well...I went out to the pond today as most of the ice has melted. Unfortunately, every critter that was unaccounted for is dead except 2 frogs I havent found yet. I'm sure they are dead somewhere. I am def investing in a net this year. So much crap found its way into the pond..turns out the white stuff was a piece of newspaper, a piece of burger wrapper, and what looked like a wet napkin. I'm pretty ticked..none of it was from me..was all stuff from litterbugs. There is also a plastic bag stuck way up in a tree where I cant reach it. The house next door has been vacant, and I suppose some of the crap came from over there. So much litter is in that yard, plus their garbage cans blew over awhile back into the backyard..guess they didnt take that last haul out b4 they moved. I hope there arent any bags in my pond!!! God, people really p!ss me off. Someone threw an empty vodka bottle in my driveway the other day..what is wrong with people??? I need to move out into the middle of nowhere so I dont have to deal with this anymore. Sorry about the rambling..guess I needed to vent. BUT white stuff mystery solved. No fish living. I have decided to empty & clean the whole thing come warmer weather, and start all over again. Maybe I will take some algae mixed with wet leaves from the pond, make balls out of it and whip it at people as they litter by my house..right at their heads..that could be fun. I could wear camo and hide in the bushes, lmao. Sorry to hear about the fires..kinda odd it happened twice. But I'm not gonna get involved in all that lol.

papnnana........I think nature waxes and wanes. I know I got water snakes in my little watergarden for a number of years, then nothing for the past 4-5 years. I try not to be happy about that! I've saved a couple frogs from the jaws of the snakes......but they need to eat too. It's hard to know who to cheer for! So.....you might be in one of those "not very many frogs around" years. Do you live in the city/suburbs/country? I live in the country and pretty close to a creek.....so I do wonder if that brings them closer. I never heard tree frogs until we had a couple little stocktank ponds......now there are a ton of them in the summer. I wonder if you have a pump in your pond? Sometimes I think they hear the water running and that attracts them. And of course, the kind of predators you have around can make a difference too. Let us know what kind of pond environment you have and maybe we can give you more suggestions. I found about 8 dead frogs in my inground 300 gallon stocktank one spring. I was soooo sad. I think I figured out that I was keeping it too warm all winter, with a deicer that was much too large for it. So now, I keep the pump running for as long as possible, and when it starts to get frozen (the pond and the pump), I put in a very small deicer.....just to keep a small hole open in the ice. I just keep my fingers crossed that there's enough oxygen in there to keep them alive until I can get the pump going again. This weekend it's supposed to be around 1 degree at night. :( What kind of frogs did you used to have? I have mostly tree frogs, then green, and once I had a couple bullfrogs who didn't stay around very long.............which was sorta okay with me. I love hearing their croaking......but I've heard they eat everything and everything, including small children. ;) I'm a big bird fan, so the last thing I want to see is a bullfrog eating a bird. But.......I guess that's just nature, but like I said, it's hard to know who to cheer for! Good luck with your frogs!

Hi all - wow thank you for the input! For some reason a few of these comments never made it to me via email, so sorry for the delay in response. CHAS: I think I'm going to just go with a shorter stream, which will cut down on the height a great deal. I will wrap it around the pond (instead of going straight up the sloped ground) - which will make the head height less and also keep the flow calmer for froggies. I also decided that I will focus the main pond on fish; and I'm going to put a little, shallower pond tucked along the creek which will be just for frogs - with a pump maybe, but no filter or anything (my current frog pond has just a pump/waterfall, no filter, and the frogs are very happy and healthy there). Hopefully the frogs will natuarlly choose the little pond instead of the bigger pond, and even if they lay eggs in the lower pond, I can just move them up to the froggie pond. I at least will feel like I've done my part to provide a safe haven for them :) RSINGLEY: I had read a similar recommendation elsewhere of putting mesh and other media around the pump - I like the idea, though I do wonder what the negative effect of not filtering the larger particles will be? (seems silly to get a debris handling pump and then restrict the debris from getting in, but alas, the dilemma of tadpole lovers). FROGMAN4: You'd be right on the calculation but it's not all at a 3.5' depth, and it's an oval pond. If you picture an upside down oval wedding cake: the biggest layer is 16x13 but it's only about a half-foot deep (it's a rock shelf). The second layer is 14x11 and is 1 foot deep. The third layer is 11x8 and is 2 feet deep (so total depth at the bottom will be 3.5). I calculated each "layer" out as separate pond volumes; using the oval pond forumla of L x W x D x 6.7, the top layer is 696 gallons, 2nd layer is 1031, 3rd layer is 1179 = 2906 gallons. The third (bottom) layer will have sloped walls, too, which actually will cut down the gallons, but I'm fine with over-estimating. I have wavered back and forth a hundred times about going with a skimmer filter as opposed to an external mechanical filter. I still haven't hit the "place order" button on my pump/filter order, but I made up my mind last night that I was going to go with a Laguna max flow pump (2000 gal), pressurized filter (3200), and also have a waterfall bio filter at the top. Holding off on the drain for now, but I saw some that I can add later if the need warrants. Chose the external filter instead of skimmer because I didn't want to have to do 2 pumps, and I just felt that not having the pump at the bottom (which it wouldn't be if I put the pump in the skimmer) wasn't the best idea... which was my deciding factor. I hope what I'm choosing will be sufficient... weeks of research got me here, and I'm ready to just install all this already! :) MEGANMCA: Thanks for that link - it's very helpful! I did read that pipe diameter is important - I'm going to go with 1.5" and hope that's sufficient. My sister just installed the same pump/filter combo I'm using with 1.5" and it's a beatuful flow. Her waterfall is a little lower than mine, but I think it will suffice... If not, can add a 2nd pump but hoping I don't have to do that. Thank you all so much for the input - and as always open to any other thoughts/suggestions!

LOL!!! yeah, parrots are a wee bit noisier than 'keets. and mine are small parrots- not the ones who can REALLY make noise. they give so much back, though- they are like extra kids. funny, smart & silly, they keep life interesting (and aggravating sometimes). not to mention makng my ears ring. :) i'm 36, so i have seen some d.v.d. shows, but it was when i was small. never saw that episode. i'm thankful my jays mostly stay up in the pines and leave me and my songbirds be. they & the crows have scream fights up there sometimes. i've had corpulant cats before, and know how hard it is to get them to slim down. they simply aren't interested. the only way i ever found was to limit what they could eat- fed them once a day, as much as they were supposed to eat for the day, rather than a bowlful they could eat at will. when we moved here and they were allowed outside during the day, they slimmed down a lot just from the extra excercise. they've been gone a while now, and i miss them, but with allergies & asthsma, and now birds, we won't be getting more. tam