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3000l Native pond.


Ben 01

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I constructed this pond in late 2011. It was originally set up and used for tropical species over the warm months. Towards the end of last summer it began gradually leaking and the constant topping up with hose water dropped the temperature too much to for the species it was stocked with. The fish were moved indoors early and the pond sat empty for some time.

While working with native fish over the last two years I’ve had a desire to keep some at home. So I re-lined the pond earlier this month with the intention of re-stocking with native species. As the pond is un-filtered the stocking will be light and mainly invertebrate based, rather than a large number of fish.

Obviously temperature is going to be a major issue over the summer. This pond was in the low 30’s at times over the last summer so some adjustments have had to be made. I’ve used a pale sand substrate to reflect heat back off the pond. Aquatic plants have also been used to create some shaded areas, The emergent Gratiola sexdentata is already in and growing well. Lemna minor, Potamogeton cheesemanii and probably some others will be added at a later date. Throughout the mid-summer I’ll most likely need to use a shade cloth canopy to cover 50% of the surface.

Re-lining:

042013august1.jpg

Capping on:

052013August2.jpg

Note: There is a large bog garden that runs directly behind the pond, it usually looks spectacular but I had to heavily prune the reeds in order to fit the liner.

Overflow:

062013August3.jpg

Shortly after adding over 100kg of river stones and 50kg of sand:

072013August4.jpg

Several days later:

082013august5.jpg

How it looks today (still a little murky but it’s gradually clearing):

Pond1.jpg

pond2.jpg

pond3.jpg

Will look at stocking over the next few weeks, no rush though.

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cool, cant wait to see the updates, how do you intend to stop the fish escaping (all of the kokopu I have tried to keep outside have disappeared within a couple of weeks, probably downhill to the local creek) bullies do well though, and a couple of big koura would be awesome.

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cool, cant wait to see the updates, how do you intend to stop the fish escaping (all of the kokopu I have tried to keep outside have disappeared within a couple of weeks, probably downhill to the local creek) bullies do well though, and a couple of big koura would be awesome.

The capping has a 50mm internal overhang. This should be enough to keep fish contained, if not I'll have to replace with wider capping boards. The distance from the water surface to the bottom of the overhang is around 150mm.

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add a 10-20mm lip of pond liner to the edge of the capping just to be safe , mine escaped past 100mm board screwed to the top of an old bath tub, if there is a natural creek down hill though, dont worry too much, just re-capture later imo it was the same fish coming back over and over again

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add a 10-20mm lip of pond liner to the edge of the capping just to be safe , mine escaped past 100mm board screwed to the top of an old bath tub, if there is a natural creek down hill though, dont worry too much, just re-capture later imo it was the same fish coming back over and over again

Do you mean put pond liner on the underside of the capping where it overhangs the pond?

Cool as man

You may find that aeration over summer will be a big help

Cheers. Unfortunately I don't have of electricity in this area of my garden. I might look into something in the future, possibly solar pumps...

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This project looks amazing, looking forward to updates :spop:

Are you able to source some riparian plants for this pond? It would add another dimension both aesthetically and functionally.

Plant the bejezus out of it. Could be a bit expensive with something that size though.

The plan is to plant heavily with aquatic, emergant and floating species in the water. The Beaumea articulata in the bog garden grows tall and dense, it casts a fair amount of shade over the northern end of the pond. Behind this was previosly a stand of Phormium tenax I've removed this to replace it with something taller (probably more Leptospermum scoparium).

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Sticking solely with natives for the plants is interesting.

New Zealand has a great selection of native wetland species.

Plant list so far for the pond, I'll probably add a couple more species over time:

Gratiola sexdentata (already planted)

potamogeton cheesemanii

Myriophyllum robustum

Lemna minor

The bog garden behind contains:

Baumea articulata

Gratiola sexdentata

Myriophyllum propinquum

Leptinella sp (I always forget what species this is. It's one of the threatend ones)

Sonchus kirkii

Azolla filiculoides (Syn. rubra)

Lemna minor

Ricciocarpus natans

Wolffia australiana

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Update:

Picked up the first of the plants today, Myriophyllum robustum (A large, emergent Milfoil) and Potamogeton cheesemanii (Pretty much the closest thing to a native Water Lilly). I've planted these into plastic mesh pots, along with the Gratiola and positioned them towards the back of the pond. previously I had intended to hide the pots with rocks but I don't really have enough to make them look good. Instead I've moved all the rocks to the front of the pond and I'm hoping the plants will disguise the pots as they grow (They look awful at the moment). Moving the rocks and planting has stirred up the water again so it's too cloudy for a good photo.

The inverts added last week are doing well from what I can see. I collected some new species today from a different stream system.

Halicarcinus lacustris, Potamopyrgus sp (confirmed this time) and an unknown species of mayfly (I think it's Zephlebia), not sure how well the mayflies will go as they have a fairly high sensitivity score.

These little dudes are great!

2010_09_21_6792.jpg

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won't the mayflies eat lots of your other critters?

Most species of Mayflies feed on algae and Biofilm. The damselfly larvae, however, are predatory. I expect damage to other invertebrate populations will be minor.

Cool, where did you get the Amarinus lacustris? I haven't found them yet...

I'll PM you.

Will u be adding a pump at a later date, a water fall would look prety sweet

Not a big fan of waterfalls, but I may look into using a solar pump for some minor water movement in the future.

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