View Full Version : Waiting for breakfast...
Muske
08-13-2009, 11:32 AM
Always begging. These guys are worse than my dogs...
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PallasAthena
08-13-2009, 2:57 PM
Oh, they're GORGEOUS!
Do you have a shot at the whole pond? I'd love to see how your plantings are. (was it posted in another thread that I missed?)
powerkit
08-13-2009, 3:25 PM
They are great!!! thanks for sharing your pic!
Thats awesome.. beautiful koi.
barbuto
08-13-2009, 3:35 PM
nice koi.
PallasAthena
08-13-2009, 4:19 PM
Awesome Sea Kittens btw.
:rofl:
Athena-
Same time this morning, just not zoomed in.
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Riiz -
Heres the kitty.
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Athena-
If you click on the pic. it will blow up. I think you can see how my White Lilly is planted on the right hand side. I will look for a better pic of how the plants are planted and more of a full shot. I think there may also be some pics. of previous years in my profile.
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Well not really, that was a crappy pic.
Anyways all my plants are directly planted in the substrate. When I dug the pond I planned on having several lilly pockets dug and a couple of areas for marginals. Just lay out where you want plants or even large character boulders to be. Dig a depression, maybe 3-6" deep and a foot or so around prior to underlayment and liner install. I made the lilly pockets a little wider since they were situated on the bottom of the pond as opposed to a shelf or other shallow area. this gives them plenty of room to spread out. Remove plant from nursery container and wash off all soil. Place it in the depression w/some gravel when backfill the pond with gravel. Make sure the crown is at the same level as it was growing in the previous container.
PallasAthena
08-14-2009, 12:23 PM
Well not really, that was a crappy pic.
Anyways all my plants are directly planted in the substrate. When I dug the pond I planned on having several lilly pockets dug and a couple of areas for marginals. Just lay out where you want plants or even large character boulders to be. Dig a depression, maybe 3-6" deep and a foot or so around prior to underlayment and liner install. I made the lilly pockets a little wider since they were situated on the bottom of the pond as opposed to a shelf or other shallow area. this gives them plenty of room to spread out. Remove plant from nursery container and wash off all soil. Place it in the depression w/some gravel when backfill the pond with gravel. Make sure the crown is at the same level as it was growing in the previous container.
Oh, excellent tip! Thank you!!!
Oh, and your pond? *swoon* It's GORGEOUS! On those 1st 2 pics you posted yesterday, in the 1st pic on the right side there's a pretty plant growing up the right hand side? It's very pretty.
ayra321
08-14-2009, 1:29 PM
:jaw-dropping:gorgeus fish!!
koigarden
08-14-2009, 10:34 PM
Fantastic! How do you regulate the water quality with so many gallons? Is the pond that much more work, than say a 250 gal pond like mine? I aspire to your greatness.
Thanks all,
PA - Not sre which plantt you are talking about. Is it the floating mat like plant, or the upright, sprialish, thin leaved plant in the main pond part.
The matting floater is Water Forget-me-not. Awesome plant tiny ble flowers in spring and sparatically throughouut the summer. The one in the water is a type of Val. It to gets a cool flower.
Koigarden -
The water quality is kept up form the pump, plants, and filter.
Pump is 4000 gph. 20 different varities of plants in the form of marginals, lillies, and floaters. The filter is a bio-falls (AquascapesPro) loaded w/Water Hyacinth.
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The water flows up through the bottom through two blue Malata Mats. It then goes through a mass of Hyacinth roots. The roots are so fiberous that they pretty much trap any and all particulates. I just spray them off w/the hose or dunk them in a bucket of water to clean out the debris. the pond itself is lined with boulders and gravel making a huge beneficial bacteria bed. In spring I add a little dry bacteria that contains several strains of BB and barley extract. Thats all. No chemicals or anything harsh since they are so many fish, (one of them scaleless) and the dogs use it as a large water dish.
koigarden
08-16-2009, 9:19 AM
This is all on a flexible liner? Does the upkeep take hours? I have the room on my lot but don't know if I could do make a pond as awesome as yours. I live in NW Indiana so I have the seasons to contend with-not plants during the half the year, at least. One of my koi-the one named Shamu since he is all black-seems to be scale-less, unlike the other koi. I don't know about that-any info? I think I go and work on my little ponds now.
Neat! Makes me want to wade in your pond.:grinyes: I always like to wade through the cool waters.
Lupin - your a little far away.
Koigarden - Yes liner, covered with boulders and gravel.
Upkeep would be 1+ hrs. per week. Probally less during the summer when all the plants are ripping (removing extra nutrients form the water and polishing any fine particulates in the root mass of hyacinth) and the trees aren't dropping anything. I however spend more time than that, but never more than 10-15 min. a day. It is really self a contained mini eco-system.
Shake out the skimmer basket every few days, check water level, prune dead foliage, rinse the Hyacinth roots is weekly maint. The mats in the filter can be rinsed monthly (or more if like me since I like to stir things up) I like to sweep the bottom of my pond towards the skimmer every few days. Maybe takes two minutes. I have been using a old Mag Drive 7 on a stick to blow any minor debris collected near the base of the lillies.
I'm a northern suburb of Chicago, same wheather I'm assuming as you in NW IN. I've got plenty of plant pics. of super hardy, mostly native and interesting plants in my pond. All of which will work, literally, for you.
BreezeRuehls
08-16-2009, 3:14 PM
STUNNING! I want a pond like that!!!!
AquatiCreations
08-16-2009, 4:44 PM
Very Nice Pond! I love the variety of marginals you have there!
jpappy789
08-17-2009, 3:18 AM
Your pond is absolutely breath taking!
PallasAthena
08-17-2009, 2:47 PM
I would tend to think that upkeep on a larger pond would be much easier than upkeep on a smaller pond. Because of how much water there is, you wouldn't tend to see dramatic fluctuations in it. Changes would happen more gradually over time.
Muske, I'm going to fly over to where you live one night and steal your entire pond! ;) It's so, so beautiful. I am having some serious pond envy!
I think bigger ponds/tanks are easier to regulate parms. due to water volume. However, I have done water gardens in a half-whiskey barrel planter and they were really nice. It is just a matter of getting a good balance (working with mother nature, not fighting her). Small ponds just need a little more attention upfront, and they to become almost self-sufficient w/time. Basically I'm saying if anybody out there is thinking about a pond DO IT. They can be as big or small as the area your working with. I will also say that I always hear people wish they had gone bigger. A little more time spent planning and research will pay off in the end. I currently in the process of planning my next pond. I will make my current pond the filter for my next pond, flowing into a stream about 8' long, then dump into 4K+ pond. This however hinges on the sale of our house. Since the market sucks, I may be staying at my current house and upgrading.
PA - I wish you did live by me. I have several plants that need to be divided. I've been composting baby plants all summer to keep the mother plants inbounds.
Anybody in northern IL wanting some aquatics let PM me. I have a huge clump of Bull Rush, Umbrella Plant (Hardy Paprus), Water forget-me-not, Lizards Tail, Blue Flag Iris, and a dark purple Iris, Louisana Game Cock is the cultivar. that need to be thinned.
countrychick
08-18-2009, 8:59 AM
That's just awsome!
PallasAthena
08-18-2009, 11:35 AM
I just love how your filtration is set up. I'm trying to convince DH to let me expand my own pond, and you are giving me so many ideas!