22.06.2025 Pt. 2 Playing with water.

  14.50 80F/26.7C. Humid and becoming overcast. Eight 15kg bags of gravel washed and deposited in the greenhouse pond. Hose dropped in and turned on. This is going to take some time! Perhaps just as well to avoid alarming the water supply company. A sudden, unusual demand might suggest a leak. Though it would be a slow leak which amounted to 1.5m^3. The tub's physical level remained unchanged by 120kg of wet gravel. Plus my own 70kg addition. 

15.00 Ten minutes and the water is now 3cm deep over the 5cm of gravel. 8x6=48cm per hour. 80cm pond/tub depth. So it should be fairly full in about two hours. 

 A mouse has got into the greenhouse while I was ferrying gravel. I usually have the doors sealed with fine mesh doors. It came from behind the stack of bricks. I can't close the house door because of the hose. So, as usual, I have a painted, steel shelf standing up across the doorway. Being smooth and vertical its 42cm height should present a difficult climb.

 15.10 14cm water depth. 

 15.20 20cm. 

 15.30 25cm. 

 16.00 The water depth reached 40cm on the hour. Halfway. I dropped the Oase Filtral 3000 filter and fountain unit in to see its effect. Without any pipework it really disturbs the surface but completely silently. With twice as much water above it when the tub is full I expect a reduction in surface disturbance. We shall see. 

 16.20 45cm and the surface disturbance has reduced as predicted. It is much more localized. This is not a trivial matter. Water movement means the fish are less visible. I still have to experiment with the fountain accessories. Image right. I can easily see the pond through the windows from indoors. From the living room, the front hall and the kitchen.

 16.30 80F/26.7 outside as it gets steadily darker with increasing cloud. 85F/30C in the greenhouse. 72F/22C in the room. It feels pleasantly cool indoors after sitting out there for a while. There is a band of locally, heavy rain approaching from the west. Time for afternoon tea.

 16.50 65cm. Fairly heavy rain has just started. And soon stopped.

  17.15 I turned off the hose at 72cm depth. A margin of tub wall above the water surface might give the fish pause. Before they practice their Fosbury Flop. The water in their tank is 24C or 75F. It will take a while for the greenhouse pond to reach that temperature. From 56.7F/13.5C. 

The chemical and biological changes in a new tank are supposed to take at least a couple of weeks. Some say months. I have two filters in the aquarium. Both well stuffed with beneficial bacteria to prime the new filter.

 Sunday Dinner was chicken, mushrooms, peas, chips and Bisto gravy! 😋

The rain fell as showers with thunder rumbling in the background. It stopped ages ago. So I could take two heavy recycling bins along the drive. My guest had ensured there was plenty to throw away. A fox barked in the field as I walked back.

 10.25 Thunder and cloudbursts. 

 

  ~o~