I actually used anything I could find. Mostly I used about a 1/2 inch of soil then an inch of small gravel. I was developing my own strain of black sailfin mollies, crossing domestic black mollies with wild caught sailfins ( they're native to the mangroves around south FL. go check some out if you have time. Black point is a great place to look). anyway my pond had a mix of pea rock and coral saved from digging the hole for the pond.
The pond was mainly a grow out area for my males since the dorsal fins seemed to develop better in the pond setting than a tank setting. I also had a several breeding pairs of trichogaster trichogaster (three spot gouramis). I also had some portalogrensis cichlids and Hemichromis bimaculatus breeding in there. Funny thing is that all these fish, with the exception of the gouramis were caught in a canal next to my house in Perrine. I paid nothing for them and almost nothing to feed them and would harvest about 100 cichlids and gouramis each month. I would trade the young fish for credit at a few LFS in the area. All was bliss until 8/24/92. Then Andrew came to town and my fishy operation was obliterated. I lost just about every fish except for 6 mollies I had in a 20 gal inside my house.
Not that you asked for a complete history, but once I get started about the good old days...
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