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ua hua's 5,000 gal. water garden(pics of spring 2017 last page)

30K views 104 replies 54 participants last post by  pfcs49 
#1 · (Edited)
I thought I would share some pictures of the pond I put in about 10 years ago and the koi that reside there. This pond is 11' x 16' and 3'6" deep. It has had 3 generations of koi spawn but I haven't had any spawns the last 3 years and I have no idea why. Without further rambling here is the pictures because that is what everyone wants to see anyway.
 

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#32 ·
Well it's that time of year again for the back breaking task of spring cleaning on the pond. The plan is to try to get it done sometime next weekend(weather permitting). I will be removing more of the sweetflag and bullrush as that stuff would take over the entire pond if I didn't remove a majority of it every year. Last summer I had to take a saw to some of it as the roots went down about 3 feet to the bottom of the pond and were jammed in amongst some huge stones.

I have been looking for some Ludwigia sediodes to put in here this summer and hopefully can find some from a member here or else I have found an online source but would rather spend my money with people here.

I may try to put some plants from my tank in there if I can figure out a way to keep the koi away from them otherwise they will become food rather quickly. I put a 2 gallon bucket of duckweed in there last year and the next morning you could barely see any, except some that got right up next to the edge of the pond that they couldn't reach. I will try to post some pictures as soon as the clean up is done.
 
#101 ·
Well it's that time of year again for the back breaking task of spring cleaning on the pond. ........snip............

I have been looking for some Ludwigia sediodes to put in here this summer and hopefully can find some from a member here or else I have found an online source but would rather spend my money with people here.
.
Seems that L. Sediodes needs to be planted in clay only and should be kept with Koi...

https://www.pondmegastore.com/shop/product.php?productid=16298

If you can find a way to isolate it from the fish.
 
#35 ·
The 2 oldest ones in the pond have to be 16-17 years old as I have had them in this pond for 12 years and they were in a small preformed pond that I had before this for 2-3 years. They were 3-4" fish when I bought them. I would love them to spawn again but I guess nature has a way of telling you that your at max capacity. I guess I will see what happens this year. I have sold hundreds of juvenile koi in the first 5 or 6 years after I installed this pond. I always kept a few that I thought would turn out to be nice looking koi when full grown but what one looks like when 3" can change drastically when they reach 10"+. I had a few that had really nice markings when smaller that ended up looking rather average when they became older. There is still a few that I have kept that don't have the best colors/markings but when you have them so long that they take food out of your hands you become attached to them.

Watching this pond every summer is one of the most cool things on Planted Tank.

Can't wait to see how it develops this season!
Thanks for the comments. I will try to post some pictures of the pond after maintenance as it is a little dirty right now, nothing terrible just the crap that accumulates at the bottom from one year to the next. Here's a few pics of some of the fish.











 
#37 ·
It is somewhere between 4,900-5,200 gallons or about 1,000 trips w/ 5 gallon buckets. :hihi: J/K

Your fish might not take prepared food because of the supply of food available to them from insect larvae to algae that is in the pond. I feed my fish several different kinds of prepared food but mostly they get pellet food which I get from a fish hatchery that is close to me. It's cheap and I can buy it in huge quantities. A small bag or can of pond fish food would be gone in 2 days. I also dump in buckets of duckweed which they can polish off in one day.
 
#42 ·
Thanks Izabella

Stunning pond! Beautiful fish!
Thanks

This is a magnificent pond with gorgeous fish.

It sounds like you do not relish the annual labor involved, but I can tell from here that it is worth it. Well done!
Thanks, I don't mind it as much as I make it sound but it's a whole weekend project getting it cleaned for the summer.

I took quite a few pictures after cleaning it I just haven't had time to post them yet, but I do have some good news. After several years of no spawns about 2 weeks ago I saw them spawning early one morning. I spent the next few weeks checking for any eggs/wigglers that may have made it before getting ate and didn't see anything so I was not holding out hope that I would have any babies again this year. Last night after checking almost everyday I saw a few 3/4"-1" fish swimming in and out of the rocks and bullrush so I know that some did in fact make it. There could be hundreds of them in there and you wouldn't see them because there is so many places for them to hide. I only happened to see these because I was laying on my belly pulling out some dead lily leaves. I will get the pictures up next week after I get back from my vacation.
 
#43 ·
Beautiful pond! It's great you finally had your fish spawn again. It may be some maintenance but the results are well worth the effort to me.

I had a "pond" at my old house. It was a wooden box I made to sit on my deck and held around 250 gallons. I had a few goldfish, water hyacinth, a water lilly and some star grass in it. It was really relaxing to sit by it and just watch. It was also one of my more successful fish related projects. My wife and I are talking a little bit about a water feature here. I just need to get busy and do it.
Rodney
 
#46 ·
wow havent seen this nice of a pond in quite some time!!!
Thanks for the kind words.
This is pretty awesome. I'm sure it's on every fish junkie's wish list.

If you were to start over, what would you have done differently?
The only thing I really think I would have done different is I would have liked to have the waterfall a whole lot taller and wider but when purchasing rocks for around the waterfall I had to stop somewhere as they get quite pricey when you get into rocks of substantial size.

So a couple months late but here a some pictures of the pond this summer.













































And a few shots looking out of the sunroom:







 
#48 ·
Thanks for the compliments. Now I just need to make more time to actually sit down to enjoy it. For me the enjoyment also comes in tinkering with things that's why I always have ideas to make my tank better. The wife doesn't quite understand it but that's fine I don't understand the need to spend $100+ on a pair of jeans but to each is own I guess.
 
#49 ·
I know what you are talking about. Whenever I go to work on my tank, she is like "Now what you do need to do with it"

My neighbor last fall bought a 75 gal tank and a new Fluval 206 for a turtle and this spring got rid of the turtle and the stuff was sitting in his garage empty so I asked him if he wanted to sell them and offered him $125.00 and he was fine with that....my wife on the other hand, went thru the roof and couldn't understand why I needed another tank. Told her I wanted to setup a cichlid tank....she will never unerstand.



Go enjoy that pond!!
 
#52 ·
Thank you. It took around a week in total to build but the most time was spent hauling wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of rock in. I had a smaller preformed pond in before so there was a little hole already dug then it was just a matter of more digging. The only tip I have other than buying the thickest liner you can afford and put a nice underlayment material down first is try to find some really good friends(I mean "really good friends") to help with the digging because that is not very much fun at all.


Wow, awesome pond and plants! Is that a gigantic jade plant inside??

You're very talented. There are some ugly yard ponds out there. This looks professional, like something you'd see in a magazine.
Thank you for the compliments. I spent many years researching ponds back when I had a preformed pond and went on a few pond walks which was really fun and a good way to get some inspiration. There was some amazing ponds in Missouri that make this look like a little pool compared to what they have. And yes that is a jade plant along with many other succulents and a hoya that my parents bought when I was a baby which makes that plant over 36 years old and the funny thing is it's still in the same pot it's been in when they planted it. I'm afraid if it gets repotted I will kill it so it's staying in that pot. I figured if it's lived this long then it should be just fine.
 
#54 ·
Thank you. It is pretty relaxing when I do get the chance to just sit and enjoy it but when it's 100* outside the last place I want to be after working in the heat all day long is outside.
 
#57 ·
That pond is an inspiration. I've done some large outdoor water aquaponic systems, but nothing as "put together" as yours.
Thanks. It's about the end of the season for the pond so not much more for excitement until next spring. I haven't seen any of the babies that I was seeing earlier in the year but I'm still holding out hope that come next spring I will see some new fish swimming around. I'm going to try to post some pictures of the pond in the winter time this year. I can look really nice when the waterfall becomes frozen over.
 
#62 ·
#64 ·
Where do you get your supplies? A lot of places have stop carrying pond supplies in the last couple years.

I've had good luck with Tricker's below is there FB page
https://m.facebook.com/pages/William-Tricker-Inc/322764778550?id=322764778550&_rdr
Most of the pond materials were bought from a local nursery that tried to get into installing ponds but it never took off and I got a really good deal on the skimmer, waterfall box, pump, liner, and underlayment when they were trying to get rid of their inventory. There is a few places online to order pond supplies if you do some searching.
 
#66 ·
Thank you for the kind words. I was hoping to get some pictures of the pond this winter with the snow and this weekend would have been perfect because we just got a pretty decent snow over the last couple of days and it looks really nice. I let my sister borrow my dslr camera after she was back for Christmas to see if she wants to get one like it and apparently she likes using it because I haven't got it back yet. That's fine with me because my nephew is in his senior year of high school and she's enjoying taking pictures of him playing basketball so I guess I will have to wait. If she didn't live 5 hours away I would just go get it back because I would like to take some updated pics of my tank also. I may try to snap some with my iPad or phone just to show what it can look like void of plant growth but with the ice/snow.
 
#68 ·
I don't know how long the snow will last as it suppose to be in the 50's by the end of the week. Nebraska has some crazy weather I must tell you. Last week we had negative temps and snow this last weekend and now it going to be in the 50's by the end of this week.

The koi just huddle in the bottom and barely move for the winter. I stop feeding them in the late fall because they can't digest food once the temp reaches a certain point. As for the plants the majority of them come back in the spring time but there is a few like the Taro that I just take into my sunroom and treat it as a houseplant for the winter. The pond freezes over except for the waterfall and down by the skimmer where I keep a stock tank de-icer to keep the water open. It can be solid ice where the waterfall spills over but the water is still running under the ice. I will try to get some pictures with my iPad and see how the turn out.
 
#69 ·
When Winter comes, water temps does a bit of physics, warmer water becomes heavier than cold at 39°f and there is a blanket of cool mild water at the bottom of a pond where fish go nap a while. Six months or so in cold temperate climates.

Brace yourself for keeping a koi, besides their docile amiable ways, they are a tad long living. You may need to assign them in your last will and testament. Hundred years plus...
 
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