Tom Hoffman: Koi Pond

Major pond overhaul today. I took all the plants out, except for the big iris which has completely overgrown its pot and absorbed everything in its path into its roots. Hosed them off and got all the aphids off I could & sprayed with the stuff I got at Koi Villa. They'll baste in that stuff all night. Then I scooped our all the miscellaneous muck I could find out of the bottom, cleaned the (old) filter, etc. The fish seem a bit confused. The aphids were about ready to just annihilate the garden. Hopefully I didn't wait too long. I'm hoping the water looks very clear tomorrow.

I went down to Koi Villa to get a new UV filter. I ended up getting a biofilter/UV combo. It seems nice because I can bury it and it will be less obtrusive than the above ground UV tube Ken had. Plus I think his homemade biofilter box is kinda weak.

They had some beautiful little Japanese Koi that had just come in, maybe five inches long. Pretty much exactly what I'd like to buy. A small but high quality traditional red & white koi. I held off, however. Jennifer wouldn't appreciate my bringing home a $120 fish right now.

We got some stuff to put on the plants to get rid of the aphids. I'm thinking about just taking the pickerel and (I think it's) arrowroot out of the pond for a while, too. They should be fine if I give them a good hosing daily. They're just weeds, anyhow, but the aphids love 'em.

Jennifer was briefly traumatized this morning when one of our frogs caught, drowned and attempted to eat a small sparrow. It didn't get down on the first try, so I netted the dead bird out before it could foul (fowl?) the water.

The aforementioned black specs on the lotuses are apparently black aphids. The first line of defense is just scraping or spraying them into the water and letting the fish eat them. I may have to quarantine at least one of the lotuses, though.

The frogs were talking to each other this afternoon. The lilies are definitely coming up. I'm getting some nice pictures of the roses I'll post soon. There are some funny black grains or egg cases on the lotus leaves, which may explain why they aren't doing too well. I'll need to do some research.

Current frog census is up to five, thanks to Jennifer's patient and sharp-eyed father. I added water today, and rearranged the plants a few days ago. The lilies are doing ok, but the lotuses aren't doing much. I don't know if they start later or what. Overall, things seem pretty balanced. The algae is under control.

It has rained all day and the pond is noticably flooding. Shouldn't hurt the fish, and I'm sure the lilies will appreciate the extra water. The koi seemed frisky and hungry, but when I threw some food in they seemed to be going after it in slow motion. I checked the water temperature and it was 55, so I netted the food back out, just to be on the safe side.

Went to Paradise Gardens in Whitman, Mass. for the first time today. Picked up a half dozen tadpoles, two dozen snails and some oxygenating plants. Then I took the Imperial Taro and divided and repotted it. I ended up throwing out some of the really big old bulbs (which may or may not have been a good idea) and repotted some of the livelier bulbs in four pots. Everything went pretty smoothly until I slipped in the pond with one of the pots, spilling the gravel and dirt from one of the pots & kicking over another little pot. I cleaned it up, though, and I'm sure it will be filtered out by the morning.