Mmathis
TurtleMommy
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Ooooo, nice one! What kind is it? Yeah, if he's after the fish, he needs a new home, LOL!
Bag End garden pond (newbie thread)
- Thread starter audioenvy
- Start date
Very nice property you have. Love the painting! it's so beautiful.
If it were me I'd take out a lot of the rocks. Because since your pond is not so big and you have both koi and goldfish, come next spring they will try to spawn (may be if they are big enough) and they might get injured from the rocks (doesnt seems like smooth rocks too). And more rocks give more place for babies to hide, which mean you will have more fish in the pond each year. that's my take to it
Is your pond line with liner or concrete? if with liner it'll be easier to just pull the liner and dig deeper.
In Utah, you might need a deeper pond than what you have. Or a very very good pond heater!
If it were me I'd take out a lot of the rocks. Because since your pond is not so big and you have both koi and goldfish, come next spring they will try to spawn (may be if they are big enough) and they might get injured from the rocks (doesnt seems like smooth rocks too). And more rocks give more place for babies to hide, which mean you will have more fish in the pond each year. that's my take to it
Is your pond line with liner or concrete? if with liner it'll be easier to just pull the liner and dig deeper.
In Utah, you might need a deeper pond than what you have. Or a very very good pond heater!
Is that a water snake? if so, if you let it go make sure it's easy to find water source. Cool pattern.Caught him! Not sure what to do with him but he's in timeout right now. I'll probably drive him up the canyon and let him go there.
It's a garden snake but it does love the water.
UPDATE: The snake got away. I had it in an empty garbage bin with no lid awaiting transport up the canyon and we had a wind storm that blew over the bin and the snake got away. I'm assuming he'll show up on the rocks or in the water.
If it were me I'd take out a lot of the rocks...
Is your pond line with liner or concrete? if with liner it'll be easier to just pull the liner and dig deeper...
In Utah, you might need a deeper pond than what you have. Or a very very good pond heater!
Lots of good advice, thanks!
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Time to put up an electric fence, they are simple and not terrible to use.
Oh wow!!!!! I love that hobbit room! What fun! So glad you decided to keep it. It is special and kids will go nuts over it!
Those stone steps outside are gorgeous -- and the pond is really neat!
I'm planning my first pond and have done some research on the rocks or no rocks question. I am going to to with some rocks -- mostly because I love them! I have been watching all the videos on YouTube by The Pond Digger -- Eric Triplett. I watched his videos about how to do an annual cleaning on a goldfish pond. (Not koi.) It doesn't look too difficult. I think I am going to make the pond bottom slope down ever so slightly to one area -- so when I do the cleaning, I can sluice most of the sediment and have it collect there for easy suck-out. He advocates for a gentle cleaning -- just getting the bulk of the gunk -- leaving the biofilm on the rocks to support a healthy ecosystem. I think that's going to be my plan.
I just realized I left this message on page one -- haven't even seen page two yet!
Those stone steps outside are gorgeous -- and the pond is really neat!
I'm planning my first pond and have done some research on the rocks or no rocks question. I am going to to with some rocks -- mostly because I love them! I have been watching all the videos on YouTube by The Pond Digger -- Eric Triplett. I watched his videos about how to do an annual cleaning on a goldfish pond. (Not koi.) It doesn't look too difficult. I think I am going to make the pond bottom slope down ever so slightly to one area -- so when I do the cleaning, I can sluice most of the sediment and have it collect there for easy suck-out. He advocates for a gentle cleaning -- just getting the bulk of the gunk -- leaving the biofilm on the rocks to support a healthy ecosystem. I think that's going to be my plan.
I just realized I left this message on page one -- haven't even seen page two yet!
Well I finally installed a proper filter (OASE Filtoclear 8000) and it has made a big difference. Without the filter the water seemed to start out fairly clear in the mornings but by late afternoon it was always pretty cloudy. This is from before the filter was installed:
And this is after:
I still need to work on getting the fish to stop moving around while I'm trying to take photos LOL. A polarized lens would also help I think? Anyway, you can see the water is a lot more clear now and will hopefully keep getting better as the good bacteria starts to grow in the filter.
I'm still working on getting these fish to be less skittish. I'm trying to feed them small amounts and stand by so they get acclimated to my presence but it's slow going. They won't feed on the surface so I have to use a fish food that I can submerge in the water. Hopefully they'll get better at it and eventually come to the surface when they see me.
And this is after:
I still need to work on getting the fish to stop moving around while I'm trying to take photos LOL. A polarized lens would also help I think? Anyway, you can see the water is a lot more clear now and will hopefully keep getting better as the good bacteria starts to grow in the filter.
I'm still working on getting these fish to be less skittish. I'm trying to feed them small amounts and stand by so they get acclimated to my presence but it's slow going. They won't feed on the surface so I have to use a fish food that I can submerge in the water. Hopefully they'll get better at it and eventually come to the surface when they see me.
Well I finally installed a proper filter (OASE Filtoclear 8000) and it has made a big difference. Without the filter the water seemed to start out fairly clear in the mornings but by late afternoon it was always pretty cloudy. This is from before the filter was installed:
And this is after:
I still need to work on getting the fish to stop moving around while I'm trying to take photos LOL. A polarized lens would also help I think? Anyway, you can see the water is a lot more clear now and will hopefully keep getting better as the good bacteria starts to grow in the filter.
I'm still working on getting these fish to be less skittish. I'm trying to feed them small amounts and stand by so they get acclimated to my presence but it's slow going. They won't feed on the surface so I have to use a fish food that I can submerge in the water. Hopefully they'll get better at it and eventually come to the surface when they see me.
WOW! What a difference!
I knew it would help but it's still surprising. Now I can actually watch the fish from inside my house looking out the back window!
Mmathis
TurtleMommy
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@audioenvy I have the same problem with my fish -- they just refuse to hold still for the camera!
Well, I'm making progress with this pond but it feels like two steps forward and one step back.
I've added filtration that has really cleared up the water and I've been systematically removing rocks a few at a time. BUT I'm totally obsessing at this point about the crap on the bottom. Every rock I remove seems to reveal more stuff underneath. It appears that the original owner of the pond wanted plants in the water so he put potting soil and plants on top of the liner and then put landscaping fabric over the top of it and then a layer of rocks on top of that. It's a mess.
I'm removing rocks and sludge and landscaping fabric a little at a time but every time I do it dirties the water enough that I have to wait a couple of days for things to clear up so I can see the bottom again. In the photo below you can see that I'm working gradually from left to right removing the rocks I can lift out by hand. There's an exposed piece of landscaping fabric you can see. I have cleaned beneath it but I'm going to have to carefully lift it and cut it taking care to not cut the liner underneath it because I can't remove the really big rocks on the edge that are holding it down.
The rock structure in the middle is something I built so the fish would have a place to hide. It's nearly three feet deep at that point. I'd like to remove all of the smaller rocks and as many of the large rocks as I can lift while still leaving that little hiding place in the center of the pond.
I've added filtration that has really cleared up the water and I've been systematically removing rocks a few at a time. BUT I'm totally obsessing at this point about the crap on the bottom. Every rock I remove seems to reveal more stuff underneath. It appears that the original owner of the pond wanted plants in the water so he put potting soil and plants on top of the liner and then put landscaping fabric over the top of it and then a layer of rocks on top of that. It's a mess.
I'm removing rocks and sludge and landscaping fabric a little at a time but every time I do it dirties the water enough that I have to wait a couple of days for things to clear up so I can see the bottom again. In the photo below you can see that I'm working gradually from left to right removing the rocks I can lift out by hand. There's an exposed piece of landscaping fabric you can see. I have cleaned beneath it but I'm going to have to carefully lift it and cut it taking care to not cut the liner underneath it because I can't remove the really big rocks on the edge that are holding it down.
The rock structure in the middle is something I built so the fish would have a place to hide. It's nearly three feet deep at that point. I'd like to remove all of the smaller rocks and as many of the large rocks as I can lift while still leaving that little hiding place in the center of the pond.
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The landscape fabric might have been put down to protect the liner from the rocks, over time muck has collected over and under it. I have put something similar down in my past ponds when I have put large rocks in.
This pond has rocks only around the edges, to hide the liner at water level.
This pond has rocks only around the edges, to hide the liner at water level.
Ohh that makes sense! I'll be removing more stuff this weekend and I'll see if I can cut the landscape fabric back so it's less visible.