My pond

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by kien

I want to do something like that so that I can grow water filtering plants in the auxiliary pond. This way the koi don't eat it up as they tend to do

What water filtering plants would you use for that?

I do let some water lettuce and water hyacinths grow in the main pond. Are they water filtering? In the summer (I start with 1 plant each in the spring) I have to start culling them, and just throw them into the compost. I tried putting them in the top pond, too, but they would move to the outlet falls, and get jammed up there, and push overboard, so that didn't really work. I could probably rig something better to fix that.

Also, the racoons like to eat the water hyacinths, but the electric fence keeps them away from the main pond (but not the upper pond).

[kien]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

What water filtering plants would you use for .

Pretty much any water garden plant. Lillie's, marginals, floating plants. I have an assortment of all of the above. My koi like to dig up my Lillie's for fun :-/. My marginals (cat tails, marsh marigold, reeds, etc) are high enough that the koi can't dig those up though. If I had more room I'd grow more marginals. Water hyacinth is great too and grows like a weed. Although the fish do like to nibble on those roots too.