my Zen Water Garden and Koi Pond

[Doug]

I like the weeds. Makes it look more fishy. Nice winter shelter. Good idea.

[lastlight]

Nice yard... even stepped! Did you do all the work back there with the deck, patio etc too?

[kien]

Originally Posted by lastlight

Nice yard... even stepped! Did you do all the work back there with the deck, patio etc too?

Thanks, and yes I did. Along with landscaping the third tier. There's a lot of yard :-(. Will have you guys over before the summer is out and I've cleaned up the somewhat neglected yard a bit..

[Dez]

Sweet Kien. I love the overhanging deck. I'll be putting in a 17' x 33' pond in my yard mid to late August. I have 38 tons of rock coming. This rain we've had for the last 2 weeks has not helped with my landscaping. The mosquitos are also causing me to almost quit. You might not want to go deeper. I contemplated going more than 24" deep and didn't see it necessary. If you go more than 24" deep, then you have to get a permit to comply with Alberta swimming pool regulations. And as with more water volume, means more filtration needed. If your 24" is fine, I'd say leave it. It looks awesome with all those fish. Too bad the herons ate 10 of my fish . That's one main reason I'll have the bridge accross my new pond, for the fish to hide. Thanks for sharing. Love it.

[kien]

Originally Posted by Dez

Sweet Kien. I love the overhanging deck. I'll be putting in a 17' x 33' pond in my yard mid to late August. I have 38 tons of rock coming. This rain we've had for the last 2 weeks have not helped with my landscaping. The mosquitos are also causing me to almost quit. You might not want to go deeper. I contemplated going more than 24" deep and didn't see it necessary. If you go more than 24" deep, then you have to get a permit to comply with Alberta swimming pool regulations. And as with more water volume, means more filtration needed. If your 24" is fine, I'd say leave it. It looks awesome with all those fish. Too bad the herons ate 10 of my fish . That's one main reason I'll have the bridge accross my new pond, for the fish to hide. Thanks for sharing. Love it.

Holy crap that's a big pond Dez! LOL. Ya, I read up on all the regulations before I put the pond in which is why the pond is only 2 feet. I could probably live with the fence around it if I went deeper but I suspect in the end such an upgrade will likely suffer in the hands of laziness. Besides there are quite a few other things I need to do. I need to redesign the area around the pond. Would like to redo the retaining wall in something nicer. I also need to redo the waterfall. It was kind of a hack job and semi proof-of-concept that never seemed to leave the "concept" phase..

Anyway, 24" does work out well for me but like with any aquatic hobby, the more volume the better (for the fish), not for the wallet or sanity though.. :-) Again, It's always on my mind but I doubt it'll happen.

Bridges are nice. The pond I built at my parents place is a figure 8 with a walking bridge over it. We do like to sit on the deck and sometimes put our feet over into the pond and let the fish nibble on our toes.

[Dez]

How big is your pond? I think I'm going to cheat a bit and make my pond 27". I do have a 6' fence all the way around anyway, except for my gate which goes down to about 5' due to slope. Good tips on wintering. I'll be wintering for the first time this coming winter and moving my fish from the front pond to the back.

[kien]

Originally Posted by Dez

How big is your pond? I think I'm going to cheat a bit and make my pond 27". I do have a 6' fence all the way around anyway, except for my gate which goes down to about 5' due to slope. Good tips on wintering. I'll be wintering for the first time this coming winter and moving my fish from the front pond to the back.

10' x 11'. There is a 1' ledge on the sides for plants, then it drops down to 2'. When I called the city of Calgary they said that you can not count your yard fence. Then fence around the pool/pond/puddle has to be within a few feet of the water but I can't exactly recall how close it has to be. Incidentally, my pond has a fence/wall on two sides that are about 4 feet from the water. I would just have to fence in two more sides which wouldn't be too bad, but I doubt I'll do it (dig deeper). Also, one time I called city hall and they said I would also have to put a sign up. I don't recall reading that anywhere though. City bylaws my be different between Calgary and Edmonton though.

To be honest, over wintering without the hoop-house was rather stressful. I'd be out there checking on the pond almost daily, not that there'd be anything I could do if I found a complete block of ice 2 feet deep

My next door neighbour has a pond too that is only a foot (or maybe 18" deep) and they overwinter their fish outside too. Their pond is tiny, like 5' by 4' and they just blast it with flow to keep the water moving so that it doesn't freeze. I'm not so sure how the fish like that though..