Rocks in the bottom of a pond

[BennyLava]

Hi all. I just wanted to ask what yall think about river rocks being in the bottom of a pond. Some of the most beautiful koi ponds I've ever seen had those round, smooth river rocks in the bottom. However. I can think of a few major disadvantages to go with them.

1. Lots of crud would get down in between all the rocks, and likely would build up as sludge until the tops of the rocks was the only thing visible.

2. I have heard that they can somehow affect water quality, though I don't know how.

3. You wouldn't always be able to see if an unwanted creature had made it's way into the pond. It could hide there unnoticed, and then maybe harm the fish. Depending on what type of creature it was.

4. When you do the yearly drain and clean, you have to deal with, and clean all those rocks.

So what do yall think? If you don't do rocks, what do you do to make the bottom of your pond look pretty? And not just be the drab, black pond liner?

 

[koikeepr]

99% of folks on this site will warn you against rocks precisely for all the reasons you quoted. The answer to #2 is that they affect water quality based exactly on your reason #1.

Avoid the rocks. I don't personally think you can see the fish at their best colors when they are sitting on a tan backdrop of rocks. Koi colors stand out best on a black background.

 

[fish]

This is my third year with a pond. The first two years I had river rocks in the bottom of the pond. I tried keeping the rocks clean so they could be seen by using a shop vac. That was a lot of work and it wasn't successful. I do have big bolders on the sides but no small rocks. This Spring when I cleaned the pond I took the river rocks out. Now the bottom is the color of algae and it looks natural. I have a ton of rocks if anyone wants them.

 

[mrteach3]

I am just like "fish" with my own pond. I am being a little stubborn, so I still have some river rocks in my pond, but they are nearer the top of the water. All of the river rock are gone from about 1 foot and down. I say I am stubborn since I have left some larger boulder type rocks in the bottom as I like the look of them, but I think within a couple of years, those will be gone as well.

 

[Sunshine]

I have what they call egg rocks. They are different colors and smooth. I have never had a problem with water quality. In the Spring when I clean it, I just put my crocs on and move them around and use the hose to spray them. My water is clear, tests are always good. I am in Ohio, no trees around it and have an arbor over it cause it sits in full sun. The first year that we built it, I didn't have any rocks in it cause I knew it was going to be a green mess with it cycling. I didn't like looking at liner on the bottom. The next year, I added the egg rock. It's just a personal preference. I don't mind the extra work to clean them in the Spring. My walls are straight down, so it's just rocks on the bottom.

 

[DoDad]

Me, I think the prettiest ponds are gin clear and a nice green algae growing on the liner.

 

[koikeepr]

Agreed, Sunshine, at the end of the day it is a personal preference. And if you are a meticulous pond keeper, it can be done if you can commit to the extra work.

 

[3qtkidz]

I personally failed at having egg rocks in my pond. My pond had too much muck at the bottoms so AWAY with the rocks.
I love the look of the rocks but it was too much cleaning for me.

 

[CliffandJoann]

I don't object to the black bottom pond, it's mysterious and the fish show up nicely,
and the pond stays cleaner. We have just a shallow rock beach area and that requires hosing
down about every two weeks.
Judging by the gunk that come out from just the beach
area, I'm glad we don't have a rock bottom pond.
Also we have a BD pond, so can't have rocks anyway.

 

[BennyLava]

Kinda makes me wonder if there were some way to circumvent the whole sludge problem. Like building a giant "undergravel" filter like an aquarium has. So the sludge would never get to settle down in the rocks. I guess if you were like a master pond builder maybe you could do something like that.

 

[joshk87]

I've had river rocks in the bottom of my pond for the past 3 years now. But now I'm in the process of taking every last one of them out. It looked good at first, but as time went on it became more and more of a nightmare to clean. Right now I've got about 75% of them out and I'm running a temporary fines filter to help get the water clear again. It's getting a lot better, but I still have a good amount of work to do.

 

[BennyLava]

I think if you had an indoor pond they wouldn't be near as much trouble.

 

[Squidhead]

Kinda makes me wonder if there were some way to circumvent the whole sludge problem. Like building a giant "undergravel" filter like an aquarium has. So the sludge would never get to settle down in the rocks. I guess if you were like a master pond builder maybe you could do something like that.

I happen to agree with you about the looks. I've seen Koi Ponds at Epcot and other places that are rock bottom. Of course I don't have a crew of workers to take care of it either. I also remember a relative or friend of a relative that had a rock bottom pond when I was a kid. It was a private home, this is like 35-40 years ago, but I remember it was clean and probably the reason I want a pond today.

I am personally not going to install any rocks in the bottom of the pond portion of my pond I am currently building. There will be in the stream portion where no fish will be. I am going to see how it goes first with the plain bottom. I have been toying with ideas on how to make it work. Possibly doing a clear epoxy coating over the stones so they only appear to have texture. An other idea is to use a system like this-
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ug_jets.php . I did this with a African Cichlid tank that had large rocks and sand bottom. Fish poop just kind of floats on the smooth bottom of sand and looks nasty. The jets kicked the poop towards the filter intake and the problem was no longer.
I'm not saying I'm going to drain it after a little while and do some rockage, but I play with the Idea in a small fountain that I may put in a corner of my tiny yard. A 200G or so with some goldfish. Either way, I'm sure for something like this to work your fish load would have to be on the lighter side.

 

[koikeepr]

fish poop whether indoors or outdoors. That will still get in between rock crevices, just as food will.

 

[Sunshine]

I don't have a thick layer of rocks. I can actually see the liner in some spots. When I do a water change, I get in there and scootch them around. What little comes up, the filter takes care of, and it's clear again in about an hour or so. When I started putting the rocks in, it was a few inches deep. And the first Spring after that, there was quite a bit of muck in them. I took a bunch out. Now that it is a thin layer, much better. And plus the fish love it when I get in there.