Water Gardening: pond in winter, 1 by posyblossom

posyblossom wrote:
Hi Kelly. I don't use a skimmer box,but I must say, I do like the idea of them.

I kept everything I did when I built my pond as cheap as I possibly could. I dug it out by hand,lined it with 4-6" of newspaper, bought a $168 Beckett Liner with , 30yr warranty,and bought a $25 Whiskey Barrel and a $15 liner for it to make into a Bio filter water fall. Mine is 1000gal pond which is a lot easier to maintain than a smaller size. It has three depth levels,3.5 to 2.5 to 1.5ft. Koi really need at least 3ft deep to be happy,but lots of folks have them at a more shallow level and they seem to do well. My pump is in the bottom of the pond and has a UV light attached to it which pretty much keeps the water clear and eliminates algae build up.The pump was $63 and pumps the water up through 1.5" tubing over the back of the barrel to create the water fall. I love the soothing feeling I get from skimming the pond by hand and the fish always follow it to feed from,which is very enjoyable to watch and helps tame them for hand feeding later on.

Shubunkins are a hardy Goldfish and could be a good choice to start with.

Good Luck with your pond and I hope you will keep us posted with the next stages of its evolution☺.

This is a 10+ yr. old Butterfly Shubunkin.