New guy, just getting started

[ididntdoit99]

Pretty bare yet, I dug this thing last year and had fish in it, but am just getting around to landscaping this year. Ive got a few plants and alot more planned for the area. But i joined this site for some ideas.
first picture is from a few weeks ago, i had a small rock waterfall at first, and I had just gotten my new pump. the rest of the pictures are from the new water feature, I took out the waterfall and added this old campground grill as the new water feature for my pond. [View attachment 6039

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[j.w]

Very cool. Hey if you want to totally hide that white liner you can make a ledge about 4" - 6" deep or so and lay the liner on that ledge and then come up the side to the top of the pond edge and make your finished edge w/ liner laying there on top of the ground. Now you can take some of your rocks and lay them on that bottom ledge so they are partly down into the water. Then you can put other rocks on the top ledge so they are on top of the bottom rocks. This way you can bring the water level up and the rocks help hide the liner.

 

[ididntdoit99]

Thanks, I might have to make that one of my weekend projects. I actually really like the white because it makes the water even that more clearer, but really do hate seeing that top part.

One other downfall, ALGE, that white stuff sure soaks up that sunlight and promotes plant growth.

 

[j.w]

Algae will grow on any liner no matter the color and soon you will not see much of the white anymore and that is good cuz the kind of smooth short algae that grows on everything in the pond helps w/ the chemistry balance of the pond. Don't remove it. There are some kinds of algae called string algae and free floating algae which we ponders don't care for and we try many ways to get rid of it. The string algae of course is long and stringy, the free floating type that greens up our water comes and goes w/ the sunshine and bio-load from fish etc. Some use barley straw, 100% clay kitty litter, hydrogen peroxide etc. to get rid of these. I've got the barley straw and kitty litter in mine right now to help ward the stuff off. If you just wait lots of times it will just clear on it's own if you have lots of plants and good filter set up and low load of fish.

 

[addy1]

Nice set up, watch your grill for rusting, the rust might hurt your fish.

the way jw is describing is the way mine is, if the water goes up or down a little you never see the liner, it also gives fry a place to hide.

 

[ididntdoit99]

I covered it in a truck bedliner to prevent rusting, but figure I'll still probably have to recoat it every couple of months. After looking through everyones pictures, I'm definatly going to have to pull all of the rocks out and get them down into the water a bit, Your ponds all look so much better without that ugly liner in the way.

And ADDY... I looked at the links in your sig, WOW!!! Seeing what you did with that hill ALMOST makes me wish I had a hilly yard.

 

[addy1]

Thanks ididntdoit99, it was a challenge, a big challenge. A real pita to make enough of a flat spot for the pond and bog, but fun. The slope did make a great stream bed.

 

[ididntdoit99]

Oh, I saw your toy, don't tell me it wasn't fun making a flat spot. J/k I'm sure there was still a lot of manual labor involved.

 

[addy1]

Oh, I saw your toy, don't tell me it wasn't fun making a flat spot. J/k I'm sure there was still a lot of manual labor involved.

Love my toy! got a good hubby, he still has yet to drive it.

Almost all of the dirt dug from the pond ended up on the down side of the slope to build up to level. But with even doing that I had to drop the up side of the slope 3 feet or so to get to level. ow we would have had a 9-10 foot high wall, down slope side to make the pond level. That was the challenge, I have never built on a slope, side hilling on a tractor scares the poop out of me, still think it will tip even now.

The stream except for the fist dig was all manual, loved getting the plants going, but then could not take the tractor up the slope............tactical error ...................laughing.

But then again I hated taking the tractor up that slope it is around 25 degrees or so, so manual was fine with me.

 

[ididntdoit99]

Okay folks, new pictures, I spent 3 hours today moving all of the rocks, picking up the liner and digging another shelf for the rocks, I LOVE IT!!! Thanks for the ideas guys, this forum has helped a bunch already.

Well the water is pretty murky from all of the dirt that accidentally went into the the pond when I picked up the liner, and I need a few more large rocks to hide some spots, also some pea gravel for the cracks in between, but all in all I think it looks 10x better.

 

[j.w]

Looks very nice and you can't see the liner anymore. Fish will like nibbling in the crevices searching for bugs and algae now. Babies can hide in there from the bigger fish. Now you need some more plants around the edges. You can also stick plants like parrots feather, water iris, and others right in between the crevices of the rocks on the bottom layer so that their roots can reach the water and you don't even need a pot. They get all their nutrients from the fish poo in the water and their roots make nice hiding spots for little fish and they like to nibble on them too

 

[addy1]

Very nice! Agree with jw I have plants in a lot of my rocks they grow great. My fry love to hide in them