Started digging and found this in my yard

[houseguitarshop]

I noticed some strange rock formation in my yard when I bought the property. I started digging and found two waterfalls and two small ponds.

I am new to the pond hobby but do have experience keeping saltwater fish and coral and had alot of old equptment wich came in handy.

here is pictures from the first day of digging. Even my buddy's golden retriever was helping dig!

 

[houseguitarshop]

after the second day of digging

 

[houseguitarshop]

after the third day of digging

 

[houseguitarshop]

my backyard is not very big I live in the city, the larger pond stuck out into the yard, so I decided to make the large pond half the size. I knocked out the old concrete with a sledge hammer and poured a new retaining wall with re bar enforcement, and then used the existing rock we uncovered and concerted them in as coping stones.

I also re-tubed all the existing waterfalls there are quite a few of them with small pools at the ends.

 

[houseguitarshop]

water test to see how well it holds water without a liner. It does not!

 

[houseguitarshop]

Installing the underlayment, the liner, burring the tubes and laying grass seed

 

[houseguitarshop]

two weeks later the grass is in.

the rocks on the waterfall all the water just flows underneath. So I fix that coming up.

 

[houseguitarshop]

put a liner on the waterfall, poured morter over the top and cemented in the rocks. Got the electrical GFI and breakers installed, low voltage landscape lighting, and added pond plants. I have also had a few bait minnows in the pond to eat the larva that was living.

 

[houseguitarshop]

the pond at night

 

[houseguitarshop]

added some goldfish, mosquito fish, and an american flag fish.

 

[Big Lou]

Great recovery of an existing pond. Lot's of hard work but it paid off. Congratulations and welcome to the forum!

 

[tbendl]

Exactly what Lou said. It's like finding buried treasure. Looks wonderful!

 

[houseguitarshop]

thanks! I added two small bog filters that I can lift up and out, dump the gravel rocks in a bin, and spray out from time to time when needed. They are made out of two large black plastic bowls, with a manifold pipe on the bottom that upfeeds the water. The two gravel beds are 10" deep and 14" in diameter. If I need more filtration I will add another small bog filter.

 

[Lisak1]

Well that was an interesting dig! Good job!

 

[houseguitarshop]

thanks! I never thought I would be a pond hobbiest but so far I really enjoy it.