Photo Album

Pond Album

Take a look at some of the before, the during and current pictures of my pond (Click the thumbnails to see the larger Full Size version)!! After we moved in I cleaned up the old pond just so it would look better.

Some thoughts on this project:

When we originally bought the house I didn't have much interest in the pond. This spring I decided to at least clean it up and get it healthy.
It's funny what happened after that.
- I bought an inexpensive pump to get the water moving. That alone helped.
- I put in a couple of plants and they flourished.
- When I decided I wanted a few fish I started doing research on what I needed to have a healthy atmosphere for the fish.
- I bought an inexpensive filter system to handle both the mechanical and biological filtration needs. Yes, that's something I learned I needed in my research.
- Once the water was the right pH, etc. I bought a couple of goldfish. This was in May just after my graduation party. They did so well, I bought a couple more fish. I have about nine in there at this time.
- By about this time, I guess I was hooked. I was warned by friends that the pond you have will never be big enough and you'll never be happy with the number of fish or plants you have.
- As they expected, I decided I wanted to replace this small pre-formed pond with a free form larger pond.
- I continued to do research to determine what I needed to build a larger pond and keep it healthy. I was amazed at the wealth of information out there. I learned that I could build some of what I needed.
- I made a list of all the supplies and started buying little by little each month until I had everything I needed.
- It's now the summer of 2008 and I have added some new photos. I discovered a small leak around the waterfall. I had to take apart the entire thing so I decided to move it to the other side. After I originally built the pond I wished I would have placed the waterfall such that I could easily see if from the sunroom and the family room. Now I can!
As you look through the photos below you'll see the stages it has gone through. I'll update the pictures as the pond changes and matures.

Before
	These three pictures are what the pond looked like the day we had the inspection.
	This is the walk way through the side yard to the driveway. This yard was at one time beautiful but the former owners let it go. We're trying to clean it up a bit.
	They had three small dogs and I guess they decided the fence was a better option than cleaning the darn thing out. The water was just nasty! I got rid of all of the stuff, drained and cleaned the pond.
After the cleanup
	Here is a shot from the right side of the pond.
	Here is a shot looking dead on.
	Tucked away in the plants is a Solar Light ball. It lights up blue at night.
	Another shot!
	You can see a couple of the fish swimming around. They love hanging out where the water from the filter trickles into the pond.
The new pond - I did this all myself! Those who know me will be in a mild state of shock. But, yes! I picked up the shovel and dug the hole. The rest is history!
	Here is the hole. The mound to the left will be come the waterfall.
	The mound to the right will become a small bog pond and will hold the Bio Filter. The filter will feed the Bog pond and trickle into the main pond.
	Here are the rocks I have been saving to use in this project.
	I have just put the underlayment and liner in the hole. I'll add some water and let it settle for a little bit.

	And what does Joli think of all this activity? Well, as you can see she wasn't all that interested. She sure likes to watch the fish now. She goes with me every morning to feed the fish and she loves to look over the edge and watch them come up for their food.
	You can see the beginning of the waterfall.
	...and the Bog.
	This is where the plants and fish are hanging out while I dig the new one.
	Ah, and the maiden run. The first run of the waterfall. I need to check for leaks and that the water flows back into the pond instead of out the sides.
	See the water! This is so exciting. I already want a bigger pond!!
	Here is how the pond looked today. I still have lots of work to do but I wanted to get the fish and the plants in so I could clean up the yard. The rest will come over time.
	This is the biological filter I built based on an article I found on the Internet. This is called Skippy's Filter. It was very easy to build and very inexpensive. It has proven to be very effective. A comparable filter would cost in the neighborhood of $200 to buy. This cost around $40 in parts. Actually, that is a $15 flower pot I picked up at Tuesday Morning. Thanks Deb!! I never knew about Tuesday Morning until my sister Debbie told me about it.
	This is the bio filter running into the Bog. The Bog is filled with pea gravel and will eventually be filled with individual plants, planted directly into the gravel. One thing that has made this project so enjoyable has been all the information available on the Web. I don't have a skimmer yet but this is the one I plan to build. This should be relatively easy to build and I'll use it only when the tree above decides to spew it's stuff all over the pond.
	And the fish. I have about twelve at the moment. They are all variations of goldfish at the moment but I intend to put some Koi in the pond.
	More pictures of the fish. They are swimming around my home made Waterfall Pre-Filter. I already had the pump clog up once so I built this pre-filter to hopefully avoid that problem.
	Here is another shot of the entire pond. It really is much larger than it looks. I have to get in to work across to the other side.
	And of course, Joli wants to know what's going on. When I feed the fish she loves to watch them come up to the surface for their food.
So it is now the Summer of 2008. I had a small leak in the waterfall. When I took it apart to fix the leak I decided I wanted to make some changes. Check out these new photos...
	Here is the pond as you come in the gate.
	Here is looking beyond the tree at the waterfall. I moved it to the other side so I can see it from the house.
	Here you can see how I swapped the flower pot for the waterfall. I put in a new filter system that goes underground so I no longer had to use the flower pot as my Bio-Filter. I have converted it to a water flower pot. The water flows out into the pond and the fish love to play under it.
	You can see how the fish have grown.