New Mexico Wildlife Pond

[Rashad]

Are these baby goldfish or some other fish that hatched from eggs on a plant or something? I guess they’re not kidding when they say goldfish breed fast… 4 is going to become 8 assuming these survive.

 

[mrsclem]

Congrats! Those are baby fish.

 

[Laaf]

Can you share updated pond pics? I am thinking of building a bigger pond myself with a bog, intake bay, and a waterfall in addition to the bog spillover.

 

[Rashad]

Sure! Here you go. I would say my main lessons learned are:

1. Build the walls of the bog higher relative to the waterfall/spillway. Ideally at least 4-6 inches above the water level in case it gets clogged/crowded, that way water won't back up out your bog walls. So far I'm okay but if it's too close for comfort with my current design. Maybe next summer I'll raise the walls as I do have extra liner tucked in under the caps of the bog wall.

2. Think about how plants will impact the flow of debris into the intake bay. Without any plants, the intake bay worked like a charm. It still works, but a lot of leaves get stuck in the middle of the lilies and the parrots feather. I just need to poke it with a stick or something and it will usually come free, but just one more little thing to think about. I might rearrange some plants to free up a path through the middle for debris.

3. My water is crystal clear, but I did have quite a bit of string algae that I had to clear periodically from the pond and bog for esthetic reasons. It absolutely dominates the waterfall. I don't mind the look so much but I was hoping the bog would cut down on the algae. I'm guessing year two the plants will be more established and be better able to suck up nutrients. I'm also going to add some more submerged aquatic plants. The pond is in pretty close to full sun from about 10am to 3pm in the summer, which I'm sure contributes. I'm also using well water which has a decent baseline phosphate level.

4. I didn't really appreciate how much the wind in Albuquerque was going to blow gunk into the pond. Cottonwood season I could have cleaned out the intake bay 3 times a day if I wanted to. It was literally covered in cottonwood fluff all the time. Pretty sure a skimmer might have gotten clogged from the fluff. Very curious to see how crazy fall is going to get with leaves to clear out.

5. A lot of the plants took quite a while to get established, so if you can it planted in the spring, rather than early summer when I did it would be better. Overall most things took off well. I even sprouted a few cuttings (rosemary) by just putting them in the bog and they grew roots and everything. Love the Yerba Mansa in the bog.

6. Goldfish really don't need supplemental food. I started with 2 sarasa comet goldfish and 2 shubunkins. I now have one baby that made it to the big leagues and hangs out with the big fish, and several mid-size babies that if they make it through the winter might join the club, and then many smaller babies that I think aren't going to make it? Who knows. I've literally fed the fish four times. If anyone in Albuquerque wants a big thing of fish food that I bought thinking I was going to need it feel free to message me.

7. During the peak of summer I was losing a TON of water to evaporation. I was really paranoid I had leak or something but it's just that hot and dry here. I set up a 1/4 inch line attached to the backyard irrigation that runs into the pond so whenever the sprinklers run it gets topped off a bit, and I can adjust the flow down (now) when there's lower evaporation or if it rains. I didn't bother with a float valve but eventually that would probably be the better solution.

8. Build some tolerance for multiple water levels. I sort of lucked into this, but the intake bay has about a 4.5 inch water height variability between minimum and maximum which offers plenty of cushion (so far). If the water level drops below that, the pump will stop working, but the fish will at least have water because the water will stay at the bottom level of the intake bay if that makes any sense. All my plumbing is within the pond so the only real potential disaster is a hole in the liner somewhere, or the bog developing a big leak, but even then the main pond would retain its water.

9. Plants that have done the best: Yerba Mansa is native to here and has grown super well and spreads by runners. It's also beautiful in bloom, and tolerant of our alkaline soil/water. Cardinal flower took a while to get established but eventually gave off some awesome late summer flowers that the hummingbirds loved just as they were getting ready to leave. The swamp milkweed I planted also took a while to get established, and it didn't bloom this year, but I'm optimistic for next year. Hardy lillies and the lotus did super well, although I battled aphids all summer. Chocolate mint also did great and spread well. Several other plants suffered from iron chlorosis from the alkalinity but survived and seemed like they eventually adapted. Those include water plantain, irises, Mexican heather. The only thing that died completely was a native gooseberry I thought might have a shot but I think the bog was just too wet for it.

Happy to answer any questions! You're welcome to come over some time and take a look (I think you're in Albuquerque if I remember correctly!)

 

[Laaf]

Thank you for your detailed description!

 

[GBBUDD]

Try adding air into the pond to help lesson string algae

 

[ATP]

Pond looks great! I am thinking about adding a similar intake bay like yours over a skimmer. Are you happy with it? You mentioned that a lot of debris get stuck in the plants but I would think you would have the same issue with a skimmer, right?

 

[Rashad]

Pond looks great! I am thinking about adding a similar intake bay like yours over a skimmer. Are you happy with it? You mentioned that a lot of debris get stuck in the plants but I would think you would have the same issue with a skimmer, right?

I am happy with it and yes the problem might be worse with a skimmer because at least the intake bay spreads out the suction area whereas a skimmer has a smaller area to get blocked.

 

[GBBUDD]

Intake bays in my opinion come to the party a little late. When debri / pollen, leaves, grass clippings, dust is best removed before it has a chance to get water logged and fall to the bottom of the pond a a wide opening leading toward the pumps will have a volume pull from all layer of the water column. A skimmer or negative edge draw from the surface and collect that debris before it is sitting on the bottom. Just my two sense.

 

[Rashad]

Intake bays in my opinion come to the party a little late. When debri / pollen, leaves, grass clippings, dust is best removed before it has a chance to get water logged and fall to the bottom of the pond a a wide opening leading toward the pumps will have a volume pull from all layer of the water column. A skimmer or negative edge draw from the surface and collect that debris before it is sitting on the bottom. Just my two sense.

My intake bay has a 6 inch wide and about 4-6 inch deep entry into the bay (depending on water level), so it does mostly pull from the surface. I don't know of any good math you can do to figure this out, I sort of had to just experiment by placing rocks and then dropping leaves on the surface around the pond. I found a wider opening was causing stuff to just sort of swirl around in front of the bay, but by narrowing it a bit I increased the amount of suction. Anyway, any leaf that drops into the pond will definitely make it into he bay before falling to the bottom unless it gets stuck on a plant, or I neglect it and the bay gets clogged with leaves.

If you can do a negative edge, in my mind that is probably the best system overall but it would have added a ton of work and cost to my build, since I was digging by hand. But if you're going bigger and using some real tools, I think it's probably worth it.

 

[GBBUDD]

If you can do a negative edge, in my mind that is probably the best system overall but it would have added a ton of work and cost to my build, since I was digging by hand. But if you're going bigger and using some real tools, I think it's probably worth it.

Very true . and yes that is almost the same i found when my skimmer was running. it originaly was like a pool with 2 foot depth right up to the skimmer and 2 foot wide. This was found to do as you mentioned . little to no draw from the surface when i lessened the depth and width it made a huge improvement.
I actualy have a little of both, i have a foot wide by two foot deep opening to one section of my pond which is a intake bay. but the pumps are over the edge in an other small pool where the water drops making a water fall. /Negative edge
My intent was not to create a intake bay but an area to capture my fish and restrict them from the big pond so i can catch them. we call it dead pool.

 

[Rashad]

Hey everyone, thought I'd drop a first year pond update. Biggest thing is I ended up having to raise the bog liner due to having too little clearance from the back of the bog to the waterfall.. Have just been too lazy to buy another of cap stones to cover the liner so it's just hanging out like this for now. Plants are coming along well. Yerba Mansa is the MVP. Tolerates the alkaline soil and water super well and grows and spreads like gangbusters. The irises are doing well. Green onions are amazing. I just threw some in last year as a test and they fully established with nice big round flower heads. I even cut some greens off for salad every now and then.

A couple frogs moved into the pond, haven't seen any eggs yet. We lost two sarasa comets to predation, but all the calico shubunkins seem to be surviving so I think I'll be okay without a net and just keep to more well camouflaged fish here on out. For the marginal plants, hostas have worked well. Dragonsblood Sedum is doing amazingly nestled among the rocks. I've basically just come to accept the string algae and just clear it out periodically.

Intake bay still working well.

Happy to answer any questions!

 

[Laaf]

Looking great!

If you keep having trouble with the bog water level being too high, scoop out some of the gravel and it will really help lower the water level without hurting your bog function. You can not raise the liner or I would say raise it. I had the same issue after my aquatic mint grew so much its roots expanded my bog gravel and it was causing water to overflow my little bog in multiple spots. I scooped out gravel and it brought the water back to where I wanted it. (Actually the roots were so thick I had to saw it out with a big knife to get out roots and gravel along the edges. Just taking out some sections really helped the overall bog water level drop).

LOL to the green onions from the store doing well.

I am guessing you will have more fish by the end of the year by spawning and/or purchase.

The bosque fire was unsettling yesterday. They are still out there putting out hotspots.

 

[Rashad]

Hi everyone, just wanted to put out a pond update. Everything is going well. A couple weeks ago the string algae pretty much cleared up on its own, so I think the bog and other plants just needed to reach critical mass. Happy to answer any questions. Fish are doing well, added some mosquito fish just to have some smaller fish to go with the goldfish. Bog really took off in year 2, and I'm almost at the point where I'll need to start pulling stuff I think. The Most Valuable Plant is still Yerba Mansa, and I'll give a 2nd place finish to the water clover which I brought in this spring. Spreads well, fills in gaps, is pretty, but doesn't choke out other stuff or anything.

Edit: Not sure why I committed the cardinal sin of a vertical video. Will redo it at some point...

Edit 2: Forgot to mention one little lesson. I planted a few swamp milkweed around the pond. The ones in the bog are doing great. The ones at the margin of the pond both grew tall and then fell over. Apparently swamp milkweed has a pretty deep root system, so only plant them somewhere where they'll have deep enough substrate to anchor securely.

 

[j.w]

Looks beautiful @Rashad