Garden Ponds

easyrider said:
An apple tree ha blew donw last week in my garden. The neighbour a grounds man with a digger came and cut it up with his chainsaw and took the logs. I have just finished today buring the rest of it nd Iv'e been left with a huge stump. My neighbour say he will be coming down in the week to dig it up with his digger, level the ground so we can mow the area.

I was sat done the bottom of the garden and it suddenly dawned on me a pond would be really cool.

I'll take pictures tomorrow and get some input :)
Click to expand...

Learn the nitrogen cycle first if you didn't already know.
 
It depends on your budget but that's a very ambitious sized pond for someone starting out really and assuming you want to keep fish in it.
 
Could cost from a few thousand to tens of thousands, it's a too open question to answer but it's the build cost and equipment that will be the biggest expense. The maintenance cost would be low in comparison as it's just mainly food, water and electricity charges.


Some things to consider in the build cost:
Excavation
Foundation work/ supporting wall
Bottom drain and pipe work
Underlay and liner or fibre glassing
Decoration/rockery/waterfall feature

Equipment:
Filter
Pump
Media
UV lighting
Skimmer

You can of course have a natural pond with lots of plants to do the biological filtering meaning you can exclude a lot of the equipment in the above list. You won't be able to keep things like koi fish in there though.
 
Kaka said:
Could cost from a few thousand to tens of thousands, it's a too open question to answer but it's the build cost and equipment that will be the biggest expense. The maintenance cost would be low in comparison as it's just mainly food, water and electricity charges.


Some things to consider in the build cost:
Excavation
Foundation work/ supporting wall
Bottom drain and pipe work
Underlay and liner or fibre glassing
Decoration/rockery/waterfall feature

Equipment:
Filter
Pump
Media
UV lighting
Skimmer

You can of course have a natural pond with lots of plants to do the biological filtering meaning you can exclude a lot of the equipment in the above list. You won't be able to keep things like koi fish in there though.
Click to expand...


A neighbour with a Digger is going to dig the hole for free. When he comes to remove the tree stump and roots from the fallen tree.

Thanks for this post. What do you mean by foundation and supporting wall? I like the idea of a natural pond. Can I keep any fish at all in that?

How deep does it have to be minimum?

Cheers
 
Foundation and wall if you want a pond that's part under and part overground. You can keep fish in a natural pond, but that depends on how many you want to keep. You won't get that crystal clear water you'll find in a regular pond with a pump/filter setup however.

There isn't a minimum depth per say for a pond. It's mainly to do with reducing predators getting at your fish and overwintering where there is a risk of the pond freezing solid and killing your stock. The deeper the better but most people aim to have an area where it is at least 4-5 feet deep. You could go less if the pond is heated.
 
Kaka said:
Foundation and wall if you want a pond that's part under and part overground. You can keep fish in a natural pond, but that depends on how many you want to keep. You won't get that crystal clear water you'll find in a regular pond with a pump/filter setup however.

There isn't a minimum depth per say for a pond. It's mainly to do with reducing predators getting at your fish and overwintering where there is a risk of the pond freezing solid and killing your stock. The deeper the better but most people aim to have an area where it is at least 4-5 feet deep. You could go less if the pond is heated.
Click to expand...

Thanks

I'll take a picture tonight when I get in from work and post it up of the location :)
 
I have on going problems with what I think is blanket weed.

I got rid of it last year but it seems to be back with avengance!

My UV bulb blew while we was away, we came back to pea green water. The fish were fine. so I changed the bulb and used some "klear" stuff from Amazon. Water went back to being perfect then a few weeks later blanket weed everywhere.

Does it grow in "perfect" water?
 
Vanquish-Storm said:
I have on going problems with what I think is blanket weed.

I got rid of it last year but it seems to be back with avengance!

My UV bulb blew while we was away, we came back to pea green water. The fish were fine. so I changed the bulb and used some "klear" stuff from Amazon. Water went back to being perfect then a few weeks later blanket weed everywhere.

Does it grow in "perfect" water?
Click to expand...

Blanket weed loves sunlight and nutrients (nitrates).

I got myself a little water yet kit that shows the levels of ammonia (NH4), nitrites (NO2) and Nitrate (NO3). This is the pond nitrogen cycle - worth googling.
I also have Lilly pads which add shade to the pond.

I have lots of plants in the pond that 'fix' nitrogen thus remove it from the water. It's effective and keeps the Nitrate level at low levels, even with koi. It's actually lower than the tap water here! (every time I do a top up, the pond plants and blanket weed go bananas until the Nitrate level drops again).

Cloverleaf Blanket Weed will decimate it. It also "knocks-back" the bio water filter biosome (the good bacteria). However the blanket weed is a sign something is out of balance.

Best long term way to prevent blanketweed is to get plants to outcompete the weed for food and plants that provide shade to outcompete for the light.

Edit: the UV only works to prevent green single cell algae and sterilises the water to some degree (kills of fish harming bugs/bacteria that happen to go though it), the blanket weed never goes through the filter/UV.

Edit edit :) .. Barley extract helps inhibit, as does the use of Barley Bails. However the bails decompose and add to the brown tea appearance which in turn needs fine font ration to remove.. the Nitrate food still exists and so it's only pausing the blanketweed growth.
 
Last edited:
Further to Nick's reply, bear in mind that blanket weed and the pea green water problem are different so you need to establish what you have so you can tackle this efficiently. I've not been affected by blanket weed personally so I've not much experience with it, but have had to deal with pea green water earlier in the season. A combination of shading the pond and UV lighting has been very effective for me. Had some partial success with adding more plants but my pond is south facing and it was just too much for the plants to out compete with the algae.
 
Yes yes, it's about getting that fine balance. I am guessing in fixing the pea green soup I have overloaded the pond with what the blanket weed like.

I should really get some plants in there. Problem is it's a liner bottom that's not flat so the plants tend to topple over
 
9r1rL8u.jpg
 
Carefull with cloverleaf as said it will knock your filters back a fair bit, also if you too up with tap water that will cause blanket weed blooms atleast it did for me I think it was all the nutrients, I have none now I let the rain top it up :)

The only time I ever got pea green water was when I stupidly washed my filter using tap water and I think I lost a lot of my good bacteria, fish love green water though and it can really bring your koi colours out.
 
Looks like the corner of a field lol. That log will have large and deep roots you may need a buzz saw at some point. I wouldn't have it too close to the hedge you'll get things falling in rather easily.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom