What would you do different?

If you had a chance to build a new pond or redo something on your existing pond, what is the one thing you would change or add? You CANNOT say you'd make it bigger! LOL I think that is a given. :)

Wow!

How do I pick..... There are many things that I would do differently, and you wont let me use the obvious : )

I think I would have installed a skimmer box, and I would have run all of my plumbing and filters outside of the pond.

I currently have a waterfall filter box, and a submersible pump, with a submersible uv light attached. It is very difficult to clean the filter, because I have it built in to the waterfall.

Hope that counts as one......

I would definetly dig it deeper. Ours is only about 18 in. deep. The heron would have to go elsewhere for their breakfast, if my fish could go deep and hide.

I would also have some ledges to place some water plants on.

Donna

Stronger pump and a better filtering system.

I would check the PH of my source water. My well water is off the scale and cannot use it.
Put a drain in the bottom of my veggie pond.
Make sure the burn around the edge of pond is higher to keep rain water runoff out of the pond.
Make the plant shelves wider or walls straight and use plant stands instead.

Excellent ideas JT! Hubby was just saying it would be neat to sink our trough beside the pond and use it as a skimmer with the pump inside of it and the water returning through a water fall or whatever I want. Do you have a picture of yours somehwhere? I'd love to see your set up.

Hey Donna! I just finished digging my new one yesterday (to replace the old one-not a second one LOL). I went with round this time and a plant ledge all the way around and we stayed with three feet deep. The last one may have been four at the deepest section but that also made it too hard to do anything with that part. I read somewhere about taking a length of that terra cotta drain tile and laying it down in the bottom of the pond. That gives the fish somewhere to hide. :)

Whoops! Hi Jim and Ted! You two sneaked in while my fingers were running. LOL I did splurge on the good pump last year. It should turn my water at least two times an hour. I probably should buy the filter that works with it but $$$$ ouch! I've been using a double veggie filter with pea gravel but we had no way to put in a clean out for back flushing. We are rethinking that for the new pond.

I did do almost a one foot wide plant ledge all the way around. I did learn I needed more when I did the last one. LOL We have city water and the chlorine and ph are a bit high but they go down quickly. We are waiting to put the fish back in today. The berm won't be a problem because we put the escavated dirt around the edges and I am going to dig out past the 4' flower beds to make sure that is lower.

I hope you don't mind me using your ideas to double check what I have done and what I am planning. :) Don't you just hate when you get something done then someone shows you something different and you want to smack yourself??? LOL

Did you see where I used Soda crates and wire mesh under the gravel. Those crates all have openings around the sides and allow the water and dirt to go thru. Left one opening in the end opposite the water fall and set a potted plant in it. I can wash and clean the gravel while pumping out the bottom.
http://davesgarden.com/t/439852/

This message was edited Jul 4, 2004 3:10 PM

Sure, I will post pictures when I get home from work.

I have another thing I have to tell you about.
Do not use the black waterfall foam, as a water sealer.
It does work for directing water flow, but it is NOT water tight.

I used it to seal the rocks on the face of my waterfall, (will show yiou in the pics) and I had to completely tear it down this weekend, adn re-seal it! The water level kept dropping about 2 to 3 inches a day! I found that the foam, that they say to use when building the waterfall, was acting like a sponge, and the water was seeping through it and under the falls. I could not see it leaking. I tore the complete side off of it, and finally saw ehat was happening.

I did find something that works great! I found it at Home Depot, adn it is called Quik Set Waterproof Concrete. It comes in a small tub, I think 2 lbs. It is used to seal concrete walls that have water seeping through. it sets up real fast and no water leaks!

If yiou are interested let me know and I will go into further details in an email. I am at work and need to go for now....

See ya

Jeff

Jeff,
THANKS for that last post.
We are having exactly the same problems and it may well be the foam.

Ric (Off to get some Quik Crete)

Bad & Hernry

Here is a photo of the Cement I bought and used....

Also some pictures of the pond and waterfall


The filter/waterfall box is on the top. It has 2 4" coarse foam filter pads, with a bag of volcanic rock on top of that. I wish I would have used a different filter medium though. The rocks are very heavy at cleaning time. I am going to switch to the plastic ribbon stuff soon.

The black box is hidden under the rocks. I have a flat rock cover on top, then I place rocks on that to hide the top of it.

The water falls into a small catch pond here.....
then goes down a small creek into the main pond.

This is the small creek I talk about. it is about 5 to 6 feet in length and it pours into the main pond (next picture)

The pond itself is 3 feet deep. 5 1/2 feet wide and about 7 feet long. I still haven't figured out what to grow on the fence yet. I had morning glorys on it, but I hear the the seeds may fall into the pond, and the fish eat them. Then they swell up in the fish insides, and kill the fish. So I can't use that. I have a madagascar Jasmine vine (wedding flowers) vine started on one end. Wish it would grow faster.

here are a few more

one more

The only thing I think I would have done differently would be to have had someone else dig the hole.
Man oh man was that hard work in my rocky clay yuck soil.

jtspeaks,
Thanks for the shot of the crete and the other beautiful shots.
You fall is a larger version of ours and appears to have about the same splash.
I'm betting when we pull it down we'll find the same weeping going on.

How about a smaller ivy, climbing philodendron or other aroid for that fence.
W/ your climate both would be hardy and evergreen.

Ric

I was also thinking on a small ivy......

That would look so nice, and it would reflect off the water.
I have a small verigated ivy that would look great.

Your pond is beautiful. I am envious, I love all the green ferns, etc.

Have you thought about maybe a silver lace vine. It will cover a chain link fence in one season. I don't know how it will do in your zone. Where I am, it grows 20 feet easy as long as it has something to climb on. And in the late summer and fall has white flowers.

I will be looking up the silver lace vine now...

thanks so much for the ideas....

I actually planted that fern under the shade roof first. Then decided to build a pond around it. I removed two orange trees to make room for thepond, but left the lemon tree, I think its a dwarf, but always full fruit. It really looks good next to the pond.....

What would you do different?

Did the local pond tour in Lansing over the weekend. Wow! Now I can think of about twenty things I would do different.

Badseed, Just built a new pond this year. Had a smaller one at my previous residence. Several things I did different.
1. Made it much bigger.
2. Upgraded the filter system. Used an Aquafalls biological filter and a Skimmer for mechanical filter. So far doing great. Water is starting to clear up.
3. buried the liner outside of the rocks. Dug down about 6 inches to bury the liner which makes for a more natural look.
4. Used native rock from our place which makes it look more like it belongs.

Hope this helps

Sylvi what are the twenty? Like to hear your views.

Well, I was kidding a little bit, but wow I saw some beautiful ponds. Most of the things I like best related to how the pond fits into the surrounding space. My pond looks like somebody dropped it randomly into my yard. It got even worse when I had to put up a fence to keep the dogs out.
I have a 3-pool series of preforms. I would use a liner the next time, because the preforms are such a limited shape.
I really want a small waterfall now. Mine overflow into one another, but I saw some wonderful stacked rock constructions that I would like to try.
My pond is edged in retaining wall, but I liked edged in rock a lot.
My favorite pond on the tour was incorporated into the deck of the house. The decking went right down to the water and across a small stream. It had another stream that curved around, probably 20 feet long. You could step over the stream to a little patio with a garden bench on it and be totally inside the garden.
I loved it all! I took a lot of pictures, and I am going to join the koi and pond club now that I see how much fun they are having. Maybe next year I'll do like badseed and move a pond!

Edited to say
I really like the use of elevation in some of the yards. My pond is flat. I have a slope but I thought it would be too hard to control water on it. Now I have some really great ideas about streams and waterfalls on the slope. The different heights of individual ponds, terraces, natural and manmade slopes, made a big impression on me this weekend.

This message was edited Jul 26, 2004 5:37 PM