FishProfiles.com Message Forums

The OH finally OKed a pond.

It is to back directly onto the house and be designed as a trough style, probably with railway sleepers and a liner (but I'm open to suggestions on this)

I know I would like one, but I have no idea what I want to do with it short of grow some lillies and have a handful of goldfish.

How do you filter them?
Will fountains deter predators?
What is best for algae?
Should there be some sort of substrate?


For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Hard to tell what will deter the predators.... overhang of rocks would help give protection as would floating plants

I had a little outdoor number and the spout (fountain) did not keep predators away. I assume it was kookas thinking it was a sushi bar. The fish disappeared, no bodies belly up so must have been picked off.

Controlling algae.... hard to tell what will be best... maybe it is the property addage "location, location, location". Might I hazard a suggestion? Garnered this from gardening.... when one is seeing if the plant will be happy in a certain position it is kept in a pot and moved from place to place before committing to dig and plant. One could use the principle for a pond before digging and filling?

Imagine doing the whole setup and it is just too shady/sunny etc.... I have a ceramic bowl you can use as a temporary measure to assess the different areas by monitoring algae and the like.... may be way to small for you but the offer is there.

I think if it has been a long hard campaign to get a durn pond you would want it to be smooth sailing if possible. Do the research first by using something portable.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

if it's a large enough container it will become a mini ecosystem - no need for filtration provided the bioload is kept low. partial water changes will keep things fresh enough. algae is a vital part of that ecosystem and i have never seen a pond without algae. particularly as we have a 'bird's eye' view of ponds, algae isn't really a problem either. i reckon put in as many lillies as you like, let the water mature and grow the flora and fauna it needs, then add 3 - 5 strong goldies (comets, shubunkin or standard, nothing too fancy) and let nature take its course. you won't need to feed as much because of the available food in the pond. substrate is only necessary if you plan on planting plants directly, which i wouldn't recommend. birds and cats can be an issue, but with lots of plants your fish should be fine.

Well, there is algae and algae. I'm happy for it to cover the liner but not tochoke the surface or infest the main swimming space.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

I have 2 thins that have worked both aren't natural looking. But I have gotten to the point that it was needed.
A) You can span a dark colored net over it
B) you can put posts near it with aluminum foil strips tied to it so that when the wind blows on it it rattles and the shininess scares the predators

-Vincent

You can keep birds away by tying CD's to twine and hanging them freom a nearby tree.
When my family had a small pond we put a piece of pool fencing over the top, though it would not fit larger ponds.

Ahhh So that's what I can do with my hundreds of CD's I'm throwing out in the moving process!

If you do use cd's I'd suggest making sure that you don't use a R or RW. IME they're more susceptible to degrading.

I want a goldfish pond .

^_^

what ever happened to the scare crow?

---

''All the clown fish and yellow tangs in the world cant save you now!''