long story short, pond liner gave out in April, and koi, goldfish and plants have been hanging out in 2 -100 gallon rubbermaid tubs. My wife gave me an out by telling me we could sell the plants and fish and worry about it later. i decieded to redo it. it went from 11'x7' 2' deep to somewhere around 17'x25' 4' deep with a waterfall, stream,and bog area. Are there any helpful hints as to mistakes people made in the past building a pond that i can avoid? the plan is to put the liner in on Saturday.

Hi Matt

glad to hear you are re-doing the pond I be it looks good. I use a food grade 55 gal plastic barrel as a filter for mine. My pond is 16W X 22 L looks like and oval or egg shape with a 4 foot waterfall, I used the dirt from digging it to bury the drum I can access it from the top and have plants to cover the top to hide it. I used a 11/2" line from the pump to the barrel and it fills from the bottom to the top where I have two 2" pipes I use as a over flow about 4 inches from the top that goes out over the top of the waterfall. Please dont fillthe barrel with lava rock It is a pian in the but to clean. I use a poly bag full of shreaded plastic straping for filter media. I have my pump in a bucket that is coverd with pond floss the blue kind and it catches almost every thing going in to the bucket I also have some lava rock in the bucket to weight it down and to keep the fish out. you going to see the koi guy any time soon ??

Dale

Hi, I have a kio and goldfish pond 20'X20' and tiers down to 4' in center. I just had to redo my pond and have found a few things that were helpful to me along the way. With the waterfall..run water from top down if you have it coming out each level. (my first time doing it, i made the mistake of running it from the bottom up) 2nd, I use a swimming pool sand filter and pump. Yes a pain when you start it up but well worth the results if you have a problem with algea (which i have had in the past. i have because it gets 100% sun...i have no shaded areas other than what pond plants offer) and 3rd..get a UV sterilizer for it...best investment i made for $65 on ebay. Mine has been up and running forn about 8 wks now and its as clear as the day i finished it. Hopefuly this will help aliitle along your way. I will try posting some pics of it...i think its pretty sweet. Best of luck, hope something helped you some.

I think pix of the progress would be cool. 

thanks for the info. went to the koi guy last week for food and bought a lotus. going to hold off on more fish until it is complete. will let you know when we plan on going again.

Tropicorium has (has) some amazing Koi in some pictures they posted.

Just a FYI.

first picture is after we have removed all of the rocks from the old pond, the second shows the boulder retaining wall we had to build to get the waterfall/stream some height. don't forget this is in the middle of my driveway which limits what we can do. all plans and budgets has gone out the window.

goin big time, looks like it's off to a rockin start

You said you were building a pond, not a lake!

Hahahah   " all plans and budgets has gone out the window."  I can relate..its funny how that happens... Going to try and put some pics of my pond on here.

We were able to put the liner down on Sunday, pump hooked and and ready to go, will need another as the stream and waterfall can handle more flow. We have about 5 feet of the stream bed placed, some mounted with the black pond foam, but most is loose. we have found som fossils so we will put them where they are easily visible. goldfish are in and schooling, plants are in, Koi maybe tonight (8-6) or Friday. in the process of building a 5 water barrel top-off system. we passed on the bog area for this year as it is late to get plants and establish them before winter-plus i haven't done enough research yet. anyone know of any colorful native species that might thrive in this setting? we have 4-5 hardy lillies, 1 lotus and a grouping of sugarblade ( smells like sugar when you crush the leaves). We will be wrapping to roots with netting rocks and clay based soil and remove the pots they are in. again any suggestions are welcome. Of course i could do none of this without the help of my wife and daughters.

looking great matt cant wait to see the finished product with plants and such next spring

thanks Jim, it will definitely be a work in process.

Oh that is going to be phenomenal when it is finished!  VERY cool.

For advice on native plants there's a local group called Wild Ones(Farmer Todd and his wife are active in this group).  I bet they would be a world of help to you on this, both in choosing native species, and in helping you with info for the bog area for next year.

Here's their mission statement and contact info:

Toledo Chapter of the national organization, Wild Ones.
We promote the use of native plants in home and business landscaping.
Wild Ones Toledo Chapter website: http://www.for-wild.org/chapters/toledo/
Wild Ones website: http://www.for-wild.org/

thanks for the info, will try to post more pics tonight. the fish love it ( the ones that didn't get chopped up in the pump) . we are starting to work on running more power out to the pond from the house, and the arbor/entranceway is almost done. It is made out of stainless steel. does anyone have experiance with outdoor metal halide lighting on a pond? does it throw a shimmer off at night like it does on a saltwater tank? i have a 60 watt LED system right now which is submersible, and wanted to go with the MH lighting to have an added effect. we have also found a ton of fossiles in the diggings and storebought rock. i'm thinking of mounting thoase around the sitting area.

I just ran across this thread Matt... I will have to stop over sometime soon and check it out... I have learned a few tricks from helping build a couple large ponds that will really make yours stand out and look natural... Plus I have access to all sorts of perennials that will fill in nicely around it, including some bog type plants.

Josh

I'm eagerly looking forward to more pix of your progress(not to mention the final product!).

i tried to post on the 19th and got an error, here i go again.

STREAM WHERE IT ENTERS THE POND, HOSE IS FROM MY NETWORK OF RAIN BARRELS

STEPS COMING DOWN, LOTS OF AERATION