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Well done getting off the vapes 👍 I'm a nightmare for them, puff on it more than I did with roll ups, used to rinse 2 - 3 disposables a day lol. Its a good reminder for me reading this to get off them as well.

Could just get the catfish rods out instead 🤣 They were weed cutting yesterday and it's made it pretty much impossible to fish, big weedbergs the size of transits floating down wiping the rods out 🤣Weed cutting again today and over the weekend 💀 they aint removing it either so it's just getting pushed up and down by the wind 👎

not visited in a bit thought i'd pop in. been sorting my health out, gave up inhaling anything as advised no vaping has made a big difference basically i got that illness you can get from vaping means i'm using steroid inhalers for life going forward, very early COPD. i do feel a lot better than this time last year, just need to avoid chest infections to the point i got issued a rescue pack which consists as strong antibiotics and anti inflammatory pills to be used if i get a chest infection coming on. i could moan about no bad weather fishing trips but i have always been a summer only kind of guy 😀

You should try would be fun getting dragged up the towpath for miles 😂

The storm on Friday gone was a nightmare for the leaves.... I put a net over the pond but it was useless. I'm worried about the leaves blocking up the bottom drain and filter, and drawing oxygen out of the water as they decay. I have the local expert round tonight to quote for replacing the skimmer system and I've ordered the best temporary skimmer you can get. Should do the job for now, but we'll wait to see the cost of the the permanent solution 😬

So this is what the pond looked like when I arrived. The pond is 2m wide, 6m long, and 2m deep. It holds 24,000 litres (~5.2k gallons), with the filtration and pipework capacity taking it to over 30,000 litres. Construction is by way of reinforced concrete base and walls set into the ground by ~1.6m, with the top ~0.4m sitting above ground. The wooden decking on the left is essentially a lid that is raised using a pulley system. You can then walk down into the filter house, which is also set into the ground just like the pond. The filtration system is gravity fed, which means there is a bottom drain in the pond. The water is pushed down the bottom drain, along some pipework, and up into a Nexus 310 which is a high-performance combination mechanical/bio filter. First the water is pushed through the mechanical filter section which removes dirt, grime, and weed etc. The water is then passed to the biological filter section which uses a filtration media, agitated by air lines, to foster friendly bacteria growth. This bacteria converts ammonia and nitrite (from carp poo) into harmless nitrate. The water is then fed, by pump, into a UV filter which passes the water through a tube under UV light which kills algae. The treated water is then returned to the pond through an outlet ~15cm below the ponds surface. There’s also a skimmer system which filters contamination from the surface of the pond. Water that goes through the skimmer is then pumped into a ‘veggie’ or ‘bog’ filter (an additional shallow, gravel-filled pond, planted with moisture-loving plants). This section, located over the back of the main pond, is currently blocked off due to a leak – I’ll worry about this next year. So, as you can see, it’s far from just a hole in the ground. I’ve spent loads of time online researching how all this stuff works, and spoken with the local koi centre, and the local pond builder. I’ve replaced a pump, and the UV bulb in the UV filter, trying to get the existing system working as perfectly as possible ready for winter. We have loads of trees, which means loads of leaves, and this could be a problem when autumn hits properly, especially with the skimmer system blocked off. I’ve purchased a massive fine mesh net to protect it this year and I’ll just chuck this over when the time comes. In the coming days I’ll post about the best bit…… the fish.