New bonsai garden, including koi pond!

Adair M

Pinus Envy
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You may end up with some unintended fish. After a recent polar vortex froze my pond solid down to the ground, I lost all of my koi and most of my interest in maintaining it. Its not big and I only go back there to soak my trees when repotting. Well today, as I was doing that very thing, I caught the flicker of a bluegill darting for the bottom. Now my pond is tiny, no larger than 10 feet at its longest point and its completely overgrown with iris and Lily. Also, I live on a city lot. Where the hell did the bluegill come from?
Fish egg hopped a ride on a bird.

I once owned a mini farm that had a mud pond. Fed via rain runoff. There were fish in it, but it had never been stocked. The birds did it.
 

Paul G

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Fish egg hopped a ride on a bird.

I once owned a mini farm that had a mud pond. Fed via rain runoff. There were fish in it, but it had never been stocked. The birds did it.
that was my thinking, but the nearest body of water is easily eight or ten miles away
 

Brian Van Fleet

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Thanks for the advice. I’m undecided on the lantern. I’m not after a “Japanese Garden” effect. (Although they are beautiful!)

For the time being, I have my hands full just repairing the landscape damage! Lol!!!
If you do go that route, I think Stone Lantern on Main St. up in Highlands NC is slowly liquidating their inventory and had several very nice ones that have been sitting outside for the 25 years I’ve been going up there. Maybe they’re ready to let one go for a good price.
 

Mayank

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You may end up with some unintended fish. After a recent polar vortex froze my pond solid down to the ground, I lost all of my koi and most of my interest in maintaining it. Its not big and I only go back there to soak my trees when repotting. Well today, as I was doing that very thing, I caught the flicker of a bluegill darting for the bottom. Now my pond is tiny, no larger than 10 feet at its longest point and its completely overgrown with iris and Lily. Also, I live on a city lot. Where the hell did the bluegill come from?
How deep is your pond? I'm planning to put one in and thinking three feet in one area in case I ever have fish... Should it be deeper?
 

Adair M

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The depth varies, but at the deepest it’s about 3 1/2 feet.
 

Paul G

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How deep is your pond? I'm planning to put one in and thinking three feet in one area in case I ever have fish... Should it be deeper?
36 inches at the deepest spot. Yeah, the deeper you can go the better. There is\was a great place just off of 275 past the airport. They were very helpful back when I was setting up my pond in the very early 2000s. And I could never keep mine clear of algae back when I was taking care of it. Green and cloudy 24/7, no matter what I put in it. Now that I've let nature take over, it's ugly and weedy, but clear as glass. As far as the fish go, it was heartbreaking to lose them --and I ALWAYS lost them -- whether to herons, raccoons, winter, and so finally I gave up. I'll try not to get too attached to the bluegill;)
 

Underdog

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I love what you are doing Adair. Enjoy watching how the pros do it vrs my DIY with some help.
My pond was to give me a nice place for my trees to hang out. The view and sound of water while sipping a glass and working on a tree to me, is the point.

I think we are alike in that was the motivation, as opposed to making it Japanese Garden with KOI and stone lanterns.
In my thread linked above everyone pushes the carp. Mine reminds me more of the strip mine ponds I used to swim and hang out at as a kid. They at least had bass and bluegill. You will enjoy it I'm sure.
 

Lorax7

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Trying hard not to get sucked into wanting fish again reading this thread LOL....:rolleyes:
Ok, I’ll help you keep your resolve.

Remember what a PITA doing water changes was? Go get some DI water from the pet store and haul those heavy containers home, measure the salt, pour in the water, stir, wait for the salt to dissolve, measure the salinity, adjust the salinity with a little more salt or water as needed, finally add it to the tank.

Remember cleaning that nasty funky stuff off the protein skimmer?

Remember the crusty salt and dust buildup that somehow always manages to appear on top of the tank cover and on the sides of the tank near the top?

Remember getting your fingers poked by some spiny nettle-like things whenever you rearrange some live rock because of some hitchhiker critter on the rock that you didn’t realize was there?
 

Maloghurst

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Uh, not too bad. He had some at $30 if I remember correctly. I’ll start with 3 of those.
If I went back to the Chesapeake tributaries I can get you some fat carp for half that. Guaranteed to never die. But everything else might!
 

Mayank

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Hey I have a question. Someone mentioned somewhere on this site and try as I might I can't find it through search but there is a pond forum kinda like this one that deals just with backyard ponds and such. Anyone know what that is? I'm looking for some solid advice before I put my pond in.
 

LanceMac10

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Hey I have a question. Someone mentioned somewhere on this site and try as I might I can't find it through search but there is a pond forum kinda like this one that deals just with backyard ponds and such. Anyone know what that is? I'm looking for some solid advice before I put my pond in.






 
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