Talk to me about building a POND

[Scrambled Egg]

Do you make fish ponds out of them Texas? I've heard of using a truck bed liner, gues those irrigation tanks would work too as long s all the chemicals were washed out of them and they had awhile to "cure" with pond water. Course you can have frog ponds with plants and no fish, I have a 100 gallon "frog" pond...no frogs though, lol!! They like the big one better. So what will you do with the tanks?

 

[cgjsmith]

we got one of the 100 gal oval rubber stock tankes at tractor supply and put it in the ground. It has a spout hole so we took a pipe and attached it and dug out the hill where the pipe is so it runs out, I cleaned it out every other month or so last year just emptied it let it dry scooped out the dirt and refilled it. My geese love it for baths. we did have to put blocks in the bottome so if the pygmies fell in they wouldn't drown. C

 

[Rosalind]

Beautiful! Very impressive!

What about frogs? I already get 3-4 species of frog in my swimming pool, I am sure they would love to colonize a koi pond. Would the koi eat the frog eggs, or would the frogs be bad for the fish?

 

[Scrambled Egg]

What about frogs?

The thing sbout frogs is that you can't make them stay, lol!! I have had piles of tadpoles (purposefully put in the pond) and yes, the fish will eat them like treats!! The ones that lives and grew into frogs would stay awhile and croak and sing and then just leave. SOmetimes after a big rain they willl be back but I can never predict when I'll have frogs or not. From what I understand, only a big ole fat bullfrog will eat your baby fish, ordinary frogs and fish live pretty well together. Turtles will eat your smaller fish and snap at their tail fins too so leave them out. Japanese snails are perfect ofr the algae and should overwinter well..I'll let you know how that went...I know I did have some small ones at the end of the season so they were makin babies! The clams are just like mini biofilters and may be all dead, not sure, they were good at the end of the summer and seemed to like to be near the moving water the diffuser was blowing around, no idea how they might have survived the cold but not floating to the top either. The plecostamous (sp) are good for algae and will grow about ten times thier size in one season but dont tolerate the cold or even chilly water at all. Had three and two floated so maybe, somehow, one might have survived. Hate to introduce new germs as in new fish but may get a few more of them from petsmart as they treat their fish before they sell them...don't want any fish diseases!!

 

[LinckHillPoultry]

wow scrambled egg. You're fish pond is beautiful!

Lol, it looks like your weiner dog is enjoying it!

 

[Scrambled Egg]

Thank you Linck! I have to watch her though, I worry that she will fall in. If I could find the brancehs like Baldmonkey did for his fence, I would make something like that to do all around my pond, that was gorgeous the way he made that fence. He said he used cedar branches, wouldnt be able to find those I doubt but maybe some other hard wood and make a natural looking fence a few feet high and then some shrubbery around that. Maybe!!!

 

[bantymum]

Quote:
Hey Darlene, thats a beautiful pond! Now you just need a statue of David in the middle!! I had one once until he got knocked over and brke in half at the waist.
I wanted to keep him but couldnt make up my mind which half to display in the garden, top half or bottom half!!

 

[hsm5grls]

Quote:
that sounds really neat. I was just giving an old round tub and was thinking of doing the same thing. I like the idea of it being piped to your blueberrys. If you have pictures and don't mind posting them that would be great. Maybe it would give me some ideas about landscping around it.

 

[MissPrissy]

I have one of the preformed ponds in my yard. It is used as a small water garden near my back door. Lots of frogs live there.

I have a second larger pond made from the sheeting that was hand dug and laid out. It is filled with koi and lots of various plants. We have found newts, salamanders, frogs, toads and other things in there as well.

When we first moved here we thought the pond was small. We decided to clean some of the plants out and realized that the entire lower end was overgrown with a giant plant rootball. It took a tractor and a couple hours of cutting to haul it out.

I want a pond or something that needs little maintenance so I can have ducks and geese. I did ducks and I hate the mess and the wading pools, etc. I have goose eggs in the bator now and dred the mess and water and wading pool looming in my future.

I was told if I built another preformed pond that the pumps would not be able to keep up with the mess and it would clog and burn out.

I am really keeping my eye on this thread for a solution to my problem, too.

Thank you for starting it.

 

[MissPrissy]

Here is a good article in mother earth news on pond building .

Somewhere I have a us gov link on getting some help in building one , too.

If I find it I will come back and update!