Pond Photos

Here's a couple of photos of my outdoor pond, at (obviously) different times of the year. After a couple of years, the vegetation is finally starting to really take hold, and the fish are well-established. The water is always crystal clear (albeit tannin-stained from the runoff from the forest) in the winter, but has been a little murky in the summer. I'll be interested to see if that situation improves this year with the increased fish and plant populations.

The pond is about 40' x 30' with a narrower neck in the middle. Maximum depth is 7' on one end, 4' on the other, shelving up to several shallower areas that are about 1' deep. My best guess as to total volume would be 10,000 gallons.

In the winter, rain runoff from the forest flows in one end of the pond (in the picture with snow that is the "channel" that appears to connect the top of the pond with the wider area of seasonal water behind it). The outflow is controlled by a mesh net over the mouth of a 12" culvert, so none of the inhabitants can get washed "out to sea".

The pond has a water circulation/filtration system that keeps the volume turning over constantly. The water comes in through a nylon mesh net and then passes through some fiber pads on the way to the actual pump. Because of weather, I need to keep fishing the pine needles out of this setup on a regular basis.

Plants include cattails, vallisneria, sagittaria, elodea/anacharis, and some nifty moss that appears destined to take over the entire bottom eventually (lots of places for fry to hid then). Each year the planted patches expand.

Insect life is also interesting. Definitely water striders, mosquitos, mayflies, and some shrimp and water-beetles that keep things active. I'm hoping that an established and increasing fish population will keep the mosquitos in check this next year.

As for fish, I'm trying to keep it native, so no koi or goldfish. Just minnows and sunfish. Given that it gets down to freezing or below here in the winter, I don't think I have a lot of other options.

It's a shame that it gets down to freezing here in the winter...or that I don't have a heater that could keep up with that. With a Mr. Fusion aquarium heater (50,000 watts minimum output) I could keep the pond above 70 degrees even in the winter and keep plecos and CA cichlids in there.

No photos of the filtration system, unfortunately. The water goes into an intake strainer/box, and is then pumped into a series of pipes and fountains that run along the bottom and keep the water moving around. So most of it is out of sight, and the only way to show it would be to drain the pond.

The pond is lined. I tried it the other way for a couple of years, and it just wouldn't hold water. Then I hired a landscaper/aquascaper to dig it out deeper and add the liner. He used existing deadfall and local plants to begin decorating, and then we added a couple of lillies and the cattails, which spread a bit more each year. The ground cover around the pond is clover (white and red). I planted the sag and val myself, as an experiment to see if they would survive (which they did). The current setup is now almost 2 years old.

The sunfish are pumpkinseeds, and the minnows are fatheads. Well, there's also another kind of minnow that I added this year, but I can't remember the name right now; I'll have to look that up and get back to you.

This summer, when the lighting is better, I'll see if I can get any pictures of the fish. Shooting through the surface, though, won't be easy.

The minnows don't exactly school, but there are three places in the pond where major groups tend to hang out, 30-50 in each area. Over the winter they are clearly juveniles, and then grow rapidly in the spring to full size (3-4"). The sunfish and other minnows (I checked and think they are related to Central Mudminnows) are too new to have had any multi-generational experiences. I just hope that after they survive the winter, they'll be easily visible in the spring.

The pond as originally planned was about 4x as large as this, but when I found out I had to have it lined I had to scale it back a bit (although I'll bet I could do an addition in later years with some careful planning). The first year it was a little slow, now at least as much stuff is happening here as in some of my indoor aquaria. Can't help but enjoy it, especially since I found some discount patio furniture to park out by the pond for observation purposes.

More pictures as the ambient light permits (it gets a little dark up here in the winter, and the surrounding trees don't allow in much light when the sun is low in the sky).