Cool pond.
At that size, a heron might just confuse them for breakfast. Have you considered nettings?
We do have a net for when we're not out there, as we have a resident heron in the pond behind our fence, as well as a mink (who the net would do nothing for), owls, hawks, other waterfowl... I also have an motion detecting sprinkler, but I'm going to have to turn it off before we get significantly cold.
Our heron is pretty happy so far with his own pond, and I'm hoping he continues to be vary wary of our yard and dogs. I'm sure it would only take him a short time to wipe out our pond given the opportunity.
Here's Dorkbird, if he eats my koi I'd like to roast him instead of a turkey:
I always wonder..
Where do you get rocks like these? Collect them locally? Or do you buy them?
And how do you place these? Thy must literally weigh a ton?
I bought most of them from a local rock yard though we did collect a lot locally from our housing development. Filled up our car's trunk about 5 times with local rock, and still ended up buying several tons of boulders and gravel.
We rented an excavator to move the large rocks into place with ropes:
Outstanding
@Sunwyrm !
I really like the way you managed the edges of the pond and didn't just line up flat rocks, as is often the case. Very naturalistic.
And the large stone on the bottom of the pond is a revelation. I like that a lot.
Only thing that would make it better would be if the stone color was more uniform.
CW
Thank you! I did the Aquascape method and really tried hard to do different rocks in different places for a more natural look. The large rock is actually a big piece of my favorite flagstone, and it's a giant fish cave. Everything is very stable and able to be stood, walked, and climbed on. We wanted to be able to sit in the pond with a beer if we wanted, and let our daughter swim and play too.
One big issue I had was getting uniform rocks! Interestingly with Covid, everyone was out of stock on pretty much everything. I found a rock yard with what I needed, but colors were a little off as I was buying different types of rock in different sizes and still bought nearly everything they had. I still need a few melon sized rocks that I just can't find anywhere...
It'll get better once plants fill in and they get covered with algae and moss, though I do like the non-uniformity and uniqueness of some that makes them stand out. Glad I didn't just go with matching grays like I initially had planned.
When we were washing all the rocks:
Very nice! I put in one about a year ago.
Once you get some plants like water lillies, parrot feather and creaping Jenny, it softens up the rocks.
Your pond was a big inspiration! I didn't even see your August updates til just now, all your plants look amazing! Going to be creeping in your thread all day. I also did a bog/wetland and an intake bay, but can't find hardly any plants here now that it's fall. Once spring hits I'll be getting more, I still have some I need to plant before it gets much colder. Everything just needs more time to grow in. I showed my husband your updated pictures - he's been so worried it'll take decades to look grown in.
Regarding reef tanks - I've had to explain everything to him in reef terms... the intake is like a sump, the bog like a refugium, next year we're adding the equivalent to an overflow/ATO reservoir for our water level
Although I will say aquascaping a large tank is cake compared to this! It's funny how all of these hobbies coincide.