Koi & Goldfish Pond.....

[Buster]

That's just not right! I can't believe you would post that just to make me jealous. I so miss our pond at a house we had before. We didn't have any children yet and we would just sit on the porch at night and listen to the frogs. We had fish and plants and a waterfall and all. We eventually will have one here but it is a long ways off.

 

[dlhunicorn]

My pond hasnt been a money pit per se... the slate I got to make the waterfall was "recycled" from someone elses garden (they were sooo happy to have someone cart it off) ... my pond has two deep portions (so my waterlilies and fish can survive the winter) made from > one a huge ole plastic cement mixng tub and the other a corner plastic bathtub that did not fit into my new house > both of which I buried over 6 foot deep and then dug out the form of the rest of the pond and lined it ...
It is pretty self sufficient (I have not had to feed my goldfish for several years and some are now over ten inches long)
I know many with ponds and they happily donated plants (or else like yours they would have ended up on the compost heap)...the iris (pond /bog variety) are the tall stalks you see in the foreground and they are in flower now but I do not yet have a pic to put up... I do have one of my lilies:

and here is one of my pond froggies in his favorite place:

...and here is a pic of a bird that likes to bathe there (happens to be one I rescued and it stuck around but that is another story):

 

[Cetawin]

very nice pond.

 

[Scrambled Egg]

DIANA!!!! That is by far the prettiest pond I have ever seen!!!! How tranquil!!! I could sit out there forever!!!! Self-sufficient?!!! Holy cow, would that be nice!!! I can't even imagine that! I have a big biofilter that really should help work toward that end..but honestly every 6 weeks or so there is so much thick, oookey sludge in it that water can't get through it and starts running out the lid from back up so all that has to be taken apart and thoroughly cleaned...ALOT of stuff all the time it seems...lucky you...absolutely beautiful....I see the little silkies too..look out or PC will be slipping on his wooden clogs and coming for a visit!!!!

Gorgeous, gorgeous pond!!!!!

 

[dlhunicorn]

aw...thanks. Actually I rarely run the waterfall except when I am there to enjoy it or during hot weather when we have had little rain and I feel it needs aerating. The two deep parts makes quite a difference ... the lily leaves for a cover to help keep all cool in the summer heat (the pond has full sunlight most of the day). I only seem to get "gunk" during the sring when it is "waking up" after winter (too many leaves and such > and this HUGE gel mass of frog eggs which I remove after six weeks) . I add some waterfleas at this time and some enzyme pills to help with any algae (from the leaves etc). I never add chemicals to it.
I think the plants help alot . When you are starting your pond you should get a couple galons (or more) of some water from a healthy pond.... otherwise it will take at least half a year to build it up the correct "good" bacteria you need . I do have sludge of a sort I suppose but my plants are planted in it lol

 

[Scrambled Egg]

Yeah, I let mine "cure" for about two months before I put any fish in it last year. I am amazed that you don't need constant aeration...must be the depth difference, I had to buy an aerator that bubbles continuously and still I had to throw out 90% of the plants that were robbing the oxygen from the water at night, my fish would all be in a group at the top of the water with their mouths out of the water gasping for air...I rarely see them since the aerator. I also have the rubber liner not sure if that makes a difference or not..anywya. mine is healthy but a tremendous amount of responsibility...lucky for you yours is not and it is beautiful!...I also can't keep the frogs..the little traitors go off to the chlorinated pool in my neighbors yard..dumb frogs!!

 

[tiki244]

wow that is a very nice pond and fish,,,,puts mine to shame. at first when I looked at the feeding pic I was alarmed, it looked like the koi was eating a bunch of goldfish.

guess I better go get my glasses

 

[smom1976]

Ok so I had to go out and take pictures of my teeney little non pretty (or populated for that matter) pond.. I have had a piece of plywood over the top of it to stop my 1 1/2 yo from falling in.. But I think it is time to populate it.. but here are some pics..

It really wasnt that expensive to keep up before the baby.. The frogs were just really bad.. I need oscars in there to keep the frog population down LOL and that tree that I love so much for shade put a lot of leaves in the pond when they dropped.. but whenever I tried to do anything like add chemicals the fish died.. when I didnt they multiplied and did wonderfully..

 

[Scrambled Egg]

That is pretty!! That looks like an enormous pump though..how deep is that pond? You may need to take a few joints out of that pump so all your water isn't either pewed out everywhere in your yard or evaporating at the speed of light. You do need the pump for aeration though. I even have two small solar panel aerators in mine...spent a hundred bucks on a big one too that never worked..drat..really liked that idea though.solar powered anything is cool.

That pond IS pretty, just have to get it "cured"..the ph right, the chlorine out (that will dissipate or break down or whatever chemical terminology our resident chem teacher Tiffanyh would use, lol!) anyway, a few days of sitting and that goes away but if fish are in the pond with chlorinated water it will burn them and they will die, use the de-chlorinator with aloe. A bit of shade keeps the algae down too...or you can use barley straw or barley straw extract like I do, that helps too. Try 29 cent comets, you haven't lost much if they don't make it as you get it going and if they do, they will get big and make millions of babies like mine, loL! Good luck, it'll be gorgeous!

 

[Bec]

I love the ponds!! All of them!!!! I have one, I will have to get close up pics. my husband has a pond business called Koi Kreations. He does custom koi ponds and water gardens!! His work is just beautiful!!! You tell him what you want and he creates it!! The one we have now is small, it is the smallest we have ever had, but I was tired of the big ones!!! I wanted a small plain one, nothing fancy. Just natural rock and waterfall. I just wanted a change!! It fits in nice with our landscaping out front of our house. We have 4 koi. It is so peacful to sit out and listen to the water run!! The biggest one we had (at our last house) was about 4 feet deep and big enough for them to run and do cannon balls into when they filled it up!! (before fish of course..lol)
This is a pic from last year. After putting in the mulch, we decided the rock was too dark for the mulch, or maybe the other way around, so we took the mulch out this year and put in a lighter colored rock. The pond really pops now, where in these pics, just kind of blended in with the mulch. We added some simple grasses. It looks a lot different out there now. We have a new front door and the new rock really made a big change!

This one has my duck Willis and my goose Gretchen,