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Backyard Mini-Pond Journal!


Daydre
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On 5/8/2023 at 6:55 PM, Patrick_G said:

Four days isn’t generally long enough to cycle a pond. You can test it by adding some ammonia, if it’s fully cycled your test will show the ammonia dropping to zero and nitrates rising. If your ammonia isn’t zero or you’re seeing nitrites then you still have some time to go. Since you’re just adding a few small fish to a relatively large amount of water you’ll probably be fine doing a fish in cycle because by the time the toxins build up to harmful levels the pond will be cycled. 

Oh! I said this bc I tested already, it's showing 0/0/20ppm for ammonia/nitrites/nitrates. Also I forgot to mention that I'd pre-seeded my filter for like a month beforehand, so it didn't totally come out of nowhere but I was still surprised how fast it happened

That and there's an ammonia source in there already.

Edited by Daydre
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On 5/8/2023 at 4:43 PM, Daydre said:

Oh! I said this bc I tested already, it's showing 0/0/20ppm for ammonia/nitrites/nitrates. Also I forgot to mention that I'd pre-seeded my filter for like a month beforehand, so it didn't totally come out of nowhere but I was still surprised how fast it happened

Oh then that makes tons of sense! I keep a few pre-seeded filters bubbling away for the same purpose. This’ll be heaven for those Rice fish. 😀

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On 3/13/2023 at 9:50 AM, Daydre said:

I'm super excited because the lotus I want to put in the pond germinated properly- I was worried at first that I messed up scarrifying them but nope most of them sprouted just fine!

Thanks for sharing this. I have been using stratification with limited success. I will switch to scarification. Did you use any stratification as well? If so can you share your method please. 

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On 5/8/2023 at 7:58 PM, Guppysnail said:

Thanks for sharing this. I have been using stratification with limited success. I will switch to scarification. Did you use any stratification as well? If so can you share your method please. 

I haven't used stratification, just scarification. Unfortunately while I have been able to get them to sprout offshoots they haven't been growing leaves? Some of them are indoors and some outdoors, so I'm wondering if I haven't hit the right combination of warmth+sunlight yet.

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The fish eggs got here, they've been set up in a sterilite shoebox for the past two days and one of them already hatched! I tried to get a pic of the baby but it was too hard so here's one of their siblings instead.

IMG_5188.jpeg

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What are your plans to feed them if I may ask? I’m interested as I plan to raise up fry but I have little experience besides piling in the plants! I just started up my microworm colony again trying out vinegar eels too. 

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I'm also very new to this, admittedly- I was planning on feeding Hikari First Bites since I think that's small enough? I need to look into other food sources for variety, though.

Edit: Oh, right! And I have frozen baby brine- so I'm going to be feeding that as well.

Edited by Daydre
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I'd read that medaka eggs are super low maintenance so I've just got them in a sterilite shoebox full of dechlorinated water and some floating plants from established tanks. I don't have air running or anything and about 10 have hatched already. For feeding I've just been tapping a paintbrush loaded with Hikari First Bites on the rim of the box to get the powder to settle on the water's surface.

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Realized I haven't posted an update on the actual pond in a while, here's the most recent pic I've taken of it-

I added more plants and the pickerelweed has grown, but it's still far from what I hope it'll be.

IMG_5211.jpeg

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