Pond rebuild

[Scrup]

So, after my handyman demolished my pond last year, I decided to rebuild it and make it even better. I am going to try my hands at lotus, so I added a 40 gallon stock tank.

Prior to being torn down it looked like this-
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Stock tank buried-
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Combination of great stuff foam and krylon fusion for walls and a waterfall. Worked like a charm. Completely forgot about smaugs suggestion to add moss to it, but it worked out alright. Might add some eventually though to break it up a bit. The blue thing is an extra HOB filter I stuck in to help get some of the muck out. Most of it should settle in the next few days.
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Next step, get some plants for it!

Goldfish patiently waiting to go back out.
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So what do ya think? Honest(but constructive if possible) criticism is welcome!

[gm72]

I think it looks good. I would recommend that you examine the possibility to "soften" the edges a little bit to take the focus away from the shape of the pools and put it more appropriately toward the fish. Just a suggestion.

[smaug]

That looks way cool.Just keep an eye on the transitions between pools for leaks.A small dribble due to a capillary type leak will cause you to lose water slowly and can really make you wonder where the leak is.For lotus get the smallest variety you can find,they get huge.I second GMs suggestion for edging,that can be done with creeping jenny plants,simply plant one bunch every foot or so,by the end of the year it will be growing into the water over the edge creating an unnoticeable pond edge,the fish also love the stuff and frogs just cant enough of hanging out in it.

[Scrup]

Can't wait till it stops freezing here at night. Getting a list together of plants to put in. Creeping jenny has just been added to the list! thanks!

Yellow Water Snowflake - Nymphoides crenata
Miniature Water Hyacinth - Eichornia sp.
Water Lettuce - Pistia stratiodes
Nelumbo 'Momo Botan'
Miniature Cattail - Typha minima
Corkscrew Rush 'Afro' - Juncus inflexus 'Afro'
Iris pseudacorus 'Roy Davidson'

For around the pond I am planning-
Rose Mallow
Bee Balm
Bloody Cranesbill
cardinal flower

And now creeping jenny.


thanks! Keep the suggestions coming!

I am running it right now without anything in it to triple check for leaks. have made a few patches and added some bumps already and I do think I've got them all, but going to run it for a week or so and make sure.

[Northernguy]

The pond looks great so far!
Looking forward to seeing it planted!thumbs2:

[HeatherB]

I like the rough edge look to that middle waterfall peice that you made. Makes it look almost like volcanic rock! I would do some of that to the two other peices, just around the parts you can see- that way it all looks the same!

[hybridguy]

I think it looks good but i would put build up dirt around the sides all the way around the ponds, then take some flagstone and cover the sides, let it hang over the sides just a little. that would look nice, then you could maybe plant a jap. maple next to it and do a few plants to soften the stone.

[Scrup]

Well im not putting too much work into it , being a rental(I plan on taking most of these plants with me when I move) , but here are some updated pics. Its a bit pea soupy, a combination of lack of cover and a healthy dose of lawn fertilizer spilled into the pond by the awesome handyman (organic, not harmful to the fish or inverts, but algae loves it).The lilypad did not do so well, thinking about ordering some fairy moss and some already sprouted lilypads to help with that.

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fishpictures/data/500/DSC02146_Large_.JPG

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fishpictures/data/500/DSC02152_Large_.JPG

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fishpictures/data/500/DSC02149_Large_.JPG

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fishpictures/data/500/DSC02147_Large_.JPG

the foam is starting to become exposed in spots, once winter comes around again I'll redo it, probably seal it with some drylok next year.

[Scrup]

The lilypad that just couldnt. It has some tiny leaves on it, but they just will not grow. Giving it another week in the pool, then going to call it on the poor little guy.

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fishpictures/data/500/DSC02150_Large_.JPG

[Scrup]

Fed them this morning, and wouldn't you know it, some 1" "suprise" fry came up to eat too. Only saw about 20 of them, but there is probably quite a few more.


Gonna need a bigger pond.

[Scrup]

Well the lilypad has shot up two leaves, each the size of a penny.:think: Last year they were bigger than my face. Weird.

The fry count is much higher than I anticipated. Last count was 25, then I saw the swarm looming down in the murky areas. Holy cow. Craigslist and petstores, here I come.

Creeping jenny btw, is an amazing plant, just started blooming, and I have to say it now is probably one of my favorite plants. Never knew how versatile it is. Grows on rock, grows in dirt, grows in water, grows in dirt, across rock, across foam and a foot out into the water.

Amazing stuff. Good call smaug.

[smaug]

Im glad you like it. The pond looks real nice

[kathymac]

Very nice pond, I love all your plants.

[Scrup]

Thanks all. I just fished out 15 babies from it. amazing how many of them survived getting sucked up by the pump (15 of them that I could find, probably more hiding somwhere) that and were living in the top areas, just off of plant debris, bugs, and detrius from the big guys. Looks like three or four different spawnings judging by the size. They are all housed in a 20G with some snails right now, only need em to last another week in that tank until the auction.

[PhilBen]

Hi the pond looks good, but I would use rocks to over hang the edges it would improve the look even more

[Scrup]

Auctioned off all of them but 4, most of them were a drab greyish black. These four however are pretty unique looking. Only got a shot of two of them, the other two are much much smaller. Never seen any with this exact coloration. Jet black eyes and the "blushing" gills...

I call em blushing vampire goldfish :)

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fishpictures/data/500/DSC02624_Large_.JPG

Put them in the 225G for now, as I dont have the time to acclimate them to the ponds temps, and I am hesitant to add them to it yet, might wait until spring when it warms up a bit.

Also that lilypad I was trying to save, well...we got a sudden cold spill and the tub it was in froze solid overnight. 8" of water. that was interesting emptying that thing out. I still have a huge ice puck in my backyard I have to keep moving around so it doesn't kill the grass.

[HeatherB]

Those fish look really cool! Wonder why they end up like that? I'd love to have some!

[Scrup]

Well, checked on my guys today, they are all doing good aside from the two smaller ones. They keep getting sucked up against the filter on the pump. Not that it harms them at all, just alarming to see two goldfish stuck to a filter.

The cover paired with the surface movement from the pump is working wonderfully. Even with 9" of snow and temps in the 10-30 degree range for a few weeks there was no ice anywhere in the water. The creeping jenny underneath is also still alive, and has taken on an awesome red color.

[DrNic]

The new pond looks great!!

I may have missed it in one of your posts but how many gallons is the largest part of the pond? I'm thinking about building one myself and have been trying to get an idea about the size I want.

[Alasse]

If your pond is still green, add a small bag of barley hay into the pond, the hay will give off something that kills off algae (doesnt harm plants or fish).

I thought it was rubbish until i tried it in my green pond, a short time after the water was lovely and clear.

[CassieLEO]

Very nice pond!!!!

[Scrup]

Dr. Nic- The bottom reservoir is about 150G IIRC. Honestly if I had been the original builder (this was at the house when we moved in, I'm just made some "adjustments" to it) I would have gone with the regular pond liner and not the hard shell preformed stuff. After working with it for 2 years now, I feel even stronger about it.

It is great for easy waterfalls and if you plan on keeping small fish, but boy can it be a pain to properly set in place, and it really limits things. For one, Its very hard to conceal cords and tubes without crazy rockwork, since the sides are straight up and down. Also, there are no shallow areas.

While I know they make some with it, I would prefer to have the pond made to what I want, rather than conform what I want to the closest looking size pre-fab I could find, if that makes any sense.

And as far as the algae, I imagine if lawn fertilizer hadn't been dumped into the pond I would have been fine. I'm so firing that company. They also managed to burn huge patches of grass where they spilled fertilizer and just left it. So while the rest of the yard looks good, there are big spots of dirt where I am hoping grass will start growing again next year, where before the lawn was a little shaggy, buy at least there were no 2' patches of dirt.

[Scrup]

Bah, just checked on them and the smallest goldfish "Steve" had gotten himself wedged against the filter right next to the pump. Looks like he was at just the wrong spot, where there was a small gap in the filter cover and the flow was the highest. When I pulled him out a good bit of his intestines had been pulled out through his backside. Poor Steve...

Cleaned off the filter intake and rearranged things so that cannot happen again.

[Fisharefriends27]

Sorry about your loss.