How did everyone get started with ponds?

[mrsclem]

When we had our house built 30 years ago, we started clearing the property. 1 1/2 acre totally tree covered. Both parents loved gardening so of course, it was off to garden center to buy flowers, shrubs, fruit trees. They had raised ponds with plants and of course koi! I started talking to the owner and started digging a hole the next day. 1st pond was maybe 100 gallons with a couple of gold fish but I kept going to look at the koi. The hole kept getting bigger each year but when we hit roots, we decided to build up. We have continued to clear the property and now have 2 partial raised koi ponds totaling 9000+ gallons.

 

[Angie1966]

When we had our house built 30 years ago, we started clearing the property. 1 1/2 acre totally tree covered. Both parents loved gardening so of course, it was off to garden center to buy flowers, shrubs, fruit trees. They had raised ponds with plants and of course koi! I started talking to the owner and started digging a hole the next day. 1st pond was maybe 100 gallons with a couple of gold fish but I kept going to look at the koi. The hole kept getting bigger each year but when we hit roots, we decided to build up. We have continued to clear the property and now have 2 partial raised koi ponds totaling 9000+ gallons.

Great story
Wow that’s a lake!.

 

[GBBUDD]

Lovely story
Wow to the video : )

http://www.lagunakoi.com/Koi-Varieties/
to your other post we cant see your fish but maybe you can see your fish on this http://www.lagunakoi.com/Koi-Varieties/

 

[Angie1966]

http://www.lagunakoi.com/Koi-Varieties/
to your other post we cant see your fish but maybe you can see your fish on this http://www.lagunakoi.com/Koi-Varieties/

Thanks so much will take a look at the link

 

[sissy]

I grew up on an organic farm back in the 60's and my dad and I built a pond .Organic was not a key word back then .I grew up working hard and it only made me stronger .

 

[Jack B. Nimble]

I spent childhood and still maintain a cottage on the water. I always had fish tanks both fresh and salt. Water drove me to live on the ocean for 10 years and then again to the Rockies for another year. My afinatity for water was always there but I saw an article one day about 20 years ago with a guy scuba diving in his own pond. I though well that is very neat and the koi were astounding. After a failed hard shell pond in my front yard the last 10 years i opted to go larger in my backyard. I thought i would try a mid size and go larger after my experimenting on this 8x20. Youtube kills me with aquascape giants etc and well see what future holds. I discovered I need to figure out catching the fish and over winter better.

 

[CometKeith]

I go to home improvement stores a lot because I'm in construction. About 10 years ago I was walking down an aisle in the garden section and I saw a pond kit that was on sale from $200 to $150. it included a biological filter, a pump, hoses, and a liner. I thought this might be fun to try. I never knew anyone who had a pond before that. Well my wife thought I was crazy because I dug a 300 gallon pond all by myself and got rocks to make a waterfall and all that fun stuff. I think I was covered in more dirt than what I hauled away. At the time I was a builder and the market for us crashed so i think she actually thought I had lost my mind and I was digging holes in the garden instead of working. Anyway everything worked out.... I have a 2500 gallon pond now and somehow got through the real estate crash! This was my first pond.

 

[addy1]

Raised in the east, MD, water everywhere, moved to Arizona, water scare, my first tiny pond, around 8 feet long, maybe 2 feet wide, less then 2 feet deep, filtered by two whiskey barrel bog filters. Missed water. Second AZ pond, 14000 gallons. MD ponds, 11 currently, all connected to each other, some small some bigger one big

 

[JamieB]

It started with a turtle that couldn’t catch his food. Bought some feeder fish for my new turtle, he couldn’t catch them to eat them, they got too big, so they ended up in the pool. Our pool is well water filled, never chlorinated, so all good. Had a pool full of mosquitoes, algae, nothing going on. Added the goldfish, wild caught minnows, catfish fingerlings, then later plants, and then it grew! So far, I’ve felt with anchor worms, got rid of the catfish, and recently had to downsize cause drift from crop spray caused a die off in the pond/pool, so my plan for a pond where I’d started digging isn’t going to be safe from the drift. I’m working on a 900 gal design on my porch that I can cover and protect. But I’d already bought 3 shubinkin, and my goldfish are breeding well, so I’m giving away babies.

 

[snoozer]

I always love looking at the water and couldn't afford a house on a river or lake so built my own.

 

[sissy]

plus your house will not flood when the lake or river floods .My other house has frying pan creek running through the property and Bedford lake nearby but the water did not get high enough ,but it did take down part of the horse fence that ran along side of the creek

 

[Reefmonkey]

I've always been drawn to water and aquatic life. I've had aquariums as along as I could remember. Growing up, I was always either mucking about in the creek behind our main house, or in the bay where our vacation house was located. In junior high, I tried to dig a pond in the backyard of the main house, my springer spaniel saw me digging and decided to help, and we were both covered in mud in no time. In high school I bought one of those rigid plastic kiddie pools and tried to keep paradise fish in it in the backyard, the springer jumped in and ate the fish. Went on to college, where my love of aquatic life led me to get a degree in biology, and then a masters in environmental science. I always knew once I got a house of my own, it would have a pond, and started putting the pond in about three months after we moved in. That was 13 years ago, still have the same pond, would like something bigger, but so many other projects and priorities have kept me from moving forward. Plus, I remember how tough digging out just a cavity for a 100 gallon pond in our compacted clay soil was for me at 30, can't imagine hand-digging something bigger at 43, and would have to partially demo a brick wall to get even a narrow little bobcat excavator in our backyard.

 

[addy1]

I moved from water filled Maryland to lack of water Arizona. As soon as I bought a house I put in a pond, they were small to begin with. Have not stopped since, even though back in water filled Maryland again.

 

[GBBUDD]

100 gallon pond in our compacted clay soil was for me at 30, can't imagine hand-digging something bigger at 43, and would have to partially demo a brick wall to get even a narrow little bobcat excavator in our backyard.

They have a paddle for digging in compacted clay i't like half a shovel that gets placed on a hammer drill, almost like a jack hammer in fact the same principles just not as taxing on the body but makes knocking in sides of clay a piece of cake. They are using such at 3:30 in the video below

 

[GBBUDD]

We to had a cottage and the parental units called bro and sis pollywogs as we were always in the water but me they called the fish i was underwater more then i was above water. Then came a little break where sex drugs and rock and roll came in for a spell and then responsibilities and i jumped right to a reef tank. for it's day and where the hobby was it was very impressive. then came divorce lack of funds and the fresh water planted tank came in that was truly a sleeper. I built a water proof shelf of the back of a 90 gallon corner tank with a three foot water fall and as that wasn't enough i had birds, yes BIRDS shaft tail finches for the most part where i ran window screen from the top of the open top tank and ran it up to the ceiling making a mini Avery. This turned out to be crazy and beautiful all rolled into one . Then the birds had babies and as the first time was very cool we had baby birds and upward of 6 babies at a time to after they had babies 5 ,6 10 times it became less cool and oh ship not again. Long and short of it I always loved snorkeling or peering through the glass of a fish tank and always saying I wish I wish I was a fish , and could swim through the caves and tunnels etc along with the fish . Well i may not fit in the tunnel or cave in the pond now but i can swim with the fish and love every minute of it using a mask and snorkel.