newbie here to ponds do u

sissy

sissy
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doggie cooling area .lol I have 4 of them now from ponds I took apart and they are just stacked on top of each other .Addie combined a couple of hers for plants but I just don't feel like putting in the extra work .I thought about a bog type filter made out of one but never gonna get that done but in my dreams .To much work .I was thinking of a shallow tank I have on top of a crate and putting gravel and stuff in it in the middle of the pond and planting it but it would be my luck I would knock it over and make a mess .
 
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Considering the doggie is a Mastiff, it isnt sooo cute with her sitting in it,,, The irony is we have a kiddie pool sitting in the backyard full of parrots feather, and aside from occasionally drinking out of it (yuck), she doesnt try to get into that and it is bigger (and she has her own too that she does use) ... I cant throw away something sooo usable, just cant put fish in it. I figured it would make a good "pot" to put some plants into, just need to decide the where LOL.
 

sissy

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I thought about putting baby fish in one and plants but use stock tanks for plants and those preformed are a pain to keep level .I wish there was a use for them .I did give one to a nursery here and he uses it at the entrance to his green houses with an old well pump on the edge to circulate the water and has grasses growing in it .
 
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Unless the area was well shaded, I wouldnt put fish in such a tiny pond again. When hubby had it in the front bed, I thought I would be cute and get him a few little fish. I dont even remember what the fish were. They were cute as hell. Supposedly in the goldfish family, but when I tried to look them up, I couldnt find them. Little yellow guys, with bright pinkish red cheeks (hubby has a thing for yellows)... they were only 1.5-2" and was told their max size was 6"... I got 5 of them, and figured when they out grew the plastic pond, I would just add them to the big pond... Well, we had a hot spell (summer of 2010 was brutal) ... I didnt realize that the water could get so hot with filtered sun and northern exposure... went to feed them one afternoon and they were all done:-( I did use this little pond this summer... aka to feed water hyacinths, but with it having two depths, had to prop it up in a big rock. Dont want to deal with that again... whatever we do with it, it has to be buried...
 

callingcolleen1

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I have a small 80 gallon performed pond, had it for close to 20 years now, used to be in the back yard long time ago as part of five connecting ponds. Took it out a quite a while back when I made the bottom of three connecting "back yard" ponds bigger, now small performed pond is in the front yard, keep goldfish in that pond in the summer, and I enjoy it in the front, people like to walk and see pond out front, gets me out meeting and greeting all the neighbors. Kids come by in the summer and feed the fish worms and thats OK, cause that is why I have it out it there!

Sissy, clean is deceiving. You can have a spotless pond with no smelly guck at bottom, but ammonia and other problems. Then there can be the ponds that never gets cleaned like mine, no ammonia, not too much guck but leaves right now, and very healthy fish with no ammonia at all. My guess is that cattails kept water clean. Good bacteria live in the sludge and the smell is the pond digesting the waste. My sludge smells too in the spring. You have two choices when it comes to ponds... a pond that operates like a stomach, where the waste is digesting, hence the smelly sludge. When your food is digesting in your stomach it comes out smelly too! This is because bacteria causes the sludge to smell. Does not mean pond is unhealthy, as this same sludge can be found several feet deep in the cleanest lakes!

Then there is the "garbage can" pond. This pond can appear very clean, free of waste and sludge, rocks polished spotless, but ammonia bubbles building unseen, this is the garbage can pond. Because their is no good bacteria in a too clean pond, things rot and turn to ammonia, like the garbage can. That is probally why the fish were fine, seen this before over the years, a little neglected pond but has lots of healthy fish. Plants and bacteria were keeping the pond water clean even though there was lots of sludge at bottom of pond. I remember over 30 years ago I went to rescue fish from a much neglected pond. It was around October, leaves covered the ground and had settled into the little pond, and there was leaves and guck one foot thick at bottom of pond! There was no pumps or filter. Just lots of leaves everywhere. At first when I saw this little 40 gallon pond I thought there was no fish left, but low and behold at the bottom of the pond the leaves were moving! Took out several very fat cute healthy goldfish! :)
 

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addy1

water gardener / gold fish and shubunkins
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I love the break from the heat, the yard work, grass, veg garden. But we are temperate here, usually not a horrible winter.
 

j.w

I Love my Goldies
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Ahhhhhhhhh, SanDiego ocean breezes, warm temps call to me but alas too many people and costs too much money to live down there not to mention there state is in sad despair and will fall into the ocean soon, possibly giving us ocean front property up here :surfing: :sun_smiley: B)
 
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We have the people half the year, and the other half we are a ghost town LOL.... and it is expensive to live here too... Starter houses in a decent area start about $350k, yet the average working class folks only make $10 hr, with a 40 week work season out of the entire year...
 

Blackdog128

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i can't put in a inground pond so i have to go with a above ground one i rent the house and the owners don't want us to dig up the yard for a pond :( so i have to try other options for my koi fish
 
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Build a box out of landscape timbers and drop a liner in... then it can easily be moved:) Without becoming a structural engineer, you can easily build a 600-800 gallon pond that way. When you move, just throw down a handful of grass seed whereever you had put it..
 

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