how did the rock bottom trend start?

[callingcolleen1]

Rocks do look good when they are nice and clean, at the bottom of the pond. It also gives more delight for the eye to behold. Then there is more surface space for good bacteria to grow as well. The trouble is that rocks collect lots of sticky guck and that can make cleaning and scooping guck off the bottom of pond much more difficult.
It you just place the odd rock that is of nice shape and color along the edges where you can get at it to change them up when need be, then it would look good, and not be too difficult to maintain. I have just a few well placed rocks, but need mto change them out for fresh ones, maybe later today, but now I am tired from doing yardwork and need quick nap.....

 

[callingcolleen1]

ops, lots of errors back there on my last post, I think I fixed them all, must rest now..... or get extra coffee, heat getting to me too...

 

[Lisak1]

Rocks do look good when they are nice and clean, at the bottom of the pond. It also gives more delight for the eye to behold. Then there is more surface space for good bacteria to grow as well. The trouble is that rocks collect lots of sticky guck and that can make cleaning and scooping guck off the bottom of pond much more difficult.
It you just place the odd rock that is of nice shape and color along the edges where you can get at it to change them up when need be, then it would look good, and not be too difficult to maintain. I have just a few well placed rocks, but need mto change them out for fresh ones, maybe later today, but now I am tired from doing yardwork and need quick nap.....

Some people do clean their rocks every year because they like they look of the nice shiny rocks - that's where the power washing comes in handy. But I happen to like the look of the rocks just the way they are, algae and all. They change throughout the season, which is cool to watch as different types of algae become more or less prevalent. There's no "sticky gunk" and like I said, there's no gunk on the bottom TO scoop, so that's not an issue either.

 

[Priscilla]

Lisak, I love your rock bottom pond!

 

[Lisak1]

Lisak, I love your rock bottom pond!

Thanks... that's very sweet! Here's a picture of the view from my chair right now:

 

[Big Lou]

A stunningly beautiful pond Lisak1. Thanks for sharing.

Fallen leaves cause a build up if left on the bottom of my pond. During times where my health was at its worst sadly the pond bottom was a mess. A good professional cleaning took care of that issue. Since then there is much, much less decayed matter. My pump and flushing bio filter keep my water crystal clear and pond nice and tidy.

As a young boy my father took me to a very old man made pond deep in the South Alabama woods. Back in the 1800 and early 1900's this pond was used by a fired brick mill. In the early 1960's we saw the remains of a brick paved ramp, ledges and scores of individual brick. A nice memory of fishing and exploring.

 

[Capt Jack]

I've seen plenty of lakes in Minnesota with rock bottoms. In the shallows we would turn the rocks over to catch crawdads! How about Lake Tahoe?

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Lisak I think your pond looks great. and the fact that I can't see any rocks on the bottom doesn't detract from it one bit.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

We have a 20 in. ledge around most of the perimeter of our gunite (concrete) pond. The ledge has small (1 - 2 in.) and large (6 - 8 in.) river cobble in various places. The bottom and sides of the pond were textured and lightly grooved when the concrete was wet, to give the appearance of stone. We like the look of the river rock on the shelves. The water's only 18 in. deep there and the cobble layer isn't that thick, so I can vacuum up most of the sediment. The pond bottom is rock-free with a bottom drain, which helps when skimming out leaves, needles, twigs etc...
View attachment 72913 View attachment 72914

Tredds, how old is this pond?

 

[Troutredds]

Tredds, how old is this pond?

It was finished fifteen months ago, in April, 2013.

 

[Priscilla]

Thanks... that's very sweet! Here's a picture of the view from my chair right now:

View attachment 72916

GORGEOUS! I wish you lived near me so you could help me get mine into shape.

 

[MitchM]

I'm starting to regret having a liner bottom pond.
THAT'S certainly not natural. It's effectively an outdoor aquarium that is built to trap detritus.
I now wish I went for a clay only bottom with a 24/7 trickle water change. That would allow for critters that live in the substrate to properly live out their life cycle plus process fish and other biological waste.
Rock bottom ponds that you see occurring naturally are essentially areas of huge gravel deposits that at some depth, have finer silt that prevents the water from draining away faster than it's inflow.
The rocks stay near the surface because there's nowhere for them to sink deeper into.

 

[Tula]

I removed the gravel from the bottom on my pond last fall. I've had mixed feelings about it, but think it takes time to adjust to changes. I loved the way my lilies grew directly into the gravel, as opposed to planting them in pots these days. I've also been surprised that my pond isn't cleaner....think I just notice debris more when fish stir things up, compared to before when it settled into the gravel.

I have to say my lilies are doing really well finally and I like being able to scoop up debris easily in my net. It was a stinky mess when the gravel was removed, but not as bad as some horror stories I've heard about. I am getting tired of how often I'm cleaning the filters in my skimmer, so must think about a way to reduce that maintenance.

 

[callingcolleen1]

yes Tula, same here, I keep the top two upper ponds pretty much free of rocks as I have lots of trees and leave litter and stuff can collect over time between the rocks, then the really big koi would stir up the bottom if I was not able to net out the bottom good. Now that my koi are so very large, they could really make one big mess if I left the guck under the rocks. When the koi were small, they did not stir up pond bottom like they can now. The two biggest koi are about 8 to 10 pounds each I would have to say, and they throw lots of water over the edge of ponds too now.

 

[Lisak1]

Lisak I think your pond looks great. and the fact that I can't see any rocks on the bottom doesn't detract from it one bit.

Glad my rocky bottom didn't distract you Mucky.