I live in Brooklyn with a long, narrow garden that is planted with mostly native plants to attract wildlife. I would really like to put in a wildlife pond and have a few questions:

1. Mosquitoes are a problem here already. I have seen dragonflies. Can I have a pond that attracts dragonflies and not have fish?
2. I want birds to be able to use the pond, but there are stray cats. Can I make a little island of sorts that would allow them to be in the center of the pond away from the cats? I don’t want harm to come to them.
3. Is it too much to hope that frogs will come?

So I have a little pond 500L/130Gal, and it's winter time (NL, Europe), there where 4 gold fish in there (10-15cm/4-6inch), but yesterday when I came back from work, they where all gone. But on the surface I saw these white grease like spots floating in the surface, and even spotted some scales of 1 of the gold fish on the bottom. I'm sure something ate them, and I think the white residue grease spots floating on the water is a big clue to what the culprit is. So any tips are welcome.

Dear pond people, I study applied biology and I am very interested in bringing the outdoors indoors. So here is my question, is it possible to keep a lily in my aquarium? I have a 100l aquarium "I know its not really big" but ive read about dwarf lilys and wonder if anyone here has enough expernience to help me out a bit with the thinking of how to manage this. I thought about doing some type of clay and nutrient rich substrate part in the aquarium with the lily roots in in and builde the rest of the aquascape and stuff around that kind of container. But then i was wondering about the winter resting. Does the lily get to tired without the rest period and if so how do i recreate it? Also what species would be ok for this? I was thinking about nympheae tetragon.

Let me know if you have any ideas!

Need help identifying the type of creature that laid these eggs. Also are they eggs? It’s my husband’s pond and I’m just taking care of it for the weekend.

Title says it all. Second year with a tiny inherited pond. Last winter went fine. This year, the pond froze over completely pump system must have popped somewhere and most of the water drained. I thought the first were goners for sure under the crazy thick ice but I got thru it to find them alive in a 4" puddle of water. Filled it with buckets, then the ice melted, so the water is back. To keep it thawed during intense freezes, I bought a pond warmer rock that is clearly designed for a larger pond. I'm afraid to turn the fountain back on because Idk what is frozen and where the failure in the system is. I don't want to drain it again.

Issue is, now the warmer is working really well. The water is 50F and the fish are swimming around happily. Should I feed them? I don't have a working pump system (to the best of my knowledge) and temps outside are below freezing, so any excess food or waste would not get filtered.

Last year went so well and this year I'm fumbling through 😫 I have plans to expand so the fish have more room next summer and to replace these systems, but idk what to do this time around

We are revitalizing a 45x26 2 foot deep pond with a 120 foot river flowing into it. We are selecting the equipment (trying to save on cost). The challenge is that the pump will have to pump to the upper pond for flow down the river. The upper pond is 120 feet away with a gradual elevation of about 15 feet. I have gotten some tips from some pond owners and a few have told me I should get a 1.5-2hp pool pump to effectively pump the water from the lower pond to the upper pond. Any recommendations on this? Pump will be out of pond given the size. THanks!

I read online you should feed pond goldfish below 12 degrees Celsius, because the fish are in like a winter state. So I quit feeding them in like December when it stated to get “colder”. However here in Western Europe (at least where I live) it’s not really that cold. Average temperature is like 2 - 12 degrees for the past weeks. Maybe like a few days of a small frost -1 or -2, but not much and not close to make the pond freeze over. I still see my fish swim and act pretty normal most days. And than I almost cannot withstand not feeding them, because I’m afraid doing them harm to starve them. What’s the best I can do? As sort of a sympathy I now feed them a little bit of food once a week and they eat everything instantly. Maybe it’s not good to feed them, but I want to know.

If you have one of those old 2 or 3 tier ponds from the 90’s you can turn one of them into a bog filter. I used a piece of 150mm pvc for an upright and a couple of 70mm pipes at the bottom, basically like an upside down T. Capped one end, water is piped into the other end, drilled a whole lot of holes in top of the pipes and the side of the upright. Covered the pipes with some fist sized rocks, 20mm scoria (well washed), and river pebbles The filter can be cleaned by lifting off the plant pot to access the upright and then be pumped out. Planted with milfoil and a sundew. Sorry, didn’t get any pics of the build but happy to answer any questions.

Bbnxxn

Pretty sure I added too much copper sulphate. This is after about 6 hours with the pump recirculating the pond. No filter. Will this dissolve and clear up or do I need to change out some of my water?

Seems like a pretty good buy for the price. Seller believes it is the 40,000 model. Any advice would be great. Thank you

Wife says I can't have any more aquariums inside the house - but she didn't say anything about the backyard! Problem is, I don't have any covered space, so it would be exposed to some rain and sunlight depending on the time of day, even if I am putting a lid on it. I suppose it would behave similar to a pond except above ground, with fish that can handle those temperatures.

Besides the inevitable algae issues (which I'll try to mitigate by heavy planting, floating plants and many detritivores), what other issues may I come across that makes this a bad idea? Or what are some remedies to the most common problems I may come across? Tank size for now is a spare 29 gallon I have, will upgrade to a 75 - 150 if its successful

Hi, I have a 300 gallon stock tank pond. I currently have a 2" outflow at the bottom of the pond.

My first thought was, I install a bog filter. In the bottom of the bog filter, I would have a pond pump (maybe 6500gph?) that intakes from that 2" outflow, and I would use flex pipe around the edge of the pond to connect the pump and the outflow. Then, water would trickle up through the bottom of the bog filter and spill over back into the pond.

Is this the correct way of placing the pump? In many videos I see the pump at the bottom of the pond, but I am not sure what would be easier. Thanks

I have a disgusting old pond I inherited. The water is black. I'm not in a position to start planting things or adding fish, but I'm getting a dog and I want the water to be safe. I am getting a pump/filter with UV but I wanted to know how to clean the water beforehand. I thought of some chemicals but don't want anything that will stay in the water more than a couple of days. Most things online are for "living" ponds.

Hi everyone.

OK, so I am moving to my new house in a week, the house has two ponds, one is about 1.15 acres, and is currently full of duckweed.

I've researched a bit online, some people talk about dyes, others about sterile grass carp, and others just say net it out yourself... what is the best approach?

I am trying to build this into a habitat for wildlife, already gets kingfishers, grey herons, egret, foxes, and an abundance of other wildlife, so I don't want to upset the balance.

I also want to stock it with fish, as I am a keen fisherman, appreciate its not a huge pond, but I'd still think 20+ decent size carp would be alright?

There is a smaller pond next to it, probably 0.25 acres, which I was thinking of potentially digging out deeper and then connecting it to the main pond to provide a deep water area for fish to go as the main pond the deepest area is about 8ft but a lot of it is quite shallow.

Any thoughts, help, suggestions, pointing in the right direction would be GREATLY appreciated.

My 300 gallon tub pond. It's melted a bit, air pump still chugging along, looking forward to the greener warmer months, I do wonder if my fish are OK, longest hardest freeze we've had in years, probably need to rebuild the air pump soon

My water was clear in warmer temps. The plants were thriving and reproducing like crazy. Now they are all falling apart and brown. The water is dirty I assume because plants aren’t eating the waste.

I think they are water lettuce (most died and sank) water hyacinth, and pickeral rush. There are 2 goldfish. I just did a 50% water change. Anything else I can do?

Apologies for the low quality picture - it’s hard to capture this properly as it’s under water!

I think this has been here for a couple of weeks. Anyone know what it could be? It’s sitting a few inches below the surface, latched onto the side of the pond.

I’m building a 13’x10’ pond at 30” above ground and 18” below ground. I’m having trouble deciding how to build the walls and join the walls at the corners. Any advice?

Details: I’m renting my house, I have approval from my landlord to do this, as long as I fill in the hole when I leave, which is no problem. But I would like to build the walls in a manner that I can dismantle them without to completely tear them apart, so I can move them to my next house, which I will own.

Considerations: I’m trying to keep costs reasonable. I’m considered 2x12’s for the sides on edge and framed in and with 4x4 vertical supports every 4’ or so, or building the walls out of 4x4’s or 4x6’s brick wall fashion (but that’s more expensive), or building frames with 3/4” plywood lining the inside.

When it comes to the two framed options, I can’t figure out the strongest way to reinforce the corners. Any suggestions? Any completely different ideas?

Background: I’ve been doing aquariums for most of my life and had an 800 gallon aquaponic system before, so I understand filtration, etc, and can handle that part. This pond will have a large bog filter connected to it.

I live in Southern California, so the winters are mild and we rarely see light frost in my area.

Thanks for any advice you have!