Water feature

[dennysfishroom]

As well as procrastinating with the tubs, I've also been reluctant to get started on my water feature. For those of you who where out here last spring, it is going to be on the end of the house where the air conditioner is. My plan at this time is to have 3 ponds connected by streams/waterfalls. We have a walk out basement, so the drop is about 6-8 feet where I want to put them. The 2 upper ponds will be relatively shallow, with the lower pond being closer to 3 feet deep. I've got the basic outline, but I will admit that I don't have a lot of soil to dig. Lot's of rocks, but not much soil. It's really slowing me down as I've been trying to dig the bottom pond. I could act like o Sawyer and ask anyone who is interested in building a pond to come out, but I think everyone in the club is a little brighter than that, although I could probably spring for lunch and some of Gail's cookies if that would make a difference. Naturally, I started digging as the weather turned hot. I hope to have water in and running by late summer or early fall. I haven't even started thinking about what I was going to put in the ponds yet. Stay tuned. Denny

[etheonut]

Cookies! I like cookies.

I don't like digging on Ozark hillsides though. I prefer to use above ground ponds, have you thought about a retaining wall? Maybe put the wall 2 feet above the ground level?

Kevin

[dennysfishroom]

I worked on the hillside pond this morning. I've got a landscape block retaining wall five blocks high right now. Then I'm digging (?) behind it to try to give me some depth, but I think it must only be about 18 inches. Maybe dig a little more and decide if I should go up another layer of blocks. It sure doesn't take long to get worn out working on the pond. Fortunately, the temperature is working in my favor right now. That helps.

[dennysfishroom]

I sure picked a "wonderful" day to work on my pond. I do have water in the bottom pond now , however. It looks really nice. I'm taking pictures as I go, so eventually I'll get them posted. There are still some finishing touches I've got to do (once we have some more warm days again), and then I'll have to start thinking about the waterfall(s) coming into the pond. I guess I'll have till spring, so I don't have to hurry, except for the impatience factor. I also need to find a few more coupons from Lowes. Denny

[Sundance]

Well, I don't have any tadpoles in the new pond anymore. We went out fishing this morning, and I caught 6 little sunfish. They looked so good I decided to bring them home. It looked like 3 weren't going to make it, but within 15 minutes after putting them in the pond, all the tadpoles were gone (and i had at least 1000 in there), and the 3 questionable ones had recovered. It would have been better if we caught the little sunfish at the end of our trip, but you just can't predict that. While i was at it, I added another row of blocks, so the depth should be around 32 inches. Noe we just have to get the waterfall/stream up and running. We won't tell Gail, but I saw what i think was a speckled kingsnake in the retaining wall for the pond. Denny

[Sundance]

I'm sure I should have figured this out before I put the sunfish in the pond, but , besides tadpoles, what can I feed them? Will they take flake or pellets, or do I have to find live food for them? It seems like the ones swimming at the marina do take the pellets people feed to the carp, so I don't know why mine wouldn't too. I will have to get aeration on the pond soon, I would imagine. It's probably 400-500 gallons right now. Denny

[etheonut]

They will eat anything that hits the water, sunfish are very opportunistic when it comes to food.

The easiest way to feed them would be to put a light over the pond in the evenings. They will eat the bugs that land on the water. Do you have any idea what species of sunfish you have?

Kevin

[Sundance]

I think one was a bluegill, and the others sunfish. The sunfish seemed to have sort of a rose tinge along with the blue streaks. Some seemed to have a much deeper yellow belly than others. I haven't seen them since the tadpoles disappeared. Denny

[Sundance]

Hope my waterfall is pumping water by our "Directions" meeting on the 18th. Now that I'm done in Indiana and Iowa, I'm ready to get it finished. Denny

[pinkrblu]

I can't wait to see it. It sure has been fun watching your place mature from the "Just moved in" state of the very first visit. You've been planning this water feature for quite a while, now. How about a few pictures?

[Sundance]

Well I finally started running water through my waterfalls today. We still have about 6 feet to go and the tubing I had only reached up past the second waterfall, but it sure is nice to see and hear it running. I only used one of my smaller pumps, so right now I'm probably running 800 gph, but by this time next week, I should have 2 more waterfalls and probably 4 times the water volume going through it. That should be really cool. I'll be working on pictures this afternoon, so should hopefully I can have some posted by tomorrow. Denny

[mewickham]

Cool! I'm looking forward to the pictures.

[Sundance]

I think I may have this figured out now. We're about 85-90% complete. I've had water running/recirculating in the bottom half of the waterfall sinc Wednesday. Hopefully, by Sunday, we'll have the whole thing complete, and I can put in the bigger pump. It really gurgles even now just running 900 gph. It should be really good once I crank it up to 3500 gph. I'll post some more once it's finished. Probably won't look really good until we get some landscaping around it. Denny

[mewickham]

Very nice!

[Sundance]

Well, we finally finished the construction on the pond/waterfall. I'll probably start running water in the whole thing by Tuesday, while I finish the landscaping type little jobs I've got left around the whole thing. I'm not sure if I'll get around to using the big pump until later in the week, but I can at least get the little one going. It really looks nice if I don't say so myself. Denny