Nice to hear from you, Lisak! Thanks for sharing. I've had a very small pond, just about 90 gallons, for about 12 years. No filtration, I only added a pump this past summer. I'd gotten distracted with life and the plants in the pond died off. Summer rolled around and the fish (four goldfish) were short of oxygen. So I raced off to town and got a pump but for the life of me, I could find only one bunch of oxygenating plants! But I had a pond for all those years with a few happy fish (except when the raccoons came to call) with no pump and no filtration. A couple of times the water got green and I replaced some with fresh water. Earlier this year the water was cloudy and I put in some barley and it is clear as could be now.
Now I am looking at replacing my little pond with a much bigger one and the landscape designer whose help I am happy to have has a bit of a passion for ponds and has five on his own property, all self-sustaining. Guess there is a range of what that means, but for him, it means a balanced pond without filtration, a pump if you want moving water, fish for sure.... I think the planting is important.
There is a fellow here who sells pumps and such and he is insistent that I need a biofilter, but you know, my fish have done fine for 12 years, if I mind the plants and the raccoons stay away.
