Rocks and gravel on the bottom of the pond?

[mariobrothersleeve]

I started with 3 inches of sand, the liner mat and the liner. Ive got dogs in the neighborhood that love to swimm. Twice now i relined because i couldnt find the tear.......... I dont know what else to use.

 

[gardengimp]

Seems it would be easier to keep the dogs out of the pond. Fence or hot wire.

 

[Dave 54]

We dont have that problem as the pond is heavy duty welded plastic which should last us till we quit the hobby due to old age mind it being my Birthday today makes for bad reading at 56 I'm only 4 years off of my 60th OMG !!!!...........................

rgrds

Dave

 

[Mucky_Waters]

It would be very detrimental to their health for any dogs getting into my pond. :skull:

However my old friend Waterbug said he likes to cement rocks over the liner, thus protecting the liner and giving the look of a rock bottom pond without the actual open space under the rocks for the debris to accumulate. Since I'm not really into the rock bottom look, I thought it would be even better to just pour a layer of cement on the bottom of the pond to protect the liner. If you did that you could have packs of dogs running through your pond day and night have not have a worry in the world. :biggrin:

 

[crsublette]

I started with 3 inches of sand, the liner mat and the liner. Ive got dogs in the neighborhood that love to swimm. Twice now i relined because i couldnt find the tear.......... I dont know what else to use.

Mucky is correct. That would be the safest route. Also, I have issues with dogs as well due to a "no kill" dog pound near me and folk dropping off dogs; so, I have built a partial fence and posted "no trespassing" signs indicating dogs without collars will be shot on sight if they are deemed too aggressive to be contained my self.

Liners are actually quite strong that hold up well whenever walking on it by man and wildlife. In places where there is alot of wildlife, I have seen folk lay out 2 layers of heavy duty 45mil liner on top of the underlay material and they never have problems. In areas where it is tough to get a good bentonite clay seal, there are big 1 acre wildlife liner ponds that don't have problems.

With the proper preparation and underlay material , there are zero issues in regards to concerns of objects poking through the liner.

If there is a concern about the liner walls and liner at the top, then you can simply stack smooth rocks and fill in the gaps with fish safe foam or fish safe mortar.

I don't understand why there is no attempt to keep the dogs out of the pond in the first place and it sounds like the liner and underlayment being used is not good quality at all.

 

[mariobrothersleeve]

No actually a great liner it even says goodyear on it., once the dogs get in they just keep going to town on trying to get the fish. I bought those audiable deturents. Apperently its 563.72 ticket for discharging a firearm in town. And yes aspca would be all over my ass for a loss of dogs

 

[crsublette]

Glad I live in Texas. Don't have many of those silly gun laws as long as permited and proper signage is posted.

It saying "goodyear" on it means nothing of significance. The thickness and durability and proper make of plastic is what matters.

Again, if you can't do anything for deterrance, then there are ways of building the pond walls and cap stones by reducing muck buildup without being a detriment to water quality.

You can always tranquilize the dogs and have animal control pick them up since you live within the city limits.

 

[mariobrothersleeve]

So i got a hold of the police several years ago, for the dogs. They told me they needed a picture of the dog, ok so i go buy a camera and a dvr for the camera. I got the dog and showed them the picture. They took the recording to the police station. The next week the picture was in the paper for "wanted suspect" if that doesnt make you laugh, im not sure what will.

 

[crsublette]

Yeah, that's quite silly. I suppose it all depends where you live. In my area, when dogs get in packs, we've had problems with them killing cattle.

 

[mariobrothersleeve]

We are getting wolves around her pretty good now, anyone from the north have any ways they keep them away?

 

[shakaho]

What about a layer of sand on the bottom? I have done this in a couple ponds and it stays as clean as a bare bottom. It packs tight so there's no place for debris to hide. It also looks very nice. In time the white sand turns greenish from algae, and IMO looks even nicer. The only problem with sand is if I net out leaves it takes some extra effort to get them without getting a netful of sand
.

 

[mariobrothersleeve]

I like that idea, does it have to be a type of sand?

 

[shakaho]

I just used play sand from Home Depot. I washed it before using it, but I think if it's safe for kids to eat (which they will do) it should be OK for fish. If I had a larger pond I'd go to a sand & gravel yard.

 

[Tradewinds]

After reading this thread, I "may" have found one symptom as to why I have a constant battle with green hair algae. I had my pond installed and listened to the advice of the professional, which was to add rocks to the bottom of the pond. It looks more natural. The rocks included pea gravel, medium sized stones, and several larger stones. The first year the pond looked great, but each year thereafter I had to drain the pond, power wash it, and then refill it. Towards the end of the summer, the GHA would start to come back. BTW, the professional went out of business a year or so after installing my pond, what are the odds?

I do not have a very elaborate system, and I may get the terms wrong - but here goes, I have an overflow box that contains removable netting to catch the big stuff, followed by a pad of dense plastic strands, then the return pump. I guesstimate the pond to be 600-700 gallons and have four large goldfish.

This year, I plan to remove as much rock as possible from the bottom of the pond and see if that helps. If nothing else, it will make it a lot easier to clean in the future.

 

[sissy]

rocks in a pond are hard to clean and once covered by muck what are you seeing nothing but muck .