Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Slave Dog

I'm in.

ewest-
Those questions haunted me to the point that I went out in the grove today and drug out some useful looking structure items with the Mule.



Now, I am hanging on the edge of an inverse quantum fluctuation. It doesn’t get any better than that!!!

You should be careful. When that thing catches the circulator and steals its power the thing will start calling home and next thing you know a bunch of fish eating ETs will show up for dinner. Even worse it might call the pirates to start frequenting your pond for winter experiments. You know they like winter open water in far north ponds . :p :p

If you are going to use it as a circulator in summer watch your water carefully. From past pics and descriptions you have very good water. You can mess it up. While circulation is great and needed by many -- you may not need it. I suspect it will help but keep a close watch.

Ewest – Your analytical prowess continues to amaze!

Once again you have analyzed a situation using sensory signals as well as empirical evidence to make a thoroughly informed and transcendent observation.

I will place the satellite dish face down pointing towards North Korea so any signal will be absorbed into mother earth and then transmuted into an anti-nuclear sonic vibration.

I will keep an eye on the circulator if I decide to use it in the summer months, too.

Still Learning?

An easily moved deicer-circulator mounted on a float sounds great but presents a serious problem.

Apparently the torque of the motor at start up is significant and causes the back anchor to move a foot or two each time it starts.

This causes the ropes to become slack and at some point the front rope gets sucked into the prop at start up and is cut off.

http://www.bremerpond.com/circulatorinstall.jpg

I was lucky that the under-water power cord was not touched by the prop or I would have had to pay significantly for this particular learning experience. :rolleyes:

Here's my solution. Screw four sleeves into the side of the float, then take four metal posts and pound them into the ground.

Bruce Condello – Shorty posted the circulator/float photo earlier in the thread and I understood and appreciated your design.

Presently, I need to be more portable. I have a revised design that should take care of that maximum torque at 0 RPM electric motor deal.

I do have some questions/concerns about your circulator/float photo.

The MDC holding the circulator/float from falling off the end table is puzzling to me. Are there numerous ball bearings under the float?

The VOM and charging device on the next end table are also puzzling. What are those white things?

There is another charging device and several sealed batteries sitting on your bed (table).

I hope you weren’t injured by that shelf bracket when you when to sleep that night.

Why would you sleep on a hard table like that?
:p

The MDC is for perspective in the picture. If you haven't noticed there is a hidden MDC can in every photo I've ever posted.

I think the white things are twist ties.

I often sleep with my circulator. My wife sends me out to the farm when I'm in trouble...hence the name of the cabin being "The Dog House". Sometimes I get in trouble on purpose so I can go to the farm.

Dwight, as you've surely experienced by now, people with deep-seated problems, be they mental or even physical addictions, will often send signals, or leave warning signs, in the hopes that someone will take notice and save them.

In Bruce's situation, you can view the DMD can as merely the tip of the ice berg, so to speak.

We are all still trying to figure out what the jump ropes mean (as can be seen in the Horizontal Aeration thread).

Bruce Condello, I understand the trouble part. but the rest is confusing, even disturbing! :p

Sunil - Thank you for the explanation, now I do understand.

The ropes are not jump ropes. They are safety ropes.

I have a hypothermia phobia.

When I swim out to work on the circulator in 20 below zero weather, I need to have a backup method of returning to shore. The second rope is a backup in case the first rope breaks. It is all pretty simple, really!
:rolleyes:

Dwight, have you tried more weight on your anchor ropes? We use 40 lb cement blocks on ours and they don't move but our aerators are also a bit different than your's or Bruce's. Also, you will want to have your rope length 3 times the depth the anchors are sitting in. We are using heavy poly rope that floats, two anchors on the front that angle off to the sides and one straight off the back.

PS A 12ft jon boat would save some swimming in that "20 below zero weather."

Shorty - This weekend I am going do approximately what you are recommending here. I have some conrete blocks sitting in the warehouse, just itching for a job to do.

Thanks for the tip on usng a boat in frigid weather!

It is supposed to get down to 19 degrees here tonight (above zero)!

Dwight, the jump ropes were in a photo posted by Bruce. The jump ropes are just one of the "cries for help" in the photo that gives a schematic of his aeration idea.

Actually, I don't know in which thread he originally posted that picture.

Dwight I put some "structure" similar to what you have in the picture in my pond with the idea that it would always remain hidden by the water. Well we have had the worst drought in fifty years going on for the last two years. This low water has caused my pond to look like a junkyard and so now I've decided to pull it out and haul it off. I think that from now on the only structure I'm going to place in the pond will be more natural looking. I am only saying this because removing this mess is more difficult than not putting it in the first place. However you may not have the water fluctuations we have in Texas and putting it in would not be objectionable. Just something to think about.

James, my thoughts are exactly as you described about low water drought stricken pond "structure" turning into junkyards.

Sunil - In the future, please be more specific when talking about jump ropes in photos. Now everyone knows about my phobia, when, they wouldn't have needed to know! :p

james holt-
george -

I don't have water fluctuations in the pond like those ponds that depend on surface rain water to keep them full.

The pond water surface is at the same level as the top of the ground water table. The fluctuation that does occur is minimal in relation to some the photos I have seen of ponds in Texas and other drought areas. With heavy rains, it will get deeper, but always returns to the water table after a few days.

Thanks for you comments. I believe they will be useful to many others since it appears my type of pond is not the norm for most Pond Boss Subscribers.

I don't foresee ever seeing that structure again other then on my underwater camera or sonar, thankfully!

Other mounting considerations are to use the universal dock mount on a treated 4x4 post or a galvanized pole. You may also find that some braided, vinyl coated steel will prevent rodents from turning your de-icer into a giant wire twisty on the back of every toy that your children get every christmas. The dock mounts are slightly cheaper.

RBurke Keystone Hatcheries - "You may also find that some braided, vinyl coated steel will prevent rodents from turning your de-icer into a giant wire twisty on the back of every toy that your children get every christmas."

Please explain..

Ok boys & girls, its update time!

I have included my original rope cutting issue comments and diagrams (with a new diagram added).

If this is a dying horse, either tell me to shut up, or just ignore me all together and I will go away!!

None of this is drawn to scale - too lazy...



Photo of the new ropes and pipes:


I hope BC doesn't see those jump ropes on the left side!

....No, I'm just noticing the two hundred fishing rods and reels you've got. Looks like my basement.

Is that carpet? My workshop floor would look kind of like that if I could get the mold to be all the same color.

Bruce Condello - Sorry to say, those are the rods and reels that came out of my Bass Boat that I winterized, already!

Do you have ice on you pond(s) in Denton during the winter?

We used to have ice for 10 weeks at a time. The last few years we're lucky to get ten hours.