Bare Bottom Pond Or Not

[jbjabber]

Wayne the upper level only has accent rock and sides over the liner. The bottom level has a rocky bottom. I may plant the top heavily to make sort a bog situation.
I guess I have both a rocky and bare bottom. Variety....the spice of life.
Julia

 

[jbjabber]

This forum is addicting! I need to get to work. I just read and read.
Thanks ya'll

 

[Diver]

Holy rock,
stirred up a muddy bottom with this topic.
I really want a bare bottom (pond) again. Just afraid the heron will come back and punture the liner from the top.
But what the hey, chipmunks are doing a fine job from UNDER the liner already.

 

[addy1]

Holy rock,
stirred up a muddy bottom with this topic.
I really want a bare bottom (pond) again. Just afraid the heron will come back and punture the liner from the top.
But what the hey, chipmunks are doing a fine job from UNDER the liner already.

Just make it deep enough it won't. I have not had that problem even with the heron here everyday last summer. But I did keep it out of the pond.

 

[pecan]

I love this topic... I vote NO ROCKS! I built our pond last summer. Only had rocks down to about 6"-12" deep in the water with the rest of the depth 12"-40" bare. This spring I spent HOURS digging leaves and gunk out of all those rocks and removed them at the same time. NO MORE ROCKS. Now I just have them covering the liner edge and none underwater. Life is good now, water has been clear all summer and fishies are happy. I can easily net out the bottom to clean it with no issues. Plus no skimmer.

And I think it looks natural...

If you like rocks, have rocks but know you are in for extra work. I just like making things easier on me

Notice how you CAN see the bottom

 

[waynefrcan]

Nice set up above water only. It needs rock. I don't like the lumpy shelfed uneven bottom with all the plumbing lines showing? That's not natural!!

This reminds me of my dads pond. He moved and I got in to scoop the fish to my pond. Sure no rocks, but plumbing lines and 6" of complete mud and crud everywhere. No skimmer. His idea of keeping debris out was a kitchen hand strainer taped to a broom handle to scoop it out. Wrong! I'm surprised I didn't catch some parasite from that mess. Oh and the fish were sick also.

 

[waynefrcan]

Wayne the upper level only has accent rock and sides over the liner. The bottom level has a rocky bottom. I may plant the top heavily to make sort a bog situation.
I guess I have both a rocky and bare bottom. Variety....the spice of life.
Julia

You da woman!!

 

[pecan]

Nice set up above water only. It needs rock. I don't like the lumpy shelfed uneven bottom with all the plumbing lines showing? That's not natural!!

I'm surprised I didn't catch some parasite from that mess. Oh and the fish were sick also.

Wow! You are mean and very opinionated aren't you. I am going to take my sick fish and my parasites and GO HOME! :helm2:

 

[FountainMan]

Nice set up above water only. It needs rock. What's so nice about a boring lumpy shelfed uneven bottom with all the plumbing lines showing? That's not natural!!

Dude, This issue is not a big deal. Just because someone builds their ponds differently doesn't mean you have to dictate how others should build their ponds. The pond above is Pacan's pond not yours. If it's such a big deal why don't you build their ponds? Rocks or no rocks it's their pond and their opinion. There is no critical rule in any of my pond books stating that rock bottoms are an absolute must. They're merely accent if nothing more.

 

[waynefrcan]

lol, it is a big deal. Rocks or no rocks is a major pond building option. And what about the 95% of you that dictate do bare bottoms? That ok?

Rocks are an option that can be done or not true, there is no set rule in books, but on this forum it seems to be a set rule for most? Well I think not in all cases. All rocks do work if everything done correctly.

Also I changed my post after you quoted it.

 

[waynefrcan]

Wow! You are mean and very opinionated aren't you. I am going to take my sick fish and my parasites and GO HOME! :helm2:

Sorry not wanting to be... Your above water is very beautiful, one of the nicest I've seen, how's that?

 

[pecan]

Despite your rudeness, I did not go home LOL

Though you can get more flies with honey

I will say that I agree with you about all the shelves and when we re-do the pond I will remove most of them. I will leave a small area of 2' deep shelves for my lilies and that is it. The rest I will dig down to 6' with vertical walls.

The guy I get my Koi from has 50,000 gallons of water in his yard easily. He has several koi ponds and his selling tanks with the koi seperated into size and quailty. None of his ponds have rocks. His ponds are all at least 5' deep. I like the look. Because of how deep it is the algea doesn't grow on the bottom since it does not get sun light so they just look like crystal clear very deep ponds.

 

[FountainMan]

lol, it is a big deal. Rocks or no rocks is a major pond building option. And what about the 95% of you that dictate do bare bottoms? That ok?

Rocks are an option that can be done or not true, there is no set rule in books, but on this forum it seems to be a set rule for most? Well I think not in all cases. All rocks do work if everything done correctly.

Also I changed my post after you quoted it.

Not to seem offensive or steriotypical but you Canadians can be some of the rudest people. Opinions are opinions and you can't change that. Also learn some grammer and spelling. I had to read your post a few times to make sence of it. Sorry I'm having to come off on you like this but your starting to get on my nerves. If the rest of us can do our part in being respectfull to others I don't see why it's so hard for you.

 

[pecan]

My husband just brought up a good point about "looking natural'. I have never seen a natural pond with rocks in the bottom. Every natural pond I have seen (which admittedly is not a lot living in the desert) and all the nautral ponds my husband has seen (which is a lot being from NE Oklahoma) have had mud and muck bottoms. With frogs, snakes, cows and pigs pooping in it. He says "natural ponds" are just big toilets for animals.

Now rocks in streams, I have seen, but rocks in ponds... nope. So what are these "natural" rock bottom ponds you speak of?

 

[waynefrcan]

Despite your rudeness, I did not go home LOL

Though you can get more flies with honey

I will say that I agree with you about all the shelves and when we re-do the pond I will remove most of them. I will leave a small area of 2' deep shelves for my lilies and that is it. The rest I will dig down to 6' with vertical walls.

The guy I get my Koi from has 50,000 gallons of water in his yard easily. He has several koi ponds and his selling tanks with the koi seperated into size and quailty. None of his ponds have rocks. His ponds are all at least 5' deep. I like the look. Because of how deep it is the algea doesn't grow on the bottom since it does not get sun light so they just look like crystal clear very deep ponds.

Sounds like a better plan yes. While doing the re-do, try and run the plumbing outside the pond. Much better look. I agree try and copy the koi supplier's ponds.