How to build a pond

Is it possible to build a small pond in your back yard without professional stuff?

I'm not sure how, but I wanted to build a small pond that would mostly just contain plant-life and be a place for my dogs to play. It wouldn't be large at all, so I was wondering if it would be possible to build kind of a make-shift pond. Like with cement between the dirt and the water, or a tarp buried into the ground. I know that probably sounds silly. But I just want something small that the dogs can play in. Was just wondering if anyone had any ideas or input on the subject.

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  It's easy to build a pond in your yard. Here's how, with photos.
• http://www.pondlady.com/resource/pondbui…
• But as far as something for the dogs to play in, I would buy a kiddie pond from a big box store. You can easily hose it out and the dogs will have a great time.

Natural Pond Plant Removal

Question:
How to remove Lilly pads from a pond?
They have taken over my pond and there is no way of fishing in it, the point we even had the pond made, so with all these lilly pads we can't fish. What's the best way to remove them without chemicals?

We do have a boat if that helps.

    

Answer:
Get in the boat with a garden rake. Use the rake to pull out the lilies. If you can use waders, that's even better because you can get the corms along with the pads.
It's a miserable and hot job. Lilies are invasive and when placed in a natural bottom pond, take over in short order.

tabletop fountains

Question:
 In my garden I just have a glass bowl on a slab of sandstone and decorative rocks around it and I'm using it currently as a birdbath but I was wondering is there a really easy way to make a small waterfall into the bowl?

Answer:
There is indeed. You can find small pumps often at Hobby Lobby or similar craft type store. You will need somewhere to plug it in, and a way to hide the cord after you put the pump in.
Your biggest problem is going to be keeping the water from splashing out. Maybe water can just flow out and over the bowl.

Gravel in the Pond Bottom

Question:

Can I put driveway gravel in pond after washing it with water?
It is not pea gravel or river gravel though. It is gray and blue.


Answer:
You can, but you will regret it. The fish poop and debris collect in the gravel so you have to remove the gravel to clean out the pond.

Blanketweed

Question:

What is the best treatment green pond weed? It's like green cottonwood.

Answer:
Blanket weed is what you have. It's difficult to get rid of and Koi will not eat it. You can add barley straw bales to help get rid of it. Microbe-Lift PL works too and won't hurt your fish or plants. I have also dyed a pond black, waited three months and the blanket weed was gone. If you feed your fish, you are also feeding the algae. If you have koi, think about changing to goldfish, so you don't have to feed them.

Pond in a Box

Question:

Is it possible to reinforce a cedar planter with pond liner in it to hold 40 gallons of water?
How would you go about building a rectangular planter to be a water garden?

Answer:

I would start with 2 x 12" 8 feet long. Use metal brackets and screws to hold them together. Put the liner in the box. Use a 1" x 2" top piece of lumber to hold the top in place. Just nail them in, but NOT until you have filled it up with water. Don't worry about wrinkles. They disappear from sight after you get plants in there.
If you are using an existing box, do the same thing. Be sure to measure the bottom and both sides, then add a foot of liner so you have enough of it.

How many gallons of water do I have

Question:
Square and Circle Pond Calculator PROBLEM..?
I just want to ask how to compute POND SIZE, IDEAL STOCK LEVEL OF FISH, PUMP SIZE and LINER SIZE..???

My inputs are LENGTH(meters),WIDTH(meters),DEPTH(meter… and WATER TURN OVER PER HOUR..


Answer:
For gallons in pond, multiply width x length x depth, then multiply x 7.5 to get gallons.
In a circle, the formula is pi x the radius squared and then multiply x 7.5 for gallons.
A safe bioload is 1 linear foot of fish per 25 square feet of pond surface.
Have a pump moves all the water at least every two hours.

How to figure cubic feet

Question:

This is a working fish pond, with five tier waterfall. Will keep waterfall, and small recovery pool, but want to fill in the majority of pool, which is kidney shaped, 29 to 30 feet wide by 8 feet at widest point, and 7 feet near tips. All depth very close to 4 feet. I need this stable, what is the best filler to use? How to find this answer? There must be a formula to determine the contents of a pool. Just been away from school and math too many years.Thanks.

Answer:
I would use soil, clay even. To figure out how much, multiply width x length x depth to get cubic feet. If you need to, convert that to cubic yards, divide by 27.

To figure out how many gallons of water in your pond again get the cubic feet and then multiply times 7.5 as there are 7.5 gallons of water in one cubic foot.

Snail Eggs?

Question:

What are the clear eggs on a lily pad leaf in my pond?
I have a container pond in my back yard. I have pretty recently redone it. there are 5 goldfish, and a couple of frog tadpoles. I have water mint, another flowering plant and a pond lily, along with a few floating plants. I was looking at my lily, and under one of the pads there are two "strips" of clear eggs on the back of the leaf. I am sure one of the plants or something could have laid eggs there, but the goldfish are far to young for this. The only thing I could find on the internet was maybe snail eggs, but the pictures really didn't seem to fit. Any other ideas? What would be natural to Northern California?


Answer:

They are probably snail eggs if they are in strips. Snail eggs look like a clear jelly on lily leaves.

Growing water lilies

Question:

What size fountain/pond would I need to grow water lilies?


Answer:
Ideally, water lilies want to be about 3 feet below the water surface and in at least 5 hours of sun a day. The size of the pond depends on the number of lilies. A 6' x 9' pond can support one. There are dwarf lilies that can grow in smaller spaces if need be, but 3' x 3' is about the smallest for good water lily health. They do not like moving water so if you have a waterfall, they must be well away from it.
Good luck. Water lilies are often the main reason for having a pond.

Attracting wildlife to the pond

Question:

How can i attract wildlife to my pond?
I have a pond, about 4x4 meters roughly. Its has a range of plants and Lilly's and is in my garden by a river. What can i do to attract any kind of wildlife?? Someone told me to put a bucket of river water into my pond to introduce organisms and start things off that way?? What tips can you give me??? Thanks

Answer:
If you have water in your garden, the wildlife will come. You have created a wildlife habitat, an oasis, if you will. Dragonflies will probably be first, then toads and frogs. Birds and snakes will be close behind. 4 legged critters will come and go. Be on the lookout. You have built it; they will come.

Cleaning a Natural Pond

How to clean a natural pond?
We have just bought a piece of property with a pond on it, I don't know the depth yet but we are planning to use our inflatable fishing boat to try get an idea on the depth. There are cat tail plants growing around the edge and algae on the surface near the edges. There are also fish in the pond though we don't know what kind, we only know they're there because we saw them come up and splash after bugs that were on the surface. We want the pond to look nice and continue to have fish in it. What is our first step? Just digging out the cat tails are skimming off the algae? What else do you recommend? We've heard about blue dyes and probiotics are these some things we should be looking in to?

Answer:

You can remove some of the cattails, but I would not remove them all by any means. The pond looks healthy now, so proceed with care. I would use no algaecides or any other chemicals. You could put some barley straw in to take care of some of the algae, but it usually disappears on its own.
There are enzymes and bacteria you can introduce to the pond, but I would use only barley straw for now. After you have been there for awhile and gotten to know your pond, then consider dyes or probiotics.
The cat tails are providing valuable natural filtration.
Skimming off the existing algae is fine.

Pond Troubleshooting

PONDLADY HELP!

I have a biological filter for my pond but I inherited the property and I don't know how to get it running.

I inherited this property and have to clean out this pond and i am desperately trying to get it up and running. It has a biological filter and I dont know how it works or if it works.  Please help.

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  Let's see.
• First find out if your pump runs. Find any cord at all coming from the water or near the waterfall. Trace it to the plug end and try plugging it in. That should start the waterfall. If not, check the electrical outlet including the gfi. Reset it if necessary. If it still doesn't work, pull it out of the pond and see if it's humming when plugged in. If it is, check the impeller to see if it's clogged up. 
• If you have the pump running, it probably is connected to the biofilter already. If the pump has not been running in a long while or the pond has not been cleaned out in a long time, you need to do that first. Pump all the water out - nasty job, I know - and start over. 
• If you can't get the filter connected for some reason, run the pump without it until we can troubleshoot it. As you go and need more questions answered, join us at http://www.pondlady.com and you will have me and lots of experts to help you along.

Small Pond Plants

Question:

I am in Caifornia and have a small container pond (32gal). Any ideas on hardy flowering plants I can add?  Not water lillies. Pond is 14 inches deep x 16 inches wide x 36 inches long

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  Answer:
• You can grow water poppies as a floater, any emergent like the rushes, cyperus or irises. If you are in the shade, grow calla for great drama. To keep the water clear, use submerged vegetation and to keep mosquitoes away, use Mosquito Dunks or a mosquito fish.
• For more info on pond plants, see this article I wrote about pond plants:
• http://www.pondlady.com/Articles/umbrell…

Scum on Koi pond

Question:
Koi pond problem, Help?
My pond has got like a bubbly scum on top of the water. Fish are sitting at the top of water as if looking for air. Pumps and filters running as they should be. This has appeared over the last 2-3 days. I have lost 2 fish and it is not looking very promising. Any help would be grateful. Thanks.


Answer:
If you have lost fish, they may well be sick. Check at koivet.com for help.
It also sounds like your bioload may be too big, ie, you have too many fish or they are too big.
Has hot weather just arrived and the pond is heating up?
Try Microbe-Lift PL to clear the pond and to add some beneficial bacteria. That should help.
You can also swap out 25% of the water. Don't forget to add dechlor.

Ponds and safety

Question:

How can i build a safe small garden pond?

i would like to build a pond in my garden but i am worried about my younger brother falling in. i want to keep guppies, sword-tails and terrapins. something small and easy without too much maintenance would be ideal. also, i cannot buy filters or pumps. oh and it would be cool if frogs lived in the pond =) thanx!

Answer:

You can have a pond in a casserole dish if you want. You do not need a pump. Use submerged and floating vegetation to keep it clear. A mosquito fish or Mosquito Dunks will keep mosquitoes away. Tropical fish will not do well outside. Think a goldfish or two.

• See a photo of a container pond in this article I wrote:
• http://www.pondlady.com/Articles/smallpo…

Murky Pond Water

Question:
Why is my koi pond water grey?
I checked my pond ph and it was around 8-8.5.
I did a partial water change and now the pond water is a grey/smoky blue color.
2 fish died.
I'm assuming it was a sudden ph crash, but does adding a little tap water change the ph that much?
What do i do?
Are there chemicals i can add to balance the ph?


Answer:
Sounds like you needed to add dechlorinator when you added the tap water. The chlorine in tap water can kill fish as can any rapid change in water temperature.
I doubt it was a pH crash that killed the fish.
You can add vinegar to lower the pH. You can also use muriatic acid, but you really need to be careful with that. pH down is a swimming pool product that will lower pH as well. I use vinegar.
he murkiness is probably because of stirring up of the water. See if it settles down after a few days. But put dechlor in there now or you will lose more fish.

Tadpoles

Question:
Black commas in moving water?
There were these... thing animals that were in the pond where the water comes out from. I thought they were mosquitoes but they were where there was moving water. They are tiny like probably less than one centimeter and they were moving. Any ideas?


Answer:
Tadpoles, either frog or toad. If they are gone in 3 or 4 days, they are toad tadpoles.
If they stick around for a couple years and get bigger and bigger, they are frog tadpoles.

Pond plant growing media

Question:
Are there pond plants that do not require any dirt/growing medium.?
I bought a 'drop in plant"  at Home Depot.  Just drop the plant enclosed in the net and it will grow. They just had one like that. Are there others that I don't have to plant in pond potting soil that I can just drop in the water. I have a 60-gallon whiskey-barrel type pond.

Answer:
No pond plant really needs potting soil. We use it because it's handy and we are used to using soil. You can use any medium to hold the plant in place. It derives its nutrients from the water, not the soil. I have seen rockwool used, kitty litter, sand and rocks. The only general rule is that the top of the pot is about 1" below the water surface.
Your plant was in a growing medium in the net.  You just couldn't see it.

Pelicans and Ponds

Question:
I have a fish pond in my back yard. With four (used to be five) big fish. There is a pelican that lives around my house that has killed one fish that I know of. How with out killing the bird can I protect my fish? I have a net over it but this is not visually pleasing, are there methods or devices made for this problem?


Answer:
There are several ways to keep predator birds away from your fish. One is a motion activated device called a 'scarecrow.' It shoots a stream of water at any intruder...you included if you don't forget to turn it off.

"Gator Guard" is a floating alligator head that works very well.

Some folks cover their ponds with netting, but I think that looks ugly.

Be sure there are plenty of places for your fish to hide. Under flat rocks that are on top of cinder blocks. Put in plenty of submerged vegetation. If you feed your fish, they come to the surface when you walk up. They can't tell the difference between you and an intruder, so they come up when the bird appears. Think about not feeding your fish, unless you have koi.