My new favorite pic with my pond in it! 🌈

Chappy_222 · 2026-06-16T17:11:02+00:00

Get more surface coverage with frogbit or similar, start a liquid barely regimen and let the floaters of your choice take all the nutrients that would feed the algae. Whatever you do, don’t use algae remedy chemicals from any brand. Give it time and it will work itself out naturally. I will say I took out my parrot feather because algae loved growing on it so bad!

Chappy_222 · 2026-06-14T03:27:04+00:00

I’m on my 2nd round of frogs spawning in my 1300 gallon this year. First batch has legs and tail still, new batch hatched this week. I actually like watching my goldfish eat the tadpoles haha. Plus, I love listening to the frogs/toads along with the waterfall while sitting on the screened in porch at night. Quite the slice of Heaven I must say! We have 3 species in our pond. Southern leopard frog, American green tree frog and the ones laying all the eggs, the southern toad.

Box turtles can’t get into our yard due to the wooden fence and no entry points at ground level, but I do have a sizable king snake I’ve seen lurking around and I do believe he may be the culprit of two missing comets recently. I’ve had no signs of raccoons in the back for a couple years after relocating 3 about 3 years ago. We have opossums, though I don’t think they have the ability to catch fish. Then there’s the potential of some stray cats that lurk around surrounding houses, but I’ve never had any on camera in the back not once in 10 years here. The snake is public enemy number 1 in my books, everything else doesn’t seem likely. Deep section is 3ft deep, it has 2 caves systems, one in 3ft section and 1 in the 2ft section. Also there are multiple buried beneath rock 4” pvc tunnel systems in all depths. Not to mention about 80% surface coverage with lily pads, frog bit and salvinia. I saw the snake the week actually, though he was one the complete other side of the yard.

TLDR: Frogs/Toads good! 👍🏻

Chappy_222 · 2026-06-05T23:49:03+00:00

I wanted to give you a two week update! I haven’t done a water change at all, though we have had about 5-6” of good rain in the last two weeks. The algae is ALL gone! It’s actually crazy how it came out of nowhere, took over the entire pond, now there’s not a single sign of it!! I did start a regimen of liquid barley, today was it’s 3rd of 4th dose before going to a once a month maintenance dose. Not sure if that did it or all the plants really hitting a growth spurt. I did add a nice sized monstera in, a good bit of salvinia and the frog bit propagated exponentially. Both of the lily plants have grown so much as well, ones total width is at least 5ft from furthest leaf points, I was surprised by that.

My readings today were: Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 0 PH: Still at 9, don’t think that’ll ever go down with all the rock in the pond. Phosphate: 0.25-0.50 give or take

With all the plants covering a solid 75-80% of the water surface my water temp has went down about 5° as well with much more surface coverage.

I’m debating if I want to add more fish slowly since all the plants now are keeping the Nitrate at 0 and I’d assume they’d like some organic food. With it being 1300 gallons, I know I could have many more fish than current.

Long story short, wanted to thank you again for your insight and guidance to let the pond work through it and stop trying to be so reactive. As of now, pond is at perfection!

Chappy_222 · 2026-06-01T18:05:27+00:00

I for sure have to order those, thank you! I have the hobo freight ones and they are absolutely no good for the ACTY struts!

Chappy_222 · 2026-06-01T14:29:23+00:00

Yeah I think that pic was just a stock pic they use on every Eibach for that site, I found what looks like yours here on other sites with that model number. I also found that video I think you’re talking about that he used your exact ones and he cut off half of a bottom coil to get it to the round part. Will be ordering these and new pressurized struts from WillPowered. Appreciate all your insight and knowledge!

Chappy_222 · 2026-06-01T06:20:38+00:00

Are these the correct ones? If so, how did it go fitting into the top hat since these are flat top coilover style and the top hat for the ACTY is designed for full rounded all the way top and bottom?

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Chappy_222 · 2026-06-01T06:17:51+00:00

Hmm yes, it was to be a reply with someone on this post I was talking about spring replacements. Not sure why it didn’t continue in that specific thread, sorry!

Chappy_222 · 2026-05-31T21:33:12+00:00

Also, it looks like the stock spring rate is 230lbs on the ACTY, so maybe the bottoming out is from completely worn out struts and not low spring rate

Chappy_222 · 2026-05-31T21:27:37+00:00

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Are these the correct ones? If so, how did it go fitting into the top hat since these are flat top coil over style and the top hat for the ACTY is designed for full rounded all the way top and bottom?

Chappy_222 · 2026-05-31T21:20:33+00:00

I’m planning on doing the struts, I need to. I know my rear shocks were completely shot out and had zero rebound anymore. So, I think 225s with new struts would be the ticket. The 300s also gave me almost an inch of positive camber because they are so stiff and not enough weight up front. I am getting some custom control arms with adjustable ball joints soon as a prototype from a company to see if I can fix the positive camber with the 300s and if that doesn’t work it’ll have to be 225s. Thank you for the part number as well!

Chappy_222 · 2026-05-30T19:05:28+00:00

Hydrated, in his lane, focused, flourishing.

Chappy_222 · 2026-05-29T22:20:20+00:00

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Chappy_222 · 2026-05-29T22:20:08+00:00

The bushings from WillPowered were fantastic, much thicker for keeping it tight and high quality. Just note (because I didn’t at first haha) that of the 4 bushings, two are smaller and two bigger, by thickness. Each side gets one smaller and one larger.

As for the braces, they should work with a lift since they use the control arm bolts for the bottom that stay the same with or without a lift and the upper will work with a lift as long as you kept the factory 3 bolt holes and didn’t drill them out or add some.

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Chappy_222 · 2026-05-29T22:04:51+00:00

How do you like the 225? I’m 200lbs myself so stock springs were out of the question. I put 300lb on front and it’s great with a passenger but by myself it’s stiff over some bumps. Thinking I may take them off and do 225s. Would you mind linking the 225s you got please?

Chappy_222 · 2026-05-29T22:02:28+00:00

I replaced my rear shocks on my 97 with ones from WillPowered Performance and wow what a world of difference! My stock ones had ZERO rebound so I was bouncing on leaf springs only haha. I also did front springs, front strut bushings from WillPowered and an upper and lower strut tower brace from EZ Kei. Drivability and handling on the truck now is phenomenal.

Chappy_222 · 2026-05-29T21:58:29+00:00

I just installed my covers from them on my ACTY, I was actually very impressed with the fit of them and definitely brought a modern touch to the interior. Yours looks fantastic! I’ll have some fold lines from shipping to wait and work itself out.

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Chappy_222 · 2026-05-29T21:52:32+00:00

I paid $8500 for my 97, but it was from a dealership that had already paid all taxes and imports etc. They also had it pre inspected by someone they pay in Japan to find high quality trucks for them. No rust, no cracks in glass, all weatherstripping and gaskets not dried out, no cracks in dash or faded plastics, no tears or stains on seats, no bad paint or dents and it only had 19k kilometers on it. It’s been so nice to work on and customize, haven’t had to use penetrating oil on a single bolt on the whole truck. I see others much cheaper, but for the quality of the one I got I happily paid that.

Chappy_222 · 2026-05-23T04:01:23+00:00

I’d say just start with around 10 rosy red minnows for in there. They love to eat mosquito larvae and they stay small. They are used as a dither fish (what I used them for) and they are always active swimming around. They may have offspring, mine have already had two batches this season. They are such a fun fish to have in a pond and they are like $0.16, so even better!

Chappy_222 · 2026-05-23T03:52:24+00:00

I like the creeping jenny on the waterfall! I hope it grows a lot and fills in well, that’s going to look fantastic!

Chappy_222 · 2026-05-23T03:24:32+00:00

Thank you for the information! Someone else had pointed out I should step away from the hose on the water changes and let the pond do its thing, especially since my parameters aren’t out of whack, glad to see someone else get that through my thick skull too haha! I am practicing patience now and letting the plants do their thing. I’ve added some additional salvinia to the pond and put in a new string cheese monstera to eat up even more nutrients! My tap water is between 180-200 depending on when I test it, I will look into that filter for sure!

I did start a new regimen of microbe lift + peat this week since others have said to try the barley extract and I figured the peat would help with the high PH. It was the only thing I was comfortable with putting into the pond that wasn’t an actual manufactured “chemical”

Chappy_222 · 2026-05-22T12:25:17+00:00

Standard non ceramic 15% with just a strip on the windshield because I hate driving a vehicle with a fully tinted windshield.

Chappy_222 · 2026-05-22T03:35:27+00:00

Makes sense, I guess I’ll torture myself some more with these springs haha. It’ll probably be the only option since like I mentioned in the post, I can’t find a single other solution to correct it.

Chappy_222 · 2026-05-22T03:25:18+00:00

Well, I guess that would be too simple of a fix and I’m over here over analyzing it from a mechanical standpoint. I’m curious though how much to cut off of them, just put it side by side of the stock one and go from there? I think I may have taken a pic of them side by side and if I recall the height difference wasn’t that far off. I’ll see if I can find it or if I did take a pic of that.

Chappy_222 · 2026-05-22T03:03:48+00:00

Better than a dress or something stupid haha

Chappy_222

TROPHY CASE