Newbie from Chicago

[ponder630]

Hi all, I'm from a western suburb of Chicago and bought a house last summer that has a 12'x6' kidney shaped pond with an average depth of 1.5' with a deep pocket of about 3'. I haven't done much to my pond yet, but will be starting to build a DIY bio filter using the Skippy design. Looking forward to learning a lot from you all.

Any other ponders in the Chicago area?

 

[sissy]

welcome and yep there are people from you area on here and they will give you lots of help .I don't get as cold as you do there .Have you looked at the on you tube .I am just rebuilding one of my filters and it is bigger and gonna hold lots more plants in it too .

 

[j.w]

ponder630

 

[DrCase]

Welcome To the Forum
Chicago born, south forever now

 

[mtpond]

Welcome!

 

[Becky]

Hey there, welcome to the forums! :wave:

 

[addy1]

to our group

 

[CometKeith]

Welcome Ponder630! So 630 is for area code? I'm in the north suburbs and have been on GPF a couple years and there are a lot of nice people here and you can learn a lot too. You may want to check out the Midwest Pond and Koi tour that is in Chicago every year. http://www.mpks.org/calendar/pond_tour.htm%C2

 

[ponder630]

Thanks CometKeith, I am looking forward to the pond tours, I was at their Koi show last summer and found out that they had tours but had already occurred for 2012.

Since you are in the Chicago area, where do you go for your pond needs? Trying to come up with all the local vendors for equipment, plants, etc.

 

[CometKeith]

I have tried a bunch of places but I really like Lurvey's the best. They have a huge selection of pond plants, but one thing you ought to know is if you get friendly with some of the other members here they will send you excess plants for free if you pay the shipping. Also Lurvey's has some really nice looking healthy comets and shubunkins and other assorted fish. I believe they get their goldfish from a breeder in Wisconsin and they are some the best looking goldfish I have seen. They also sell koi but i am not an expert on that. I have also bought slate and granite from them for my waterfall. For supplies if you are not in a hurry I order from AZponds. You can't beat their prices, but Lurvey's has a lot of stuff if you need it right now. Good luck with your pond. They can be very addictive and feel free to follow my little pond in Garden Pond Photography: My Goldfish pond https://www.gardenpondforum.com/topic/6742-my-goldfish-pond/