In 2022, I felt inspired to turn my ordinary backyard into an oasis.
So I went into my backyard, grabbed a shovel, and got to work.
I did no research and just started digging a hole.
In retrospect… this was not the wisest approach, but it certainly was a good way to learn!
After starting to dig my hole, I realized this was not going to be a simple project. I didn’t measure anything. I just started shoveling dirt. After I was about 4 hours into digging, I started to google what is a reasonable size for a small pond. My research showed me, that a Koi fish need one square foot of surface area for every one-and-a-half inch of their body. So since I had no idea how to determine this (I am sure I could of recruited my husband for this math) I just continued to dig my hole. I decided to just figure it out in the end (again not the wisest idea).
In the end of my great digging project, I ended up with a hole about 2 feet deep, 3 feet wide, and 4 feet long.
I then continued my journey of bad decisions and ordered a “cheap” pond liner on amazon (What was I even thinking!). After it arrived, I put in the liner, attached the top of the liner with garden stakes, and started to stack bricks at the end of it and constructed a water fall from bricks, rocks, chicken wire, and lots of cement (I don’t recommend using cement when you need to make future repairs).
For the waterfall I ordered the: Pond Boss G188373 Waterfall Spillway, 8′, black. (Amazon doesn’t appear to carry that one anymore, but this one is similar: Danner 02478 Pro1000).
After I put the spillway at the top of the cement mountain I made, I then structured the waterfall around it.
To paint the cement volcano, I ordered Pond Shield paint. For fish, only certain paints are safe. And while the Pond Shield paint cost a lot of money, it has a long life-span and is non-toxic for fish.
After letting the paint dry, I than made the unwise decision to put cement around the entire rim of the pond and put pretty rocks in the cement. This was again another very novice move. And when I had to redo the liner in the future, I had to completely break the cement to redo the liner.
Now that the waterfall was done, I recruited my spouse to install the Biofilter with the bioballs. After some consulation with a koi expert, I purchased the: TetraPond Clear Choice Biofilter PF-1 For Efficient Filtration.
I then went ahead and bought the 400GPH Pump and quickly regretted that decision. It was the wimpiest pump I could of purchased. So I decided to make the leap and got the 2100 GPH Submersible Water Pump with 33 FT Cord and Adapters for Ponds. This pump was a monster and exactly what I needed for my pump (although it could be argued it is too much power for the size of my pond).
After finishing my waterfall, I connected the biofilter, connected the submersible water pump, and successfully installed the liner – It was finally time to turn on the water!
Much to my amazement, everything worked great! The water turned on!
So I then went to home depot and loaded up on plants and worked on the easy part of the project: The ambiance.
I went with plants that would compliment the pond and help it stay clear. I got some creeping plants that would crawl into the water for the fish to lay eggs in (although it turns out my happy little fish didn’t need any further encouragement).
With all this shared, it needs to be known that this project, had multiple flaws in the first round. And half a year later, I ended up redoing this project. A future post will be made on that endeavor. But overall, I learned alot. And have since made a few ponds!
Right now I have an elephant ear plant in the pond that has taken over…… It has gotten out of control but for the time being I am letting it grow as it wants. The fish get lots of shade from it.