My 90 Gallon Pond

[aquatic mouse]

I really wanted to spend time outside, but still enjoy my fish, so last month I built a pond.

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[marinelife]

Pretty, do you have fish in it?

[aquatic mouse]

Thanks :) Yep a red and white goldfish, a shabunkin goldfish, a yellow and black koi, and an orange and black koi. They will not be living there forever. Dayton has a rule about depth of water and height of fences. The water can't be deeper than 2ft, or the fence has to be 6ft high. The fence is only 4ft high, so I made the pond only 18in deep. The fish won't survive the winter, so they'll probably go back to Jack's or somewhere else in the fall.

[Sunshine]

Nice Carrie. My lilies haven't bloomed yet. Very pretty !!

[aquatic mouse]

Thank you Sunshine! And thank you for your contribution of some of the concrete blocks! I bought the lily with the bloom already open, but it has a lot of buds on it so I'm looking forward to more.

[~reefchik~]

Nice! Is it new? I don't remember seeing it when we had the meeting there. I love a pond.
You could put in a simple water heater, or, even bring them inside for the winter and keep them in nothing more than a large rubbermaid container and airstone, if you didn't want to give them away in the winter. We always overwintered our koi and goldfish outside. As long as there's a breathing hole they are ok.

[aquatic mouse]

I put up the pond the weekend after my meeting. Was waiting on the liner to arrive.
The rubbermaid container is a good idea. Maybe I'll keep 2. I think it's way too small for the koi. Koi get too big.

[Sunshine]

Thank you Sunshine! And thank you for your contribution of some of the concrete blocks! I bought the lily with the bloom already open, but it has a lot of buds on it so I'm looking forward to more.

You are quite welcome, I was happy to get them out of there. Mine have buds, now if the sun would stay out long enough to pull them up ... lol I'm currently building a bog filter for my pond. I like the color of your lily and the pads, they are cool. I think most of my lilies are white with all green pads.

[~reefchik~]

Yeah koi get big! Have you seen the ones at Cox Arboretum? I swear they are 2 feet long.

[Sunshine]

I measured Gracie this year when I cleaned the pond. She is 21 inches. I think she's around 5 years old. Buttercup is a year younger and is 18 inches. I want a bigger pond !!

[aquatic mouse]

Have you seen the ones at Cox Arboretum?

I've never been :(

[chromiumlux]

Very nice Carrie!!!!! How did I miss this thread? lol

[aquatic mouse]

Thank you!

[aquatic mouse]

My fish had babies! Too bad they're scared of the camera. I'd like to share some pics. I think they are shubunkin.

[Sunshine]

Isn't that exciting ... Hope you can get pics.

[aquatic mouse]

Well, it's snowing :mad:
It's a good thing I planned ahead and caught all my pond fish today. I didn't plan ahead far enough and had to do it in the rain, but now they're safe and sound acclimating in their Rubbermaid Brute in the basement. I only put 4 fish (2 koi, 1 shubunkin goldfish, and one sarassa goldfish) in the pond in the spring. When I caught all of them, I lost count at 20! Unfortunately one of my koi died a few weeks ago, and the other is just gone. I can't believe how many babies my 2 goldfish had!

[Sunshine]

lol ..... I started out with about 3 feeder fish that my son threw in because his Oscar wouldn't eat them. I have rehomed many of the offspring and still have probably over 30. They multiply worse than rabbits !!!!!! Glad you got them in, my Koi went to the bottom back in October. They will stay there till Spring. My Koi have never had babies, I think I lucked out and got all the same ***.

[Sunshine]

ha ha ha it wouldn't let me say s e x .... that's funny

[UDGrad2010]

ha ha ha it wouldn't let me say s e x .... that's funny

Ahhh! My virgin ears. :p

[aquatic mouse]

I didn't think they would spawn so often or this many times though! I have so many different sizes of babies. The pond is only 90 gallons, so I thought they would be smart enough to stop...guess not. lol.

[Sunshine]

Yea, they're not very smart, just excited .... lol Mine spawned all summer. Must of been the hot summer days we had ...

[aquatic mouse]

Ahhh! My virgin ears. :p

Shouldn't it be virgin eyes? :cool:

[aquatic mouse]

They're bucket temp was the same as the trash can temp, so I finally released them into their winter vacation home. I recounted as I put them in. 25 of them!

[aquatic mouse]

I'm expanding my pond! The blue picture shows what it looks like now, the grey is what it will look like once completed. I'm expanding it from a 90g to a 388g. It was about 5ft L x 4ft W x 16in D. It will be be 10ft L x 6ft W x at least 16in deep. The depth depends on how far I can dig down into our crappy soil. I'm very excited. The pond liner is arriving tomorrow. I'm going to level the ground a bit today and drain the old pond so I have the rest of the blocks I need.
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[dogfytr]

sounds cool i always wanted a pond there fun to look at

[marinelife]

Its time to rent the heavy machinery to do the job for you.

[Sunshine]

Or, you can rent Bill .... lol We went from a 90 preform to a 1500 liner. Every time I wanted to go bigger, he grabbed the shovel. I still want bigger, but I ran out of yard :( This Spring, he is digging the shelf out, Gracie is out growing the pond, she needs more room.
Good luck Carrie. At least we had a mild winter, the ground probably didn't freeze.

[BLmf'inA]

You need some cat tails for that there pond

[Sunshine]

You need some cat tails for that there pond

I've got some ... they are very invasive. Had to throw a bunch away last year.

[BLmf'inA]

They do seem like a weed.

[Sunshine]

I had them planted in rocks on the pond floor. After they took over, I put them in a pot. Carrie, if you want some, I will give you a few starts.

[aquatic mouse]

I had them planted in rocks on the pond floor. After they took over, I put them in a pot. Carrie, if you want some, I will give you a few starts.

That would be great! I bought some last year, but it never had the cattails, just grass. I was really disappointed. I'll be buying some water lilies from Knollwood garden center again. With the upgrade, I'm hoping to fit two.

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[Sunshine]

Cattails take 3-5 years before they actually grow the cattail. I threw the few that had cattails away, so mine are starting over again. They make a good hiding place for the babies. I need some more lilies too. Does Knollwood have a good selection? You should go to Green Vista in Springfield. They have a huge selection of lilies and other plants and a lot of ponds to look at. It's a great place to go see.

[aquatic mouse]

Wish I had known that about the cattails. I threw mine out. :(
I'll have to check out Green Vista. Knollwood had a very small selection of water lilies. When do they usually put them out? April?

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[Sunshine]

They are open all year round. Not sure when they put the lilies out. Here is their website. They have a huge selection of lilies, hardies and tropicals. Hopefully the ones I have will get cattails either this year or next. We have that arbor over the pond and the ones that had cattails on them were starting to go through the lattice. So, you're talking a good 9-10 feet tall when mature.

http://www.greenvista.com/

[aquatic mouse]

I stopped by Green Vista today. I was super impressed! The place is pretty large and a employee (owner?) showed me around. They have multiple greenhouses. One houses bog plants, another houses the fish (nice color!). There's also 2 large ponds with lots of lilies. It turns out, Knollwood gets their lilies and other water plants from Green Vista. I'm really excited to check them out in April when the plants' flowers come up. They also have a really nice selection of pond rocks, baskets, and liners.

[Sunshine]

We go there every year when the plants are out. It is a nice place. They have a lot of stuff going on all year long. If you gave them your email, they will let you know when something is happening and send you an email when they have sales. We got Dr. Phil there. Bill picked him out, grand kids named him ... lol

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i62/witchlizzard/IMG_2320.jpg

[Sunshine]

How's the pond upgrade coming along?

[aquatic mouse]

Um...it's been interesting. I decided to put the pond where a maple tree stump is. We cut the tree down last year, so it's pretty fresh still. Drilled holes in it, poured kerosene in it, built a stack of logs, set it on fire, but it still is there. Grr. Frustrated. I'm hoping putting 2 liners and an underlayment keeps the stupid thing from growing back and hurting my pond. I'm picking up an underlayment from Green Vista next week so I can get this thing going.

[Sunshine]

Hope it all goes well. We live on a rock bed, many many rocks. We went out in search of people throwing away carpet, found a nice orange shag for my underlayment ... lol

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i62/witchlizzard/IMG_0427-1.jpg

Hope your tree don't grow back ... I know you can rent a trunk chipper thing. Don't know how pricey they are.

[aquatic mouse]

Do you have any other pictures of your pond build (dig?). Looks neat.

[Sunshine]

This is the beginning, you can see the original pond to the right.
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i62/witchlizzard/IMG_0108-1.jpg

This is the old with the new. We tore down the wall between the 2 to about a foot and laid a big slab of slate over it.
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i62/witchlizzard/IMG_0386.jpg

This is with the liner.
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i62/witchlizzard/IMG_0437-1.jpg

[Eshyr]

Thats gonna be real cool!

[aquatic mouse]

Thats gonna be real cool!

It's amazing! I just want to clarify, that's Sunshine's pond, not mine. I asked to see how she dug hers.

[aquatic mouse]

Continued here: http://www.saltgeeks.com/forums/showthread.php/4542-Mouse-s-Freshwater-Pond?p=34244#post34244