#Thegreatpoolpondconversion - 210509
We have been working the solar part of this project backwards.
Normally you’d lay all this out in advance. Pumps, pipes, wires, power source, etc.
And you’d install it all, bury and hide the pipes and wires before ever adding water.
Thinking way, way back we were envisioning one small pump for the waterfall connected to one solar panel we’d hide somewhere, somehow.
That was it.
And that’s what we did.
Then we needed a second pump when we decided to add the filter.
And so another panel.
Should they be separate or could they be combined for more power?
And were we burning out the pumps due to the wild variation in voltage throughout the day.
Hence the solar controller and battery.
Remember also, we were so eager to get it all working that we kludged it together and didn’t really have much luck.
The controller couldn’t handle the load directly so we learned about slave batteries and then low voltage disconnect (lvd) switches.
And since last August, because we were wiring it wrong, we probably depleted the battery.
Trying to make everything go smoothly won’t work with a battery that won’t hold a charge.
It’s fine when the sun is shining bright (3 panels!) but not so effective at the fringes (dawn, dusk, and when clouds roll by.)
So we’re troubleshooting this all after the fact. Learning as we go and trying to figure out what works, and what will behave the way we want.
We’ve learned a lot.
We haven’t lost a pump in 6 months.
We’ve ordered a new and bigger battery. Hopefully it will smooth out a lot of the erratic behavior at the fringes.
And we’re testing out another solution - just in case - using a 12 volt golf cart voltage regulator with the LVD. Advantages are no batteries at all and smooth power to the pumps. Disadvantage may be that without a battery there may be more on/offs at the fringe times of day. Don’t worry, we’ll explain it all in nauseating detail when/if we get there.
Meanwhile we’re hoping the solar controller and a proper battery will do what we want and last more than a year.
We will be adding the fourth and final pump when we have time. One pump will feed the filter system all the time. The second will run only when there is lots and lots of sunshine (and amps) thanks to a second LVD.
That’s enough about solar for now.
For obvious reasons, we just started calling the filter enclosure ‘the tower’.
Originally it was just “screening in the filter”.
Again, there wasnt gonna be a tower because originally there wasnt gonna be a filter.
then there was a filter and it needed some cammo and here we are.
It’s done except for some minimal tweaking and finish work.
Not too stressful and no heavy lifting.
An iguana came to visit Monday.
We’ve had two batches of tadpoles.
The first back in december and the second maybe 4 weeks ago. the second batch is still in the pond.
the first batch did not produce hundreds of frogs or we’d have known it - from the sound and endlessly cleaning off the deck.
Saturday we found this:
These black strings are Cane Toad eggs.
We hear them at night sometimes.
It’s better they don’t multiply because they are non-native, invasive and toxic. We scooped all those eggs out.
You can see the hornwort is not complaining and is doing fine.
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