hi from idaho

[sissy]

I was talking about a 45 mil rubber liner .I bought roofing material for a liner it was cheaper .I can't imagine doing all that cement work .Much easier with a liner ,dig the hole through it in ,I took the easy root .It was hard enough digging over 4 ft in heavy clay soil .

 

[murlan]

oh, ya i did line the entire area with 5mm rubber before pouring any of the concrete just incase i ever get a leak or crack in the concrete. Our soil out here is not very clay like it is very rocky though which made it rough digging, i made it with many different depth levels any where from 6" to 5 feet and different slopes and grades to give it more dimensions. i found these during building pictures that show some of it, in the first picture the area right above the dug out area is covered in bark, i dug that all out a couple months ago and made it about 6 feet deep so the fish could make it through the winter, they are a little dark sorry it was late while digging.

 

[sissy]

It is very rocky here and dug up lots of them and decided to do my pond part above ground and part below but used retaining wall block .My liner is all I have but I did put sand on the bottom of the pond and lined the sides with landscape fabric and then threw in the liner and smoothed it out as I was filling it ,I know that here ponds are not looked at as an asset to the property and will take it out before I decide to sell the house in a couple of years .PEOPLE HERE DO NOT WANT TO MAINTAIN A POND .I know in the last couple of years I have taken 8 of the out for realtors on foreclosed or bank owned property .Sad to say .Geeze here they very seldom do much more than mow the grass or if they buy a newer home that was landscaped they do not tend to it and weeds take over .
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[murlan]

thats a shame that people dont want them so much there, out here in the west they can actually ad value to the property especially if done well. As soon as the warm weather gets back i have the plans drawn out to increase the size by about 2000 more gallons, it will actually have a couple more streams and waterfalls in the area above and behind the lower pond now. my yard is terraced into three levels by lava rock with a stairway winding through it, and i reallly dont care for the lava rock so figured this was good way to make it look better. it will take a bit of work but when done there will actually be three different ponds with waterfalls falling out of each one to the next and lots of vegetation too. this first year has been a learning year to say the least.

 

[murlan]

this kind of shows what it looked like before i put in the first part of this project, and the deer well they hang out all year long in my back yard they probably think the pond is for them.

 

[sissy]

Mine right now I think is over 8 thousand gallons .These are southern people and pond to them is used to water fields or used for fishing.I use lava rock in my filters it is great for cleaning the pond so far testing my water for 11 years has always been in the zero range and I have 2 koi over 2 feet long so that is good and I have given babies away to some new people starting ponds and most of those people come from up north and came here for the cheap house prices and cheap taxes .Plus there is still a change in weather and seems we do not get the really bad storms .

 

[murlan]

I have found the lava rock to actually work as a filter it makes up the outside walls on the lower part of my ponds, but I still think its ugly, lol.
my fish aren't quite that big yet but I do have a few that have gotten over 12 inches which I got at 2 to 3 inches they do grow fast. I'm waiting for my water temperature to drop below 50 but even with the temperature being below zero at night here the temperature has maintained 56 degrees because of my DE-icer. the bad part of the cold weather and warm water is it really sucks cleaning out a pond when its freezing, I've also installed a bubbler probably not necessary but I figured it couldn't hurt. I am curious though when I started this I wanted to put small mouth in my pond but now I'm not sure that the Koi and goldfish would survive, but it would be cool to have big small mouth in there as well

 

[Tula]

Welcome and thank you for sharing pictures of your pond, it's obvious you get a great deal of enjoyment out of it. I have a deicer, but it must not be as strong as yours as there is no way my water temps would stay at 56 with below zero temps.

Sissy, I've heard ponds can be a liability when selling a home. I'm not planning on moving anytime soon, but do try to keep things simple and classic looking, in the hope it might be viewed as a positive. Kim

 

[callingcolleen1]

Sissy, I love the shots of your pond in post #18, those were just great shots pond and fish!

Murlen, your cement pond with the little rocks is just adorable!!! Love all the detail and seagalls very much!!

 

[Becky]

A belated hello from me too! :wave: