Fish Ponds in the Backyard

[stevej37]

Approx. 300 gal deck pond (self made) with 3 comet fish and 2 red slider turtles. The turtles are saucer sized and are usually sunning them selves on the rocks. The neighborhood cats were always trying to get the fish..hence the electric fence around the top..no more cat trouble!

[Bill Douglas]

Originally Posted by dd74

What's the allure of that? You can barely see the fish. At least from this angle.

Ummm, I agree. There was a big storm with a lot of salt from the beach hammering the plants, plus it's winter here so the water lillys have dissapeared for a while. I much prefer it without the mesh but Toby was eating my little buddies so I had to do something. I like SteveJ37's idea of a "hot wire" run around the edge.

[whiskyb]

Heres mine, around 3500 gal. 40 tonne of stone for the falls alone! Built it against a sand dune in my backyard. My hot tub sits on the deck facing it

[GH85Carrera]

Here is our pond. Our dog spends hours every day back there.

[Jim Bremner]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Here is our pond. Our dog spends hours every day back there.

Just make sure that there's steps for the dog to get out with if she falls in!

[livi]

Lovely! I would really like a pond in my garden, but the with the winter temps here I suspect it would freeze solid. Probably not popular with the fish.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Jim Bremner

Just make sure that there's steps for the dog to get out with if she falls in!

She has fallen in several times. There are rocks for her to climb out. We expected that she would fall in. She has not fallen in for a couple of years now. She will lap up some water and the fish come over to check her out. She will bark and wag her tail and the fish just ignore her. She really loves to make the toads jump in the water. We have a large population of three stripe skinks, tiny little brown worm eating snakes, and lots of dragon flies. It is amazing how fast critters found our pond.

[svandamme]

there was a fish pond in my yard when a bought the house

now i have a pond, my cats took the fish

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by livi

Lovely! I would really like a pond in my garden, but the with the winter temps here I suspect it would freeze solid. Probably not popular with the fish.

Here is our pond in the winter. We cover it to keep the fall leaves out.

[whiskyb]

Mine freezes but not solid as the deep area is about 4' deep. Fish do fine, not sure what they do but it is always fun in the spring as the ice melts waiting to see them. With no plant coverage in the spring they hide under the ice so it is usually a sigh of relief when I do get to see them.

[jyl]

How much maintenance is required for these ponds? In hours/month and type of work, let's say? Are leaves the main hassle, or something else?

Do these ponds attract mosquitos? Suppose you didn't have fish - then would you be breeding mosquitos? What about other wildlife, do you attract coyotes or other undesirables?

Is there a safety hazard (small children, etc)? Any issues with your homeowners insurance?

I've thought of putting a pond and waterfall/water fountain in my yard. To look nice, reduce the amount of grass to mow, and maybe mask the street noise a bit. I don't actually care if it has fish - turtles would be cool though. But I don't want to do more than, oh, 15 minutes a month of maintenance. Or breed mosquitos. Or attract undesirable animals.

[tomphot]

I've had my pond about 10 years now that I think about it.

I have no filtration other than natural. The water recirculates through a bog area that's about 10' around and 2' feet deep filled with river sand and plants.

During the time I've had the pond, I have never had an algae bloom or parasite problem with any of the fish. I add some hydrogen peroxide every once and a while to get rid of string algae.

I used to cover it during the fall to keep the leaves out but now just leave it open.

Maintenance - 1 time a year, it gets completely drained - all the muck and leaves are cleaned out and the sides rinsed off. That's it - I might grab some of the dead plant foliage but most of it goes to the bottom and dealt with during the spring. I used to be much more anal about it but I've found that it really doesn't make much of a difference.

I have tons of life going on - the goldfish breed rabbits - I give away dozens of fish every spring during the clean-out. There are hundreds of tadpoles and lots of frogs - I'm told the frogs take care of their own population issue.
We have a 6' fence so we don't deal with other wildlife in the area.

I love the way the waterfall drowns out all the other noises in the area and all the bird life it attracts as well. This is one of the best things we have done to the house.

[porsche4life]

Originally Posted by livi

Lovely! I would really like a pond in my garden, but the with the winter temps here I suspect it would freeze solid. Probably not popular with the fish.

Dig it about 4ft deep and stock it with goldfish. Once is starts to freeze they will go low and most likely survive. How long a winter are we talking?

[whiskyb]

My weekly maintenance involves cleaning out the filter. Besides that if we have alot of wind I will use a pool skimmer to clean off the surface. My filter would eventually get it all but my fish are use to me feeding them, once as I was walking by and they thought they were being fed the feeding frenzy started. One poor fella thought a pine needle was food and tried to inhale it. Swam around looking like a little marlin for a few hours and finally spit it out. We do not have children so it is not fenced, it is about 10' away from a running creek and 1000' from Georgian Bay so their are lots of hazards around.

[GH85Carrera]

Our is only about 2 feet deep in most areas. Under the waterfall it is somewhat deeper. There is a tree right next to the pond so we cover it to keep the ton of leaves out. The fish do pretty good at keeping the alga eaten. No mosquitoes, the fish eat the larva. The 1st spring that we had it the toads found it before the water was seasoned enough for fish. We had zillions of baby toads. Now the fish seem to control the tadpoles.

We have a pool skimmer at the front where the pump is. It catches the floating debris. There is a filter behind the skimmer basket. Then we have two filters up behind the top of the waterfall. About once every other week we take the filters out and hose them down. It take about 5 minutes. The bottom of the pond is covered with fist size round rocks. A few minutes with a net can get most debris out. We have never drained the pond. We have a water well to add water lost to evaporation so no chlorine problems.

We had 9 yards of rich topsoil delivered and the plants grow like crazy.

[livi]

4-5 months of frequently below zero temps. I suppose keeping the water surface moving, with a pump, will lower the risk of freezing?

[whiskyb]

Not sure if the moving water theory is correct or not. A koi breeder explained how the moving water actually gets colder than freezing but the movement prevents it from freezing. Being colder he said is harder on the fish. I've talked to people who claim their fish were frozen solid in the ice and came out fine come thaw. I do keep a hole in the deep end to allow any gas build up to escape

[JoshB]

Originally Posted by tomphot

Here is my back yard pond - about 3500 gal. What you can't see to the right on top of the hill is a bog filled with Iris, then a 25' stream and a 2 stage 6' water fall.

I too have a steep drop off - have seen the Heron out there a number of times over the past 8 years but he can't get to the fish.

Nice Pond Josh - I need to see it sometime.

Hey Tom - cool beans... Had no idea you were into fish ponds too. Looks like a really nice setup you have there. I'd like to come check it out sometime as well. Kudos on the natural filtration - that is hard to get fine tuned!

[livi]

Originally Posted by whiskyb

A I've talked to people who claim their fish were frozen solid in the ice and came out fine come thaw. I do keep a hole in the deep end to allow any gas build up to escape

I wonder how they manage to oxygenate themselves if they are frozen solid. Even if the metabolism goes down, they still will need a base amount of oxygen. Strange creatures.

[DARISC]

Originally Posted by jyl

...I've thought of putting a pond and waterfall/water fountain in my yard...don't actually care if it has fish - don't want to do more than, oh, 15 minutes a month of maintenance. Or breed mosquitos. Or attract undesirable animals.

Mine might interest you. I designed and had it built between my patio and art studio, located for view from my bed - remote controls in kitchen & bedroom, 4" deep pond fills in minutes, drains back into reservoir in minutes. No need to run pump 24/7, minimum evaporation (only when falls on), no chemicals, no algae or mosquitoes, no maintainence except dumping the leaf filter basket in the reservoir/pump. Of course no fish either, but don't care.