Hypothetical becomes real question (here) about "pond idea(s)"

[electrycmonk]

so, to start out, I'm plucking the hyothetical posting outta the soon to be closed 'party thread' and starting fresh here.
1) for allowing the data & (fingers crossed) wisdom soon to show up that can be easily found for folks in the future.....
2) minimize wasted bandwidth for the picture flip-flopping....
3) short term benefit for me to easily return to for more questions as I have them...

So heres how it started...

Hypothetical question for y'all:
(I'm half tempted to make this post into it's own thread later with better pics and graph paper drawings.)

If you had the space (AND your own backhoe) in your backyard, without any worry over HOA or city reg's as we are out in county only jurisdiction.
Would you :
A) actually dig the proper sized hole for a realistic pond for your Koi babies?
B) how close to the house would you put it?
C) Or just figure out a way to make some kind of built-in faux pond using the current horse troughs? (The small one is the entire natural filter unit)
That styrofoam is the temporary solar insulation to reduce the thermal saturation from direct sunlight.

(I have learned that for the koi to survive the occasional freezes and frost that the pond will.need to be a minimum of 48" deep for them the excape the ice and extreme summer hot water near and including the surface.)


a few moments later From @Overo Mare her 1st reply was: "Look up Weed 'Em and Reap on YouTube. I love their pond."
and then @Kiki posted this: "@CarpCharacin You awake?"
which had a humorous piggyback "shout out" by @Sapphire Sebright
and shortly after that @R2elk added some personal experience wisdom and agreed I should start a fresh thread.... so here we are folks.....

Thank you ladies & Elk.....

heres a pic of the current setup



and here are the links that I found referenced by Mare:

Started here:

Next thing I jumped to:
https://www.weedemandreap.com/

Then stopped here due to phone at 8% power.... (it also felt like a giant rabbit hole for "Alice" as well....)
https://www.weedemandreap.com/about-me/

Now, keep this in mind as well. The chickens will also have access to this pond as it will be in the backyard, likely in the small inner backyard near the coop & Run?

 

[MarkJr]

We chose to dig ours in. Chickens LOVE the water feature portion. They walk through it during hot days and everyone in the country uses it for water.

 

[CarpCharacin]

I have an outdoor pond which is roughly 1,500 gallons. It is partially below ground, and partially above ground, and the fish do fine during the winter. The above-ground part is made of pieces of wood, which are roughly the same size as railroad ties. It's not right next to the house, but it's not super far away either, as I live in a city.

It took a while to dig, but we didn't use a backhoe, we dug it out by hand. The liner used is a 45 mil Firestone EPDM liner, and the pond has a bottom drain. It's certainly worth it to install a proper bottom drain, as the filter intake. You may also wish to install a skimmer, which would serve as a second intake in addition to the bottom drain, and remove debris from the surface of the pond, but I didn't choose to install a skimmer. It's also certainly worth it to install a UV clarifier. I didn't have one at first, and the pond water turned green, but then I added one, and it fixed that issue.

 

[kiwi-chick]

I have a pond near the chicken coop (my chickens free-range the whole property) and they have not yet entered the water. Mind you there is no shallow water, it's all deep in a concrete pond.

 

[CarpCharacin]

My chickens free range as well, and they don't get in the pond. But sadly I lost a hen a few years ago, because she somehow ended up in the pond during the winter, but I suspect that she may have been chased by a cockerel, which could have caused her to end up in the pond.

 

[My2butterflies]

I vote to dig a pond. Backhoe or not doesn’t matter.
The first pond I put in was a 175g preformed pond from menards. We got koi, being new to fish in general we didn’t realize how fast and big they would grow. By then we were in love with them so we dug our current 3,000g pond by hand. It was a lot of work but well worth it. We might still dig an even bigger pond in the future just because we are hooked on koi. Mainly me, I’m the fish nut. Haha.
Not sure if you wanted pictures posted on here, but I can always make a thread with my pond. My chickens don’t have access to it, but my guineas do and they love coming over for a drink when the birdbath is empty.

I think you’d be really happy with the freedom digging your own pond gives you.

 

[electrycmonk]

View attachment 2295170View attachment 2295171
We chose to dig ours in. Chickens LOVE the water feature portion. They walk through it during hot days and everyone in the country uses it for water.

Were you using actual mortar or cement in that picture?

 

[electrycmonk]

I vote to dig a pond. Backhoe or not doesn’t matter.
The first pond I put in was a 175g preformed pond from menards. We got koi, being new to fish in general we didn’t realize how fast and big they would grow. By then we were in love with them so we dug our current 3,000g pond by hand. It was a lot of work but well worth it. We might still dig an even bigger pond in the future just because we are hooked on koi. Mainly me, I’m the fish nut. Haha.
Not sure if you wanted pictures posted on here, but I can always make a thread with my pond. My chickens don’t have access to it, but my guineas do and they love coming over for a drink when the birdbath is empty.

I think you’d be really happy with the freedom digging your own pond gives you.

No... Please share your pictures here. And all the wisdom you can share "as time permits you to add to this thread."

Fair enough?

 

[electrycmonk]

And for the record we have a 25hp compact utility tractor and the backhoe is currently a 3-point mounted unit that has 6' max depth for digging. So it will dig a nice hole and my spine will be none the worse for wear! I have learned alot about it thanks to the tractorbynet forum which has nothing that one could say competes with this forum. Just sharing facts. If need-be I can share a picture of the tractor and I might be able to also create a couple pics of the backyard and it's topography?

 

[My2butterflies]

No... Please share your pictures here. And all the wisdom you can share "as time permits you to add to this thread."

Fair enough?

I’m more then happy to share pictures and talk about ponds
You are very lucky to have a backhoe! A utility tractor has been on our dream list for a while.

This is the pond I started with.

My husband built me a “dock” to lay on and watch my fish.
This is the pond now.

It’s 11’x11’ and 4’5” deep. The lattice fencing is to hide the diy filter. It’s just a big trash bin inside a small 50g preformed pond that makes the waterfall.
View of the pond from the dock.