At the moment this is warming up:
and this is cooling down:
whilst they are staying still:
Just thought I'd do a little update on the fishy side of things in the new area, especially as they are the main reason why the project was conceived. The pond itself is now well and truly finished and the system has been running smoothly for a few weeks now. A couple of weeks ago we moved in the first two Koi to kick start the growth of filter bacteria and gauge how the rest of the koi will react to the new pond and water chemistry. So far so good and the first two residents have been happily swimming away since then. The only thing is, they look a bit lost and lonely, with their 'mates' still left behind in the old pond.
So we're just waiting for temperatures to stabilize and come very close between the two ponds. The cold March and early April didn't help at all and prolonged the process but temperatures are getting better now and forecast for the next few days is much better.
The new pond is gradually warming up, currently it is 8.9C. The old pond needs to gradually cool down hence I removed all of its covers earlier than usual to help in this process and it is currently 11.9C (it was 13C with the covers on).
The two Koi that we had from the grow and show competition at Avenue Fisheries are still there as our pond was too cold to bring them home that day. And in addition to them we also acquired three more which we chose over the bank holiday Easter weekend. So the entire lot, five in total are all being kept there for us in a pond maintained at 12C.
The three we went for (top L-R Clockwise Doitsu Kujaku, Tancho Goshiki, Mukashi Ogon)
So it's just a matter of waiting until the temperatures are much closer to each other and when that happens we can move in all of the fish into their new home. It's important that the temperature difference is very little or as close as possible to help minimize shock and stress to the fish.The hard landscaping is finished apart from one fence panel that needs to be installed (long story) but at least it's in the most inconspicuous spot so not essential. The little jobs left to do, cosmetic matters are all gradually being ticked off the list as the weather improves.
As for the plants, all of them are just about waking up from winter hibernation, again way behind than normal courtesy of the cold start to spring and we'll have to wait a bit more to see if we need to replace any. And which bits of them needs to be tidied up.
Tiny plant, big cheer!
Roll on spring! It took you awhile to get here!
Mark :-)