Anyone out there have a pond?

I built myself a small pond and am realizing that I may have bitten off more than I can chew with it being so small. I was wondering if anyone here has a pond that they take care of and have any advice they can pass off to a newb. Or just wanna share your pond and chit chat about it, either way whats up!

About a pound.

raratt said:

About a pond.

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Fify

Token Dankies said:

I built myself a small pond and am realizing that I may have bitten off more than I can chew with it being so small. I was wondering if anyone here has a pond that they take care of and have any advice they can pass off to a newb. Or just wanna share your pond and chit chat about it, either way whats up!

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I used to, about 15X6x 3 ft. I had koi in it. Make sure you have a filter system, it will go eutrophic quickly

Singlemalt said:

I used to, about 15X6x 3 ft. I had koi in it. Make sure you have a filter system, it will go eutrophic quickly

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Did they die? Sell them off?

I've always been interested in this too. Is it better to have it deeper or shallow? Does it matter?

i have 2 ponds, and one hand dug pool. overflow and run off is an issue for the big ponds. the hand dug pond is more like a moon pool/wadding pool with small waterfall hardscape and sand filter. back breaking work it was. it's 6000 gallon, took two summers by myself

Romulanman said:

Did they die? Sell them off?

I've always been interested in this too. Is it better to have it deeper or shallow? Does it matter?

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Two things:
1) Egrets. They came and almost wiped the fish out so I had to put a cover over the pond which fucked the aesthetics
2) 1989 earthquake cracked it and next morning it was almost empty. I save 3-4 fish and put them in a horse trough, 3 died off over 2 yrs and one survived for 8-9 yrs
Never rebuilt it, filled it back in with dirt

Edit: the survivors lived cuz they went to a deeper part that hadn't lost water. The less water the quicker it will muck up so I'd make it 4ft with a small deeper part if fish are involved

Singlemalt said:

Two things:
1) Egrets. They came and almost wiped the fish out so I had to put a cover over the pond which fucked the aesthetics
2) 1989 earthquake cracked it and next morning it was almost empty. I save 3-4 fish and put them in a horse trough, 3 died off over 2 yrs and one survived for 8-9 yrs
Never rebuilt it, filled it back in with dirt

Edit: the survivors lived cuz they went to a deeper part that hadn't lost water. The less water the quicker it will muck up so I'd make it 4ft with a small deeper part if fish are involved

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They see me rollin
I egret nothing

Here's me out in my 'pond' in my belly boat putting a new filter on my water intake before the ice seals it up. That's my tap water out there. My closest neighbour in in that clump of trees off to the southeast. Good thing we tied a rope to the boat as I lost a flipper and the wife had to tow me in.

OldMedUser said:

Here's me out in my 'pond' in my belly boat putting a new filter on my water intake before the ice seals it up. That's my tap water out there. My closest neighbour in in that clump of trees off to the southeast. Good thing we tied a rope to the boat as I lost a flipper and the wife had to tow me in.

View attachment 4904502

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THAT IS A POND SIR!

mudballs said:

i have 2 ponds, and one hand dug pool. overflow and run off is an issue for the big ponds. the hand dug pond is more like a moon pool/wadding pool with small waterfall hardscape and sand filter. back breaking work it was. it's 6000 gallon, took two summers by myself

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I have to go bigger, 6000 gallons I am nothing near that I need to step my game up!

mudballs said:

i have 2 ponds, and one hand dug pool. overflow and run off is an issue for the big ponds. the hand dug pond is more like a moon pool/wadding pool with small waterfall hardscape and sand filter. back breaking work it was. it's 6000 gallon, took two summers by myself

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You ever wake up and all the fishies dead? That's the worst feelin, Goldie died on me this morning.

Token Dankies said:

THAT IS A POND SIR!

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It's actually a Borrow Pit. When they first build the roads up here the highway dept used the clay for the roadbed and 'borrowed' it from the farmers leaving them a big dugout as a water source as there is no ground water around here. A mile of clay under us as this area used to be the bottom of the ocean.

Mine is 80x50x4m deep so 16,000 cubic meters or 4 million USG of free water. We don't drink it but it is our tap water in the house. We've been buying RO water for years but I finally bought all the parts to build my own RO system. Just have to hook it all up.

Token Dankies said:

You ever wake up and all the fishies dead? That's the worst feelin, Goldie died on me this morning.

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No i havent decided what fish/fishes i wanna do yet. I have herons like singlemalt, so idk if im even gonna do koi/fish yet

mudballs said:

No i havent decided what fish/fishes i wanna do yet. I have herons like singlemalt, so idk if im even gonna do koi/fish yet

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We have tons of mosquitos so I got some gambusia, super small fish that will eat insect larva and poop out food for the plants.

I did a chain of 4x4 ones with streams ,falls, recessed underwater lighting, and a small shallow pool for the birds and Lilly's.
Pygmy papyrus (4ft.) does an awesome job filtering, you can run the water thru their root system and filter it. Hydro all the way. Threw away the pressurized filter.
The little brook lit up at night was the best. Covered up all the car traffic noise and the toads would eat all the bug that were drawn there.
A uv filter does wonders too. I used to run 2/3 of the return water thru the biotics filter, 1/3 thru the uv, no more slime.

Token Dankies said:

We have tons of mosquitos so I got some gambusia, super small fish that will eat insect larva and poop out food for the plants.

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i have a little over 4.5' depth so they could escape if i did get fish, but those herons/egrets are stealthy hunters, they will get my fish eventually. i have catfish and bass, small and largemouth in my regular ponds, so who knows i could go that route too. or how about aligator gar from Louisiana lol....dont go swimming kids!

I just go to a live bait place for fish usually. Really cheap, local fish.
Goldfish work, but they can get transported to other locations by birds, fairly common at nesting season.
A solar fountain, mineral oil, and BTi drops can keep mosquitos in control, if the fish can't keep up, or you have company coming

mudballs said:

No i havent decided what fish/fishes i wanna do yet. I have herons like singlemalt, so idk if im even gonna do koi/fish yet

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I've read that if it's deeper than 4ft most of the fish will be safe from them

I've built a few. Go deeper than a few feet.....like a fishtank, different fish and plants want deeper or shallower water. If it's too hot or cold the fish drop to the bottom and are safe.