Pond Pics

I can't wait to get my pond running either. It looks good chris.

They are entirely perennials, I won't plant annuals, they seem like a waste of time money and life to me. I've told my wife that if she wants pansies and the like she's welcome to plant them, but I prefer a plant that will continue to grow and return every year.

I do have a few seagrasses around but their not really visible in the pic. If you have fish, and your pond is more than a year old, I reccomend those floating African hyacinths in the upper left corner. They are, from everyone I've talked to, excellent oxygenators and take up a great deal of nutrients, you can see mine aren't really thriving in the pic because the pond was pretty new at that point but later in the year they did pretty well. They also provide shade for the fishes (important, they can sunburn) and the roots make a backup food source for them.

If anyone wants to get excited about pond plants and fish, they should check out Earth Systems at about 7200 so. on 900 e. It's in the oddly out of place airplane hanger shaped greenhouse accross the street from "From The Sea" (check him out while your in the area, great prices on some things. While I'm visiting either one I always make a stop at the other). They haven't priced their plants yet 'cause it's still to early to introduce any of them (though most of mine spent the winter in the pond, under a makeshift greenhouse) but their selection and their koi are HUGE.

Edited by chrisslc

Cool! My brother raises Koi, if someone wants some. He told me
there are markings that breeders look for, ie a black spot under the
right eye. If you get that special mark, the fish are worth big bucks!
If not, they are freebies to your sister!

Rob is going to want to see your pond. He loves his!

(Pansies are bi-annuals, and they reseed...... I think. How can you
tell if a gold colored fish is sunburned?)

The hyacinth was locally collected, as was many of the plants.  The pond was probably over populated with fish, a few shebunkins, many comets that bred every year, hundreds of south american cichlids, a few african cichlids and a couple plecostomus.  The tropicals I planted in the early spring (late march/early april) and removed in the fall (octoberish).  It's amazing how fast those guys breed!  IME, the key to having good hyacinth growth is lots of fish but no koi.  Koi will eat all the floating roots of the plant killing it.  The potted plants I repotted each year mixing a little 16/16/16 garden fertilizer in the mix.  I had the pond for about 4 yrs (I wonder if it's still there?).

I don't think hyacinth oxygenate the water much (the photosythising part of the plant is above water), but they are the best plant at nutrient uptake.  I had greenish water for the first month of good sun until the hyacinth grew to cover at least 1/4 of the pond.  Then it was crystal clear water for the rest of the season.  I had decent underwater growth of hydrilla (similar to anachris) which I also collected locally. 

Most of the oxygenation came from this which fed a waterfall:

 

I didn't really have that much flow either.  Maybe 1000 gal/hr in a 1500 gallon pond (is that alot?).  My problem was keeping the hyacinth trimmed back.  It was a weekly event to prune the hyacinth and pull out a five gallon bucket of hydrilla.  The roots of the hyacinth were about 18" long like big feathers.  A friend of mine built a pond the same summer I did but his was a little bigger and he put koi in it.  He could never get hyacinth to grow and fought green water all summer long.  After a couple years of that, he built an elevated smaller pond tied the two together and grew hyacinth in the upper one.  Cleared the water in the lower one.

Maybe you could check your water for nitrates and phosphates.

oops I forgot to mention in my last post that the reason my friend couldn't grow hyacinth, imo, was the koi ate the roots.  His plants had about 1/2" of root in the water .  Chris, do your hyacinth have long feathery roots?

Ryan, everything is more or less shown in the drawing.  It's kind of a "feel it out on your own" type of thing.  I used 3 inch pvc pipe for the center air/water tower.  Drilled a hole for a 3/4 inch (or whatever size) elbow pointing downward for the inlet water.  Slot the bottom so the water can exit.  The heavy grating was cut up from an old bread rack (heavy nylon) I comandered from the garbage can at Albertsons.  The drain was a 1 inch bulkhead and valve.  The outlet was 1 1/2 inch pvc which led to a small waterfall.  The river rock was larger golf ball sized stones.  I had about 3-4 inches of this size.  Then I filled it up to about 10 inches from the outlet with pea gravel.  You can also grow anacaris or hyacinth in this water.  The drain should be opened and blown down about once a month (I drained into my garden).  I tried growing shrubs around the trash can to hide it as can be seen in my pics.

Here's some pics of my pond, I put it in last summer. Hope to plant some things behind it to hide the fence soon.

Brian Hatch.

Night shot...

 

Brian, that is gorgeous! Gotta love the gargoyle!

Is your rock work all cemented down? Rob has he set up similar, but
with gray rock. I want to expand the rock over to the wall to make a
bigger patio. Turns out, you don't have to water or weed or fertilize
a patio!