Hello interwebs, I thought I'd share my little pond. My wife and I purchased our home in early 2011. In the back yard was a small, preformed plastic pond from Home Depot. There were three pots in in and very little water. I mucked it out and got the pump and lights cleaned out and working. Then I created a crude little waterfall instead of the sprayer atop the largest rock I had.
Over the last three years, I've enjoyed this little pond so much. It took a couple tries to get the basics down, like adding water without killing my goldfish, which I did a couple of timed. Two white goldfish lived through my last chlorine overload about 6 months in. They are still alive and well almost three years later, along with their dozen or so offspring. They now share the pond with a couple dozen mosquito fish and some Japanese trap door snails.
I run two small pumps. Maybe 300 or 400 gph total. One small fountain pump used to feed a biofilter made from a plastic planter filled with lava rock. I had some trouble with it overflowing and nearly drained the entire pond once. The other pump which is a stronger fountain pump fed the little waterfall I rebuilt with a liner underneath. It was enclosed in a box filled with media. The box would fill with muck every other week or so and I'd empty it in my compost pile.
After my last biofilter backup fiasco, I decided it was time for a reconfiguration. I wanted to put an overflow drain into the bifilter and ended up cracking the bottom of the pot I was using. I let the other pump run solo for awhile. The pump kept clogging, almost daily. I ended up removing the pump from its box, removed the prefilter, and hung the pump from a rock suspended in the water. I fired up the other little pump as well in the same way, and routed it into the waterfall.
Now my waterfall IS my biofilter. It's been working this way most of the summer, and I couldn't be happier with the results. I ordered some "Creeping Jenny" off ebay in early spring and planted it in cracks between my larger rocks. The waterfall rocks all sit on a liner, then a bed of expanded shale. I also threw a couple calladium sprouts in the cracks as well. I added no fertilizers this season, and had more blooms than ever. I realized that every time I cleaned out my filter box, I was throwing nutrients away. Does anyone else use this technique? I call it 'aquapondics"... aquaponics for ponds.
Over the last three years, I've enjoyed this little pond so much. It took a couple tries to get the basics down, like adding water without killing my goldfish, which I did a couple of timed. Two white goldfish lived through my last chlorine overload about 6 months in. They are still alive and well almost three years later, along with their dozen or so offspring. They now share the pond with a couple dozen mosquito fish and some Japanese trap door snails.
I run two small pumps. Maybe 300 or 400 gph total. One small fountain pump used to feed a biofilter made from a plastic planter filled with lava rock. I had some trouble with it overflowing and nearly drained the entire pond once. The other pump which is a stronger fountain pump fed the little waterfall I rebuilt with a liner underneath. It was enclosed in a box filled with media. The box would fill with muck every other week or so and I'd empty it in my compost pile.
After my last biofilter backup fiasco, I decided it was time for a reconfiguration. I wanted to put an overflow drain into the bifilter and ended up cracking the bottom of the pot I was using. I let the other pump run solo for awhile. The pump kept clogging, almost daily. I ended up removing the pump from its box, removed the prefilter, and hung the pump from a rock suspended in the water. I fired up the other little pump as well in the same way, and routed it into the waterfall.
Now my waterfall IS my biofilter. It's been working this way most of the summer, and I couldn't be happier with the results. I ordered some "Creeping Jenny" off ebay in early spring and planted it in cracks between my larger rocks. The waterfall rocks all sit on a liner, then a bed of expanded shale. I also threw a couple calladium sprouts in the cracks as well. I added no fertilizers this season, and had more blooms than ever. I realized that every time I cleaned out my filter box, I was throwing nutrients away. Does anyone else use this technique? I call it 'aquapondics"... aquaponics for ponds.
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