pond size for self sustaining...?

[Luke]

was just wondering... what size would a pond need to be, to be self-sustaining, (provided it only has a few fish, and alot of plants) like the many ponds you see in the countryside that have fish in them... (or you see them in scotland anyway.)

well its scotland, what can i say. it rains 24/7 and the weather is pretty much the same all year round now-adays.(Heeding the "read this before posting section, i posted weather and temperature.)

 

[Luke]

never really thought about this before, but alot of people i know are starting to request me to make a pond for them. i've only once been asked this, and i wasnt able to give an answer, so i'd just like to know for future reference.

 

[adavisus]

A configuration of 24" deep is about poifect to provide stable temperatures that many aquatic plants and critters need through the extremities of summer and Winter. In hotter climates or where the freeze line is deep, deeper would be needed

Any deeper is superfluous for most things, though koi keepers have a thing about conformation of fish improving if they swim in deeper waters

Shallower than 24" is more volatile, the wider daily temperature swings start to favour algae blooms

Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21940871@N06/
http://swglist.wordpress.com/

 

[Gomer14]

"Shallower than 24" is more volatile, the wider daily temperature swings start to favour algae blooms"

I couldn't agree with this more. My pond is only about 18' deep and gets full sun. I have had nothing but algae problems this year. Hopefully I will be able to make it deeper next year.

 

[Luke]

A configuration of 24" deep is about poifect to provide stable temperatures that many aquatic plants and critters need through the extremities of summer and Winter. In hotter climates or where the freeze line is deep, deeper would be needed

Any deeper is superfluous for most things, though koi keepers have a thing about conformation of fish improving if they swim in deeper waters

Shallower than 24" is more volatile, the wider daily temperature swings start to favour algae blooms

Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21940871@N06/
http://swglist.wordpress.com/

what about length wise, and width? surely the pond would need to be quite large to sustain itself.

 

[addy1]

Are you talking like no filtration, etc? a liner pond? Bigger will be better, I didn't see where you said temperature i.e. does it freeze there. I built my arizona pond to be 5 feet deep, keeps the hot sun we have from overheating the water. That pond is around 14k gallons.

My maryland pond is around 5 feet deep, this is to keep it warmish when we have winter and cool in the hot summer. Full sun.

To have a nice balance you would want a area that is slightly shallow ie 2-3 feet for lilies to grow well and other potted water plants.

Are you going to have a pump system? You could build them with a nice size bog to be your filter, pump the water through the planted bog. That would make it self sustaining. Mine is that way currently, I don't do much to it, lowish fish load, no koi all water tests are great. Prune the growing bog plants, prune the lilies that is about it, oh and feed the fish lol

maryland pond around 27ft x 15 or so lol need to measure it, bog around 27x5 or so

 

[stroppy]

i havent a clue how big it would need to be but i think 24" deep and it would freeze solid in Scotland would need to have much deeper areas

 

[addy1]

Agree stroppy, mine goes from around 2 feet to 5 feet, the two foot area has the lilies, the deep area has floating plants. The fish hang out in the deep area. We had 8 inches of ice this last winter covering the pond.

My small ponds i.e. 2 foot less in depth are fishless. Just plants and now tad poles.

 

[Luke]

Are you talking like no filtration, etc? a liner pond? Bigger will be better, I didn't see where you said temperature i.e. does it freeze there. I built my arizona pond to be 5 feet deep, keeps the hot sun we have from overheating the water. That pond is around 14k gallons.

My maryland pond is around 5 feet deep, this is to keep it warmish when we have winter and cool in the hot summer. Full sun.

To have a nice balance you would want a area that is slightly shallow ie 2-3 feet for lilies to grow well and other potted water plants.

Are you going to have a pump system? You could build them with a nice size bog to be your filter, pump the water through the planted bog. That would make it self sustaining. Mine is that way currently, I don't do much to it, lowish fish load, no koi all water tests are great. Prune the growing bog plants, prune the lilies that is about it, oh and feed the fish lol

maryland pond around 27ft x 15 or so lol need to measure it, bog around 27x5 or so

I wasnt planning on doing this for myself, as i personally didnt think it would work, unless you had alot of room to begin with. i'l do some measuring up
also, we had about 5 ft of snow last winter, wasnt nice. then the snow froze, and turned to ice.

 

[Luke]

Either that or find some land for sale that has natural clay already there

 

[Steve knight]

all it takes is a bathtub and a few goldfish. my gradpa had a old tub used to water the cows it had a auto water adder and some goldfish and they survived for many years. sometimes the water was so green you could not see them but he never fed them at all or did anything to maintain them.

 

[DrDave]

I wonder about the quality of thier life?

 

[Steve knight]

I wonder about the quality of thier life?:yikesu:

who knows? it was years ago but it had to be better then a fish tank.

 

[HTH]

all it takes is a bathtub and a few goldfish. my gradpa had a old tub used to water the cows it had a auto water adder and some goldfish and they survived for many years. sometimes the water was so green you could not see them but he never fed them at all or did anything to maintain them.

This is a bit of a special case. As the cows drank the water new minerals and some cow droll enter the tank. This nourished the moss and attracted various life forms.

I expect the fish would be quite hungry in a bath tub.

 

[fishin4cars]

I've heard of this actually several times. Throw a half dozen goldfish in a cow trough and they control mosquitos, It pretty much stabizes and the becomes self supporting. Cometkeith does something similar. But in a larger size pond. My grandmother did this many years ago.