My outdoor pond resto project

[Menelvir]

When I moved into my present house about two years ago, in one side of the front yard it had an above-ground, outdoor pond with a low (6" to 8") concrete/rock retaining wall that had somewhat fallen into neglect and whose environs were overgrown with weeds and hackberry.

I thought I'd share a bit of the work I've been doing to get it back into shape (which is a challenge in 95+ degree South Texas heat).

The pond is black plastic, irregularly shaped with wavy edges - I'm not sure of the total volume. It may be ~1.5' deep at the lowest point from the surface. It had developed a crack in the bottom where part of the side had folded on itself.

I patched the crack/small hole with a caulk gun and some roofing compound, spreading it out around the crack a bit with a putty knife, and it worked like a charm - the pond now holds water and hasn't shown any signs of leakage for a week - so we bought an upright fountain/filter pump combo that makes a nice bell-shaped fountain.

Yesterday we bought some plants to populate the pond. Some hornwort (an underwater aerating plant), a small lily pad plant, and some rushes (marginals), as well as some Dwarf Fountain grass for near the edges.

Then today we went out and bought about one dozen feeder goldfish (only $.10 ea.!) and after floating their plastic bag a while to allow it to acclimate to the water, I released them into the pond and they seem to be doing well. (I checked a bit ago, and there was one death after about two hours)

Then we spent about an hour and a half digging up some of the hackberry roots that have integrated themselves into a vast network all around the pond itself. The main plant will send out new shoots that come up and grow a separate tree, like satellite plants.


This is a hackberry taproot I pulled almost completely out that is at least five feet long.

It still needs a lot of work, and eventually it may need completely re-done (since it wasn't done very competently in the first place), but for now it is a work-in-progress. All of these are phone pics, I may try to take better ones as progress continues.

[vonkaar]

It looks great!

[Drem]

Jealous. Nice work

[brinstar]

shit's fuckin cool

[Menelvir]

Thanks guys! After almost forty-eight hours, about five fish have died, but I sort of expected a high attrition, as they're only feeder goldfish. If a few of them survive and maybe triple in size (how large can goldfish grow, anyway?) I'll be ecstatic.

[Zanchief]

This thread depresses me because my yard is a disaster and I'm too lazy to do anything about it.

[10sun]

Largest goldfish I've ever seen was almost 8 inches. It was my sister's for almost a decade and finally died during Hurricane Andrew when we had to evacuate.

The largest I've had in my pond was a solid 6 inches. All my bigger fish disappeared about two months ago and I've just now put more in (went for koi & black moors this time).

What pump are you using? Issues with clogging yet? My new pump (old one died this spring) keeps the water crystal clear, but also I need to clean out the filter about every other day which is annoying.

[Menelvir]

I believe it is a TetraPond Filtration Fountain Kit like the one here.

Kind of a cheapie, but it seems to work pretty well. Inside the the filter box are two filter mesh pads about .5" thick that are stacked one atop the other.

I've only emptied it once so far, after about a month of continuous operation, and it didn't seem that dirty, which surprised me since it is very exposed and there is part of a large (and ancient) oak canopy hanging over the pond -- leaves, small twigs, acorns, oak pearls, and other detritus are almost constantly falling into the water.

That's encouraging to hear about the goldfish thriving and growing - I was thinking maybe a plecostomus or a catfish might make a nice addition, too.

What do you feed the goldfish (if anything)? Can they live off of the plant matter in the pond or is it better to give them supplementary food(s)?

[Lyion]

Looks nice, Menelvir! How often do you have to add water? A pond like that in Ohio would self refill via rain.

[Menelvir]

Thanks, Lyion! I have only added water once so far, and I try to do so sparingly so as not to shock the pond life -- I'm not entirely sure what's in our water (in terms of trace chemicals).

This summer has been an exceedingly wet one for Texas so far -- a stark contrast to the drought we had a couple of years back.

I would suspect I'll have to add water at least once a week to compensate for evaporation, even if the rains continue.

[Tuggan]

you're gonna want to get some kinda fish food, flakes to start and pellets once they get bigger. don't overfeed or you'll end up with excessive plant/algae growth, bacteria blooms, and cloudy water.

turning it into an outdoor "aquarium" can be a lot of work though, i'd just stick with the goldfish. tropical fish can be really sensitive to temperature changes, ph levels, etc... goldfish are pretty hardcore, they can survive in hot and cold water, low oxygen etc... plus they're really inexpensive to replace.

[Menelvir]

Yeah, I don't have the financial means to go nuts with this, so the plan is to stick mainly with goldfish and a few plants. The only reason I mentioned plecostomus is because my family also had an outdoor pond when I was a kid, and a plecostomus we had in the pond did quite well living out there.

When I checked the water last, it seems to be getting a little cloudy, but everything in there (rocks, bottom) is getting very green and algae-laden.

Thanks for the tips on the food.

[10sun]

Yeah, I don't have the financial means to go nuts with this, so the plan is to stick mainly with goldfish and a few plants. The only reason I mentioned plecostomus is because my family also had an outdoor pond when I was a kid, and a plecostomus we had in the pond did quite well living out there.

When I checked the water last, it seems to be getting a little cloudy, but everything in there (rocks, bottom) is getting very green and algae-laden.

Thanks for the tips on the food.

I put two plecys in my pond because they were $1 apiece at Petland. Last year they committed suicide. Year before they died with the winter (everything else was fine with a simple heater).

I use pond sticks for feeding my fish. Small to the large.

Get barley balls. They'll help stem the algae growth.

[10sun]

Today wasn't a good day.

This morning I found a dead goldfish on the bottom. One of the medium sized ones (about 3").
Just now I fished out a plecy that was floating upside down (I hadn't seen either one since introducing them)... the plus side is that it was about twice the size as when I got it.

Tomorrow I think I am picking up some PH testing strips to start narrowing down reasons for dying fish.

[Menelvir]

That sucks, 10sun. I guess I've been lucky with the water quality.

Of the "dozen" we got (it turned out to be a total of 14), 9 have survived and seem to be doing well - thriving, in fact. None of them were larger than .75" when we bought them, and I'd swear there are a couple that are nearing 1.25" in size, so they must be enjoying their new home.

I added 1 pleccy the other day, I haven't seen him at all since putting him in the water.

That was a great call on the fish flakes, they love that stuff.

I can't believe how much joy these little critters bring me -- it's crazy -- all they do is swim and eat, but they are inquisitive and curious as hell. I can stick my fingers in the water and they'll come over to investigate. When I put food on the tips of my fingers, they'll happily come over and nibble the bits of food off -- it's like they have almost no fear. I can easily (but not yet comfortably) sit and just watch them for half an hour.

I pulled out about eight hackberry roots around the perimeter of the pond over the weekend - I got tired of digging with the shovel, so after I'd exposed enough root, I started using a length of chain and my pickup to pull them out. Very satisfying.

[Menelvir]

Bit of an update:

Today I finished digging a small trench so I could lay electrical -- about 12' of line inside a .5" PVC pipe. That way I don't need an extension cord stretched across the yard to keep the pump/fountain going. It took about half a day to finish up, but I'm pleased with the results.

Next to the pond, I put a 3.5' long 4x4 post in about half a foot of concrete and screwed the electrical box to the post so that it would have some stability when I'm plugging/unplugging stuff.

I used a double two-gang box so that I could have four outlets -- that way I can have the fountain going in addition to being able to plug in an electrical weedeater, edge trimmer, or whatever else I need.

I also wanted the extra outlet so I could plug in a small pond heater -- temps are supposed to drop into the mid-40s here tonight.

So, it's still coming along. Next step will probably be some major rock work along the outer edge. Not exactly sure what I'm going to do yet, but I'd like to do something like a terraced/staggered look, stacked flat stones, maybe, and I really don't want to do concrete if I can avoid it.

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