Alice B
Fish Herder
these aren't hollywood pics, I just shot a few last week. I think I got one of the back yard pond sans giant iris (which needs divided still but it's rainy today) Fencing over the koi is because of blue herons, I've lost 56 koi in 2 days to 1 bird before. Fence went on that year. I had just bought those koi, they were about 6 inches plus tail.
First pond: keyhole pond, put in approximately 2012 to raise plants, quite deep in the middle, used to raise water lily for deep ponds there, wide plant ledge for bog plants, bog filter with just a milk crate and a bag of lava rock in it for easy cleaning. Stock goldfish, mainly comets, a couple of fancies that I don't know name of. Like most of my fish they or their parents were orphaned when a pond was closing down. Part of why I have 4 ponds, need room.
Second pond: Flower Power, built in 2010 to raise water lilies. Koi eat water lilies so mostly it has a few bogs in the blue bucket, some lotus and bogs up by the tetra filter. 4800 gph Danner pump runs small biofalls with filter pad and lava rock, Tetra 200 gravity filter, spitter in a drilled plastic blue heron, and open pipe nearby. Full sun, did not get cleaned this year because it got hot too fast and I didn't want to kill my fish. Need a neighbor kid to come help me clean while we have these cool temps, I did drain. becaise i had to catch a few fish, and there was a couple of inches of processed fish waste under the milk crates that support the fish hides.
Third pond: basically a plant rearing basin, has mosquito fish, lotus, couple of fancy lilies of different varieties, bog plants.
Fourth pond: backyard. I posted this one last week in the what are you doing thread. Originally built in August 2002 with just bottom basin, top basin, half inch plywood walls screwed to 4 inch treated wood corner posts and strapped with pipe strap, added in 2005, rebuilt in 2018. 2 separate liners. 2018 waterfall I added milk crate fish hides in the bottom and stacked heavy Colorado pink flagstone on top to make a wide waterfall for the birds that kept trying to balance on water lilies to bathe. Pump is 20 years old, Danner Mag Drive 1800 gph. In bottom of pond, pipe shoots out corner of top pond, debris drops as it crosses the 8 ft width and exits at top to waterfall. Bog filter with no media, very easy to clean, just shut down, drain water, vacuum sludge, dechlorinate and refill. The pump is in a landscape pot with a little lava rock around it for prefilter.
the wading pool is a "hospital tank" for a bloated goldfish who has looked like that for a couple years, and a bloated small koi. I have another fat goldfish in the backyard pond that should go in here and then probably treat all with metronidazole.
Last pic, backyard pond, goldfish and water lily. Fish are all in the bottom basin, only a few mosquito fish manage to stay on top, you can see how good the clarity is.
First pond: keyhole pond, put in approximately 2012 to raise plants, quite deep in the middle, used to raise water lily for deep ponds there, wide plant ledge for bog plants, bog filter with just a milk crate and a bag of lava rock in it for easy cleaning. Stock goldfish, mainly comets, a couple of fancies that I don't know name of. Like most of my fish they or their parents were orphaned when a pond was closing down. Part of why I have 4 ponds, need room.
Second pond: Flower Power, built in 2010 to raise water lilies. Koi eat water lilies so mostly it has a few bogs in the blue bucket, some lotus and bogs up by the tetra filter. 4800 gph Danner pump runs small biofalls with filter pad and lava rock, Tetra 200 gravity filter, spitter in a drilled plastic blue heron, and open pipe nearby. Full sun, did not get cleaned this year because it got hot too fast and I didn't want to kill my fish. Need a neighbor kid to come help me clean while we have these cool temps, I did drain. becaise i had to catch a few fish, and there was a couple of inches of processed fish waste under the milk crates that support the fish hides.
Third pond: basically a plant rearing basin, has mosquito fish, lotus, couple of fancy lilies of different varieties, bog plants.
Fourth pond: backyard. I posted this one last week in the what are you doing thread. Originally built in August 2002 with just bottom basin, top basin, half inch plywood walls screwed to 4 inch treated wood corner posts and strapped with pipe strap, added in 2005, rebuilt in 2018. 2 separate liners. 2018 waterfall I added milk crate fish hides in the bottom and stacked heavy Colorado pink flagstone on top to make a wide waterfall for the birds that kept trying to balance on water lilies to bathe. Pump is 20 years old, Danner Mag Drive 1800 gph. In bottom of pond, pipe shoots out corner of top pond, debris drops as it crosses the 8 ft width and exits at top to waterfall. Bog filter with no media, very easy to clean, just shut down, drain water, vacuum sludge, dechlorinate and refill. The pump is in a landscape pot with a little lava rock around it for prefilter.
the wading pool is a "hospital tank" for a bloated goldfish who has looked like that for a couple years, and a bloated small koi. I have another fat goldfish in the backyard pond that should go in here and then probably treat all with metronidazole.
Last pic, backyard pond, goldfish and water lily. Fish are all in the bottom basin, only a few mosquito fish manage to stay on top, you can see how good the clarity is.
