Mini-pond

[InbetweenDreams]

So a while back my sister was getting rid of this 50 gallon, kidney bean shaped pond liner and decided to take it since I had planned on doing an outdoor guppy pond. I will be first to say I am no expert on mini-ponds, this is my first go at it and not sure I'll be successful with guppies, seems like the ones I have been getting aren't very hardy.

   

   

I first "set-up" the pond back in December, although in hindsight I probably could have waited until now I suppose and I probably should have buried it level with the ground. Since the weather is getting close to being warm enough to add fish and also concerned about the water getting too hot when summer gets here I did push up some dirt on the sides and made a stone parmeter around the pond...also added a waterfall and heater (for cold mornings).

   

   

I do have a few leftover stone blocks, not enough to do much with though. Thought about making a fire ring or something but that would require more blocks and boy they get heavy when you have 64 of them on a cart lol. Anyway, I did finish up with putting a top on the waterfall. Still feel something is missing but I think it will do for now.

   

[soulfulriver]

Wow it looks very nice

[Bookworm]

Nice work Mike. How long did that take you?

I like how you always keep yourself busy. Always a project or two on the go 

[InbetweenDreams]

Nice work Mike. How long did that take you?

I did the blocks in a couple hours. My back didn't like it so much lol. I do think putting 64 blocks on a cart at Lowe's wasn't a good idea, it was super heavy...luckily I didn't hit anything.

I definitely should have dug deeper in hindsight, but I kept hitting large rocks so only the "deep" section of the liner is buried. Although, at the same time it might help keep certain pests out of the pond maybe.

Thinking it over, between digging and placing the blocks around, I don't have a whole lot of time into it. I probably could have done the blocks better, made it more level if I took more time to do it...same goes for the pond itself since it isn't perfectly level either lol...close enough though.

I like how you always keep yourself busy. Always a project or two on the go 

Well, I do still have a lot of downtime, but the aquariums and such do fill in some of the blanks. It does help stave off depression to an extent.

[Camfer]

Looks good! Some aquatic plants would be a nice addition. You could even put some impatiens in there, partially in the water. The roots will adapt and take up the nutrients from the fish waste and uneaten fish food.

[InbetweenDreams]

@Camfer I'm hoping to do some water hyacinth, water lettuce and some other floaters. Definitely want to get some hornwort so if the guppies do have some fry the fry will have some hiding places. I did add some duckweed which will probably die off seeing it is going to get cold wednesday but I am going to cover it up and hope that will help some. Just waiting for the local pet store to get their pond plants in. People complain about duckweed but I can't get the stuff to grow fast enough lol

You know I meant to post these underwater shots from my phone lol

   

   

[Camfer]

Fun to see the duckweed from below! I did notice it in the overview shot. I suppose you could bring a little indoors before it gets cold and use that to reestablish it.

I germinated a lotus once. It was super easy but took some time.

[InbetweenDreams]

I have a bunch growing in 3 different aquariums. I am holding back on better stuff like frogbit, kind of want to see how it all reacts... I think by this weekend I may go ahead and move a few of the guppies outside and if they do alright I'll move the rest of them.

[InbetweenDreams]

So I thought I would do a little update on the mini-pond. So all the floating plants I had seem to work out. I did have duckweed in the pond but I have removed almost all of it. I thought it covering the entire surface didn't look good and so on. I have primarily frogbit and some water spangle. The water quality has been pretty good. PH has been around 8.4 and hardness has been around 150 ppm on both GH/KH. The interesting thing which almost never happens in a seasoned aquarium is that I have 0 ppm nitrate. I cannot do anything to get any and therefore the plants are starved of nitrogen. I have added fertilizers, I have added more fish, I have fed heavily....Nothing. It is a bummer because I don't know if the lilies will ever bloom if their leaves are going yellow, so not sure what will go on there. If anything it means I need more fish or some nitrogen source that will help the plants.

All the fish I have put in the pond have done very well. I have about 6-7 guppies and 6 platys. I could easily double it but I don't want it to be over crowded for space. The other cool news is that the guppies have finally had some fry. Looks like there were 6 fry, hopefully most will survive. There's also a frog that has made itself home.

   

   

   

   

[CellarDweller]

Very cool! Thanks for the updates!