Post #237178 by Jungle Trader on Sat, Jun 10, 2006 3:41 PM

All you need is a shovel, 45 mil liner, pump, 2 inch pipe for large waterfall, filter, rocks and plants. You don't need mortar, concrete or gunite. Take a look at my website and you'll see some of the stuff I've done. The Abigail pond is my backyard. For me, I love it when it looks natural. You can't get that with mortar, cuz you can't plant between the rocks. Without plants it's too stark and unrealistic. Plants tend to soften the look. For the filter I just use a 55 gal. drum and fill it with lava rock. If you have koi, you'll want a UV light, but if it's just goldfish, don't worry about it. Algae Fix is also a must for clearing of pea soup algae. Create bogs or steps and you can set plants down in the pond. Shade is also a must to prevent string algae, otherwise you'll fight it during the hot summer.

Oh yeah, don't put rock at the bottom. Unless you get a muck vac. It's just harder to get to the debris with rock. When debris sinks to the bottom, it tries to decompose but it can't. If it stays there it will eventually cause your pond to "crash". It might take 2 years or 5 but it will crash, and kill everything in it. With no rock the debris won't get stuck between the rocks. Some algae is good for the pond and it will eventually cover the liner so it's less visible.

Another oh yeah, I also use the black foam in a can. Spray it between rocks, it expands 3 times the size of the original bead and seals cracks so the water flows over the tops of the rocks and not underneath. Once it has dried, after about 1 hr., you can cut out or tear off any excess.

Good luck!

[ Edited by: Jungle Trader 2006-06-10 21:14 ]