My First Pond is under way.

[Quantum673]

I am using a 3000 GPH beckett pump. I put a tee on the outlet so that I could direct some of the flow directly back into the pond and send the other outlet to the filter/waterfall. I added ball valves on each of these outlets so I could adjust the water flow to the water fall to get the right look.
Thank you for your compliment.

 

[HIROHITO99]

You're welcome. I'm sort of stalking your pond right now. I love the configuration of the waterfall. Where are you hiding the ball valves? I've looked at every picture and I can't find them anywhere.

Sorry to keep pesturing you with questions but I'm new to this and the pond that I am wanting to build will have a similar waterfall set-up as the one that you have.

 

[Quantum673]

One of the ball valves (the one that controls the flow to the waterfall) is hidden behind a rock next to the Skippy filter. The other ball valve (controls flow directly back into the pond) is underwater. I can lift the pump up a little bit and reach it if I need to adjust it. I did have to adjust it at first to get the flow out of the waterfall the way I like it but now the only time I will need to mess with it is if I need to divert all water from the waterfall for maintenance.

In this picture you can see it a little bit at the far left it is the white thing.
Hope this helps. If you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask.

 

[Quantum673]

Well the pond is still coming along. We split all our plants into more pots. It is amazing how quickly they grow once the temps get up there. The water has remained pretty clear can see 2' with no issues. Can not quite see the 3.5' in the deep end but we are happy. All the fish seem to really be enjoying themselves. They are coming to the surface when we are out by the pond (waiting for some treats).

 

[Quantum673]

Updates

WOW!!! I wanted to give everyone an update on the pond and how it is going. With only a couple months gone by things have really changed. The pond continues to mature and look better with each passing week. Of course we are still making small changes to the rocks and the waterfalls but overall it is going very well. The fish (4 Shubunkins) have become very used to us and put on a swimming display evertime we go out there. The plants are all doing very well and we had our first Lily Flower last week, we were on vacation so of course we missed it. Our neighbor was watching over the place and snapped a photo for us. The biggest surprise was I was doing some maintenance to the pond cleaning out some string algae and I noticed several small fry swimming around. I have no idea how many are in there but I am guessing atleast a dozen have made it this far. With all the submerged plants and such I do not think I can get even a semi close count but we will watch them and see how they do. They range in size from about half a centimeter to about half an inch. I will try to get some photos posted up tomorrow of how it looks now. Once again I owe a lot of my successes to those people on here that have been so helpful. THANKS!!!!!!

 

[koiguy1969]

glad to hear its going well... and babies to boot, is there lots of hiding spots for them? well, i wish the best of luck for the pond!!

 

[Olee]

Just curious why the advise not to put rocks on the bottom. My logal supplier said to add about 2-3" of river rock to the bottom.

 

[Quantum673]

They area pain in the arse to clean. More tiny crevises for gunk to build up and muck up your water. Plus if you add some submerged plants they will hide the bottom anyway and give it a nice natural look so you do not need the rocks..

 

[Quantum673]

Koiguy - They have plenty of submerged plants that they stay real close to. Darting in and out. I also have some large rocks on some of the ledges that they can easily hide in the cracks. Considering I am not isolating them from the pond as I was not expecting them so I have nothing set up to house them I will wait and see if any make it.

 

[koiguy1969]

lucky for me, i never drained the basement pond so i have hundreds of fry in my wintering pond. and some outdoors.

 

[Quantum673]

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[koiguy1969]

nice job buddy!!

 

[stroppy]

a lovely looking pond :icon_smile:

 

[DrDave]

Very nice indeed.

 

[Quantum673]

Been a while since I updated. Everything is going pretty well with the pond. We have a total of approx. 20 new fish now. All are offspring from our original 4. The pond has been crystal clear all summer so far. With the occasional algae bloom. We have started removing all the dirt and clay from the plant roots and using pea gravel only as our planting media. All water test have been spot on. So we are happy. I will be re-organizing the skippy filter once the weather cools some. I will be adding a course filter media above the eggcrate to try and trap more of the sludge at the bottom for easy draining. If there is anyone in Southwestern Ohio that would like some Shubunkins let me know as I need to get rid of a dozen or so.

Oh yeah I am working on a new planter that I hope will give the pond an even more natural look. Instead of seperate pots it will give us the capabilities to plant sections of the pond in seperate boxes so that the plants can blend together. I will post pictures as we get the worked out. Hopefully be completed by spring.

Still chemical free and loving it.
Thanks to all!!!:0000000057: