As I have actually started looking at home properties in the Southern California area(Within driving distance of LA) especially in my pricerange. I have been discovering some interesting things.

1) Without a creek or stream or something keeping a pond full by natural means will be very difficult given our low amount of rainfall and that any water will most likely have to come from a faucet or well.

2) It is not an option to just have an awesome well. I read guys on here talk about their well pumping 50,100,200+ gallons per minute. From what I can tell, a really good well down here pumps 10, and your most likely looking at 5. Which i don't remember exactly what the rate of evaporation is, but I think it would be a tough battle.

So from what I gather most people in Ca build a pond to be super deep so when it drops 7 feet in the summer its still a decent watering hole.

So here is what I have been thinking. I will probably end up with a pond in the .10-.25 acre range, as most properties we look at are about an acre or so. And I have been thinking, if i have to pay to top it off with water, how would the idea of a very shallow pond work. Say something in the vein of 2-3 ft deep over that amount of land. The reason I was thinking about this is because it would cost less to keep it full.

(I understand a 9 foot deep pond down 6 feet will be the same amount of water, but it would sure look nicer to be full)

I don't really need to worry about freezing, as we don't get snow, or anything like that, and none of the small community ponds I have ever seen freeze.

I think my main issue will be weed growth, which I haven't figured out all the answers to yet.

So lets talk about it. The viability of a very shallow pond, pros, cons, if it would work at all. You guys are the experts, im a noob, just throwing out ideas.

Pond Goals: Pretty, nice to sit by, occasional fishing primarily for my young cousins. And myself really, I love me some panfish.

You'll be in the Pacific Ocean soon. I wouldn't bother. Look at SC..

With that small of a pond, I would contemplate a lined pond. Not only will you lose water to evaporation, you will lose it to the ground as well. You might need a deeper pond due to the water temps in the summer - shallow ponds with the strong sun might get too warm.

When I was out there, I looked into drilling a well. If the municipality knew of a well, they'd slap a meter on it. We were charged sewer rates on the amount of water used, whether it was for irrigation or flushing a toilet. Check into how you are charged for water, and what the water rates are. You might be suprised how expensive it is, and how it varies from town to town. I had slightly more than 1/2 ac. there, and IIRC the water and sewer bill was running $200/mo.

I certainly was thinking lined pond all the way. i was going to go with EPDM rubber lining.

With the issue of sun warming, I guess I don't really know the temp regulations of common pond fish. I just assumed no trout ha ha. I do fish some community ponds that have large quantities of water 3ft and under that carry reproducing populations of BG and LMB. Although it seems the moment they start to grow, the world runs down and fishes them out.

In the areas I have been looking at, most of the wells and such are grandfathered in. My understanding is that if I was to buy a piece of land and try to put a well on it, they would meter it, but I have been to several homes with wells that have no meters at all.

I think the truth is, this is going to be a somewhat expensive endeavor either way, I guess I am just trying to figure out how to get the most for the money I will need to spend, and thought replacing 3 ft of water is alot less expensive then replacing 6.

What fish do you think would do best in warmer temps. I know Tilapia love the warm, but I'm not sure what our winters would get down to.

If they could overwinter, could they be managed by maybe 3 of 4 female LMB and aggressive culling (I love Tilapia on my table)

I am open to all kinds of fish however. I wonder how AaronM keeps his pond full. His temps would be even warmer then mine.

It's really hard to tell what micro climate you will be at until you buy the house. Where I lived, (Oceanside) I would have temps in the lower 20's, while a guy not 1/4 mile up the street would never dip below freezing. I happened to live almost at the lowest point of the street, while his house was about 80' higher in elevation.

I remember seeing a low of 17° and a high of 117° (although not in the same day) when I lived out there. The house didn't have A/C, and there were only a couple of years that I could have used it for a few days. Around 5:00 p.m. the wind would switch and come in off the ocean, cooling the house down. That place had really good air flow thru the house when the windows and doors were open. There was an ornamental pond in front of the house, on the North side, and a couple of times there was be 1/2" of ice on it in the morning; only once do I remember it not melting during the day. I had fig, avocado, orange, grapefruit, persimmon and apricot trees that did well, I would cover them with Remay cloth when it got cold at night and didn't lose any of them.

I don't know how well the fish in the sunfish family will do once water temps hit 80°+ degrees.

According to a weather survey of the area code, its claiming a Year high of 94 and a low of 36.

I guess really alot of this will be one of those time will tell situations. I am just getting ancy.

Hey Mikey,

Our biggest enemy is evaporation and it takes it's toll. As you know for most of California the rain pretty much turns off in May and doesn't restart until November (with an occasional odd storm thrown in for good measure). There is a balance between making a pond deep enough to allow for a decent sized pond after evaporation takes it's toll and yet keeping the pond a useable depth without steep sides.

It is not unusual for a pond here in California to drop 6 to 7 feet in a normal year. Bad drought years can be brutal. I've watched my pond drop a third or more in size.

The key to this entire issue is knowledge. There are state regulations and regulations by county. Focus on what counties that you might want to own a home in and learn all you can about their regulations.

DIED and Pond Frog have much more experience about this stuff than I do.

I went the easy route. I searched for quite a while until I found a property that already had a pond on it. That way I could focus all of my mistakes on managing the pond rather that waste my mistakes on constructing a pond first.