Newb

[Americanfranks]

Hey everyone.

This forum looks to be a great resource! I recently built a 800 gallon pond in my backyard and my wife and I are loving it. The pond actually uses rain water from my garage roof to keep it full. I have a 55 gallon rain barrel connected to the roof gutter and once it fills the overflow drains to the pond. Once the pond reaches a certain level the water drains out to the street via an underground pipe.

I had two koi in the pond, but my beautiful yellow gold one dissapeared a few weeks ago.. I think either a bird or a raccoon got it . But I have one left now and also have 8-10 gold fish in there too.

I'm planning to make the rain water haversting and water feature incorporation a business in my local area. Search Facebook for Rainwater Harvesting Solutions for more details.

Thanks!! Looking forward to talking with you all!

-Trae

 

[sissy]

hello and welcome Roanoke Va I was just up there to the hospital brother in law Dave 's mother is there .I am not far from you .You go to Hillsville flea market

 

[sissy]

String fishing line over you pond rebar in the ground or those landscape hooks and tie from one to the other .

 

[Fishylove]

Welcome Trae! :wave:

 

[Mmathis]

Welcome! I like your pond -- lots of water movement!

 

[Dave 54]

Greetings from the UK , are there any fish in your pond and if so what do you have ?

rgrds

Dave

 

[davepratt]

that sure is a nice lookin pond you got there welcome aboard

 

[JohnHuff]

Do you filter the water from your roof? I've heard that it can contain chemicals and the dust/dirt/pollutants isn't too good for the fish either.

 

[Americanfranks]

Dr. Sir Huff,

The only filter I have is for large debris going into the rain barrel. However, the water entering the pond from the rain barrel is from the top of the barrel (once it overflows) so there is some settleing of heavier material entering the barrel. I have had concerns about contaminants that you mentioned, but so far so good.

 

[Americanfranks]

Please check out my pond build video series here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHWhSzy1UKMGqokQT37P5ICK9v8ctRfli I'd love to hear feedback for future builds!

 

[CometKeith]

Hi AF. Your pond looks very nice and welcome to gpf. I took a look at your videos. It looks to me that your pond may get flooded if you get any more heavy rains. The sides should be raised above the ground to prevent that. Also my guess is some of the dirt for your landscaping may wash in too. Generally you want to avoid any possible contamination of your pond by chemicals including fertilizers and pesticides. Also in other discussion we have had on the forum there have been concerns that runoff from a roof can contaminate a pond. It's a great idea to reuse rainwater, but i'm not sure it would be a good idea to build ponds for other people and risk injuring their fish be using roof runoff.

 

[JohnHuff]

I'm thinking mainly of a couple of types of pollutants.

1) There are a lot of pollutants in the air. These pollutants may include tire dust, pollen, tail pipe chemicals, and industrial and power plant pollutants if you live near enough them. Over time, these pollutants may settle on the roof, concentrate and be washed into the rain barrel.This is the number one reason why I wouldn't use rain runoff. It has been suggested that the initial run off be discarded.
2) Chemicals from cleaning or preserving your roof.

It looks like you're mechanically filtering the rainwater but I think that these pollutants are of greater concern. I think your rainwater might be better off used to water plants or ponds without fish.