Pond noob

[undrtkr_00]

Hey all,

Just thought I would introduce myself. I have been lurking for the past couple of months while I get my pond started. Finally got water in it a few weeks ago (just in time for it to freeze over).

Future plans are for lots of plants and a very light fish bioload (perhaps a few comets). I did dig down to 3' in a significant section of the pond so that I can possibly have koi at some point in the future, but I'm more interested in the water garden aspect of it at this point.

Glad to have found this forum and have already learned a lot from you all.

 

[koiguy1969]

welcome to the group undrtkr_00 look forward to seeing some pix.

 

[koikeepr]

welcome! welcome! are you really, like, an undertaker?? LOL!

What can you tell us about your filtration? Looking forward to seeing and hearing more about your pond.

 

[stroppy]

welcome :tongue:

 

[undrtkr_00]

welcome! welcome! are you really, like, an undertaker?? LOL!

What can you tell us about your filtration? Looking forward to seeing and hearing more about your pond.

Not an undertaker by trade. It's a nickname friends gave me some years ago.

At this point, I don't have any external filtration. Just a return pump up to a stream bed/waterfall. I'll take the filtration question on when I decide what kind of livestock to add (and how much). I have a pretty good understanding of water filtration based on my experience with saltwater reef aquariums, so I will probably experiment with some different approaches. Corals have really sensitive requirements in terms of ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, phosphates, and other nutrients (not to mention calcium, alkalinity, magnesium, etc). Much more sensitive than fish.

At this point I am just waiting for the freezing weather to pass so I can start adding plants, etc. I'll get some progress photos up before too long.

Thanks for the welcome.

 

[undrtkr_00]

OK, time for a few pics.

Here is the early stuff - just getting started back in Oct:

 

[undrtkr_00]

Then we decided to take up the lawn on that part of the yard. Man, those sod lifters are great. Did the whole thing in about an hour. Just wish I had spent more time around the edges and detail work before I took the silly thing back to the rental place. Cleaning up by hand goes a lot slower.

With the grass out of the way, I got more serious with my digging.

The ledge around the edge is for submerged, potted plants. I plan to have quite a few of them in some long porous planter boxes.

 

[undrtkr_00]

Here are a few shots of my most recent work day. Has been too frozen to do much since then...

 

[DrDave]

When it warms up, we look forward to seeing the landscapeing and final product.

 

[Matak]

Good start. Must be nice to have a property with a good natural slope. The rest of us have to fake it to get waterflow.

 

[DrCase]

Great pics , Your on your way to having a real nice pond.
Welcome to the forum

 

[undrtkr_00]

Thanks! Yeah, I'm looking forward to the final product. Trying to balance the desire to get it finished with also keeping the process fun and not too demanding. I'm glad I started in the fall, otherwise I think I would have stressed out trying to get it all done at once. As it has worked out now, it will be another month or two at least before I can start adding much in the way of plants, both to the pond and surrounding landscape. Helps me pace myself. :salook: