My Pond

[buckry]

Building a small pond is just delaying the inevitable, you know you're going to end up with the size pond that is right for you, just build it right out of the gate, it will give you so much more time to enjoy it.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Or do what I did, move the fence out to the front of the house, so I could have more "back yard"!

 

[addy1]

I built big, this is the last pond, maybe, that I am doing. Started 25-30 yrs ago with a tiny one, they have grown in size since.

Good idea colleen! just move the fence.

 

[MrKielbasa]

how did you enlarge them , just completely redo or just add sections ?

 

[don't ask]

there is - but she thinks i am slightly mad building such a big pond but hey , I never do anything on a small scale

that's the best part... then she won't be mad when you do!

 

[addy1]

how did you enlarge them , just completely redo or just add sections ?

lol I moved, left the small ponds and built bigger at each new house. Learned a lot over the years, good, bad, ugly, and beautiful about a pond lol This one I am extremely pleased with.

 

[MrKielbasa]

That was an expensive way to build a bigger pond

 

[addy1]

That was an expensive way to build a bigger pond

laughing no kidding, esp since this move was 2300 miles

 

[CometKeith]

Addy, Your preforms look great. It seems whatever you touch in the garden comes out fantastic. MrK. I have two pumps running now into the waterfall. One is a 600/hr gallon pump that goes into a bio-filter that goes to the waterfall, and recently I added a second one that is 900 gallons/hr to improve the look of the waterfall and also to better oxygenate the water. They are both Lagunas which have a very high energy efficiency. The last one I bought from az ponds and got a great price on it, much better than the local dealer I go to sometimes. My filter is a combo with both bioballs and 3 rings of filters that act as a mechanical filter. I bought it a few years ago from Menards for about $150. If I were to do it again I would probably try to make one from scratch. A lot of people on the forum have done that and it doesn't seem that hard. I buried my filter behind the waterfall so it goes mostly into the ground and just enough protrudes above the ground so that it can easily serviced. i think it is pretty typical that people find a way to hide the filter behind the waterfall and there are a lot of ways you can do it. I have an old tree stump that I rest on it so it camouflages most of it. I recently raised my waterfall and found some really neat aqua blue granite to prop it up. I think overall granite or slate is better for waterfalls than limestone because they don't make the water alkaline. Also I have been steadily expanding the size of my pond the last year or so because I saved the extra liner and buried it and didn't cut more than necessary. The pond slowly grew on many occasions when my wife wasn't around. I'm done with that because I have run out of liner and the wife nixed a more substantial addition this year. I hope you find some part of this info useful. I don't think a pond is really ever "done"!

 

[MrKielbasa]

Thanks Keith for that info - its all good . Do you have any pics , so I can see your waterfall and how your hid the filter ?

 

[CometKeith]

These are close ups of the waterfall. I'll take some pictures of how I hid my filter but my situation is different from yours in that mine is in the far corner furthest from where you can see, whereas you have nice landscaping all around and someone can walk behind the waterfall placement. I have seen some people build a box that hides the filter and they build the waterfall around it. Obviously the box needs to be accessible to service the filter. Also you can plant some scrubs around it so it hides it as well.

 

[MrKielbasa]

Thanks Keith those are great shots !

 

[CometKeith]

MrK. This is a picture of my filter behind my tree stump. I can't hide it directly behind my waterfall because it is too close to the the cedars behind it. One nice thing about bigger shrubs by your pond is it tends to attract bird nests. I have both sparrow nests and yellow finch nests in the bushes. Also re waterfall the water flow on the right is from the 600 gph pump from the biofilter and the bigger stream on the left is from the 900 gph pump. I fashioned it so it merges a little so it looks like it is all from one water source. You may want to look at a waterfall filter that laguna has. It's a little pricey but it it is a nice way to combine a filter into a waterfall. http://www.azponds.c...ls_classic.html

 

[MrKielbasa]

Hey

Those Laguna falls look interesting but not sure if they have any dealerships over this side of the pond . Will have to do some research ... Thanks again for the pic

 

[callingcolleen1]

Hey Keith, see your water Lilly's are about a far along as mine, haven't had enough hot days here yet to make things happen for them. your floaters look real good, mine have been chewed up by fish and water tempt has not been warm enough just yet to make them really take off. Your water fall looks very nice!