3,560 Gallon Native Fish Pond

Hey guys, you may have read my old post called My HUGE Native Garden Pond. Well, due to major changes and a lot of learning, I've decided to make a more accurate post. This first section is from my original thread, and it was last years progress and news. Any corrections will be in red.




Okay, I know it's been a while, but I finally have an update! The pond has been poured, and now we're going to fill it partially to hold it down through winter, drain it out, paint it with a sealer, then we can fill it up and we're ready to go! Now, here's some pictures!


Here's a picture of the whole pond. I highlighted a few areas in paint to make it easier to see a few different things. First, the blue lines are little slits where we'll be able to insert dividers, splitting up the pond. The dividers will have spillways allowing water to flow over the top.*I am now fairly certain I will not use the dividers, but it's nice to have the option* The purple is a rough idea of the piping. The drain at the bottom has a coupling inside where I can attach a stand pipe. That will be the primary intake for the pump and filtration system. The higher pipe on the left wall that's closest to us will be a place we can attach a skimmer in the warmer months, but it will be sealed during the coller months so that we can keep the pumps running years round. Then, the two pipes on the back wall are the constant circulation outflow of the pumps. One of the will have a spraybar going across closer to the surface, the other will have a spraybar going across near the bottom.*Correction, the pipe on the 45 degree wall has now been utilized as the intake for our waterfall* There's also a point in there where we'll have a seperate pump on a timer that will send water to a waterfall that will be on that 45 degree wall.


Here's a better view of the intakes.


Here's a closer view of that 45 degree wall.


Here's a better view of the slits where the dividers will go.


This will give you a sense of scale. The thing in the middle is my dad's size 11 shoe.

Well, that's where we're at for this year! Can't wait to hear what you guys think!

Have you decided which sealer you're going to use? There are Ames Blue Max, Pond Armor, etc. I'm not sure what would be cheapest in your area. Since you're in Minnesota you might be able to get the canadian product Zavlar, which is a liquid rubber that I hear is quite affordable. I think it's sold as Pond Coat in the US.
Ames Blue Max: youtube.com/watch?v=FVUmh9uEer4
Pond Armor: http://www.pondarmor.com/general-faq/
Zavlar / Pond Coat liquid rubber: http://www.permadri.com/pond-coat.html


Do you know what you're going to put in it? I would be so tempted to breed some species that are difficult to breed indoors.

So now, this year's progress. Pictures will be in the next post, this will just be an oral telling of what we've done.

WATERFALL
So, early this year we plumbed all of the intakes to the corner behind the 45. This is where the pumps and filtration will be, and it will all be hidden by a waterfall. We built a wall out of concrete block, surrounding a stainless steel sleeve in which our Aquascape brand waterfall box could fit (http://www.1000fount...CFZFaMgodgQoAVA We found ours somewhere else, but I can't remember where, for a much better price, but this should give you an idea of what we did) One of my dad's stone specialists came in and mortared stone to the concrete block and grouted using a grout of the same color as our plaster. The waterfall will be run by a submersible pump from 5 at night until 5 in the morning as to prevent too much of a loss due to evaporation and to add to aeration while my plants aren't producing oxygen.

RETAINING WALL
We then built a retaining wall around the pond to allow for planting around it and an easy surface to mow against.

SEALING
We emptied the pond and coated it with plaster, sprayed on by trained professionals from my dad's company. This will waterproof the pond and it also matched the white on our house. If anyone wants more information on this step, let me know and I will ask my dad.

AQUASCAPING
Then I began doing what I do best; aquascaping and habitat design. It's hard to do on such a large scale while still being practical, but I did what I could. I knew I wanted waterlillies in the pond, but they like shallower water than 4 feet, so I knew I would have to build shelves. Using the same kind of stone we planned to cover our waterfall in, I built two 12" square (including height) walls of rock in the corners opposite of the pump output. On the wall opposite my house (The same wall as the skimmer) I built a shelf running the length between the two divider slits. This was about 18" tall, and had 3 6" pvc pipes going from the face of the shelf to the backwall, where there were attached so they would remain open to be used as caves by the fish. These were installed at 45 degree angles to promote more flow through them. I filled them halfway with landscaping filler rock, then placed a layer of landscaping fabric and had it run of the sides of the shelves, which I filled with black dirt and a layer of sand. Most of the pond bottom is covered with a thin layer of dirt and a few inches of sand, but in the high flow area there is also gravel and large rocks to create habitat for darters and shiners.

PUMP PROTECTION
I took a hose barb, shaved it down, and stuffed it into the smaller hole in the drain and connected a 7" piece of 1.5" pvc to it. There were about 8 very small diameter holes drilled right at the bottom, and there was a lint trap (http://www.menards.c...3938-c-9417.htm) with a cap on the open end placed in the end of the pipe to prevent sucking in small fish. Before I placed any of the bottom substrate in, I used the same stone I used for the shelves and built a wall around the intake, put in some landscaping fabric, and filled it with landcaping filler rock. I did a similar thing around the submersible pump that feeds the waterfall. The small holes in the bottom of the stand pipe allow the pump to pull out any gunk that accumulates in the landscaping rock.

OUTPUT
I installed a spraybar to spread out the constant circulation pump's output.

SKIMMER
For our skimmer we used an Aladdin No Niche Skimmer(http://www.123ponds....CFchDMgodJHQA2Q Just so you know, there may be better prices other places, this was just so you can get the idea of what it looks like) and it seems to be working fantastically. It levels to whatever the level of the pond is and pulls in about a 1/16" layer of water off of the surface. It's great!

FILTRATION
I will discuss that in the next few days as we finish it up.

A full pond picture. (It is still cludy because I just filled it yesterday)  CAM00342.jpg   150.86KB   5 downloads

Some wildlife has already found it's way here!
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 CAM00343.jpg   88.38KB   5 downloads

Here's the wonderful Aladdin Skimmer in action.
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A few pictures of the shelves.
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This is the intake protection.
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Here's the high flow area and spraybar.
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And finally, the waterfall (Which may need a new pump, as the current one is unreliable.)
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STOCKING- THIS YEAR
Many Scuds
Many Grass Shrimp
Many Snails (Any suggestions for a native, non plant eating variety?)
2 lbs Blackworms
x10 Russetfin Topminnows
x10 Eastern Mudminnow
x10 Bluefin Stoneroller
x6 Bluehead Chub

If you have access to any of these species, please let me know, I'd very much appreciate it!

STOCKING- NEXT YEAR

DARTERS-
x6 Greenside Darters
x6 Redline Darters
x6 Orangethroat Darters
x6 Bluebreast Darters
x6 Frecklebelly Darters
x6 Tennessee Snubnose Darters

SHINERS-
x20 Rainbow Shiners

DACE-
x10-20 Mountain Redbelly Dace
x10-20 Rosyside Dace

SUNFISH-
x10 Blackbanded Sunfish
x10 Bluespotted Sunfish
x10 Banded Sunfish

How does that sound? Do you think those fish could last the winter?

Nice project. You will get a LOT of critters visiting your pond. Snakes like ponds, especially if you provide a free meal in the form of captive fishes!

With the plaster and all, I am wondering about hardness and pH. Typically it is quite high, at least initially.

You need some gar and bowfin in there

I don't think any native snails are a problem for plants except Florida apple snails. I highly recommend ramshorns, but I'm not sure they'd survive a Minnesota winter.

I'm interested in the sealant you used. Can you tell us a bit about it and maybe give a cost breakdown for the people looking to build something similar in the future?

Irate- Awesome! If I lose a few fish but I get to see a snake, I'd say it's worth it! I brought up that same issue to my dad and he said that the plaster we used was more neautral in ph than most. A high 7.5 or a low 8 for the first couple months, so not bad.

Gzeiger- Thanks for the info! And I may just try them out! I know they are native to the Midwest, but I'm not sure If they're found this far north.

Erica- I'll have to ask my dad. We did it all at wholesale prices on our own because my dad has the necessary equipment, so what it would cost for most will be significantly higher than what we payed, but I can ask my dad what he would quote someone to build it.

I have started acclimating some Vallisneria, and I also put about 3 cups of live sand from a several year old tank into the pond, and I will continue to do so every day for the rest of the week to hopefully jumpstart the sand.

I also put about 3 cups of live sand from a several year old tank into the pond, and I will continue to do so every day for the rest of the week to hopefully jumpstart the sand.

Why? I don't think you need to worry about the nitrogen cycle with 30 fish in 3560 gallons. Ammonia poisoning is a concentration game. The units are parts per million or mg/mL. When you're dividing by 3560 gal = 13500000 mL, it would take literally 30 pounds of ammonia to get 1 mg/mL. Unless you chuck in the Christmas ham or the neighborhood loses a small dog, you're not going to ammonia poison your fish.

I'm not worried about ammonia, I simply like having a very complete ecosystem, and I've also noticed that my plants do much better in a live substrate.

You can check out my trading post here: http://forum.nanfa.o...-lots-to-trade/

Why? I don't think you need to worry about the nitrogen cycle with 30 fish in 3560 gallons. Ammonia poisoning is a concentration game. The units are parts per million or mg/mL. When you're dividing by 3560 gal = 13500000 mL, it would take literally 30 pounds of ammonia to get 1 mg/mL. Unless you chuck in the Christmas ham or the neighborhood loses a small dog, you're not going to ammonia poison your fish.

Mkay, so it's mg/L instead of mg/mL. 3560 gal = 13476 L, which means 1 mg/L would take about a fortieth of a pound. Sorry for the math error, I got my units confused. Eh, we get the point; 30 fish in a pond won't feel the nitrogen cycle.

If I'm not mistaken mg/L is ppt not ppm. Ppm would be mcg/L.

If I'm not mistaken mg/L is ppt not ppm. Ppm would be mcg/L.

Here's a converter. 1 mg/L = 1.00 ppm http://www.unitconve...conversion.html

I stand corrected Erica, though it seems illogical. I deal in mg/L every day and never gave a thought to the justification of ppm nomenclature.

That pond is awesome !! Lot of work and planning and it shows !...do you plan on a small pond heater to keep it from freezing in the winter ? very cool...

Rich

I'm actually just going to use an air pump to keep some holes open and promote some gas exchange.

You should be able to find some sort of native snail in local waters, and whatever you collect locally is guaranteed to be able to handle the climate. Several of the fish you mentioned will love to eat snails, so ramshorns are ideal because larger adults can survive and continue to lay eggs even when the survival rate of the young is very low. A pond snail population can actually be wiped out by enough sunfish.

I'd recommend skipping the darters in water that deep, unless you plan to snorkel it regularly (in Minnesota!). I doubt you'd ever be able to see them.