I love my all rocked pond

[waynefrcan]

OMG no positive replys? Ok it's back to the drawing board. And all that typing I did is wasted lol.

 

[j.w]

We are a lazy bunch of arse's Wayne and I'm still positive it's just too much work

But we will surely sit and watch you do it all

 

[Mucky_Waters]

OMG no positive replys? Ok it's back to the drawing board. And all that typing I did is wasted lol.

I wouldn't say it was wasted, in fact you may have just convinced some people who were considering a rock bottom pond that it is way too much work, of course that's something most of us already knew.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Wayne, rocked bottom ponds are just lovely, when the rocks are clean. Trouble is it's lots of trouble, cleaning and emptying the pond all the time and moving the fish around, you won't actually get a real pond, you will have a "sterile hole in the ground" with only fish for aquatic life. Ponds are not supposed to be a "sterile hole in the ground" either. Lots of people have rocks in the bottom of their ponds, and even covered in mossy green algae. Rocks serve many purposes in the pond, the more "surface area" you have, the more room for good bacteria to grow, which is also good. Rocks also provide hiding places for snails, baby fish to hide, and other aquatic life too. You don't have to clean them all the time either. It's OK to have them covered in soft mossy growth. It will help balance your pond and make your water quality better.

Then there is the issue of moving the fish, not good for the fish to constantly net them, they will stay "wild" and it will be harder to hand feed them, cause they remember you as that "monster" with the big net, and then you will destroy their fish eggs with all that cleaning. Some of my fish weigh over 5 pounds and have never been netted in twenty years! I don't even have a net that big, if I ever redo the top pond where they have lived for so long, then I would have to make a net out of a soft pillow case or something, their just that big!

The more you clean your pond, the worse the water quality will be. You will never get your pond off that "UV light" cause you never give the pond time to "balance", so them you all be stuck in that endless cleaning cycle, that gets you no where fast.

I never clean my pond, never change the water, and people ask me why my pond looks so clean all the time. I tell them the pond "cleans its self", I just clean the filters every once in a while, and not too often in the hot summer, cause there is aquatic life living in the filter too, like red thin worms and other aquatic life, that eats the filter guck nicely.

If you constantly clean the pond, then your water plants suffer the most. How will you ever grow big powerful sedges that clean the pond better than any filter on the market?? Some if my sedges are so heavy, they are very very difficult to divide in the very early spring, let alone all the time, cause they weigh a "ton".

Cleaning the pond aways is a nightmare, and defeats the purpose of creating a "truly natural aquatic wonder", which is what most people really want. Wayne your rocks are wonderful, but they would be more wondrous if there was plants springing to life in between them as soon as the ice melts, and snails moving on the rocks, water striders racing across the pond to get bugs that bug your Lilly, frogs hopping around and dragonflys hatching each year out of the sedges that line the pond edges, gently blowing in the summer breeze, while providing shade to the shallow areas, and maybe birds singing all around.

Hope you get there some day, looking forward to seeing some plants in your pond, cause you put so much work into the development of your pond, and you like me, love your rocks, I just use them in different ways!

 

[cajunmeme]

I do love your rock bottom pond. I really do. I love how everyone has different taste and likes as far as their ponds go. I love looking at all the different ponds. It gives me lots to think about. I love to see how one person can interpret how to use something in a totally different way. And I LOVE that. No negative, just positive.

 

[waynefrcan]

Thanks people and friends. Scared em all away lol? Once a year cleaning, that's childs play lol. The rest of the season, sit back and enjoy. I bet my pond is so clean I can go 3 years without a clean out. I haven't drained the pond to clean in 2 years and I see no sludge at the bottom, and my fish are happy little things.

But I see why some rocked ponds are just left to become smelly death swamps. It costs more $$ to design, equipment and rocks and then the clean out time. But If you don't want to do it yourself, then hire a company. We have well off friends that pay to have the pond shut down and pay to have it started up in the spring. But guess what, they have one of the best looking ponds around.

Also many ponds were built incorrectly without proper filtration. Those ones most definitely need once a year drain and clean.

I guess it's like with aquariums too. Pretty to look at for a month and then, oops water changes and cleaning. After 6 months people give up. When all the fish dead, it sits in the basement collecting dust.

Anyways no more on this cleaning thing until I try it myself.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

waynefrcan said
Hello, my 2003 pond was in our other house which was sold. I have no pics yet of my new pond.

Wayne you have been pretty busy promoting this rock bottom thing, I think it might be time to you upload some pictures of your new pond???

 

[sissy]

once a year is childs play and what happens to the worlds water supply and even cleaning it with lots of water what happens when your well goes dry or city water gets another chemical added to it ,not to mention the water bill you would get .I had a well pump burn out try and lift a well pump 450 feet out of a pipe in the earth ,not easy .I had rocks and they were small smooth ones and no matter what i tried they were never clean .2 filters two pumps one 2150 gph and one 2900 gph and I was a hassle so out the rocks came .Don't care about natural look as my pond does not look natural and what a relief after the rocks were gone .The work not worth it .The smell it had sometimes not worth ,the health of my fish worth it .I just like seeing my fish without the work .For 3 years I fought the battle of a rock bottom pond .I guess if you can afford it then go for it ,I have better things to do and better things to spend my money on .Call me lazy but call me happy .We are smart people the old saying says work smarter not harder :razz:

 

[waynefrcan]

I don't wanna, I don't wanna PIcs that is.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Sissy, your a hoot, put the coffee on, I'm comming for coffee and going to be lazy with you!

PS look, haven't clean my pond for years... look at the little tiny red gravel rocks on the bottom! I just love the teeny tiny little red gravel rocks! How cool huh?

 

[sissy]

funny thing is I just turned on the coffee maker before I came to look at the new posts .It looks like it is going to rain and figured I would get a cup and go sit on the front porch on the swing with the dogs I am sure poppy would really like that .Hopefully no thunder just rain light showers .

 

[Waterbug]

The rock - no rock flame war has been going on in pond forums for many, many years. People say they dislike flame wars but the number of views are always some of the highest.

I mortar the rock so I get the look of rock I like and a surface smoother than a wrinkled liner so cleaning is easy. Cleaning a bare liner pond never gave me much satisfaction..."oh goodie, I can see a wrinkled liner". I'd rather have the muck. Cleaning a mortared rock bottom looks better the cleaner it is kept imo.

Of course then I get to be flamed by the rock haters and the cement haters. The more people making disparaging comments the more I figure I must be on the right path, statistically speaking.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Do what ever makes you happy, your the only one who going to really enjoy it! I have seen very nice rock ponds, and I have seen equally nice "bare bottom ponds" and for the record, my liner is not wrinkled either, and it does not look like a liner cause it has soft green wall to wall carpeting! I like both looks, and I do have large rocks on the shelf of the bottom pond that did look great two months ago when I first put them in, but now they just blend in with the liner and you can't see them anymore cause of all the plants and hornwort, They too did got the soft green mossy look quickly there in the full sun, but the plants are now covering them up. I like the tiny little red gravel that fell in my pond years ago by accident, it looks nice and the fish pick it up and spit it out, looking for food, keeping it nice and clean.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Hertz has a really nice rocked bottom pond with plants and a stream and his pond looks awesome! Did you see his pond Wayne? Herzausstahi (Wisconsin Pond Build)

 

[waynefrcan]

I don't believe I have??