Hello from Vermont

[Countryboy4life]

Hello all. My wife and I purchased a home in April of 2018 that had about a 1/4 acre pond sitting in between the home and the road. The area surrounding the pond was overtaken with cattails so I started in on the task of making the area look better. After taking down the cattails ( which made our neighbors across the street very happy) we realized we had a small water feature someone had built and a power source ( that wasn’t working at the time) we are slowly working at getting everything back up and running and really enjoy the wildlife that the pond attracts every year. I am here looking for advice on improving visibility into our pond so as to better enjoy the wild life that lives in the pond. I should mention that this is a man dug no liner pond with perch and pumpkin seed as well as three separate koi fish that are about 15 inches a piece. And three turtles that I have noticed so far.
thank you for reading hope to hear something back soon.

 

[TheFishGuy]

amazing pond you've got there! I am surprised to see how clear the water was in the third picture given there was no liner, but Im sure you have some amazing plans coming up for your beautiful pond! ( since you have fish I would recommend adding a water feature to move the water around. just to make sure the fish have enough oxygen

Im sure you will love the forum!

 

[Countryboy4life]

Thank you. Only the first foot or two of depth has a bit of clarity in some areas the pond is about 8’ deep that’s I was able to determine in the winter when it froze over I drilled a few holes and dropped my depth finder weight. I was running an aerator in the pond the first few years and a bit on and off this year but with no liner the aeration kicks up a lot of muck and clouds the water. The existing feature needs a bit of TLC to really be operational so I have been trying to decide between repairing what’s there already or tear down and possibly put in a gravel bog as filtration with a waterfall which will keep the pond originated as well.

 

[TheFishGuy]

Thank you. Only the first foot or two of depth has a bit of clarity in some areas the pond is about 8’ deep that’s I was able to determine in the winter when it froze over I drilled a few holes and dropped my depth finder weight. I was running an aerator in the pond the first few years and a bit on and off this year but with no liner the aeration kicks up a lot of muck and clouds the water. The existing feature needs a bit of TLC to really be operational so I have been trying to decide between repairing what’s there already or tear down and possibly put in a gravel bog as filtration with a waterfall which will keep the pond originated as well.

one creative thing one of my freinds did who had a large no liner pond wat just drop a huge pump down into it, and they made a large waterfall with a small bog in one part, but withough tearing down the existing pond, it hepled clear up the pond a lot, and they no longer haad problems with mosquitos!

 

[Mmathis]

Hello and welcome!

Nice pond! Looks like you have a heron visitor.

 

[Countryboy4life]

Hello and welcome!

Nice pond! Looks like you have a heron visitor.

Thank you. And yes the heron visits a few times throughout the summer and helps thin the frog population for us.

 

[JRS]

Welcome!

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our forum!
Beautiful pond you have there! Deep enough the heron can't eat too many of the fish.

 

[j.w]

@Countryboy4life

 

[Lin]

Welcome! Hi from Pennsylvania. Great looking pond, love the natural look.

 

[Phaewryn]

Welcome! I am also in Vermont.

What you've done there by removing the catttails is likely a mistake. Was that done this year? By removing all the plants, you will very likely be faced with an algae bloom, and this late in the summer, it may be hard to get enough alternative plants established to get a handle on it before winter. You need to add plants. Do you have a nearby perennial nursery? If so, you can see what they sell that will grow in the margin where you removed all the cattails (or anywhere else along the margin). Unfortunately, not many online pond stores have much stock left this late in the summer, but you could try mail ordering plants. In the meantime, you can dig up as many hostas as you can find on the property and put them all in the pond's margin (I used hostas before I was able to order "real" pond plants and it worked wonderfully for me). They make fine marginals and will get you through this mistake. Since you have no filtration and lots of large, heavy bio-load fish in the pond, pond plants are extremely important. Be sure you check the state's invasive list before ordering plants online, many plants that are sold as popular pond plants are illegal in Vermont. Looking forward, I would totally add a bog filter. It will look great and provide great filtration for your pond, although you will still likely need some floating plants in the pond itself (for shade). Lilies would be lovely in that pond.

 

[Countryboy4life]

Thanks for the advice. Getting the big waterfall up and running is the next major project for sure. The cattails were cut down three summers ago weather that was a mistake or not I am sure could be debated lol but my neighbors are all happy that I am trying to stop the spread. The previous owners of our property did little to nothing to control the spread of them and they quickly took over ditches and fields from seeds spreading so easily. Personally I prefer and enjoy the clean look to the pond now but I do understand the need for vegetation. We do have trees in the yard that provide the pond with shade intermittently throughout the day. And like most ponds it will continue to be a work in progress.

 

[Phaewryn]

Thanks for the advice. Getting the big waterfall up and running is the next major project for sure. The cattails were cut down three summers ago weather that was a mistake or not I am sure could be debated lol but my neighbors are all happy that I am trying to stop the spread. The previous owners of our property did little to nothing to control the spread of them and they quickly took over ditches and fields from seeds spreading so easily. Personally I prefer and enjoy the clean look to the pond now but I do understand the need for vegetation. We do have trees in the yard that provide the pond with shade intermittently throughout the day. And like most ponds it will continue to be a work in progress.

If it's been 3 summers and you've not had a problem, you're probably OK.

 

[IPA]

Welcome. When researching equipment pay attention to amp hour usage as large pumps can take a lot of energy to run. External pumps tend to be more energy efficient than internal ones and it all will have an effect on your water feature design. Spend any time here and you’ll quickly find out that we love wetland filters aka bogs