Hi! Here's mine. We dug a peanut-shaped hole in the ground (hubby did the digging and root-chopping and I did the finish work) and 'lined' it with concrete.
The only tough part was leveling the top edge. It's about 13' long and on a little bit of a slope.
It is no maintenance except scooping out leaves a couple times a year. There is a pump for the waterfall, but no filter. Stays clear EXCEPT when one of the ducks gets brave enough to come up here.
Goldfish ponds are only as much work as you want to put into them. If you look through the Better Home and Garden magezine and say "Oh, I want that one" and you expect to see the bottom of the pond and all it's inhabitants, then you are in for a lot of work. We have a large square koi pond the father in law built, just bought the liner and dug a hole. We don't put much maintenance into it, we've only recently restocked it thanks in part to a great blue heron who deemed it a free Japanese sushi buffet.
Unless you have ducks and they get into it and muck it up, many ponds don't need a filter. So the whole cleaning a filter thing is overrated, but if you have a filter, BEWARE! You'll be cleaning that sucker every day.
The only maintenance most goldfish ponds need is the occasionally filling with a water hose and the raking out of leaves. Save your money, don't buy Koi, stick with feeder goldfish. Cheaper to replace. Provide things like sunken plant pots and such to provide the fish a place to hide when the cats and such show up. The smart fish will get away.
Hi! I thought the duck and her 'lings were just precious...
until they killed my two oldest/largest goldfish and trashed the pond.
My Mom's back yard is a 5 acre pond, but she wanted a goldfish pond. They put in a 300-ish gallon preform next to the patio and it has never been anything but green muck.
We have two small preformed ponds and just love them. I would put them where there is a decent amount of shade b/c if it's in alot of sun the algae just takes over. LOL Plus the water can really heat up on a hot day. We just have a filter in one and a water fall in the other. I am trying to talk my brother into selling me his jacuzzi tub that is sitting in my parent's garage taking up space, and let me sink it into the ground for yet another pond.
You don't need anything specific for a pond, just a little imagination and creativity!
I dug a pond by myself (I am 52); installed a flexible liner over sand and padding; put in a pump and filter, piled rocks around the outside, and voila. Goldfish pond. I dont' find myself cleaning the filter too often; once every month or so. Frogs moved in immediately. My ducks leave it alone; but I do have a kiddie pool and a preformed pond liner for them.
This pond must be at least 40 years old. When I bought the house 20+ years ago, I simply lined it with black rubber liner, (do not use pump or filter) planted plants, picked up flat rocks along the roadside and filled it with water. I clean leaves out in the fall. That's it.