Rock on Bottom or not??

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Ok...I'm getting way ahead of myself here, I am in no way ready for this step...I haven't even touched my shovel ...in fact, I haven't even looked at it...Damn where is my shovel.:banghead3:.( I Digress) ....BUT...this is killing me. I have fish tanks and they have rock on the bottom and with aquariums ...it stores beneficial bacteria along with making it look nice...

I have read & heard...both for ponds...

Don't do it..it creates a sewer

Do it...It looks natural and helps with benefical bacteria...

I searched the forum to see if anyone started a thread on this already and couldn't find it...so sorry if I'm the newbie bringing up the same stupid question. :twocents: I'm just curious if there is one dominating school of thought here or if you guys are as evenly split as I have been reading...Thanks BA...
 

koiguy1969

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do not put rocks on the bottom of your pond...youll wish you hadn't! debris and fish crap and bad bacteria and parasites.... it will become a sewer.
you cant vaccuum you will have to commit to at least yearly drainings and cleanings with the rocks out!!!
 
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WOW...Camper man...crazy pics....HMMM...now that I think about it the guy at the Pond Sales "and maintenance" place said rocks...I guess the survey says....NO ROCKS...Thanks guys.
 
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You have just saved yourself a lot of trouble, Baraccus. Cleaning around a few large rocks isn't so bad, but gravel is infinitely more trouble than it's worth. Yet people have been building ponds this way for years. Do they know something I don't?

While we're on the subject of saving yourself a lot of hassle, consider a bottom drain. No, not for draining the pond. It's for sucking debris into the filter. People who set this up right need to do very little cleaning. Wish I had one.
 

DrCase

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Baraccus said:
WOW...Camper man...crazy pics....HMMM...now that I think about it the guy at the Pond Sales "and maintenance" place said rocks...I guess the survey says....NO ROCKS...Thanks guys.

THATS why , he's in sales ..they make more money when they sell more stuff. NO ROCKS
 
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Het Baraccus,

I had rocks in my first pond. I've increased pond size about six times since then and have NEVER put rocks on the bottom since. Way too much trouble. I do have some large rocks placed on the shelves of my pond so they are sticking out of the water. These are no trouble and just make the pond look a lttle more natural....in my opinion.
 
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Meekaboo said:
Het Baraccus,

I do have some large rocks placed on the shelves of my pond so they are sticking out of the water. These are no trouble and just make the pond look a lttle more natural....in my opinion.

I was wondering that...I'm sure a couple bigger rocks like that aren't bad. I was thinking for the fish too...Gives them something to swim around,hide etc...
 

DrDave

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I am not in favor of rocks in the pond. They look cool until you have to catch a fish or clean around them or worse, they cause your liner to fail. I have a Japanese bridge over both my ponds for the fish to hide under and an underwater tunnel large enough for all my breeder Koi to hide under at the same time. It is a fiberglass half shell. Like a 55 gallon drum cut in half with no ends. The Koi love it and it protects them from the sun.
 
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Otter,

I put in an AquaArt bottom drain on top of the liner. It works pretty well, but I doubt it works as well as a true, plumbed setup. I've tested mine with wet toilet paper and it sucks in debris from about 1.5 ft out.

I plumbed it straight into my skimmer and directly into my pump (4700gph EasyPro) which sits in the skimmer. The total run to the pump is about 4 ft. I put in a T fitting and the other side of the T pulls from the skimmer. I shut off the bottom drain with a gate valve in winter, but I also have another valve so I can adjust the intake between the two sources.
 
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I set up my pond (my first one) 2 years ago. I got a consult with a well know pond installation company and they convinced me to put river rock on the bottom.
It looks great...for about one month...AFTER you've drained and cleaned it from the previous year.
I'm currently in the process of removing the rock from the bottom. I'm going to leave a few large rocks in for interest, but I'll be going bare liner this year. I am, however going to use the river rock that I take out of the pond to line the stream that feeds it.

Just my :twocents:
 

DrDave

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Great idea:icon_exclaim:
Streams are nice features and the only place that rocks fit well in a pond. My waterfall and stream that connects both ponds are lined with river rock and the pond is bare bottomed. When it ages for a while, you can't tell it is a rubber liner you are looking at.
 
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D&RW said:
Otter,

I put in an AquaArt bottom drain on top of the liner. It works pretty well, but I doubt it works as well as a true, plumbed setup. I've tested mine with wet toilet paper and it sucks in debris from about 1.5 ft out.

There's a lot to be said for keeping everything inside the liner. If the bulkhead fitting at the drain ever started leaking, you'd probably have to drain the pond to fix it. :twocents: :banghead3: :banghead3:

Some claim their bottom drains will draw from six feet away. Depends mostly on the flow rate, I imagine. I like the idea of having the bottom slope down to the drain(s) so that gravity brings most of the debris in range. My pond has three levels of basically flat bottom, hence even if I retrofitted a drain, it wouldn't do much good. If (when) the seam in the liner gives way, though, I'll be looking to rebuild using everything I've learned from the previous owner's mistakes and these forums.
 

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