Post your ONE best Before and After...

I didn't mean to sound disparaging of you or koi. In their place they are great, but mine is not that sort of pond.

 

Great garden GardenAngel. I think your pond looks the business. I think Koi are garish AND I like them. Yours are fab, great colouration and healthy looking too. How do you keep the nitrates in check, or is the water that clear because the pond is shaded?

PS everybody did you know this bizarre fact: Koi (and no doubt other fish) suffer from sunburn?

 

HI Rich & Jazid

No offence taken Did you know Rich that Koi are raised in Mud Ponds? (and I am not saying your pond is a mud pond either :D :D ) they prefer that kind of environment, it gives them a much better colouration and improves their growth. Its because we want to See Them (Koi keepers so to speak)that we like the water to be crystal clear, to be honest I am not that fussed on having absolutely clear water, as I have said before a bit of murkiness does them some good and a lot of koi keepers also have natural ponds.

In order to keep the nitrate down, I do have a gravity filter system under the decking, with the UV it helps to keep green water at bay, it also helps that I have the trees for shading



I know it's not a 'natural pond' like Rich's, but its still attracts frogs, newts and I have had a couple of dragonflies this year and yes I do suffer from the dreaded blanket weed :eek:

 

WOW WOW WOW...sad to say but your filtration system gets my juices flowing!!!!! A thousand hats off to you that is one snazzy set up. I have huge bucket filters under my 1500 litre tanks, but that is just LOOOOOOVerly. I am sooo impressed at the sheer effort as much as the engineering, first class!!!!

Don't fancy doing one at BM towers ?

 

hi there GARDENANGEL, great filtration system, must cost you a lot. I had my 20ft. pond built in june 05 and still struggling to keep it clear.I have good days and bad days with keeping the water clear however the fish are healthy and breeding. I had frogs ,tadpoles dragonflies and other water loveing creatures in the pond.I bought a pair of gold fish so they told me and it turned out to be ghost koi they are now 9" in length and are happy to be with the other gold fish.I do have a filter and pump to manage 1200 gallons of water and still cannot get water clear.nice to see you have engineered a filter system to be proud of.

 

:D :D , sorry to say BM have no plans at the moment of ever doing it again :eek: !!

Would be willing to comment on any filter plans you may have, or direct you to a couple of good website sites that helped us, Hubby and I are not plumbers but did manage to put that lot together, so if we can, anyone could!!!

Yet again thank you to everyone for your very very kind compliments, it makes it all worthwhile; the sleepless nights,living breathing and thinking about the pond for 8 months of last year!!

 

Hi Fancy

I am sure that you have more than 1200 gallons in your pond, if its 20ft, how deep/wide is it?

The way to calculate gallonage is

length x width x depth = *** then x by 6.25, its a lot easier if the pond is square or rectangle, if its round it more complicated,I will have to
come back to you on how its done.

Once you know your gallonage it makes it easier to know whether you have the right filter on the pond.

In relative terms the cost was not too bad, I did a lot of buying on ebay the winter before we started, I found everything was cheaper then, as everyone was thinking about Christmas :D and the filter bay was secondhand and I did deals where I could, and as I said before we did the work ourselves to keep the costs down.

 

BM. WONDERFUL nice to see it in stages. I also thought it was one picture.JUNGLE JOB WELL DONE :D

 

Cheers Fancy, lots of seasons to come to craft it into my mini eden! :D

 

hi gardenangel, yes you are right about the gallons. I ASKED MY BROTHER HE HAS KOI IN HIS POND AND HE HELP TO BUILD MINE. HE THINKS ITS NEARLY 2000 gallons. :confused: :confused:

 

too embrassed to show my place after looking at these amazing gardens
fantastic pics everyone

 

You asked for a pic of the garden now, (see earlier in the thread). I took this this morning.

 

Looking good, Rich, pond has really come along well and your sitting area in the back is nice and secluded. What's that pink shrub? A Crepe Myrtle, Oleander? Can't see the leaves properly.

Had to go back two pages to find you as the thread as been hi-jacked by fish! :eek:

 

Yes a Lovely looking garden Rich!! I can spot Gunnera on the right hand side, but what type of plant is on the bottom left? and what type of water lily have you planted?

 

I am probably wrong GA but it could be Darmera
peltata or one of the Petasites ? Both make great pond marginals. Looking good Rich, I thought you had some Water-plantain ? Once my patch of petasites gets established I will probably have some variegated to spare. It grows quite happily in wet soil, not necessarily near ponds