Eco systems that flourish in filters !
Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 4:02 pm
I have a Nexus filter and when I came to clean it out recently I found two large frogs in the bottom after water had drained out.
I flush my filter out down a long flexible 2" pipe to exit under a plum tree at the back of my greenhouse to feed tree and to my surprise there were a further three much smaller frogs slowly crawling about, one of them very tiny compared to adults.
The only way the frogs could get in would be to climb into pond, go down through bottom drain and swim with the flow into bottom chamber of Nexus and then spent the winter there.
I never turn filter off even during the coldest weather but I bypass veg filter and exit direct back into pond underwater through a lagged pipe to minimise chill factor.
A sad discovery was that when the veg filter finally thawed out and I got to clearing it out of winter debris there were seven further frogs and a very large toad dead on bottom of filter, obviously the poor little beggars had frozen to death underneath the watercress in this dreadfuly cold winter.
Not sure whether its a good sign or not but I haven't spotted a single adult newt since the thaw, so, fingers crossed some have survived to re-populate my wildlife pond.
Phil.
I flush my filter out down a long flexible 2" pipe to exit under a plum tree at the back of my greenhouse to feed tree and to my surprise there were a further three much smaller frogs slowly crawling about, one of them very tiny compared to adults.
The only way the frogs could get in would be to climb into pond, go down through bottom drain and swim with the flow into bottom chamber of Nexus and then spent the winter there.
I never turn filter off even during the coldest weather but I bypass veg filter and exit direct back into pond underwater through a lagged pipe to minimise chill factor.
A sad discovery was that when the veg filter finally thawed out and I got to clearing it out of winter debris there were seven further frogs and a very large toad dead on bottom of filter, obviously the poor little beggars had frozen to death underneath the watercress in this dreadfuly cold winter.
Not sure whether its a good sign or not but I haven't spotted a single adult newt since the thaw, so, fingers crossed some have survived to re-populate my wildlife pond.
Phil.
