Aug. 2013 Issue Beneath the Surface Find us on Facebook as: Eastern Iowa Pond Society www.eips.org In this newsletter: Aug meeting info......1 Meeting Minutes.2&3 Info on Chicago Trip.4 Dragonflies.....5 Bakki Showers.6 & 7 Eurasian Milfoil.... 8 Trickle Towers..9 & 10 Contact Information: Find us on the web at: www.eips.org or on Facebook President: Jo Hunerdosse 319-364-6627 VP : Jeff Garner- 550-6893 Sec.: Stephanie Geers-363-2448 Tres.:Gary Hunerdosse- 364-6627 MaryEllen Malinowski founded The Koi Whisperer Santuary in St. Charles, IL. Her place is one of the stops on our Chicago trip. Aug. 8th, 2013 6:30 PM Jo and Gary Hunerdosse 306 Red Fox Rd. SE.C.R. Ice Cream Social. They ll supply the ice cream, please bring your favorite topping to share. (Strawberries, nuts, brownies) Don t forget your chair. Speaker: Judy Stevens Plants of the Bible August 24, 2013 6:00 PM Carol and Dennis Sindelar 1754 D Ave NE Cedar Rapids They will grill Chicken, please bring a side dish and chair. Open discussion on Club Direction and Expectations.
Meeting Minutes for July 11th meeting. The July 11 meeting was held at Cedar Ridge Winery and attended by 18 people. We had a great tour and learned alot about this local Iowa business. This was followed by a wine tasting- and it was tasty! A business meeting followed. Treasurer- Gary Hunerdosse reported a balance of $2089 in savings. Old business- Tom Coyle is heading up the Brucemore event August 24 and is in need of a couple helpers. Please contact him if you can help, hours are about 9 AM to 4 PM. Chicago bus tour- Current cost is about $90 per person for the bus and entry fees (final cost depends on the number of travelers). Please contact Jackie Allsup if you have questions about the trip or what your balance is. Your deposit will be forfeited if you do not cancel or pay your balance by August 1. New Business- Two $50 dollar allowances were approved for Kloubec's to present "friendship awards" on behalf of EIPS at the next two shows they attend. This is an opportunity to get our club's name into publications in the awards list. (This award money had been donated to Kloubec's by a member of our club in previous years.) Meeting schedule- 6/27 Jeff Garner/Kerry Shaner. Presentation: Predators of the Garden given by Jamie Beyer. 6PM start, pizza provided, bring sides. 8/8 will now be at the Hunerdosses, 6PM start. Presentation: TBA. Dessert served. 8/24 Dennis and Carol Sindelar. 6PM meal, meat provided, bring sides and beverage of choice. 9/28 Larry and Erma Thompson 10/26 Marylou Heacock
Minutes for Thursday, June 22, 2013 meeting Minutes of July 27 th 2013 meeting. Held at the home of Jeff Garner and Kerry Shaner, the meeting was cool and casual this evening with the emphasis on cool! Temps in the upper 50 s did not stop us from having a great meeting with lots of warm and delicious food! Several coats and blankets were brought out to improve the comfort level out on the beautiful deck. The 21 members in attendance were happily defiant of the cool temps. There was an interesting discussion before dinner about just what that beautiful floating weed is in the Shaner-Garner pond. Some of us thought it was Hornwort/Coon s Tail but Guest Speaker of the evening Jamie Beyer, declared it to be something else. What something else, he was not sure, but he promised to look into it this week and get back to the club with a verdict to be printed in the next newsletter. Vice President Jeff thanked everyone for coming and contributing to the pot luck, with an invitation to enjoy the tasty buffet. After we finished eating he introduced our Guest Speaker of the evening, Jamie Beyer, a well-known ponding expert, and a dear friend of the Eastern Iowa Pond Society. Jamie s talk was on Predators of the Garden. It was an interesting lecture and included a lengthy handout for future reference. Much discussion of raccoons, mink, and otters, with club members sharing their own experiences with various critters, much to Jamie s delight. He offered some new ideas about how to deal with some of these intruders, defining what works and what doesn t. It was very entertaining and enlightening. Also somewhat alarming to hear of some of the losses of club members and others, to pond predators. There was no discussion of any club business or reports of any kind. The evening was capped off by a giveaway of many bags of Pond Stix courtesy of Jeff & Kerry, and 6 one pound bags of Mazuri Nuggets courtesy of Greg Bickal. Everyone went home with a prize, and new knowledge of dealing with Predators of the Garden!
Chicago here we come!!! Plans are not all set yet, but we re getting closer!!! We are filling in the blanks!!! Friday: leaving Westdale Mall, Cedar Rapids(East Parking lot along Edgewood Rd) 2:00PM Friday stopping at Koi Whisper s Sanctuary tour site and snacks available (http://www.infraredlight.com/thekoiwhisperer.htm) get to Hotel around 8:30-9:00 Saturday: Breakfast at the hotel (on your own), board bus to go on tour:10:00am Aquascapes, Bartlett, IL Pond Tour, (5 ponds) 10:00-5:00pm with a lunch stop someplace along the way (lunch on your own dime) possible nursery stops if time allows. Returning to hotel around 6:00 Saturday night: Load bus for Group dinner at Salernos, Italian Resturant. (30.00 fee pp, paid to Jeff on the bus) 7:15. Return to hotel 9:30-10:00pm Sunday: Breakfast on our own. Load bus at 9:00. Stop at the Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford, IL. approx 10:00. Box lunch served while there. Leaving around 12:00-12:30 and getting back to CR around 3:00. It s not too late to sign up, please call me, Jackie, 319-934-3665 or email Cedarserviceja@aol.com Deposits are required. The more that sign up the less we all pay!!! Approximately 116.00 pp pays for your bus, admission into the Anderson Gardens, box lunch while there and driver expenses. You must reserve your own hotel rooms for August 16 and 17th. Hilton Garden Inn in St. Charles 1-630-584-0700 no later than 7/26/2013. Mention Iowa Water Gardens Tour for our room rates and saved block. Rates are 99.00 a night, + tax. There is no free breakfast with this room, but there is a restaurant on site. The Hilton has also created our own personal web page through which we can reserve our rooms: http://hiltongardeninn.hilton.com/en/gi/groups/personalized/c/chiscgi-iwg- 20130816/index.jhtml
DRAGONFLIES AND PONDS By: Mike Gannon In ponds, I have frequent visitors to my New Jersey pond, dragonflies. I have always enjoyed the dragonfly and appreciated its unusual shape, wing design, and colors. It is an easy way to lose a few minutes of time watching the dragonfly go through its aerial acrobatics just above the surface of my pond. I get comfort knowing that the dragonfly is going to make a quick meal out of any annoying pest, like mosquitoes, that may be visiting my yard too. For me, the dragonfly is a welcome site for my New Jersey water garden installation. As with many things that have appeal to me, I always want to know a bit more, so as usual, I did a bit of research on things I like. I found some cool facts about dragonflies that I was not aware of and confirmed some things I am aware of, like the fact that the dragonfly is not actually a fly at all and that they have been around for a good 300 million years or so, give or take a decade. They pose absolutely no harm to humans and do not bite or sting and their main food as an adult is the mosquito (YES!!) and they add tremendously to the ambience of a pond installation. What I didn t know is the dragonfly larvae, an aquatic insect, can spend up to 3 years in the water before it metamorphosis into the adult stage. The larvae are highly predatory, like the adult, and the larvae can actually capture and eat small fish. The dragonflies range is worldwide and more than 400 species exist, the largest found in Costa Rica with a 7 wing span and in fossil records dragonflies have been found with 3 foot wing spans! Dragonflies can fly almost 30 mph hour and their large eyes allow them to see almost 360 degrees, and they will patrol as high as tree tops to find their yummy meals. The male dragonfly is highly territorial and often when you see those 2 cute dragonflies playing with each other by your pond, it is actually a life or death struggle for the 2 males. Sad to learn is the hard fact that when you see an adult dragonfly it is in its final stage of life, and that final stage is only about a 3 week period. So as you sit by enjoying your beautiful water garden installation, or pondless waterfall installation and those beautiful dragonflies are lighting from plant to plant scouring the surface of your water, enjoy them, take a picture, as they will not be by your pond for long! The LOVE YOUR POND blog is written by Mike Gannon of Full Service Aquatics
DOES YOUR POND NEED A SHOWER? Bakki shower filtration is a fairly new approach to pond filtration here in the United States, yet it has enjoyed some popularity in Japan and the UK for some time now. Bakki showers would seem comparable, in concept, to the familiar trickle type filters that are well known in the pond and aquarium industry; but there are differences. The design of the Bakki showers typically will consist of deep stainless steel trays. The trays are filled with filter media and have the water delivered on top, trickling down through the filter media, and then discharged from the bottom of the tray. The discharge into the pond looks like it is leaving a large shower head. The amount of trays used depends on the size pond you are filtering. One tray, depending on the quality of filter media, will filter about 500 gallons. The trays can be stacked on over the other about 4 high treating about 2000 gallons of pond water. If more filtration is needed a new stack would be started. This type of filtration is a wet/dry approach with the filter media constantly showered with pond water (wet); yet exposed to open air at all times (dry). The Bakki shower filter system was invented and patented by Momotaro Koi Farm (MTK) in Japan; and inspired by the natural filtering qualities of natural waterfalls. Bakki showers have gained great popularity in Japan and Asia with growing interest in the UK and even the US. Some of the benefits of the bakki shower system are greatly reduced maintenance; claims of maintenance free are slightly overstated (everything requires maintenance). Bakkis offer higher levels of biological filtration, higher levels of oxygen to purify the water, great mechanical filtration for excellent water clarity. The bakki showers are stand alone filter systems for ponds that help increase koi growth and appetites. The down sides of Bakki shower filter systems? Yes, there are a few. The biggest is cost; the bakki shower filter systems from Momotaro are expensive, which has led to many DIY inquiries over the internet. They are very large filters which can make them hard to hide if you don t enjoy seeing the filter system on your pond; however they can be somewhat decorated by growing some plants in the trays to soften the look and maybe even add minor filtration benefits. They are loud ; depending on how exactly you choose to discharge the water back into your pond will dictate how loud they are, but compared to most other types of filtering methods the Bakki will be up there in the decibel factor
But here is the thing. Don t let the international koi community know you heard it here please; but, the REAL beauty of the bakki filter system is not the actual structure, you know those stainless steel deep trays. The REAL beauty of the Bakki filters function is from what type of media you use and the Momotaro Bakki Filters come with a very special, very awesome, filter media called Bacteria house Filter Media. Bacteria house filter media was developed by MTK in Japan, who had won Best Filtration Media in the World award (yes, such an award exists I know, I know). The filter media was originally intended to be used with waste water filtration and like so many things in the pond industry we, very smartly, use those developments to our benefit in creating high water quality in our koi ponds and water gardens. The Bacteria House filter media was refined several times into what is now available to us pond keepers is an awesome material. Bacteria House filter media can be used wet/dry or submerged to great effect. It is made from super heated ceramic that allows for massive colonization of beneficial bacteria faster than other media. It offers mechanical filtration with rapid breakdown of solids. Bacteria House media breaks down ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates. It creates odor free water, and rapidly degasses pond water. The end result is a media that will increase fish health, appetitive, and growth. So the REAL beauty is in those wonderful beads of Bacteria house filter media, which can be used in many other filtering devices; but you did not hear that here. If you are looking for powerhouse filtration then Bakki Shower filters are some of the best on the global market right now. If you are looking to purchase a genuine Bakki Shower filter by Momotaro there are dealers in the UK and Japan. If you are hoping to create your own DIY shower filter there is all sorts of online discussions and how-to for you; but always be careful with whom you take your advice from. No matter how you build it or buy it, remember the RE- AL beauty is what you cannot see at the microbial level while beneficial bacteria come alive on the Bacteria House filter media! Article by: Mike Gannon, owner at Full Service Aquatics located in New Jersey, USA. Being In The Pursuit Of All Things Aquatic has led Mike to be a lifelong hobbyist and fish enthusiast.
Eurasian Watermilfoil ( Myriophyllum spicatum) At the last meeting at Jeff and Kerry s, Jamie Beyer was asked to help identify a submersed plant in their pond. No one there knew what it was for sure. After taking home a piece, Jamie has reported back that it is Eurasian Watermilfoil, a very aggressive and illegal to move, sell, or probably even possess plant. A single piece of fragmented Eurasian milfoil can multiply into 250 million new plants in one year! Eurasion milfoil can take over a lake in two years. Large masses of milfoil can lead to flooding and interfere with fishing, swimming and boating. Milfoil stays submerged except for a stalk of tiny flowers, which can extend above the surface. It was introduced to the U.S. by the aquarium industry. It is capable of rapid dispersion, principally by fragmentation of growing roots and developing into a new plant. Milfoil can form dense matts that can take all the oxygen out of your pond. The dense mats of vegetation can also increase the sedimentation rate by trapping sediments. If you have been lucky enough to receive some of Jeff and Kerry s pond plant?, please, please, be very careful of its spreading ability and dispose any extra growth that you may prune out of your pond responsibly. Thanks Jamie for getting back to us regarding this beautiful but dangerous plant. Eastern Iowa Pond Society, Inc. Membership Application To become a member of the Eastern Iowa Pond Society, Complete this form and mail along with your dues to: Eastern Iowa Pond Society % Gary Hunerdosse 306 Red Fox Rd. SE Cedar Rapids, IA 52403 New Membership Renew Membership Name: Address: Phone Number: E-mail Address: Dues are $25.00 per calendar year per family. Make checks payable to Eastern Iowa Pond Society, Inc. ALL newsletters can now be found on line at www. EIPS.org
Continuing our series on Filtration. FROM EIPS OLD NEWSLETTERS. We ve dug into the archives to find an old article we believe you will find interesting. The BEST of the BEST.
Eastern Iowa Pond Society Our Mission Statement: The purpose of the Association shall be to create, promote and enlarge the hobbies of ponds, aquatic gardening, and keeping, breeding, appreciating, and exhibiting the wonderful world of fish. The Association shall disseminate information about t he above to the membership to engage in educational and social activities related to our purposes; and to acquire and own such property as may be necessary for any or all of the fore going purposes. Eastern Iowa Pond Society Jackie Allsup, Editor PO Box 148 Quasqueton, IA 52326