charrold
Big Fish in a Little Pond
- Joined
- May 31, 2009
- Messages
- 37
- Reaction score
- 2
- Country
Hello all - I have already posted a few questions/responses, and was a lurker for a long time before officially joining, but figured I would add a little about me and my pond.
I built my long awaited pond this spring in spite of the constant rain and snow here in Denver - we live slightly higher than the advertised 1 mile high. It is a small EPDM lined hand dug hole, 3.5x7.5 by 3.5 deep / about 750 gallons. I have a bunch of plants (just bought whatever looked cool pretty much) and also have some comets a buddy gave me, some tadpoles, a full-on frog (recent development), and of course some Koi. In addition to the pond I converted the slope in our side yard to a 30' long stream/waterfall that feeds the pond at the bottom. I run a dual-pump system (3600 GPH for the falls - probably overkill, but man is it awesome to get that kind of flow! and 250 for the main filter throttled back with a ball valve to allow for more filter contact). I did this thanks to some lessons learned on here so that I can turn off the waterfall but still run my DIY "ghetto filter" (trash can model).
So far, so good. My water has been clear and tested with perfect levels all summer, my fish got big and had babies (saw them again today when I took out some of the plants in advance of the colder weather this week), and I suspect I will have 4 bullfrogs next spring.
Next spring I plan on adding a retro bottom drain system and additional filtration to improve the overall maintenance of the pond, but for now it is nice to just enjoy the sound of the waterfall and the sight of the big fat Koi and Comets swimming around. Anyway, catch you all around the forums!
PS, to state the obvious points - Yes I wish it was bigger, Yes I should have done bottom drains when I had the chance, Yes I now want to convert my whole yard to one big pond, but my wife and the dogs insist I leave it grass for now. I can wait...
I built my long awaited pond this spring in spite of the constant rain and snow here in Denver - we live slightly higher than the advertised 1 mile high. It is a small EPDM lined hand dug hole, 3.5x7.5 by 3.5 deep / about 750 gallons. I have a bunch of plants (just bought whatever looked cool pretty much) and also have some comets a buddy gave me, some tadpoles, a full-on frog (recent development), and of course some Koi. In addition to the pond I converted the slope in our side yard to a 30' long stream/waterfall that feeds the pond at the bottom. I run a dual-pump system (3600 GPH for the falls - probably overkill, but man is it awesome to get that kind of flow! and 250 for the main filter throttled back with a ball valve to allow for more filter contact). I did this thanks to some lessons learned on here so that I can turn off the waterfall but still run my DIY "ghetto filter" (trash can model).
So far, so good. My water has been clear and tested with perfect levels all summer, my fish got big and had babies (saw them again today when I took out some of the plants in advance of the colder weather this week), and I suspect I will have 4 bullfrogs next spring.
Next spring I plan on adding a retro bottom drain system and additional filtration to improve the overall maintenance of the pond, but for now it is nice to just enjoy the sound of the waterfall and the sight of the big fat Koi and Comets swimming around. Anyway, catch you all around the forums!
PS, to state the obvious points - Yes I wish it was bigger, Yes I should have done bottom drains when I had the chance, Yes I now want to convert my whole yard to one big pond, but my wife and the dogs insist I leave it grass for now. I can wait...
