# My Four Hour Pond



## bridgey_c (6 May 2018)

I have never had a pond before and on a spur of the moment I bought a 6ft preformed pond on ebay a few days ago. I immediately regretted it thinking I should have done it properly and bought a liner but it was too late now! I dug a rough outline yesterday and at 11 o'clock this morning the hole looked like this.




 

After a small drive to pick the pond up and four hours later it looked like this



 



 

I was lucky to have some old sandstone knocking around with some nice moss on it but it has turned out better than I imagined. I know nothing about plants so I'm not sure if these are postioned well but time will tell. The plan is to add some white cloud minnows in a few weeks after I have bought some plants and they have settled in. The planters behind are only there briefly and I will find some nice shrubs to compliment the setting. Any ideas welcome


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## bridgey_c (6 May 2018)




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## foxfish (6 May 2018)

Amazing!


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## bridgey_c (6 May 2018)

Cheers, I was thinking of putting a load of plants in and just leaving it to grow wild and natural without a filter. Is this reasonable or will I just end up with a stinky stagnant pond?


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## rebel (7 May 2018)

What a great transformation!

My suggestion is to at least install one of them solar powered pumps to agitate the water a little. Not sure how much sun you get where you live though. Ideally just install a simple filter.


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## PARAGUAY (7 May 2018)

bridgey_c said:


> Cheers, I was thinking of putting a load of plants in and just leaving it to grow wild and natural without a filter. Is this reasonable or will I just end up with a stinky stagnant pond?


A wildlife pond ,the plants and general maintenance should stop it becoming stagnant I would ave thought?


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## mort (7 May 2018)

Looks great, very natural. I've just built a wildlife pond for my brother and it's going to be filtered by plants only. Once you get the little ecosystem built up they take care of themselves and the only real reason to filter is if you have large bodied fish or a fish bioload.
However saying that adding more oxygen to the water and even a simple air powered filter will benefit it. It also helps if you use rainwater rather than our reasonably high nitrate tap water, unless you are wanting to encourage plant growth.


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## Chrispowell (7 May 2018)

Looks great! That moss won’t enjoy strong light or lack of moisture. 

My concern with a still area of water would be Miskitos, but I have no personal experience so I could be wrong


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## sparkyweasel (7 May 2018)

Mosquito larvae = free fish food.


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## gregl (7 May 2018)

Chrispowell said:


> Looks great! That moss won’t enjoy strong light or lack of moisture.



Shouldn't be a problem with the upcoming British summer then


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## Edvet (7 May 2018)

Just do a lot of plants and few fish.Should work, maybe even do a low EI dose to promote plantgrowth.


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## bridgey_c (7 May 2018)

Thanks for the input everyone. Yeah that moss was taken from a well shaded place but this pond area only gets direct sunlight after about 3pm so maybe it will stand a chance but I wouldnt be surprised if it dwindles.

I am only planning to put in a few white cloud minnows for the summer so I don't expect bioload to be a factor and I am guessing if I can cover a decent area of water surface with plant cover then it should be adequate without a filter. Although I quite like the idea of a hidden small pump just to give it a slight amount of water movement, I will see how it goes.

Today I picked up two large lily rhizomes, which I know will dwarf the pond when they get established but they will do for the time being. Another one which will only be temporary is a large clump of yellowflag iris, again im thinking they will only be there for a shortish period. I grabbed a clump of weedy type plant from the river to see how that does too. I also put in three bunches of golden striped rush which supposedly are only a dwarf variety. Maidenhead aquatics were selling a bundle of un-named oxygenating plants which seem to be a couple of eleocharis sp's, a ranunclus sp and two others Im not sure of. Oh and I chucked in a handful of salvinia natans to see if it can live outdoors.

I bought half a dozen WC Minnows last week in preparation and put them in a small 22l tank. Today I looked down and could see about 40-50 tiny fry on the surface! They are currently at about 22C so I will slowly lower their temperature then pop the adults into the pond. I guess the fry won't be very resistant to a large temp change so they might stay in the tank till they mature. All good fun


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## martin-green (8 May 2018)

I would suggest you go for the "Natural pond" route, a solar pump will be of no use what so ever, and some (not all) pond plants do not like moving water. 
It will be a case of trial and error to find out what is right for your pond, but above all have fun doing it and keep posting pictures.


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## martin-green (8 May 2018)

You might also want to add some "old bricks" stacked like a stair case (honest) so that anything that gets in (be that it falls or jumps in) can get out by its self. Also you may want to remove some of that grass round the edge, its not the grass itself that concerns me, its the lawn mower you will use to cut it with, invariably the lawn mower will send grass into the pond, which will sink and rot. If you have some old paving slabs (broken ones are actually better) you could lay those around the pond perimeter, so the lawn mower doesn't have to get that close. If you do this, sink the slabs 1- 5 mm lower than the grass so the lawn mower can easily go over the slabs edges.


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## bridgey_c (8 May 2018)

Cheers Martin, the grass was a last minute decision. I have got some moss covered flat stones that I think were part of an old pathway decades ago (if not centuries) but they are quite deep, 2-3 inches. The stones were on the other side of the river from me and I've had my eye on them for years for edging a pond. When I was coming back from my second row across last week my old boat sprung a leak!!!! I had only got about 5 foot from the bank and in a flash I was neck deep in freezing cold water..... about 100kg of stone and me hit the bottom of the river in about 0.2 seconds. The water didn't pour in slowly and give me chance to rescue the situation, one second I was gingerly caressing the old boat to move and the next I was gasping for air. I was giggling to myself as it was happening because it was fairly obvious what was going to happen. I have a nemesis of a muscovy duck that I kick out of the garden every single morning and the little b*****d was stood about 6 ft away, I bet he was roaring with laughter watching me .  I managed to swim back to my side to be greeted by my dog wagging his tail, must have looked like something straight out of 'last of the summer wine'. Anyway, when I placed the few stones I had brought back on my previous voyage by the pond edge they sat so high they looked weird. The pond has a 2 inch lip that needs hiding so any stone needs to sit on this if I want it to be hidden. I improvised with some grass and I thought of maybe leaving it to grow a bit wild with just the occasional strim. We will see but that reminds me that I need a decent pond net anyway.


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## bridgey_c (8 May 2018)




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## frederick thompson (10 May 2018)

bridgey_c said:


> View attachment 115232


You have done a good job there mate. I like the natural look of the pond. It all blends in.
Try not to over stock the pond. With fish. Or you will need filters.
When i intruduce my fish from my grow on tank from 22c. To the main pond i go a maximum of 2 degree difference.  So as not to stress the fish to much. Also be careful as the fish bug bites. Enjoy the pond mate.
And stay out of boats haha. Unless being video. Great story. Loved to have seen it.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk


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## bridgey_c (20 May 2018)

I decided to build an addition to my pond. I think it came out ok seeing as I've never even nailed two bits of wood together before.



 



 

I haven't seen my white cloud minnows at all so I'm not sure if adding them this early in the year was a good idea. On the plus side the lilies' leaves have reached the surface and there is plenty of new growth in all the plants. I am thinking of adding dwarf connifers to fill in the gaps in the border and when it all fills in it should be a nice area.


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## rebel (21 May 2018)

Everything you touch seems to turn to gold!!!


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## bridgey_c (23 May 2018)

Haha, thanks but it's not quite true. Youtube has revolutionised learning though. Imagine being personally shown how to do things by master craftsmen in any field for free, priceless.


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## frederick thompson (23 May 2018)

very nice bridgey. looks spot on


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## Petra R (23 May 2018)

That is seriously nice   (both the pond and the decking!)


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## sanj (23 May 2018)

That is brilliant. Only concern is the sandstone affecting water chemistry. Looks fab though. Well done.


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## rebel (24 May 2018)

sanj said:


> That is brilliant. Only concern is the sandstone affecting water chemistry. Looks fab though. Well done.


Would to sandstone stop leeching once it's covered in biofilm?


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