Drained

The fish pond was looking a little low last week so I decided to top it up from the rainwater tank next to the garage. The tank didn't have much water and gravity only managed to add a few drops before the level in the tank equalled the level in the pond. I noticed the next day that the tap was dripping so I disconnected the hose and turned off the valve to prevent the tank from draining dry.

Saturday morning we were rushing out of the house to take Phoebe to her netball game and Deb said that I had better take a look at my pond. The rocks that made up my water feature had toppled over during the strong winds earlier in the week and I hadn't found time to climb into the cold water to stand them back up, but that was the least of my worries, the water level had dropped at least 600mm which equates to loosing about 6000L overnight. My guess was that the rocks had punctured the pond liner and it wouldn't take long for the rest of the water to drain from the pond. There must be about 30 large goldfish and dozens of native sword tails all in need of rescue. The pond was ruined and needed rebuilding from scratch but first I needed to get a new liner. I couldn't imagine mending a pond liner successfully so I headed off on a 90 min round trip to buy a new one. The shop owner was very helpful and even gave me some weed suppressor mat to line the floor and prevent future tears. I stopped at the pet store on the way to buy a small net to catch the little fish then returned home dreading the task ahead and planning what to do first. As I didn't have anything to put the fish in the only container large enough was a water butt full of dirty green water which I emptied onto the compost heap and scrubbed out with fresh water. I noticed a large puddle of water next to the rainwater tank and thought that the tank was leaking, then I realised that the hose was sitting in the middle of the puddle; what a Wally I had been, when I removed the hosepipe from the tank and laid it down the hose was full of water and must have created a syphon.

Good news was that I didn't have to move the fish, empty the pond, remove the 100mm of sand and numerous rocks from the floor, replant the Lillis, fit the rip-stop weed suppressor and start all over. The bad news was that I missed my daughter winning man of the match, drove for 90 minutes for nothing and spent $230 for a pond liner that I didn't need.

I cleaned the pond, back washed the filter, moved the surface skimmer away from the Lillie pads, moved the rocks forming the water feature and set them up in my other fish pond. I created a shelf for some new marginals, moved the Lotus flowers, tidied up the papyrus and refilled the pond. It's better than before and the shop didn't mind refunding me for the unused pond liner so it all worked out for the best.