First Pond in Washington

[MO3N]

Little back ground on me. I have always owned fish tanks and have always loved the look of ponds and have wanted one in my house for awhile. I will use this pond to replace the multiple fish tanks I used to have.

Now on to my pond, I recently purchased a new house that has a large pond in the back yard. This home was a foreclosure so the pond was very neglected. During the summer the pond had a lot of algae growing in it. I think this had to do with the pond not having enough circulation. I have been working to clean up the area around the pond as I get the time. The picture below is when I first got the house.

The pond is naturally fed by a pond/spring up the hill. Currently there is no pumps, filters or plants in the pond at all. That is why so much algae grew over the last summer. I would like to have this pond naturally filtered by plants in a bog. at the end of this post ill post some pictures of my ultimate plan. I would like to keep KOI in the pond as I think they are fun and my girlfriend likes them. Below are some pictures of how it looks now after I cleaned up some of the plants. Don't mind the mess the back yard was full of random concrete sculptures so that is what is laying around the few places and a recent storm blew down a few trees.

I would like to change the pond as shown in the pictures below. the first one shows a stream that I would like to add. the stream will flow from the stream into a bog (as large as one I can fit in the area) then flow over a waterfall back into the pond. Kinda like this. The red outline is the stream the yellow area is a bog. I would also like to build a few new rock walls around the edge of the pond.

Will this plan work for a bog or would it be better to keep it as just a stream and small pond?

I would also like to add some bogs around the edges of the pond where the pond is shallow. I have read the how to build a bog and it recommends using a pump to flow water into the bog I am wondering if you need a pump directly flowing into the bog or if the flow from my added stream be enough to grow plants.

It looks bad now but once the trimmed plants come back this spring I think it will look a lot better......I hope.

also the bottom of the pond has a lot of silt, so I think I will rent a trash pump to pump out all the silt. has anyone ever used a trash pump to clean out there pond?

sorry the over load of questions but this is my first pond and i would like it to be done right the first time.

If anyone has any advice or tips please let me know.

Thanks

 

[addy1]

What a nice natural pond! Constant water changes, how neat.

I have used a sump pump, when building my pond to clean out the construction debris, it worked great. Mine can handle solids.

Your bog can be the passive type, i.e. the water just flows in and out naturally, or you can pump water into the bogs and have it flow out into the pond. Your stream bog can be the same, water just flow through it. If you use pea gravel and the water just flows over it on the way down some water will filter through but as silt builds up less will flow through it will flow over. Your stream bog could be a deep area full of plants, I have multiple small ponds incorporated in my stream which act as plant filters. Or you could add some piping below the pea gravel with holes/slits to help the water flow under and through the gravel and plants on the way down to the pond.

That will look so great when you are done.

Here is something I wrote up as I researched building my bog, different types of bogs.

https://www.gardenpondforum.com/topic/6894-bog-building/

 

[MO3N]

Thank you. I will take a look at that post. I could always run the pump right into the bog then flow out down a stream and back to the main pond.

Do you think it would be better to have two smaller pumps. One for the stream and one for extra water movement or one big pump with a T that sends water to both the stream and circulate water in the pond?

Thanks again for the advice.

 

[sissy]

welcome and at least it can be a great pond with a little love and see it must have had a waterwheel too

 

[DrCase]

Welcome to the forum !!
you dont know how woderfull your pond is
1 energy efficient pump with valves to split the flow

 

[MO3N]

Thank you. Ya the pond had that windmil and about 15 concrete sculptures.

Do you have a recommendation for a good efficient pump?

Also there are a ton of trees around the pond so a lot of stuff falls into the pond. Do you guys think an internal pump would be best or an external pump with a leaf screen or a skimmer box or what ever is best for stoping junk from getting in the pump.

 

[addy1]

I prefer external, to me easier to clean and maintain. I have also read they can be more efficient. I am currently using the evolution series pump, 1/8 hp hardly notice it on the electric bill. My external pulls water from the pond and from the skimmer, I have a T installed and a ball valve on the skimmer line to control the pull from the skimmer.

I do have a separate pump for the stream, but my stream has 50 foot of head, we bought a cheap harbor freight clear water pump to feed the stream, it is on a timer.

I have a skimmer I run when things are dropping, flowers, leaves, maple seeds. It does a great job collecting the floaters. I have two leaf baskets installed before the pump, just stop it when I see the waterfall slow down and clean the baskets.

 

[taherrmann4]

I prefer an external pump (sequence 7200) and I also have a skimmer which catches a lot the stuff that blows in the pond, lots of leaves and stuff.

 

[Telkwa]

Have you thought about predators? We live in Western Washington, too. A bit south of you. Our pond is closer to the house, and not nearly so naturalized as yours, so it took a bit more nerve for the kingfishers and herons to visit. The kingfishers would go after the small fish. The heron (or herons) got pretty darned bold. I pulled into the yard with the car one day. The heron was hunkered over our pond, 30 feet away. He just looked at me until I opened the car door and got out.

Our small pond is now completely covered with netting. That's not a viable option in your situation.

Any fish you put in a lovely, naturalized pond like yours will probably get eaten. The more colorful fish will get eaten first. If you have any survivors, you'll rarely see 'em because they'll be hiding. In my opinion, what happens too often in cases like this is the home owner puts a lot of time and money into their dream pond. Then the fish start disappearing. The pond owner arms himself. The backyard becomes a war zone, instead of the source of tranquility that was envisioned at the beginning of the pond project.

 

[MO3N]

I am worried about predators but the pond is right behind my house. the back deck is about 2 feet from the edge of the pond, so hopefully that will help. and the pond is average 4 feet deep so hopefully they can stay deep enough. hopefully that will keep the fish safe.

hopefully it wont take too much more money to get this pond into good shape. I think adding a pump and some water movement will help a lot.

Thanks for the pump recommendations...I will look into them and hopefully get a good pump sometime this spring.

 

[MO3N]

Well I have not been able to do much work at the weather has been pretty bad and I have been busy working on other projects around the house. But I hope to get to it soon. I have thought up another question.

When I build my bog sections around the outside of the pond, I was planning on stacking one man rocks to create a wall then fill this area in with pea gravel. Now my question is do these outside walls need some sort of reinforcement or will they naturally hold from the weight?
* the walls will only be a couple feet tall if that.

 

[addy1]

The low end of my bog wall is dirt, doing fine so far. Is a one man rock, the largest size one man can pick up? like 100 lbs or so? if so if stacked well I would think they would do fine. You would need to make sure the are very stable won't move if pushed against by the weight.

 

[taherrmann4]

I am currently (slowly) working on a bog. I am having to stack rock up about two feet on the one side and 18" on the other. I will then be digging about 6"-10" down so my average depth of the bog will be 18"-24" deep. I am going to take the dirt that I dig out and mound it up on the inside of the bog wall to a thickness of no more than 1'. This should keep everything in place. The rocks are one man rocks.

 

[MO3N]

I have not done much to the pond. I hope in the next few weekends I will be able to get the stream area cleaned out and have at least get a good designed layout out on the ground.

i did pull the old pumps out of the pond. The pumps no longer work but I did find 3 UV lights attached to the pumps. I dont remember the exact model number but I do remember they are pondmaster and are about 18 inches long. I'm sure I will need to buy new bulbs but I am just wondering if using UV lights are really worth it?

 

[j.w]

I don't have one and do just fine w/o them and no green water but I have lots of plants. Others swear by them and others don't so you have them already and all you need is a bulb so give it a try and let us know what you think.

Can't blame ya for not getting much done out there thanks to our lovely rains we have been getting! Makes everything nice and green tho.