3,500 gal water garden with bog filter

[GBBUDD]

Sorry for the long delay rex . i put my lights below what i felt was the maximum ice depth . i believe 90% of those forums here placed the lights in the ice zone.And that is the reason why so many so called water proof lights fail i did not loose one light over the winter. as far as up down or straight across the pond the answer is yes. all the above each has it's own throw of light the lights at the falls point up before the falls and the refracted light glistens on the falls. equally one light in the deep end points up this gives the shimmer from the water movement on the surface through out the pond. while most of the others point at strategic points " mainly large boulders in the pond. i went with the aqua scape one watt lights and the amount is perfect in my eyes and they are white no colors for me

 

[Rex]

My brother was getting rid of his koi so he brought them to me from 5 hours away. He ran a generator with an aerator the entire way.

After two days in the pond, they are already coming up to eat. The fish look small in this pic, but the larger ones are over 12".

The water is still on the cool side, but the kids couldn't resist wading in.

I finally got my 3 lights hooked up. I'd like to get a couple more.

 

[addy1]

Nice looking fish. Kids are tough, they don't feel the cold water. Me its gotta be warm to get this body in it.

 

[Rex]

Nice looking fish. Kids are tough, they don't feel the cold water. Me its gotta be warm to get this body in it.

Hahaha. I'm out on the cold water deal also. I need to repot my lily and sink it in deeper water, but its got to get a little warmer first.

 

[addy1]

I need to repot my lily and sink it in deeper water, but its got to get a little warmer first.

I have a pond pot grabber I bought around 20 years ago. It goes in the water and with a bit of work I can grab the edge of the pot and drag it to me to work on. Also bought waders so when I must go in that darn cold water I can. As long as I don't slip and fall in................

 

[Rex]

I've been working on finishing out my bog.

Some pics of how I chose to finish out the top of my bog.

 

[addy1]

Nice finish work.

 

[Boonedocks22]

Love the shape!

 

[GBBUDD]

@GBBUDD yes they do have very sharp edges. I took off a few of the sharpest points with a hammer, but I do have some underlayment under there. Thanks for reminding me though!

@GBBUDD Don't you have lights in your pond? How deep below the water did you put them? Do you like the depth you put them or would you go shallower or deeper? Did you aim them downward or upward or just straight horizontal?

all the above i have some pointing from deeper about 2ft pointing diagonally across the pond it reflects off the surface throwing shimmers of light.

then i have lights at a foot or more below pointing across the pond highlighting boulders

the falls i have no finished as i have had the lights looking straight up into the falls and you get like sparklers where the water looks alive and electric. and then i have had the lights 4 feet away in shallow waters pointing at the falls illuminating the entire water fall. if you have trees around or over the pond you have got to have one light deeper looking upward toward the tree it does little to illuminate the treee but the shimmer is the desired affect

 

[Rex]

I'm working on rocking my cinder block bog retaining wall. I should have done this before I ever filled the pond up, but I got sick of working on the pond last year and was anxious to get fish. To get started this year, I dropped the water level below where I need to start rocking. The cinder block wall was covered in string algae, so I used my power sprayer to clean it off. I happen to be working on another project that I haven't completed yet either, my barn porch. I used two pieces of rectangular tubing, from that project, to make a bridge I can work from.

The rock product I'm using is "MSI Ledger Panel 6 in. x 24 in. Natural Travertine Wall". There are a bunch of different colors. I went with the Picasso one. It costs me about $300 to get enough to do the front and one of the side. The other side will have dirt piled against it, so it won't show.

In hind sight I wish I would have poured a concrete foundation for my bog's cinder blocks to sit on. I didn't and the are just sitting on dirt. Other than being lazy and not wanting to finish my pond completely last year, I wanted to give these cinder blocks time to settle before putting the rock facade on. Hopefully I want get too many cracks in my rock facade from future settling.

 

[addy1]

Looking good!

 

[Rex]

Well that was a lot of work. The wife and I finally got the wall all rocked up. Yes the bottom row is a different kind of rock. We bought 1 box months ago and now the big box store doesn't sell that color anymore. I put it down low because it will be below the water line when I fill the pond back up.

My waterfall spillway made from floor tile. I took two tiles one on top of the other (like a sandwich to make it double thick) and set them together with some mortar. I did this just to make it a little stronger than 1 individual tile. In the pic you can see I have a level on it. I pitched it down towards the pond. I set it one bubble down on the level. I also leveled it in the other direction to make sure the water would flow off evenly across the tile. When the wind isn't blowing it makes a beautiful perfect curtain of water.

 

[pondlover]

Beautiful!

 

[j.w]

Wow,that looks so nice!
Neat idea using the floor tile

 

[poconojoe]

Looks great!