Well, at least my water garden. Been several threads talking about rain and ponds, so I thought I would share our experience.
Important Background Information
We live in Central Florida, the land of the rainy summer season, where historically you could set your watch for the 3PM rain storm. We have had a few fast and heavy rain storms here, the most recent at the beginning of summer, we had 10" in a few days.
We are in a suburban community, not as densely populated as a large city but certainly not rural. We don't have much air pollution. We do have a big problem with ground water pollution run-off from overfertilzation and crap left on or in the ground. We have a bunch of oak trees, a black cherry and dog wood right over the pond. We have red lichen growing on the tree trunks (red lichen is an indicator of good air quality).
Oh, and we do have a shingle roof. And a gazillion tree leaves falling on the shingles.
The Pond
This last heavy rain, the pond filled up and the overflow come out the dry stack rocks along the edge of the sidewalk. Not exactly where I want overflow to go, but until I get up my confidence and nerve to learn how to mortar, its not a horrible. The worst thing that happened in that rain storm were the 1/2" ruby red fry must have swam off in the tide.
Early last summer, something happened after a really heavy rain. I don't even recall now what, but my PH tests were off. I decided to perma-buffer the pond by adding a few limestone rock around the edges of the pond just above normal pond level. I don't know that they do anything other than look cool, but they certainly don't hurt.
Ten inches of rain in just a few days, falling directly on the pond & bog, no ground level run off gets into the pond - well that is a pretty significant water change; and I've not had any problems. What is falling out of the sky is pretty much what is in the pond. We don't have well water, and I seldom use city water in the pond.
Our first heavy rain after we put version 1 pond in last year was a near disaster. We have always had a water standing issue in the front of the house, and I grossly underestimated how it would impact the pond. That was a bit of the last straw on finally doing something to fix that water standing problem. It was so bad that in and after heavy rain storms I (nor my elderly in-laws) could get in and out the front door because the wet conditions were too dangerous.
So ... here is what I did ....
The house is a split lever, all the rain from the top roof and half the bottom roof comes straight down in front of those windows. We put a 100 gallon stock tank to catch the rain run off the roof.
I drilled a hole at the top back and put in an overflow drain that pipes out to the other side of the yard. Eventually I'll get around the shooting the pipe under the sidewalk and burying it. I have a piece of window screening covering the top.
This stock tank catches most of the rain. I also have a french drain running along the length of the pathway that slopes gradually towards the driveway to catch any additional excess run off.
I have a gate valve connected to the bung hole of the stock tank, with a short water hose connected. I use the water from the stock tank to top off my pond, and to water plants in the front yard. The bung hole is a good 4" above the bottom of the stock tank, so not much debris can get out it; plus I have a vertical screen on the inside of the bung hole.
A 1" rain fills up this 100 gallon stock tank.
Knowing what I now know, I wish I would have put in an automatic float valve in the pond connected to the stock tank so that the pond water level could correct itself. Last year, I was even more of a noob that I am now, and I read all the 'danger-danger' don't send roof rain-fall to you pond messages.
With the drought levels being what they have been these last few years, and the shrinking of the water supply in Florida, I consider it an important self goal to figure out how to use as much water as naturally arrives on our property.
This stock tank setup in our front yard worked out so well at controlling the flood conditions we had near the house that we went to the back side and put in a 300 gallon stock tank. Right now I have the overflow drain running into a pathway, but eventually I'll get-a-round-tuit and run the overflow pipe into a 10' diameter or so depression at the end of our veggie patch The same place the washing machine overflow goes.
Our shingle roof is nearing the end of it's useful life, and we intend to replace it with standing seam metal. At that time, we will reasses gutters and downspouts. At this point in time, they don't work for us. To much maintenance required due to the leaf drop and I can't climb ladders anymore.
Oh, one last thing. Our pond is a water garden. We have a few fish from the feeder tanks and two bettas. There is a small bog along one side of the pond. Fairly heavy plant growth.
Of course, it should go without saying that my conditions are not necessarily your conditions. All I can add is, don't guess what the water coming off your roof may or may not be. Catch some and have it tested, then you will know for certain.
Important Background Information
We live in Central Florida, the land of the rainy summer season, where historically you could set your watch for the 3PM rain storm. We have had a few fast and heavy rain storms here, the most recent at the beginning of summer, we had 10" in a few days.
We are in a suburban community, not as densely populated as a large city but certainly not rural. We don't have much air pollution. We do have a big problem with ground water pollution run-off from overfertilzation and crap left on or in the ground. We have a bunch of oak trees, a black cherry and dog wood right over the pond. We have red lichen growing on the tree trunks (red lichen is an indicator of good air quality).
Oh, and we do have a shingle roof. And a gazillion tree leaves falling on the shingles.
The Pond
This last heavy rain, the pond filled up and the overflow come out the dry stack rocks along the edge of the sidewalk. Not exactly where I want overflow to go, but until I get up my confidence and nerve to learn how to mortar, its not a horrible. The worst thing that happened in that rain storm were the 1/2" ruby red fry must have swam off in the tide.
Early last summer, something happened after a really heavy rain. I don't even recall now what, but my PH tests were off. I decided to perma-buffer the pond by adding a few limestone rock around the edges of the pond just above normal pond level. I don't know that they do anything other than look cool, but they certainly don't hurt.
Ten inches of rain in just a few days, falling directly on the pond & bog, no ground level run off gets into the pond - well that is a pretty significant water change; and I've not had any problems. What is falling out of the sky is pretty much what is in the pond. We don't have well water, and I seldom use city water in the pond.
Our first heavy rain after we put version 1 pond in last year was a near disaster. We have always had a water standing issue in the front of the house, and I grossly underestimated how it would impact the pond. That was a bit of the last straw on finally doing something to fix that water standing problem. It was so bad that in and after heavy rain storms I (nor my elderly in-laws) could get in and out the front door because the wet conditions were too dangerous.
So ... here is what I did ....
The house is a split lever, all the rain from the top roof and half the bottom roof comes straight down in front of those windows. We put a 100 gallon stock tank to catch the rain run off the roof.
I drilled a hole at the top back and put in an overflow drain that pipes out to the other side of the yard. Eventually I'll get around the shooting the pipe under the sidewalk and burying it. I have a piece of window screening covering the top.
This stock tank catches most of the rain. I also have a french drain running along the length of the pathway that slopes gradually towards the driveway to catch any additional excess run off.
I have a gate valve connected to the bung hole of the stock tank, with a short water hose connected. I use the water from the stock tank to top off my pond, and to water plants in the front yard. The bung hole is a good 4" above the bottom of the stock tank, so not much debris can get out it; plus I have a vertical screen on the inside of the bung hole.
A 1" rain fills up this 100 gallon stock tank.
Knowing what I now know, I wish I would have put in an automatic float valve in the pond connected to the stock tank so that the pond water level could correct itself. Last year, I was even more of a noob that I am now, and I read all the 'danger-danger' don't send roof rain-fall to you pond messages.
With the drought levels being what they have been these last few years, and the shrinking of the water supply in Florida, I consider it an important self goal to figure out how to use as much water as naturally arrives on our property.
This stock tank setup in our front yard worked out so well at controlling the flood conditions we had near the house that we went to the back side and put in a 300 gallon stock tank. Right now I have the overflow drain running into a pathway, but eventually I'll get-a-round-tuit and run the overflow pipe into a 10' diameter or so depression at the end of our veggie patch The same place the washing machine overflow goes.
Our shingle roof is nearing the end of it's useful life, and we intend to replace it with standing seam metal. At that time, we will reasses gutters and downspouts. At this point in time, they don't work for us. To much maintenance required due to the leaf drop and I can't climb ladders anymore.
Oh, one last thing. Our pond is a water garden. We have a few fish from the feeder tanks and two bettas. There is a small bog along one side of the pond. Fairly heavy plant growth.
Of course, it should go without saying that my conditions are not necessarily your conditions. All I can add is, don't guess what the water coming off your roof may or may not be. Catch some and have it tested, then you will know for certain.
