Pond Information and DIY Pond Information

Here is a recent post I did to a forum. I need to "clean" it up for this blog but I'm just getting it out here for now. :D

Go to my Blog Post about a DIY pump pre-filter/bio-filter that you can make for around $10.00 (not including the pump and fountain that you will need regardless, to keep your pond aerated).

You will also need a good liner... probably the most important thing since I've read horror stories of ponds leaking.

Also be careful of fountains and water falls as they have led to draining a small pond as well if they start spraying the water out of the pond for some reason... heavy wind day or they get moved for some reason.

I've read about using a plastic water trough for farm animals as a pre-fabbed pond which is more sturdier and deeper so they take advantage of the earths geothermal heating/cooling... or they can be used above ground as well but then you wouldn't get the geothermal assistance. http://www.rubbermaidproducts.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=RCP+4247+GRA&Category_Code=Farm+Tough%99+Stock+Tanks. You might be able to find these used for around $50.00 or less at farm auctions. The downside is they don't have the different levels like you could get with a pond liner but they are much cheaper than a good pond liner. I think they have different sizes with a 300G containers that is oval shaped and three feet deep. With a liner, you can make your design however you want but the cost would be more.

Using the dimensions you provided, your pond will be around 187 gallons (using this site http://www.fishpondinfo.com/calc.htm ) but will probably be less once you add the liner so if you get long bodied goldfish, you will only be able to have a few. With round bodied, you could have about 6 but YOU CANNOT GET THEM ALL AT ONCE. Just one or two at a time and you will have to cycle the pond and test your water just like a tank but it's not as bad since it's a bigger volume of water and outdoors which allows for rain, more plants, etc.

My Blog pre-filter/bio-filter relies on Anacharis as part of the system so that will help you keep your water crystal clear along with the filter system. I'm sure you will have other water plants too.. like lilies to cover about 1/2 of the pond to help give it shade and protect the fish from bird predators. You'll find out if you have raccoons or other land predators after you build the pond.

Here's one of my previous blog posts to start you off about the DIY pre-filter. http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/2007/03/pond-maintenance-q-about-algae-bloom.html

These next two articles are VERY GOOD about keeping a pond and keeping it clean and clear.
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/ClearPond.html
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/PondAlgae.html

This guy left a comment on my Blog and his site is pretty good and he has a free e-Book download on his filter system and pond.
http://leisure.prior-it.co.uk/pond.shtml

His eBook download link:
http://www.jpgo.co.uk/trk/Download_DIY_Bio-Filter_Ebook.php

This eBook is readable online at http://www.skippysstuff.com/pondbook.htm and covers everything from building the pond to keeping it running and stresses proper ecology and biology instead of chemical additives for every minor problem.

This is a pretty good site too... Robyn's Pond Site and there is a Yahoo Group thing to sign up for to get her Yahoo Group distributed newsletter but it's not a forum to ask questions, although there may be forums associated with her site... I haven't been there in a while:
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/pond.htm
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pondnews

There's quite a few Yahoo Groups for ponds but most of them aren't moderated and get tons of spam. This next few are OK but they do not get a lot of activity but at least they're not filled with spam.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gold-fish - A moderately busy group but NO spam.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ponds_and_plants/ - A slow group but NO spam.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pondkeepers - A busy group that is moderated.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ponds-Koi - A busy group but gets some spam on rare occasions.

This site has some pictures and diagrams and instructions.
http://www.watergarden.com/pages/build_wg.html

As does this one... but this site overall recommends too many chemical fixes but the instructions will probably help. http://www.macarthurwatergardens.com/BuildPond/buildpond.htm

This is another eBook type site but you have to send them your email info... I use a secondary email addy for these types of sites.. just in case of spam.
http://clearwaterlandscapes.com/pondebook.htm

Here is a PDF e-book called "101 Pond Tips and Tricks", put out by a pond liner product company but it has some good info and things to think about when building a pond.
http://www.pondarmor.com/ebooks/101tips.pdf

Here's a new site I recently found that has a weekly newsletter with a new article each week. http://www.practical-water-gardens.com/form/subscribe070209.htm
Or there FREE book download in .pdf format - The Pond Keeper's 10 Steps To Successful Koi Keeping - http://www.practical-water-gardens.com/10stepskoi.pdf

Here's a page of articles on various topics for pond care.
http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/ponds/index.html

Here's a page of FAQ's about pondkeeping that is pretty good.
http://www.geocities.com/justinm090/faq.html

A very good site about Pond Water Chemistry.
http://www.vcnet.com/koi_net/H2Oquality.html

Following are some online and regular subscription magazines. Most of these are FREE.

Here's one where you can read or download the current edition which comes out every two months. http://www.pondkeeper.com/ On the right side, a little down, you'll see the link to "Read the Current Edition" where it will open a .pdf document. It's a big file since it's the entire magazine but you can save a copy on your computer and read it at your leisure and print any pages you like.

http://www.pondowner.com/ is an online magazine where you can also read the past issues online. At the bottom, there is a link to "Subscribe" to their mailing list so you will be notified when each issue comes out.

http://www.victoria-adventure.org/water_gardening/png.html has the archives of previous "Pond & Garden" magazines and you can download the multi-part .pdf files. It's best to download the multiple parts into separate folders for each volume.

http://www.pondboss.com/ is more for BIG ponds or small lakes and you can subscribe to this one, but there is a free issue you can download to look over to see if you think you will like it.

http://www.watergardennews.com/wgn/magazine.aspx is a free subscription that will be mailed to you. If you are not involved in the "business" end of ponds, then you may have to fudge the info a little to make it look like you are. It's mailed to USA/Canada but if you are out of those areas, they have a .pdf subscription for "Foreign Subscribers".

I used to have a ton more links and other downloadable eBooks but I lost my "Favorites" folder when my hard drive froze up on my laptop and I didn't have the Favorites backed up. You can Google for lots of other pond sites but use caution about the sites that are pushing their chemicals or recommend chemical fixes for everything. Just like with tanks, if you have a proper biology/ecology, your pond will function reasonably well.

Hope this helps.

GoldLenny