it's pond season!

[Roop]

1 week ago i took out the trusty shovel and wheelbarrow and dug the pond out. over the week i've been planning the various specifics of it. the liner and underlay came in on wednesday. i now have all of that in place. i still have lots of landscaping work to do but that will come once the garden stores open (ritchies, lalonde's).

this morning the temperature in the pond was 7°C. that's too cold for goldfish (that are currenlty in about 20°C water) and may put my hardy plants back into a dormat state. which some ingenuity i've managed to raise the temperature to 15°C in the last 7-8 hours.

i used a submersible pump and some garden hose. the water is pumped through about 50ft of hose which is heated by the sunlight and ambient air. 15°C will be fine for my hardy aquatic plants. i'm going to see how much it drops overnight. if it's not too much, i'll put my lilies out there. the lilies are overgrowing my 30g aquarium and starting to put flower buds up.

here's a pic (12ft long, 10ft wide, 3ft deep). does anyone else have some intresting pond activity yet?

[Roop]

lemme try that pic again...

[luvfishies]

Clever you !!!

Looking good for so early in the season!

[Aiglos]

Congrats Roop, Can't wait to see how it proggresses !!!!!

VERY NICE.

[gvv]

Today first gooses came to my pond... I didn't take the picture as I was busy with my BBQ and garden, but they were happy to have at least one place to "drink for free"
I don't have fish there yet, as I get them out in autumn and planning to put back later.

[manytanks]

No pond action yet. Instead of refilling our little 6'x6' pond this year, I'm thinking of completely re-doing it to make it larger and deeper...but it's way down on the List Of Things To Do.

But where did you get your liner? Where's the cheapest place in town to get one? And what type of underlay do you have? We aren't using one and have been lucky not to have any leaks. Did you use sand on the bottom under the underlay?

And here are four pics from start to finish (40-50k each) on our little pond. All credit for the landscaping/pondscaping goes to my wife!

[Roop]

hey manytanks.

nice pics. i would recommend making it bigger and deeper. it's much more enjoyable and you can put a lot more in it. the green water there doesn't look too good. i bought laguna brand compressed barley straw last year for $15.99 (1.25kg). it really takes the green outta the water.

i got my liner and underlay from http://www.petsandponds.com/

they have decent prices and shipped to me in 3 business days. i got  a firestone pond-safe rubber liner. it's very heavy and should last for years. the underlay is some soft synthetic fabric material on the liner side and a tough textured rubber/plastic surface on the ground side.

the liner (20ft by 18 ft), underlay (270sq ft) taxes, and shipping came to about $350. you might be able to find it cheaper, but you're probably not going to get rubber firestone liner for anything less.

all the goldfish i have right now are also feeders. last year i put the first two batches in too quickly and the water was too cold. this killed them. around may 20th last year was warm enough and all the feeders i put in there survived up until now. petsmart on innes sells various sizes for really cheap, $0.60 sounds right.

[oenology]

I started cleaning out my pond this weekend and hooking up my DIY filtration system. Pump started just fine. But so far the only fish I've seen have been dead fish. I kept a hole open all winter but no bubbler this year. So sad. I've overwinter 2xs successfull and 2x's not.  I guess the lesson is either take them out or don't get attatched!

The photos are from 2 summers ago - the big guy you can see was bought as a feeder some years ago. Sadly he didn't make it through that really cold winter we had that year. The lilies on the other  hand seem to over winter in the pond without any problems.

[Roop]

it's too bad your fish didn't make it jen. that's a great pond though! hopefully it looks as good this year.

[Julie]

Great looking ponds everyone.
Roop keep us posted as it progresses.
Luvfishies- lovely perennials surrounding your pond - very nice.

Julie

[luvfishies]

Luvfishies- lovely perennials surrounding your pond - very nice.

Julie

:shock:  Who, me?  :shock:

LOL I only have a "balcony tub" that passes for a teenie weenie pond....I think you were referring to oenology's pond, Julie

[Julie]

Oops :?  - oenologys and manytanks - very nice!!  

[Roop]

it's been a little while and i've done a lot of changes. the goldies are now in there, swimming around happily. i slowly (over 3 hours) changed their water from 20°C aquarium water to 14°C pond water.

i've lined the pond with rocks and i plan on growing some ground cover plant between them. the waterfall is setup, with 2 pumps powering it for about 900gph of flow. the bio-filter is in place too and i might stick an airstone in there.

once the plants start growing it should be perfect.

[dannypd]

it's been a little while and i've done a lot of changes. the goldies are now in there, swimming around happily. i slowly (over 3 hours) changed their water from 20°C aquarium water to 14°C pond water.

i've lined the pond with rocks and i plan on growing some ground cover plant between them. the waterfall is setup, with 2 pumps powering it for about 900gph of flow. the bio-filter is in place too and i might stick an airstone in there.

once the plants start growing it should be perfect.

My pond water is still around 9°C...the fish are still not hungry yet...they havn't been fed for almost 9 months...