Beneath The Surface. Thursday, June 10th 6:00 pm Jeff Garner & Kerry Shaner th St SE Cedar Rapids IA Tel:

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1 EASTERN IO WA PO ND SO CIETY, INC Beneath The Surface A Compendium of Facts, Fancy, Tidbits, Tips Visit us at Ju ne, Officers: President Bob Bisenius 319/ eipsprez@live.com Vice President Jeff Garner 319/ jgfile@aol.com Secretary Thursday, June 10th 6:00 pm Jeff Garner & Kerry Shaner th St SE Cedar Rapids IA Tel: Bring your chairs Program: Miniature Gardens Monica Morley & Maria Hamilton Kathi Albrecht 319/ wanabskt@aol.com What a fun way to explore your creativity Bring a little treasure and a container with you and get ideas how to create a mini garden. Treasurer Jackie Allsup cedarserviceja@aol.com Volunteers Editor Monica Morley 319/ Saturday, June 26th 6:00 pm Pre Pond Tour Hugh & Kathi Albrecht 367 Lindsay Ln SE, Cedar Rapids, IA Directions to ponds available at pre-pond tour. Come and join us for a sneak preview of the ponds available to see on the 26th Open to all members of the E.I.P.S. we will meet at the Albrecht s and go from pond to pond spending up to 10 to 15 minutes and then move to the next pond. mespringcove@aol.com Co-Editor - Maria Hamilton Webmaster Josh Spece 319/ josh@inthecountrygardenand gifts.com Librarian Contact Monica if interested in water lilies. $20.00 for large and $10 for the small. First come first serve. This warm weather has really increased their size. Herman & Rosie Michel 319/ conner173@mchsi.com Correction in April 24th minutes: Welcome to new members, Mike and Janiece Ford, apologies for the mis-introduction.

2 Meeting Minutes May 13, 2010 P age 2 The May 13, 2010 meeting of the Eastern Iowa Pond Society was held at the Cedar River Garden Center in Palo. Beginning at 6:30, EIPS Program Chairperson, Monica Morley introduced our meeting hosts, Dan and Megan Diehm, Cedar River Garden Center owners and also EIPS member, Greg Bickal who presented the program. Greg installed the garden center s 60,000 gallon pond last fall. Greg spoke about the pond installation and the filtration system. Greg has installed an interesting and unique under-waterfall filtration system in this pond. The garden center pond is home to about 40 of Greg s inch koi. Following Greg s program, club President Bob Bisenius opened the business portion of the meeting at 6:59 P.M. 26 members were in attendance. Pond Committee Chairperson reminded members of the June 26th Pre-Pond Tour which is set to begin at Hugh and Kathi Albrecht s home and the annual Pond Tour on Sunday, July 12th. Bob announced that the club s cookbooks will be for sale on the pond tour and are also available by contacting Monica Morley. Bob read a note from a member of the Wednesday Shakespeare Garden Club, Mary Westphalian. The note acknowledged EIPS donation to the Shakespeare Garden s restoration project which is scheduled to be replanted by the city during the spring and summer of Bob announced that he is in the process of digitalizing copies of meeting program handouts. He hopes to make these available through the club s Facebook page or the club s website. Bob graciously volunteered to copies to members upon request. Bob reminded members to check out the EIPS website, The next meeting will be held at the home of Bob and Cecelia Bisenius on Saturday, May 22 beginning at 5:30 P.M. Bob and Cece will provide maidrites. Members are asked to bring a side dish to share. The meeting was adjourned at 7:11 P.M. Respectfully Submitted, Kathi Albrecht, Secretary Dan & Megan Diehm, owners of Cedar River Garden Center, with Greg Bickal

3 Meeting Minutes May 22, 2010 P age 3 The meeting w as called to order by President Bob Bisenius at 6:35pm at the home of Bob and Ceci. Tw enty four people w ere in attendance and the w eather w as wonderful. No treasurer or secretary report was given at this meeting for both offices were not in attendance. No programs or committee reports w ere given either for those chairmanship w ere also gone. The meeting w as one of open discussion in nature. Bob started the meeting w ith new business and he commented that Monica w as receiving the Koi Person of the year award at the National Meeting. Bob asked Larrry Thompson to tell the group some about the aw ard. Larry commented that the aw ard is determined by nominees from different Koi Clubs/Societies and that there are about 30 to 40 clubs that offer nominees. Receiving the aw ard is a very nice honor and our club has had previous w inners also. Congrats this year do Monica. Bob and Donovan Burke discussed the upcoming trip to the Kloubec koi farm on June 12th. Jackie set this trip up for the club and should be a nice time for all. Donovan said that the Northern Iow a club w hich he is also a member in, w as not going to send any members the koi farm. New business w as tabled and no old business w as reported on. Open forum of the meeting and the 3 P;s by Dave Bell w as next 3Ps Products Jeff Garner and Kerry Shaner reported on a new solar aerator they had purchased at Fosters and Smith for their new smaller pond. Jeff said the aerator w orked surprisingly well, provided there is sun, and both were happy with it. They brought the catalog w ith them and passed it around for members to look it. Larry Thompson then discussed his Grub Ramp. Larry explained that he is somew hat "farming" grubs and maggots now for a food source for his koi. Donovan Burke also is doing the same thing and they both explained how the process works and how it can benefit koi w ith more protein in their diet. At this point in the meeting many members decided that w e should maybe have said it w as the 4 Ps this time the last P standing for Poo w ith all the talk of composting and the resulting by products of the maggots and grubs. The grubs are 50% protein and koi thrive w ell w ith protein and on a side not grubs love bananas. Plants Connie Railsbeck w anted to know if anyone had ever tried grow ing w ater poppies for they looked pretty and w ondered how they did here. No one had tried but her husband Ed w ith his famous green thumb w as going to give it a go for the benefit of the club. Thanks Ed. The question of w ater hyacinths and them looking kind of "puny" right now was raised. Rose Milden and Louan Jayne both said that w ith some more w arm w eather they will start to come around. Problems Green w ater and how to get rid of it. Kerry Shaner told the group that he has used a w hite cotton tow el over the skimmer/filter section of his pond w hen w ater was getting very green and seemed to help. Larry Thompson reminded the group that not all green w ater is bad, but he has used panty hose to also extra filter the w ater. Bob adjourned the meeting and everyone thanked Bob and Ceci for hosting. Notes submitted Jeff Garner

4 P age 4 Koi Person of the Year Award! By Jackie Allsup While participating in this year s AKCA annual seminars in Nashville, I was proud to watch one of EIPS s own, Monica Morley, receive the Koi Person of the Year award. It is an award that all clubs are allowed to nominate members to receive at the annual event. This year, I felt Monica, perhaps through all her problems with her fish, had done the most towards helping other members to learn about the care of these beautiful fish. As last year s club president, she constantly brought attention to the pleasures of Koi keeping as well as the problems that can occur if one is not knowledgeable of Koi husbandry. As the club KHA, I thank you, Monica, for the extra attention given to our fishy friends. When you see her next, please congratulate EIPS s Koi Person of the Year Monica Morley. Plant Committee Pond and Garden Tour July 11th It s time to start getting your plants ready to donate to the plant sale. Please price your plants and add a description and care of the pla nts. Water plants, garden plants, house plants welcome. Water lilies are always in big demand. Watch July s newsletter for the time and date to drop off you plants. Thank you in advance for your support and donation in making this another successful event for the club. Plant committee: Maria Hamilton/chairperson, Monica Morley and Elena Murillo

5 P age 5 Introduction to our Indoor Pond By Ed Railsback Larry Thompson wrote a great article in the March newsletter about the reasons for, the benefits, and considerations of an indoor pond. If you are considering building an indoor pond, then Larry s article is worth a reread. In this article I hope to briefly explain the considerations and construction of our own indoor pond. Call it an indoor pond, a quarantine tank or whatever slick name you can come up with, a very large container that you build in your home to keep Koi and/or goldfish requires some considerations. At our EIPS meeting on April 24th the one question that I didn t expect on our pond was how long did you think about it before you built it? The answer after pondering the question: several months. Why so long Well, I did not have a time constraint or schedule in which it had to be done, as it wasn t going to get full action until the next Fall. It allowed me to search out bargains on the equipment I wanted use and there were two elements that had to be spot on location and method of construction. Location, Location, Location. How often do we hear this about real estate investment? Well, an indoor pond is an investment in the indoor real estate of your home. Now, not all people would think this is an investment, and with that thought in mind I made my pond so it could be disassembled fairly easily if necessary. More about that later. There are also basic requirements that the pond location must have --- Will the floor support the weight? Do you have easy access to water? Do you have easy access to a drain? Do you have access to electricity? Where will the mechanics be, filtration, lighting, etc.? And of course, put your pond where you can enjoy it if possible. The Weight Water weighs about 8.35 lbs per gallon. Now if you have a 700 gallon pond sitting on the floor - that s about 6,000 lbs, (don t forget the weight of the pond itself). Ideally a concrete floor in a garage or basement provides no worries, if installing on a floor supported by joists, then verify that the floor can hold the weight of the size pond you decide on, and of course, just like your outdoor pond, the bigger you can manage the better. Water & Drain Every pond needs water and water changes. Your indoor pond will most likely be overstocked so frequent water changes will be doubly important and having close access to water will make your life much easier. In my case I placed my pond next a utility room which contained water pipes to the house which I was able to tap into and then install a water line directly to the pond. Many utility rooms will also have a faucet which a hose can be attached to. Which then brings up the question, how do I get the old water out of the pond? Again, I utilized the utility room, which has a sump pump and installed a bottom drain in the pond which could be drained directly into the sump pump and pumped to the outside. I preferred this over sending the water down my drain as I have a septic system. In town, down the drain may be a perfectly good solution.

6 Introduction to our Indoor Pond.. Con t By Ed Railsback P age 6 Electricity If you re to have a pond, you have to have electricity and it must have a ground fault interrupter circuit. Don t cheat on this feature as it could mean the life of your Koi, or worse yours! Electricity must be near at hand to run pumps, lights, etc. and since these items may not draw an excessive amount of electricity, an existing circuit might be used, but be sure it is GFI protected. Calculate your total load of the equipment you will be using plus anything else that is already on that circuit and if your total usage will exceed 80% of the circuit s capacity then you need to divide the load between more than one circuit or have a dedicated circuit for the pond. The best choice is to have a separate circuit for your pond and have your ground fault interrupter wired directly into your circuit breaker box or use a GFI outlet. I was able to wire my own, but you may need to get an electrician friend to help. Construction Construction of the pond itself is basic framing taking into account that there will be a lot of pressure on those walls! There is quite a lot of information out there on indoor pond/quarantine construction that I tried to glean from and changed up a bit to feel comfortable with the construction or to suit my needs. Remember, you will have X number of gallons of water weighing thousands of pounds and you not want it to leak! One site that is particularly useful is - From the bottom up a basic frame was constructed on the floor from 2 x4 s which formed the perimeter of the pond, with one 2 x 4 crossing down the center to add strength and to keep the walls from bowing out on the bottom. In between the perimeter flooring 2 x 4 s, 1.5 in. rigid foam sheathing was laid. (Sorry, but I don t have any pictures of this stage). Being on a concrete floor, I had discovered in the past that the cool concrete tends to suck the warmth out of the water, so I did not want my liner lying directly on the floor. My goal was to not have to heat the pond. If you use a bottom drain that is below the floor you will not have this problem as you will have built a frame to accommodate the plumbing creating a space between the pond floor and the floor it is resting on. I used a Tetra bottom drain which connects to my pump for ease of construction and to keep the pond as low as possible for viewing. I also utilize it for draining the pond during water changes. (See top photo). The frame was built out of 2 x 4 s and plywood. My pond is approximately x 3 deep and I was able to use 2 x 4 frame construction, but if your pond is any bigger or higher than this you will need to use 2 x 6 construction. If in doubt, always overdo, remember, water is heavy! x The frame was built in sections and each section was laminated with ½ inch plywood for strength. Each section was glued and screwed together. No nails were used. The frame studs are on 12 centers or smaller and two laminated sections are stacked on each other and screwed and bolted together. Bolts were used for strength and allow the pond to be disassembled at a later date if necessary. Notice that the bottom section is not as tall as the top section. This was done for two reasons. Firstly and most important, it gives the bottom section more strength where the most weight is and it also allowed me to accommodate a couple windows in the pond for viewing. On my 36 deep pond the bottom section is 17 high and the top section is 21 high (total wall height is 38 ). The corners are overlapped and bolted for strength and in addition metal angle was lag bolted in all corners.

7 Introduction to our Indoor Pond.. Con t P age 7 After the pond was completely framed in it was then lined with ½ OSB sheathing. Plywood can also be used, but it needs to be smooth on one side as your liner is going to be laying on it. If you build a pond any bigger than mine, AGAIN- use 2 x 6 construction and ¾ OSB or plywood! (Sorry, I do not have pictures of the next steps so please use your imagination). Next, install the liner. Since I was not in a hurry I watched for sales and was able to find the liner I needed on EBay. I recommend 45 mil EPDM. Before installing the liner I lined the corners and any areas that did not fit absolutely tight with some underlayment that I had left over from the outdoor pond. Installing the actual liner took some time, along with frustration, as I didn t want to have ugly folds showing and was too cheap to spring for a custom drop in liner. With some work I found that if you use a hospital fold in the corners, it looked quite decent. The hole for the drain had been cut in the OSB, so with the liner in place, it was carefully cut and a bulkhead for the drain was placed through the wall with a generous amount of silicone. The openings for the windows had been routed out in the OSB, but the liner was not cut for them until each window was ready to be installed. About the windows: each window is 24 x 15 with extra support in the framing around each window. They are ½ acrylic which is more than sufficient for this size window. Each piece of acrylic was beveled on the inside face and predrilled around the perimeter with holes at 1 spacing prior to installing. A heavy bead of silicone was put around the edge of the opening, and then the glass was placed and screwed to the frame with # stainless pan head screws and bond seal washers. The acrylic windows were a bit expensive, but worth every penny. After a day to let things cure it s finally time to fill the pond. Before filling I took measurements in order to determine how much the weight of the water would cause the walls to deflect, and to my relief there was less than 1/8 deflection at any point when the pond was completely full. And no leaks! I will not go into filtration and other mechanics here as that is a subject which has many solutions dependent upon individual situations. I will only say that you cannot have too much filtration! I chose to use a gravity type filtration system which incorporates two chambers, the first being a combo, sediment with biological filter media, and the second a progressive Matala filter. One issue that I encountered was that the pond quickly got the greenies and developed a musty smell, and being in the house, was not acceptable. I installed a small UV and both problems were cured overnight. If you have windows in your pond, then you have to have light. Not having any natural light where mine was located I installed a utility fluorescent light fixture with 6500k bulbs on a timer. I m a believer that your Koi need light in order to retain their proper color. To control condensation, humidity and prevent fish from jumping out two frames were constructed from ¾ PVC and then covered with outdoor plastic window insulation. Adding paneling and cedar trim completed the final touches. The pond has been up and running for four months its current inhabitants certainly seem happy, and we are very pleased with the finished product. This was a fun project which will hopefully prove its worth this winter. Not being able to cover all aspects and details of our indoor pond in the scope of this article, please feel free to contact me and/or stop by to answer any questions you might have. Ponders always welcome.

8 From the Editor : Monica Morley P age 8 If you missed the meeting on the 13th you can still view an outstanding pond Greg Bickal and the owners of Cedar River Garden Center installed. Greg was the speaker of the evening and described the filtration and explained areas installing such a huge pond. After the meeting Greg talked a little about the spawning of the koi. Greg also offered if anyone ever has any question feel free to contact him. That s the beauty of this club, members willing to help each other. I f you are looking to add more koi, make sure to visit Greg, you will not go home without some fish friends. Check out Greg s web site Meeting Schedule Sunday, July 11th Saturday, July 24th 2010 Pond & Garden Tour Ron & Lois Jungers Thursday, August 12th Gary & Jo Hunerdosse 6:30 Saturday, August 28th Bob & Stephanie Geers Thursday, September 9th Tom Coyle & Daryl Stout 6:00 Saturday, September 25th Saturday, October 23rd November TBD Paul & Gerry Dickerson Monica & Gil Morley & Elena Murillo Elections & Recognition Night June Birthdays Rhett Taylor 2nd Erma Thompson 24th Reminder sign up for Kloubec s June 12, 2010 Send Jackie your RSVP if you are planning to attend the outing at Kloubec s If you want to go to lunch afterwards in Amana let Jackie know. cedarserviceja@aol.com #

9 Page 9 Eastern Iowa Pond Society Membership Application 2010 To become a member of the Eastern Iowa Pond Society, complete this form and mail it along with your dues to : Eastern Iowa Pond Society 206 n. 3rd ST PO BOX 148 QUASQUETON IA Dues are $10.00 per calendar year. Make checks payable to: Eastern Iowa Pond Society New membership Renewal Name: Address: Phone Number: address: Dues will be $10.00 per family, payable November of previous year and delinquent April 1st of each year. These dues entitle a member to participation in all activities and receive a monthly newsletter. Debbie & Steve Webb 920 Ashford Dr NE Cedar Rapids Mike & Janiece Ford 303 7th Ave Hiawatha IA Cecy & Bob Bisenius 1028 Milstead Dr Hiawatha IA Hugh & Kathi Albrecht 367 Lindsay Ln SE Cedar Rapids Mary & Kent Landhuis 4582 Orchard Dr NW Cedar Rapids Kara & Kelly Leyse 1100 W 9th Ave Marion IA Tom Coyle & Daryl Stout 3630 White Oak Rd SE Cedar Rapids Another great year for the tour. All new ponds belonging to our own E.I.P.S. members. Thank you to all pond owners on the tour willing to share your ponds for the public to be exposed to the beauty of water gardening. Pond Tour Committee: Monica Morley Chairperson, Jeff Garner, Stephanie & Bob Geers, Erma & Larry Thompson, Jim & Rose Milden

10 Eastern Iowa Pond Society Inc. Box N 3rd St Quasqueton, IA Non profit organization Eastern Iowa Pond Society Inc. Visions Our Mission Statement We are committed to providing a social atmosphere for members dedicated to sharing and learning the pleasure of water gardening. We are a non-profit organization. Membership of this association shall be open to any individual without regard to race, creed, national origin or Sex, who shall render membership dues as specified in the governing documents. History The Eastern Iowa Pond Society was established by Sharon Weiss in 1996 to encourage and promote water gardening and ponds. Meetings Meetings are held at different members homes the second Thursday at 7:00PM and the fourth Saturday in April, May. June. July, August and September. During Feb., March, October and Nov. meetings are held once a month on a Saturday. No meetings are held in Dec & Jan. Yearly Planning A plan-the-year meeting is held on a February afternoon at a central location to hammer out strategies on how the club will conduct business and to plan activities for the upcoming year. Activities A yearly Pond Tour event involves selected members opening their ponds to the public. Speakers, demonstrations, field trips, plant and fish swap, pot luck, and club projects are all activities that happen during the year. Dues Dues will be $10.00 per family, payable November of previous year and delinquent April 1st of each year. These dues entitle a member to participation in all activities and receive a monthly newsletter.