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[Alice_Bee]

Hi, I got bored in the garden in about 1994, might have been 1995... and I had 13 aquariums in my house including a reef tank, African Cichlids who were breeding resulting in multiple 10 gallons with mamas and babies and a few tropical fish in a couple of tanks. And I got bored.

so I dug this little crescent moon pond for my betta. And on the 4th of july my husband waited til we got back from the parade and handed my daughters and I shovels and said we were going to dig a REAL pond. And so we did. And lined it with a water bed mattress because at that time liner was not in home depot yet.

The experiment grew and got a bog and got real liner and a pump and a waterfall, and the fish got bigger, the cattails out of the local creek went in and it looked a bit more like a pond. And it was all good.

Until my friend bought a house with a 5000 gallon concrete pond that he couldn't get clear. And came to see my pond. And told me he could see my fish. Which I could too. And then explained that he couldn't see his.. And the battle was on. I learned he couldn't find anyone to service his pond. And I ended up with a pond service. in 1999 I got a DBA for my aquatics service.

I wrote a book in 1996 on aquariums and fish, and I got drafted by a school so I had an aquarium service starting in 1997, but it was very small and the whole thing snowballed, and well I haven't had a day job since 1999..

But I love a good mystery. I solved the concrete pond mystery in 2009, it's clear, healthy plants, no UV. I solve fish disease issues and look under rocks on the internet for clues. And I will be writing a couple more books. I don't plagiarize. I do brain pick.

so anyway I've been working on ponds for 20+ years and I am not retiring yet.

Pic is of the first pond. I've since moved, need to go back and rebuild it, my daughter has the house now. Photo size is small because back in the day big photos slowed load time on a website, I don't know that I still have the original files.

 

[GBBUDD]

BRAVO... both look great .. not many first timers ponds are half as big or have half the imagination.

 

[Jhn]

Very Nice looking ponds

 

[Tula]

We so happy you've joined us @Alice_Bee

 

[Stephen Noble]

Beautiful Alice_Bee! Thanks for joining, we are glad you are here. By the way, that was one lucky betta!

 

[Lisak1]

Welcome! And beautiful ponds!

 

[Alice_Bee]

Thank you all for the warm welcome. This is my current back yard pond. When it was clean, last June, only some string on the steps. Right now it's kinda messy. And obviously running the edge didn't make the top of my list, and there are water lily leaves running down the waterfall.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our group!
Great looking ponds.

 

[sissy]

welcome and I love the look of the string algae on the waterfall rocks as you know they are helping clean the water .

 

[Alice_Bee]

Indeed helping to clean the water, and the goldfish trim it off the rocks when it drips down. I have a lot of predators. There are milk crates hidden underneath that waterfall so the fish can get away, I try to get a lot of lily coverage.
There is an aquablock holding the bog plants in the top basin, which functions as a bog filter, with lilies to either side of it.

My largest pond is very ugly, it has 43 koi in it at the moment, and powdercoat fencing 2"x3" openings stretched across it. I've lost 56 koi in 2 days to one blue heron during mating season (end of December here). Fencing went on then. I keep lilies in it too, and have a bog tray on top that isn't really set up right now, in the past it's raised tomatoes.
The one with no plants and green water is when I first put the tray on.

 

[JamieB]

Ah, sounds like in addition to you picking up new info, you may be able to help others! We get a lot of “ what’s killing my fish” here, and while we can typically help when it’s a case of ignorance, or bad conditions, or simple obvious parasites, other issues are beyond us just from a picture. Perhaps with your background, you can give better info.
On a personal note, I’m planning to try tomatoes in my bog, did you have any issues with them? And have you tried any other veggies?

 

[Alice_Bee]

summer squash did poorly, Swiss chard did pretty well, strawberries were a total disaster.

I have some answers, I have an experiment going for others. Thank you for the welcome

 

[GBBUDD]

I would think if you gave any vegetable a dry base 2 inches of gravel and then water level your plants should crank

 

[Alice_Bee]

I would think if you gave any vegetable a dry base 2 inches of gravel and then water level your plants should crank

depends on the vegetable. I was using expanded shale in one set of pots, Potting mix on top of 2 inches of shale did the best, for chard and tomatoes, I got about 20 pounds of cherokee purple tomatoes that year from the pond tray. the squash produced, but the fruits were 2 inches long. The chard did fabulous. The strawberries died and they died. they do not like wet feet

 

[sissy]

I grew up on an organic farm when it was not a key word .My mom and dad bought it back when I was 9 and we grew 2 acres of strawberries besides all the other veggies and I picked them from sun up to sun down and with lights sometimes after that .We had chickens for pest control and I canned any leftovers with my mom and canned up until I moved to VA .I have fruit trees here that I pick from and even do lawnmowing drive by picking when I get hungry .I still grow potatoes and strawberries and pickles but the heat is to much for tomato's ,but I get a few .I still compost everything for my garden and have fresh dug potato's all winter