gushing water. Maybe I cracked the casing when I put the cover back. So I
disassembled the filter, only to find the "Oh" ring stuck under the filter
sponges. I was amazed how quickly it drained the pond, eight hours.

I won't do that again, not until next season anyway.

I had a similar scenario when my dad decided to move the filter so he could
better hear the splashing of the water to a higher level on the rock boarder
around the edges. Sure enough, that night (while i was away on the job in
texas) as my sister was coming home from work, she noticed less than 2
inches of water left in the pond and a dry-sucking noise coming from the
filter.
Thankfully, she wasn't too wasted to have the intelligence to turn off
the filter and go back inside to sleep as it was beginining to downpour. I
was never so thankful for a torrential downpour as i was that night. When i
came home that weekend, the fish seemed fine, and the water was nice and
clear. My dad knows not to mess with the pond anymore too.

I think this kind of thing has to happen to everyone at least once. It does
scare the crap out of you. Glad your fish are ok, and your pump didn't burn
up.
Jan
"Our Pond" Page
http://hometown.aol.com/pinkpggy/index.html

"Bill Stock" wrote in message
t.cable.rogers.com...

WAIT!, I cleaned the filter last night, but there aren't any obvious signs
of gushing water. Maybe I cracked the casing when I put the cover back. So
I
disassembled the filter, only to find the "Oh" ring stuck under the filter
sponges. I was amazed how quickly it drained the pond, eight hours.

I won't do that again, not until next season anyway.

Pond #3, got overruled when the pool got installed, so I pulled the liner
out last weekend. As I did, I found 100's of tads, and some kind of mean
looking underwater bug that looks like it could put the hurt on me. Anyway,
I moved the critters, alien bug and all to a rubbermaid, and then began
pumping water from the main pond into the rubbermaid allowing it to over
flow into the stream. I was hoping to get some tads out, while filtering the
water out a bit, and allowing the muck to settle.

Long story short, the hose fell out of the rubbermaid. I found it after we
had lost about 8 inches of water. LOL.

BV.

I was amazed how quickly it drained the pond, eight hours.

The makings for nightmares, which I'll probably have tonight after reading
that. ( Glad everything was okay, and the problem solved. Also glad the
predators didn't find the opportunity for an easy meal. ~ jan


~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

This is the stuff that wakes me up in the middle of the night and forces me
to check the pond. Yuck!
"~ jan JJsPond.us" wrote in message
...
I was amazed how quickly it drained the pond, eight hours.

The makings for nightmares, which I'll probably have tonight after reading
that. ( Glad everything was okay, and the problem solved. Also glad
the
predators didn't find the opportunity for an easy meal. ~ jan


~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

"Bill Stock" wrote in message
t.cable.rogers.com...
Woke up early to put the trash out this morning, as the masked bandits
prevent putting it out the night before. Decided to look at the pond
before
stumbling back to bed. HOLY CRAP BATMAN!, where did all the water go? The
poor little pump was sitting there trying to suck out the last bit of
water,
the waterfall has stopped, the plants are scattered all over the sides and
the boys are all huddled together in about 10" of water below the pump
intake.

OK, whut happuned? The evil raccoons, no all the potted plants are
undisturbed. The evil heron, no, no obvious signs of trauma. The evil
neighbours, nope, still snoozing. The evil cats, nope, FIDO is till
charged
up. Meteorite, yeah, that's it, oops no scorch marks, no burning rubber.

WAIT!, I cleaned the filter last night, but there aren't any obvious signs
of gushing water. Maybe I cracked the casing when I put the cover back. So
I
disassembled the filter, only to find the "Oh" ring stuck under the filter
sponges. I was amazed how quickly it drained the pond, eight hours.

I won't do that again, not until next season anyway.


Thanks for all the happy thoughts.

The boys all survived the refill and were happily munching away this
morning. I was concerned about the temp/PH shock with a 90% water loss. I
initially only added enough water (with dechlor) to cover the pump again and
then let that sit for about 3 hours. I then set the hose for dribble (with
dechlor) and let it fill the pond for the next six hours. This left me at
about 85% full and I stopped there. Frances topped up the pond last night
with her last gasp.