Hello from a little homestead in Ohio!

[mrs.hegi]

Hello everyone! My husband and I built our pond on our 5 acre slice of heaven in SW Ohio in 2020, and we've been lurking on this forum in one way or another ever since then to fix our mistakes, solve a crisis, and just admire everyone's ponds. I'm not sure how many gallons it is, but it's about 12'x12' at it's widest points and 6 feet deep in the center. My incredible husband built the waterfall freestyle, it's supported by cinder blocks topped with carpet and the liner with rocks atop that.
We custom built our filter based on similar designs we saw on this forum. We used to really struggle with string algae and that has really slowed down. We're hoping to get a UV filter for each discharge line, so hopefully that will take care of the issue completely. We have a 4250 gph debris handling pump that pumps into the barrel and filters up through several layers of media, biggest to smallest, before coming out and feeding the waterfall and the aeration area. The fish really like that discharge spot, I think they like playing in the bubbles.
We have 6 koi and an indeterminate number of babies (I think about 4). We had a pretty drastic die off of all our larger (8+ inches) koi over the winter, but I think the pond couldn't realistically support everything. We also have several bullfrogs, who serenade us every night.
I need some help with plants though. Right now we have several peonies that have kind of taken over the back side of the pond and my lilies aren't doing so hot. I want more plants in the water, but we're scared of roots breaking through the liner. My lilies are in pots, as are my horsetail reeds and lizard's tail. My water celery (not sure that's what it's really called) and my water forget-me-nots escaped their pots year one and have taken off like mad. Always open to suggestions and criticism, super happy to be here!

 

[j.w]

@mrs.hegi

 

[addy1]

Welcome to the forum!

Nice set up! Pretty pond!

 

[JRS]

Welcome!

 

[Mgessert]

Very nice! I haven’t heard of plants, other than trees, that would puncture the pond liner. I’m sure others will chime in if they have had problems though. Most of us have lots of plants in our ponds, to out compete the algae and provide cover for fish and other creatures.

 

[jgrandmont]

Nice-looking pond. Regarding the string algae, I don't think UV has an effect on that. UV is more useful for the free-floating types of algae.

 

[Lisak1]

Welcome!

UV has no effect on string algae, but it does kill any single celled organism in the pond. Not a big fan.

Excess algae is a symptom of too many nutrients in the pond - too many fish, too much feeding, not enough plants, too much decaying organic material. Address those issues and your string algae problem will resolve itself.

There’s not a pond plant in the world that will puncture your liner - if they did we’d all be here with our leaky ponds! The only plant I would avoid is native cattails - we once saw a homeowner who was replacing an inground concrete pond because the cattails and grown through the concrete.

 

[Tula]

Greetings from another SW Buckeye

 

[Gunnitgamms]

Pond looks amazing! Great job on the waterfall

 

[GBBUDD]

Ponds looking great for a diy which I too am one. But uv will do nothing to kill string algae it kills only what is pulled into the iv housing and exposes it to the light. That's not hair algae and what it does kill will become food for string algae.