Rocks on the bottom?

[Koilady]

Hi Santa. In my experience people who have rocks or stones at the bottom of their ponds run into problems later on but I'm wondering now, after having these conversations is that if the filter was sufficient, that might just be enough. I know that in the aquarium hobby it used to be that you had to strip your aquarium down once a year due to the build up of debris in the gravel which would supposedly make the water go bad.
It's good to come on to forums such as these to get talking with other ponders who have tried certain things in their ponds which works for them but might not work for others and I'm starting to think that it might have more to do with filtration.

Your's Koily, Lorraine

 

[j.w]

LOL, had to go back and see previous threads cuz couldn't figure out if you thought it was Christmas Lorraine (Santa)
I would not want be the one to be the guinea pig for finding out if the rocks on the bottom would be ok cuz it's sure a lot of work removing them when things go bad. On the ledge I think would be ok but on the bottom asking for trouble IMHO :lol:

 

[Koilady]

Honey, I'm so confused right now. I'm not sure who Santa was but he was on this site. I'm not very good when it comes to these new forums, I always seem to do something wrong. Oh well, I have a good excuse, I'm old. :lol: LOL LOL

As for the rocks, I agree 1,000 percent that they shouldn't be used in ponds but Dave doesn't seem to have a problem with his and I'm wondering if it's because he has good filtration. All I know is that being a Watergarden Consultant, I go to so many ponds during the year with water quality problems and sometimes just going into the back yard I can smell the high ammonia content coming from the water. All of these ponds have upflow filters but, I suspect that they don't have as good a pre-filter as Dave has and that might be the problem. All I know is that the filter we are using now, works so well and with the debris being trapped at the top of the filter, it is so easy to remove because I use window screening to trap it.

These sites are so good though because I wished that when we started out 30 years ago in the Pond Hobby, we had no one to help us, mostly it was through trial and error even with the help of the experts.

Hugs, Lorraine

 

[fishin4cars]

I'm an advocate of no rocks in the bottom. In most cases they aren't needed and can be more of a problem than an advantage.
However, saying that I do use rocks on the bottom. a total of 10 large flat rocks. During a hard rain I have virtually no yard drainage, so my water table rises during hard rains and causes the liner to bubble. having the rocks on the bottom helps squeeze the water up and out a series of pipes I have laid under the bottom edge of the pond. I even have a pump that can be connected if we get a tropical storm or long term heavy rain. That being said I also have to physically go in the pond and raise the rocks to clear out the gunk a couple of times during the season. I would rather not have to use them but it's something that works without having to reconstruct my whole yard for drainage.
I've also seen ponds that had areas of pea gravel in a shallow area put down for plants and in one members case for the DoJo's to bury in. So there are some reasons for use. All in all I wouldn't advise using them except for the most experienced ponders as noted they can be more problems than they are worth.

 

[DrDave]

Lorraine
The only rocks in my pond have 4300 GPH running over them in a stream that is only 15" -18" wide. The water level is 2-3" and the current is so severe nothing is caught in the path. I have several plants in this path, including taro, parrotts feather and hyssop.
This seperates my upper and lower pond and keeps the residents where I want them.
I hope that clears up any thoughts you may have about my use of rocks.
BTW, I have had ponds for 43 years and tried just about everything known today, I built my first pond July 1968. I find the most effective and efficient pond uses the KISS method.

 

[santanman33]

Thanks for the insight. I only used rock on my shallower ledges so maybe 8% of the total pond has rock on the bottom. My thinking was that I could root some of my marginals in there and let them spread on the ledge but it would be easy access to clean. Next spring will be 4 years so I'll definately vacuum the muck now.

 

[Koilady]

Hi Dave, all I can say is that you must be doing something right. The fact that you hose the bottom of your pond down every spring certainly helps but I think that your filtration system is getting the job done I wonder that if some of the landscpaers around here made their filters like we did, they're customers might not have fish or water quality troubles that they have and is constantly on the hunt of a chemical to make everything better but this certainly won't help with the fish loss because if the water conditons are poor, a fish won't heal.

I do know that when consulting on different ponds, I ask the ponder to move some of the stones and gravel from one area so that I can see what's going on in the dirt/gravel/rocks and every time we move the stones around, a black cloud of debris comes out of that area and the smell almost knocks you out and I suspect that these gases which smell like sulfer could be emitted back into the pond. Of course, water changes could remove that.

Your's Koily, Lorraine