| Author | |
Martha
Forum All-Star
Joined: Aug 25 2005
Location: N/A
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2291
|
| Posted: April 14 2007 at 9:57pm | IP Logged
|
 |
|
We moved to our new home Saturday and are all settled inside, now it's time to tame the outside. Starting with the huge garden/backyard pond the previous owners installed.
It's 7 feet by 9 feet rectangular and 2 feet to 4 feet deep with the pump/filter hose recycling the water off a rock waterall on one corner. (I'll try to get pics up on my blog next week.)
The house had been vacant since November and the sludge and muck was pretty bad - looked like a bog.  So I move the pump hose to empty it out Thursday thinking I'd just jump in after it was empty and clean it out this weekend. Friday morning the kids sit down to breakfast and exclaim, "Fish! There's fish in the pond!" Sure enough, in the last foot of water there are 2 koi desperately clinging to their miserable lives.
Now plans must change. We've bought "heavy duty pond sludge remover and water clarifier", 2 algae eater critters, 8 quarter sized golden colored snails, and 1 bambo shoot. I plan to remove some more dirty water, then slowly add in clean water. Do I need clorine remover tablets? hmm, I did not buy that. 
Oh and before I can completely fill the pond, I need to recement about a dozen mini-boulders to the south side of the pond rim to keep the pond liner on that side in place and keep children who stand on said rocks from slipping into pond.
So do any of you keep koi ponds? I would simply like to see what living items are in my pond vs the disturbing unknown it is currently. Nothing too fancy thank you. The bed of baby snakes under the south ledge were plenty exciting enough. I happen to like snakes and even returned them to the pond after picking them up to see what kind they were going to be when they grow up. Nice friendly garter snakes. 
I figure I'll go to all this trouble and end up killing everything but the snakes. Oh well, it's wonderful therapy in the mean time. I'm loving it so far, but poor dh is worried potential hobby this will become, in his words, "a money toilet".
__________________
Martha
mama to 7 boys & 4 girls
Yes, they're all ours!
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
MichelleW
Forum All-Star
Joined: April 01 2005
Location: Oregon
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 947
|
| Posted: April 15 2007 at 9:30pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
No advice here, but oh so covetous! We are always talking about digging a pond someday. Someday.
__________________
Michelle
Mom to 3 (dd 14, ds 15, and ds 16)
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
MacBeth
Forum All-Star
Probably at the beach...
Joined: Jan 27 2005
Location: New York
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2518
|
| Posted: April 15 2007 at 10:07pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
I have had a pond without koi, but my friend has a nice koi pond. Actually, they are on their third pond, since the koi keep getting bigger...and escaping, sometimes. They call the big white one "Moby." It's HUGE. But the koi tend to grow to the size of the pond, unless it's a big pond to begin with.
Koi tend to be pretty hardy. I have accidentally dosed koi in a still pond (no pump) with Clorox only to find a few small koi still living when the water cleared. (I was going to get rid of it...it was on my old boss's property, and she wanted the ponds cleaned  ). Koi can make it down to the end of a driveway if they escape from a pond. They easily survive winter, and, if they are big enough, will fight back when the raccoons come to call.  Great blue herons are another matter.
You can find plenty of online info. I like The Water Garden, which is a commercial site with lots of free newsletter-type info. Good luck!
__________________
God Bless!
MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
Nature Study
MacBeth's Blog 
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Martha
Forum All-Star
Joined: Aug 25 2005
Location: N/A
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2291
|
| Posted: April 15 2007 at 10:28pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
whew. All I can say after all this is that if it was not already there - there's no way I'd put it there now.  Today I added the snails and algae eaters we purchased and enough chemicals to get rid of the sludge to fell an elephant. I changed out the filters on the pump, which is at the bottom of the pond. I supervised dh's re-cementing of the south rock wall/border of the pond. (Much grumbling and a few louder comments exchanged at various intervals about the wife's new hobby's affect on his life.)
But the pond is done! Can't wait for cement to dry so we can enjoy it. There's dragon flies, tadpoles (if I didn't kill 'em!), snakes, and other critters to observe.
I'm feeling a science unit study comming soon...
__________________
Martha
mama to 7 boys & 4 girls
Yes, they're all ours!
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Michaela
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 25 2005
Location: Washington
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2052
|
| Posted: April 15 2007 at 10:43pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
We have three ponds.
The only thing you'll find swimming in our ponds are mosquito larvae. DH puts mosquito larvae killer in the ponds at the first sign of them.
We cannot keep fish or frogs because the resident racoon family come for a midnight snack.
(*edited # of ponds  I was thinking about the two in back and one in front.....my fingers got a little happy. )
__________________
Michaela
Momma to Nicholas 16, Nathan 13, Olivia 13, Teresa 6, & Anthony 3
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Martha
Forum All-Star
Joined: Aug 25 2005
Location: N/A
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2291
|
| Posted: April 16 2007 at 8:13am | IP Logged
|
|
|
You can put a netting over the top. I just bought one to keep leaves out for $6. It's a black wide square (about 1 inch sized) mesh, so it blends with the pond well rather than making it look hideous. If the pond is big enough (wide/deep) the fish can get away from the raccoons. Mosquitos are only in stagnate water, as long as the water is moving/cycling - you won't have mosquitos. Don't know about the herons though.
__________________
Martha
mama to 7 boys & 4 girls
Yes, they're all ours!
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Lisbet
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 07 2006
Location: Michigan
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2706
|
| Posted: April 16 2007 at 8:21am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Martha, you have no idea how jealous I am! :) But Oh so happy for you friend!
__________________
Lisa, wife to Tony,
Mama to:
Nick, 17
Abby, 15
Gabe, 13
Isaac, 11
Mary, 10
Sam, 9
Henry, 7
Molly, 6
Mark, 5
Greta, 3
Cecilia born 10.29.10
Josephine born 6.11.12
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
MacBeth
Forum All-Star
Probably at the beach...
Joined: Jan 27 2005
Location: New York
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2518
|
| Posted: April 16 2007 at 9:42am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Martha wrote:
But the pond is done! Can't wait for cement to dry so we can enjoy it. There's dragon flies, tadpoles (if I didn't kill 'em!), snakes, and other critters to observe.
I'm feeling a science unit study comming soon... |
|
|
Oh, I bet you'll love it! I immediately had a red-winged blackbird come to the yard when I started the pump on our pond. While your pond is managed, though, I left ours natural so we could see what the birds would bring in on their feet. We soon had an amazing assortment of water critters! There's a photo of my small pond on my Backyard Nature page.
__________________
God Bless!
MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
Nature Study
MacBeth's Blog
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
vmalott
Forum All-Star
Joined: Sept 15 2006
Location: Ohio
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 536
|
| Posted: April 16 2007 at 11:15am | IP Logged
|
|
|
We had a small pond at our old house with Koi in it. Like MacBeth said, the Koi are quite hardy. We did very little upkeep, and the Koi wintered over in the pond for several years just fine. The algae eater didn't fare as well, though...probably not enough warm water for him or something. It was a lot of fun to have in the backyard. We occasionally had frogs come to visit, though no tadpoles. I kind of miss it now, but we have a creek with a Great Blue Heron that visits occasionallly, so I guess that makes up for it.
Valerie
__________________
Valerie
Mom to Julia ('94), John ('96), Lizzy ('98), Connor ('01), Drew ('02), Cate ('04), Aidan ('08) and three saints in heaven
Seven Times the Fun
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Martha
Forum All-Star
Joined: Aug 25 2005
Location: N/A
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2291
|
| Posted: April 16 2007 at 12:05pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
oh Macbeth, I would completely not manage a nice tidy one such as yours. The one at this house though is a small wading pool. Rob says we chould irritate the neighbors by getting a couple ducks.
__________________
Martha
mama to 7 boys & 4 girls
Yes, they're all ours!
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Tina P.
Forum All-Star
Joined: June 28 2005
Location: N/A
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1638
|
| Posted: April 18 2007 at 11:41pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
I LOVE ducks. We might get some. I have to convince my husband first, which might take some doing.  We'll start with chickens. They're tidier animals than ducks. A friend is coming to our house to help us set up a coop and supply us with a rooster and a few hens this summer. I can't wait!
__________________
Tina, wife to one and mom to 9 + 3 in heaven
Mary's Muse
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: ponds anyone?
